This morning I am awaking in the apartment for the last time and not knowing what address we will next call home. Today is the day that the adventure truly begins. We are setting off from the comforts of our home and friendships in Asheville to begin driving westward with the Bryce Canyon 100 on the horizon. Leaving the people we care for behind is not easy, but fortunately for us, some of them will follow us to the canyons to support the run and then celebrate whatever happens as we meander down the Green River through the chasms of Canyonlands National Park. Friends not seen in years also await us in Utah and Colorado. Once again I am reminded that every end is just a beginning.
dirtbagway
These articles first appeared on a blog called The Dirtbag Way.
These articles first appeared on a blog called The Dirtbag Way.
The Important Places
Child of mine
Come as you grow
And you too will learn
The secret places
The cave behind the waterfall
The arms of the oak that hold you high
The stars so near on a dessert ledge
The important places
And as with age you choose your own way
Among the many faces of a busy world
May you always remember the path that leads back
Back to the important places
~Film Maker’s Father
Brought to you by Gnarly Bay
These articles first appeared on a blog called The Dirtbag Way.
Goodbye Stability
The pile of things in the corner that needs to either fit in the car or exit my life grows bigger. A post office box is ready to receive all the mail I probably don’t even want until I once again figure out an address I can call “permanent”, for a little while anyway. The adventure begins in two weeks.
I have experienced the stability of a place to call home for close to 12 years now. I enjoy having my own space, surrounded by the objects that have come to have special meaning to me such as photographs of past travels and artwork created by friends. But is it worth the cost of having to work so many hours at jobs that don’t excite me and that keep me tied to a schedule where I spend the best hours of the day indoors? For me right now it is not.
In a post titled What Is The Dirtbag Way?, I wrote about the freedom I experienced while living out of a backpack, and how at that time in my life I knew that having less meant experiencing more. That knowledge and experience exists only as memory right now, subsumed by the activities and thoughts required to maintain a comfortable stability I’ve grown to be restless in once again. But, I’m ready to feel that freedom again for a while, and to remember what I have forgotten.