Embracing the Journey~ and Creating a Better Community in the Process.

“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” ~ Steinbeck

Have you taken a journey lately?  Have you set out on an adventure, without a clear  destination or a set itinerary, just to see what the world has to offer?

I ask these questions as I reflect upon my recent journey.  I’m at a crossroads now, where I’ve gone too far in one direction to return to the situations and living arrangements I had prior to my journey.  The taste of the journey is still lingering on my tongue and I’m unwilling to let it go.

A little walk at the beach in Pawleys Island, SC.

But I ask these questions in the hopes of nurturing a daydream that surfaced during the adventure. Not even a daydream, more a desire of how people can embrace the life that is standing in front of them saying, “seriously, you must do something a little more engaging than what you’ve agreed to spend your time doing.”

While walking home from my escapades at the Lapidary workshop one sunny desert day last month, a dear friend from back East called to tell me of her impulsive embracing of an adventure. Inspired by the ramblings of this blog, she booked a ticket to the sunshine state the following week to see what LA had to offer.  She’s a single mom, busting her ass to raise her beautiful daughters and living in a place devoid of community and containing a minimal amount of intelligent life forms.  So, on a whim, she hopped a plane to go see an old friend and spice up her life a little. She embraced the journey and it took her to new places, beyond mere geography.

Another dear friend called this morning and updated me about her annual winter-long surfing adventure with her husband,.  Spending her winters surfing the most remote and amazing breaks in the world keeps her sane during her regular life on the Outer Banks as a Wedding Photographer.  We had our annual “returning to East Coast living” conversation this morning and contemplated the madness of our peer’s lifestyles to consume more and become beholden to their possessions.

And I wonder, what would happen if so many of my peers simply hit the F*** It switch and took a journey. Not for a winter, or a year (though that would be fabulous), but maybe just for a long weekend to see what lies beyond the bubble of their localized world.

I realize that this has been written about at length on this blog and that its a recurring theme.  But after returning go to the East Coast and thrusting myself back into this consumption based world of madness, the topic has become an all-consuming (pun intended), energy-sucking burden that rests on my brain most of the day as I drive long distances for my daily espresso.

Can each day be an adventure and a journey when we are surrounded by what’s familiar and what’s comfortable to us?  The warm, idealistic, optimist gnome in my brain says, “yes, your life is what you make of it and your interpretation of your day is your own creation based on your thoughts and your mentality.”  And all that shiny, Taoist, Zen stuff.  “Load of shit,” chimes in my pessimistic inner gnome, “how can I be inspired surrounded by all this madness?” and the internal debate begins.

But I wonder, if a community is based solely on consumption, both the residents and their visitors consumption, does that energy not seep into the very fiber of the community, into the very essence of the place.  Some in this community are fortunate enough to live in insulated neighborhoods and communities where this energy may be deflected, slightly.  But, what does a community look like when its people have replaced the journey with an over-priced mortgage, a fast car and a day spent at the cubicle to pay for it all, doing a job that contributes little to society and provides no inner fulfillment.  How is the soul of that community when there is no embracing of the journey or no appreciation for a quiet morning at a coffee shop or an afternoon spent at the beach with your children or a good book?

Are we capable as individuals to open ourselves up to the unknown offerings that the universe will provide if we merely leave these mindless existences of consumption and enter a world of adventure?  A world where time is more valuable than a commodity or the currency needed to consume the commodity? Are we capable of shedding our materialistic drive to compete with our neighbor’s lifestyle in order to build something of relevance, something of value, something of importance.  Be it a house from our bare hands, a meaningful business that contributes to the betterment of society or well-balanced children who aren’t raised by network television.

Can we open ourselves up to the possibility of a trip taking us? Can we embrace the ancient art of exploration and show our children and our peers what the world looks like when we step outside of our comfort zone and enter the world without control of our environment?

Can we start a movement of people shedding the fast cars, the McMansions, the cubicle life for a life spent embracing the journey?  A movement of people allowing the trip to take them.  A movement of people unafraid of meeting this new person that is the journey and walking down an unknown path towards a life with a different purpose that embraces the beauty of time and production rather than energy-sucking vortex of consumption?

I’m just saying…

Feel free to add your opinions or tales of your own journeys and adventures below.