Open Mic Night in Walla Walla

1/14/11
Walla Walla, WA

Last night between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.... I smiled a lot, my mind felt calm and expanded, my body was relaxed, my soul was incredibly content, and great waves of GRATITUDE were flowing through my heart....

By 8:00, I had finished eating a delicious and healthy dinner with a friend.*

Just after 8:00, I walked into the Walla Walla Village Winery, a small room with brightly painted walls and decorated with framed old Grateful Dead posters. **

Quickly, I met Irish, the winery owner, who immediately started pouring tastes of red wine for me.***

For the next hour and a half, I sat with about 10 others and watched local talent play guitars and sing. ****

Mike was the final singer, songwriter I watched and listened to. He sat on a stool and seemingly encompassed his guitar. His eyes were dark, his short beard was grey and black, his head was covered with a dark, woolen hat. He sang words that he had written with a soulful voice, and those words, his voice spoke well to me.*****

* I am grateful that I have money and access to good food. I am grateful that I have good friends.

** I am grateful for small places and small communities.

*** I am grateful for red wine.

**** I am grateful for music.

***** I am grateful for stories that exist within the lives of people I meet. Just from listening to and watching Mike, I knew that his life has been full of wonderful stories. While I sat there listening to his music, and I also tried happily to create some of his stories in my mind.

Other people's words

I think sometimes it is better to use other people's words.... Here are two quotes that began a book I just started reading. I thought both of them fitting to include in Nomadism.


"Psychiatrists, politicians, tyrants are forever assuring us that the wandering life is an aberrant form of behavior; a neurosis; a form of unfulfilled sexual longing; a sickness which, in the interests of civilization, must be suppressed.... Yet, in the East, they still preserve the once universal concept; that wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe."
-Bruce Chatwin


"And so it now is that the Navajo people never abide in one dwelling.... Instead they migrate constantly from place to place, from place to place."
-from Dine Bahane': The Navajo Creation Story

Go slow to go fast and the first TIP

1/4/11

It is my first blog entry that I am actually writing in the present, in the right here and now. Perhaps I have finally "caught up" with my blog. We (the collective "we") spend so much of our lives trying to seemingly catch up with things. We run and run and run to catch up, and then when we feel further behind we run faster.

Over the years, I have found that most things in life are relatively simple. Fundamentally, if something is not working, you should try something else, and typically you should try something that is simpler. If running to catch up is not catching you up, then you should do something else. Maybe we should try stopping, or at least slowing down?

**********************************************************************

I'd like to introduce a new aspect of Nomadism.... the TIP - The "Thought in Progress." Moving forward, as part of each of my blog entries (or at least many of them), I will throw out to the world an incomplete thought that is bouncing around in my mind. Some of these thoughts will be small, others will be large, or potentially large. I have two main goals in documenting these TIPs:

1. I will further process and advance these thoughts in my mind by writing them down.
2. I will generate discussion and feedback about these thoughts from others.

I will keep you updated on goal #1. In order to achieve goal #2, I clearly need your help; I am excited to get your comments and thoughts on these TIPs. Please comment directly on the blog, or feel free to email me directly.

And now, the very first Thought in Progress (TIP):

"Help a Friend"
Starting today, I am committing to intentionally doing something nice and out of the way for someone I know. There are people in the world doing incredible things for thousands of others; there are people in the world being of service in a large scale. However, for most of us, doing that is either overwhelmingly challenging or just simply not practical. Service and goodness does not need to be grand. Service and goodness can (and perhaps should) be small and local and towards people we know and love. If we do one (ok, maybe two) good and small and surprising things for someone we know each day.... well, just think about where we would all be. Think about a day when someone you know did one thing nice and unexpected for you; think about how it changed your day.... and so, tomorrow, change someone's day, someone you know.

Elements of Intention

12/28, Skinner Hut, Colorado Backcountry

Some rambling words written by the fire late at night after a few glasses of wine....

Intention.

Words, actions, thoughts, perspective.... say them, do them, think them, pursue them...with intention, with positive and sincere and honest intention.

Positive Intention.... Good-natured and with meaning; not just for you, but for someone or someones else; intentionally of support or of service for others; an intention to improve something or someone.

Sincere Intention.... Something that is real; something that speaks to who you are and what your life is; an intention that feels like the right thing to you, not because it might be or should be or ought to be the right thing for someone else.

Honest Intention.... Don't say it if you're not going to do it; make sure it is an intention that you both believe in and believe in getting done.