PEACE during this holiday season!!

Pacific Coast Highway Revisited

“And as time goes by
Oh it's funny how time can make you realize
We're running out of it” – Zac Brown Band

It’s been nine months since I left Alaska and started the “recalculation” of my life and what I thought about it at that time.  With any change it starts a process of evaluation in one’s self and in the things within your universe surrounding yourself.

Mt. Hood Oregon

As time has passed by, so have things, people, mental orientations, passions and moments.   Some have devolved and then evolved into something greater.  Originally, I started this blog, “Where’s the Flamingo” to share the experiences as I traveled and also bring with it a slightly humorous effect with Placido Flamingo and his experiences along the road, my road sometimes called Life’s Highway. 

Mt. Washington, British Columbia

But, as I have traveled, a more fulfilling purpose has evolved.  So now it isn’t just the experiences I have seen along the way, it is now more of those experiences that feed the longing of a soul for peace through expression.  I’ve never been one to just focus singularly on things, things get old.  They disintegrate. However, experiences are something that can remain.  We can reach back and pull them forward, as the mind allows, and re-live them over and over again.

Yukon, Canada

Over these years, these experiences have been so rich and full of the living experience.  But sometimes the constant day to day existence of life’s experiences can, at times, dull the pure exhilaration of those initial moments of discovery.  Not unique to me, but the complexity of life can at times, make this happen.  Then, it becomes time to purposefully pull these experiences forward as a reminder of the type of life that doesn’t just happen, but one that we can create.

And so, moving beyond the limitations of a singular focus to bring those previous moments back to life . . . I answer my souls longing to move beyond the immediacy of frustration, pain, misunderstanding or the occasional shallowness of the human judgement to that which is greater . . . the nature of things!

Redwood Forrests, Hwy 1 California

It is said that, “when I was a child I spoke, reasoned, and thought as a child, but when I grew up I put away childish things.”  As this child, I remember adults saying things such as “that person needs to find themselves”; I couldn’t relate as a child and would ponder, “Why does a person need to find themselves when they are right there with their self . . . Ahh . . . how life can teach you many things?  It is also said; travel until you find yourself . . . so here I am . . .

Mountain Lake, Canada

A few months ago, life allowed me to experience California Highway 1 also called the Pacific Coast Highway which meanders along the Coast of California by the ocean or just onshore along the magnificent redwood trees.  It’s twists and turns, elevation changes are much like life in that it is constantly changing bringing with it new surprises, vistas, or tragedy.  Its reputation, of course, supersedes what some would call the unique experience.   In reality cannot be captured properly by a camera or other device, it has to be seen with your own eyes to be understood the great beauty there.  Much like Alaska its beauty is far reaching.  Everywhere one looks you must make multiple stops along the way to take it all in.  It is beyond such, to experience it is to sit on the edge of the great beyond.

McWay Falls, Big Sur California

This picture is worth clicking on . . . beyond the sight of it, what do you feel in the longing of your soul?  We go to the mountains, to the beach . . . we visit sites, we cherish our sights . . . all of these are lovely indeed.  But why do we love it . . . yes it stimulates the senses . . . peace can come with it . . . we can see the water and it is beautiful . . . hear the waves and the waterfall . . . smell the saltiness in the water . . . whether it is sunny outside or not it is the same . . . we can feel the sand and the water . . . sometimes we can even taste it all.

Big Sur, California

But, we become more aware of something else . . . being right there within or so close to this huge mass . . . this mass that covers 3/4ths of the earth . . . the ocean,

Pebble Beach

that gives us balance . . . if you open your soul . . .and become aware of how its longing connects you to what you are experiencing . . . can you feel the power, this magnetism . . . the force that in many ways balances the earth . . . can you feel it inside of yourself . . . even if that level of awareness is not yet developed . . . can you feel inside of yourself where it is supposed to connect . . . and how that connection draws you in to becoming even more connected, through various modes, to what is permanent, solid and real . . . and in becoming aware of that experience . . . we realize what is insignificant.

The Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach California

Can we use that feeling . . . that awareness to assess the other things to which we are connected . . . can we use it to improve the quality of our relations with people, with our environment . . . or most importantly . . . with ourselves . . . what is our very real solid experience and what are we projecting on to ourselves and others?

Is our path to living what we want to live being blocked by something that we are projecting . . . that is also something to work on . . . but, the process has started . . . and can be used.

Driving down the coastline from Oregon can be a soul touching experience, if we are open.  Very few guard rails, no separation between the sides of the cliffs and what is beneath several hundred to a few thousand feet to the water . . . It is hard to sight see without stopping to take it all into your senses.  And as we proceed, just like in life . . . we can get to a point where we at the same level as the clouds and eventually look down upon them . . . much food for thought on the foggy mornings along the drive.

Bixby Bridge, Hwy 1 California

I couldn’t by-pass this little one, and as nature goes, so can we . . . if we allow ourselves to feel and accept our feelings . . . we can evolve and grow into that place of our peace.  There are so many examples that exist along the Pacific Coast Highway.  With all the travails in our lives, what can allow us to find peace?  Compassion for others, reflecting on the value of human life – including our own are what we each search for but few really find.

Ahh . . . what would it be to experience rest like this – whether awake or sleep – the ‘peace be still’ . . . to understand the place of those things that stress us and separate us from peace . . . what is peace?  It doesn’t mean necessarily to be free from pain, regret, heart ache, dissension, loneliness, etc.  In fact, it is more aligned with allowing those feelings to exist, but being able to make peace with them.  We each have to find what our individual peace . . . is but, somehow indeed, that peace is still connected to others through compassion, empathy, understanding, forgiveness, patience . . . and the list goes on.

We can realize how small we actually are compared to the larger dynamic . . . but that requires walking the hard path . . . a friend asked me if my blog was moving more towards a spiritual base?  My reply was . . . if you read a really good book, doesn’t it add to the quality of certain things about you?  

Well, to travel the world in my time upon it and absorb the human experience of others, to experience working in an area with no running water, to see the implications firsthand of someone in an Alaskan remote village turning on a faucet or flushing a toilet the first time inside their house in their seventy years . . . of soul to soul acts of human depravity in wars (most of which are not necessary), to sit in a temple thousands of years old demonstrating human and spiritual devotion, to lend a hand when someone needs it, or receive it regardless of a language or cultural gap, to see such magnificent expressions when people focus on excellence, to learn a tango – not the steps – but the interpreted intention of expressions of the soul seeking comfort . . . well, certain things should change you . . . especially if you are simultaneously seeking to calm your soul and refine your own expressions . . . go below the surface and above the clouds . . . wishing you and myself – PEACE during this holiday season!!

Ice