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Bicycling Across The West – Congress to Sedona in Arizona

Day 10 – Congress to Sedona

“No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath… We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?”
  ~  Donald Miller – Through Painted Deserts

Today is my last full day of riding by myself. Tomorrow is a rest day in Sedona with my friend Dale, then the following day I meet up at some point with my friend Dave to complete the ride back to Colorado. My days of solitude on this trip are over after today.

I expected to enjoy the solitude, but I’ve frankly enjoyed it more than I’d anticipated. The desert amplifies and highlights solitude. The simplicity and solitude I’ve found riding across these deserts has moved me in a way that’s beyond my expectations. I’ve found a peace inside myself that’s a little deeper than the already wonderful peace I knew.

How does the desert do this? I’ve always enjoyed time on my own. In solitude I’ve been able to discover the things within me and about me that make me what I am today. Time alone has always wrapped my mind and my soul in a way that opens me up to myself. Continue reading “Bicycling Across The West – Congress to Sedona in Arizona”

The Verb of God

I read a really interesting book once, titled “God is a Verb”, by David Cooper. The book was thought-provoking, and I learned a good deal from it. It’s the title, though, that’s hung with me, and what my mind makes of the title. I got to thinking back on this title while I was writing this recent article on career paths. (Or is it careen?)

Though not an expert, I see a noun as a thing, and a verb as an action. Neil’s oversimplified view of the world…

The thing that really intrigued me at the time about the concept of seeing G-d as a verb was how universal the concept was, if we could get our heads around it.

Throughout history, religion is right up there on top of the list of things we make war over and hurt people over. Sad but true. Often, this happens because we allow religion to become so entwined with government that religion becomes nothing more than a tool of oppression used by the government. The dark years of The Inquisition and the religious wars in Europe were relatively recent memories when we were smart enough to demand a separation between religion and government when we put our constitution together.

Think back to the holy wars that have been waged throughout history. The sort of “jihad” where religious zealots kill lots of people because they think God wants them to. It’s happening in the world today, and you can see it throughout both recorded history and recorded myth.

G-d wants you to kill people. Really? Don’t most of us find this a little difficult to reconcile? For those who do believe in G-d in some way or anot

her, our deepest understanding of the concept and reality of G-d revolts at the notion that He/She/It would demand evil and killing. For those who don’t believe anything like god exists, such notions simply reinforce our inability to see the possibility.

I suspect much of this difficulty happens because our brains (today and historically) want to turn G-d into a thing (a noun), like a king or a dictator. What would happen if instead, we saw G-d as the verb – the action in the equation? After all, great spiritual teachers of all traditions have taught that G-d is in each of us. So long as we think of G-d as a thing, then this sounds a lot like we’re “possessed”, but if G-d is action, then this makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it?

If we saw G-d as a verb, as the action that can come from us, we might spend a little less time worrying about whether he/she/it is male or female, or has dark curly hair or long blond hair. We might worry less about what “orders” we receive from whoever happens to be claiming to be the voice of G-d at this particular time, and start focusing more on how we can release G-d into the world around us through our actions.

Happy God-ing!

Career or Careen?

“Career” is a nautical term. I never knew that. I do so love thesaurus.com…

Both careen and career are nautical terms. As nouns, they refer to the nature of a course moving forward. A careen is a course forward using a side-to-side trajectory, while a career is a course forward in a headlong and high-speed trajectory.

This really got me to thinking about my own “career”, and the careers of most folks I know.

It starts early, when we’re encouraged to define what we’re going to be when we “grow up”, as if knowing that destination is a critical element, and as if defining that defines us and who we become. As we mature, there’s a steady set of cultural expectations built on the assumption that we’re all on a “course forward in a headlong and high-speed trajectory.” Continue reading “Career or Careen?”

Bicycling in the West – Parker to Congress in Arizona

Bicycling Across the West – Day 9 – Parker to Congress in Arizona

“Don’t think about what you’ve left behind” The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. “If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.” — 
  ~  Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist

 

Today is another desert crossing, but I’ve got a couple towns along the way to resupply. There’s risk for sure, but I figure it’s less risk than yesterday.

I’m up and out the door at 5:00 AM, but am disappointed to see once again that there’s more light in the sky than I’d hoped. My hope is to get started before first light on these desert crossing days, in order to get as many miles behind me as possible before the heat of the day begins. I’m continually surprised by how much the 100 miles or so between one day and the next changes the sunrise and sunset times.

When planning this trip, I’d always assumed I’d do a good portion of these desert crossings in the dark. I figured I could start about 3:00 AM to avoid heat and wind. I knew the moon would be close to new during these crossings, so I’d get no help there. My solution was more lights. I wear a helmet light combination that has a bright flashing red taillight attached to the back of my helmet, and a headlight on the front of the helmet that can eight be a constant or a flashing light.  As bicycle lights go, this front light is OK, but not really a bright headlight that lights the road well. It’s made by Light and Motion, called their Vis 360 model. It’s really meant to make the cyclist highly visible to the motorist. Continue reading “Bicycling in the West – Parker to Congress in Arizona”

Relationship Business at the Final Threshold of Life

I was asked to do a guest post a couple months ago about “End Of Life Preparedness”. Specifically, to address the need for a thing like a Living Will. While I want to do the post, I’ve been putting it off while I work through a balancing act in my head.

I’m not an attorney, I’m just a guy who’s lost a mom, a dad, and a stepmom. I’ve seen other friends and relatives at the doorstep of death as well, and watched as they eased across that threshold into whatever might (or might not) lay on the other side.

What I’ve seen has colored my view of our responsibilities to one another at that important point at the end of this life. It’s colored the way I talk to my kids about how I want to live and how I want to die.

It’s not an easy thing in our culture. We’ve created a culture that absolutely petrified of death and dying. The subject is taboo, and we’re generally at a great loss for words when those around us feel the loss of a loved one. I blogged about loss in this post not long ago, and about our reactions to loss in this post.

It’s a great shame really, that we’re so afraid of death. Death is just one more of many transitions in life. If fact, from the time we’re born, we begin a long series of transitions that are all leading inexorably to death. Looked at that way, death is just the final of these transitions.

Depending on the spiritual paths you happen to be walking at this point in your life, you may view death as a beginning as much as an end. In my book, Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty, I share in very personal detail the spiritual context that I’ve developed as a result of mystical gifts that I’ve been privileged to be part of. If you believe in notions of reincarnation, you probably see death in this life as just another in a series of windows we pass through in the lives we’re part of.

But what about this path we walk today in this life? This path that leads without question to death. Continue reading “Relationship Business at the Final Threshold of Life”

Recent Blog Reviews of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty

Nicole at Tribute Books but together a blog tour in September for me. I didn’t really know what such a thing was until Nicole educated me, but now that I know, I like it! Essentially, for the month of September, there are several literary review sites that do reviews of the book, and a few do author interviews instead of or in addition to. It’s been a little bit of work on my part, but it’s been a lot of fun. A good part of the fun is getting to read the wonderful reviews that folks have been giving the book – I’m really flattered and humbled by what some of these folks write!

Below are a few of the reviews that I particularly enjoyed. I’ll post links to others when the month is done.

Thanks again to Nicole for putting this together!

Day 8 – Twentynine Palms to Parker

Bicycle Touring in the West - Day 8 – Twentynine Palms to Parker

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
  ~ Stephen King, The Gunslinger

I lay awake and look at the clock beside my bed. 3:59 AM. I’m waiting for the wake-up call.

I’m not sure why I ever do this – ask for a wake-up call or set an alarm. Most of the time, I don’t use an alarm at all, but if I want to make sure I wake before 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, then I’ll use some sort of alarm. But when I do, invariably, I’ll wake a minute or two before the alarm, and wait for it to go off.

I remember the exact day this started for me. I was probably around 11 years old or so, and we were spending a week in a cabin on a lake. I’d forgotten any sort of alarm clock, but wanted more than anything in the world to get up at 5:00 AM to go fishing. My folks let me take the old rowboat out into the cove by myself to fish, and the independence of taking a real boat out onto the water by myself was overwhelming intoxication to an 11-year-old boy who loved to fish. Continue reading “Day 8 – Twentynine Palms to Parker”

The Deed Done, or The Poison Left Behind

In a conversation with a friend the other day, my heart was breaking over how distraught he’d become over something he’d done and wasn’t proud of.

The deed was a small thing really, in the big scheme of things. Not a moment in life to be proud of, but neither a moment of darkness and desperation. Just a lapse in judgement, a small slight, a minor blemish. The sort of thing we’ve all got hanging around the dusty crevices of the paths we’ve taken through life.

But my friend held this “sin” up in the bright light in front of the eye of his mind’s judgement on himself, and couldn’t seem to let it go. He was letting it define him, and shape the “goodness” or “badness” of how he viewed his place in the world.

He could see clearly the arrogance that he was displaying in trying to hold himself up to the unreasonable standard of “perfection”. He knew – objectively and logically – that he needed to let go of this poison of self-loathing that was seeping into his soul. Yet he struggled to do this letting go. Continue reading “The Deed Done, or The Poison Left Behind”

Shelem, Shulam, Shalom

I’m not a student of Hebrew, but little bits and pieces of the language drift in and out of my life, and often fascinate me. I’ll request here that my Hebrew speaking friends correct me if I mis-speak below…

Shelem means “to pay for” something, while Shulam means “to be fully paid” for something. Two very similar words, and two sides of the same coin, so to speak. When looked at together, they represent reconciliation, completeness, balance, harmony.

Change just a couple letters, and we have the similar and related word “Shalom”, which I’ve always understood to be a bit like the Italian Ciao, the Hawaiian Aloha, or the Indian Namaste. Sometimes a greeting, sometimes a parting.

The difference is that Shalom always carries a meaning of “peace be with you” as part of the expression in my mind.

Come to find out, it’s a much bigger word really. While “peace” is a word I could use to describe the meaning, I could also use words like completeness, wholeness, health and welfare, perfectness, fullness.

Complete reconciliation with the Universe.

Perfect wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken.

Exquisite harmony with every piece of the Cosmos.

Peace – with a capital “P” I suppose.

A very big word indeed…

Shalom!