Friday, November 25, 2011

what I craved was the pain and hardship of a difficult journey


"I realized as much as sharing beaches and pina coladas with little umbrellas and my radiant bride, what I craved was the pain and hardship of a difficult journey. I wanted insecurity, strife, and what others want nothing to do with. This had been missing since I settled down to my lovely life...."

It's 3am, I'm browsing a book on Amazon, found the link on Facebook, having a cuppa. This time of night - I like it a lot. Quiet, no noise, the world is peaceful, time to do whatever....
the cat outside meows, wants to come in. 
The whole neighbourhood sleeps,
Kitaro plays his etherial melodies

...saw Alastair's post,...read the free intro....




www.amazon.com
Alastair Humphreys walked across India, from the Coromandel Coast to the Malabar Coast, following the course of a holy river. Walking alone and spending the nights sleeping under the stars, in the homes of welcoming strangers or in small towns and villages, he experienced the dusty enchantme...


I'm thinking about what he wrote 
".....what I craved was the pain and hardship of a difficult journey...." 


We need something to cut out teeth on.
The golden cage, is nice, for a while... but too much safety, niceness and we get bored, deep in our soul and we go to seek adventure....
Though these days adventure is pooh pooohed as 'danger' and 'bad' and  unethical, I mean you could get hurt... adventure is not ok unless it is totally 100% safe....
Too nice...
We humans need the excitement of being alive.

Love this guy's outspoken attitude... 
"Now I had a home and I had a wife. I had settled down. Life was good. But perhaps that was the problem." 


When  we are in the middle of the adventure - "What the hell did I do this for ?" we wonder.... . 
When we are back safe, with our friends, by the fireside, over a beer or a coffee,  -- it makes for a great story :-)

Perhaps life itself is such an adventure ? 
We dive into the waters of birth, grow up (plenty of hardship and pain ...), explore, hunt for OUR truth, hunt the mystery of existence (WTF am I doing here ? Why the hell did I ever sign  up for this ... traffic jams, nappies, corruption, pollutioni, beam me up Scotty.... )  ....we get out  difficult journey and ...." here we are...writing blogs at 03:30am....

I look forward to sitting round the fire and comparing stories with my mates. 
"How was your lifetime ? Did ya figure out the relationship honesty stuff ?"
..."Ahh....did I tell ya about the time....."

03:52 hours, Vientiane, Laos

PS: will I  now rush out and create difficult journeys for myself ? 
Hm...nope,
but it IS good to see a guy 'fessing up' to the fact that nice married life might need something else.... 

too much 'nice' becomes suffocating, 
need a challenge, a real challenge, not an office challenge, or a santized, homogenized, and certified safe challenge....



Who uses his light who trusts his vision lives beyond death
this is the Hidden immortal


       --Dao de jJing, verse 52 - Lao Tzu





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