Burlington, Vermont
Preparing for the Burlington Vermont First Night Celebration, Liane enjoys some relaxation and an early dinner.
Preparing for the Burlington Vermont First Night Celebration, Liane enjoys some relaxation and an early dinner.
I wake up in the morning with my head so full of ideas that I do not even know where to start. I get frustrated that because of this I am wasting time that could be spent doing something with these ideas.
I am feeling like a sponge wanting to read and soak up information and things to ponder so that is always one option. I have things I want to say so I have various notes and partially started posts that could be finished. There are many different directions I want to go so I could also spend time gaining clarity. (Quite possibly this would help with finishing those started posts).
And I could also sit here with my coffee and simply...breathe. Deeply.
I think that is what I will do right now. In this moment. And then I will see what the next moment brings...
It's just been one of those days. Instead of the up-at-sunrise, Subaru/Harley-ride-to-the-horizon kind of days it was just one of those stay-indoors-doing-nothing kind of days. It felt good.
The big walkabout came this evening with a trip to Dunkin Donuts for coffee. Regardless, it is always an adventure of some sort!
No matter what happens, each day holds beauty and hope.
I have discovered a new product that is totally amazing. Peanut Butter. This is not just any peanut butter, however. This peanut butter is made by the Saratoga Peanut Butter Company. We discovered it while on a walkabout near Lake Placid, NY at the White Face Mountain Oktoberfest.
This company was started in 2005 and their motto, "We started at nuts, and then went crazy!" says it all. And this statement about their products matters to me as well:
All of our nut butter blends are GLUTEN FREE and have no added sugars preservatives, artificial additives, and anything else that you cannot pronounce.
My favorite flavor is Adirondack Jam, a blend of peanut and almond butter with cranberries, sunflower seeds, honey, flax seed and cinnamon. Does that not sound amazing? I am enjoying some right now on a slice of Ezekiel bread with a cup of coffee. I went through one jar in a week and had to order a second jar. It was worth the $5 shipping I had to pay to get it here.
But this is not about peanut butter. It is about remembering to be thankful for simple things and small discoveries that bring joy to your day.
What is your flavor of bliss today?
In Gratitude,
Liane
When we began the WalkaboutChronicles.com project it was crafted to be a community in which people shared the personal growth, change and adventure experiences of their lives. We have always found great insight and joy in reading these sorts of life stories. Our original idea was to offer a central location where those perspectives could be published and shared as guides to others who are seeking out the path of their own journey.
If life’s journey be endless where is its goal? The answer is, it is everywhere. We are in a palace which has no end, but which we have reached. By exploring it and extending our relationship with it we are ever making it more and more our own. ~Rabindranath Tagore
We explore the world around us to extend and expand our relationship with it. Like any relationship, it requires attention, focus, presence, respect and love. This connection we seek with our world is what inspires us to jump in the car and just go every chance we get. We do not need a particular destination for these adventures. Our palace is everywhere.
“When I retire I want to travel!”
These were the words spoken by my son, Jack, as we drove through the Adirondack region of upstate NY on one of our walkabouts this summer.
“Jack, you do not have to wait until you retire!”
“You don’t?”
I am thrilled Jack loves travel and adventure! I am disappointed he already has come to believe you have to wait to follow your passions while you fill out the template of life. While I am living a walkabout lifestyle now, it wasn’t always this way. Life decisions and changes provided me the opportunity to find my own authentic path and passion for exploring my world. However, my experiences with my children, while numerous, have been safe and predictable adventures. Little by little I have been opening new doors for them to show them there is more to see than amusement parks and arcades. I don’t want them to follow a prescribed path and be stuck in a box. That didn’t work out so well for me and I suspect not for many of you either.
It takes all types of people to make the world go around. Yet despite all of the focus on diversity and acceptance, the world is still filled with judgment and intolerance. Even with the best of intentions we all sometimes find ourselves looking at others with a critical eye and judgmental heart.
All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. ~Swami Vivekananda
Just recently we were on one of our musical adventures and this notion of oneness revealed itself through music.
The Saranac Brewery in Utica, NY offers an incredible summer concert series in their courtyard right outside the brewery. We visited this spot as attendees of a concert by Michael Franti & Spearhead. Upon arriving, we were immediately immersed in a people watchers dream. We find it quite fascinating to observe people wherever we go – the ways in which people express themselves through dress and adornments, tattoos and piercings, and the dynamics of interactions with each other.
The crowd for this event contained some of the greatest diversity we have seen in a gathering in quite some time. Similarly, we stood out in our own way, dressed in Harley rain jackets and our traveling hats. We stood in the center of the courtyard and just watched in amazement at all of the disconnected pockets of people. But regardless of their disconnection, the music of Michael Franti & Spearhead had brought us all to this spot. And then the music started. As the energy from Michael Franti and Spearhead flowed through us all, the crowd became one. The experience of the music began shaping our differences into a sense of togetherness.
Michael Franti speaks of and sings about love, connection, acceptance and joy. I was keenly aware of this as I listened to the music, felt the synergy, and watched the crowd jump and surge, their hands waving in unison. A child of a diverse background, he shared the message that had been instilled in him by his parents – treat everyone the same, accept others as they are, and everyone deserves love. None of us seemed to care at all that we were drenched from the rain that fell on and off all evening. Franti had joined us together in his music and that was all that mattered.
An increasingly popular bumper sticker we see lately is one that simply says “Coexist.” So often I think people observe differences in others and judge first. None of us are exempt from that at times. For me, this musical experience was an explicit reminder that we truly are one and we are all seeking the same thing on this journey – Joy & Happiness.
Liane & Steven
There is a great deal of focus and online discussion these days about the idea of minimalism. The notion of minimalism originated as a way to describe movements in art and music where the artist focuses on simplicity and only the most essential features of the work. Today it is more likely to be associated with a way of being that focuses on living with only what we need.
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hoffman
We believe the origin of this term is still describing the same thing, a movement in art. Each day and every experience is our blank canvas, an opportunity to create our life. We can choose to do this with simplicity and clarity, focusing on only what we need. Joshua Becker, of the web site, Becoming Minimalist, describes it in this way:
Minimalism …is marked by clarity, purpose and intentionality. At its core, minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it. It is a life that forces intentionality. And as a result, it forces improvements in almost all aspects of your life. (Read his full article “What is Minimalism”.)
