Day 099w: A mobile place of Rest … (July 22, 2019)
What I didn’t know about Sean & Jannicke – a fact that made their gracious generosity towards me all the more remarkable – was that this night was Jannicke & Sean’s last one together; that Jannicke’s time with Sean in the hostel had fluidly passed and that she was actually leaving to return to Norway the very next morning (!!!) … And still they doted on me with kindness during their last evening together; and still they went out of their way to listen to my tales and share my story; and still they agreed that I should stay the night there that evening (in a cool little sleeping trailer parked in the hostel’s backyard) – again, in all likelihood their very last night together in this lifetime; and still all these graces were provided me without even the slightest pause or passing thought – still they were given to me as though it was simply the correct nature of things to do so – still they treated me as though I was an actual king in their presence, when quite obviously it was they who were without question the Noble Ones …
“I keep going to all these different places and meeting all these different people and I somehow keep forgetting the main lesson from the last time. Because almost every person I encounter on the way kind of slaps me upside the head in the most wonderful, innocent, caring way – a way that has me realize over & over, ‘Man, I’m still so often so unkind!’ And that guy or that woman, by doing nothing except being incredibly poor and at the same time so incredibly kind – shocks me to the core anew. And I realize again that I’m still not there yet; that I still have so many miles to go before I arrive at the parking lot of real humility. And so I keep trying to be kind to strangers – and serve my community – and walk pilgrimages. And I do so over & over & over again – which is somehow like going back to a chiropractor to get repeatedly readjusted. That’s me in the mountains of Hawaii; that’s me in the woods of Germany; that’s me on the Camino de Santiago. You walk all these walks and you keep getting humbled and you can’t help but bring at least a small piece of that Goodness back into your everyday life when you return. It’s a practice that has made me much more accepting of other people. I’m not saying I used to be a misogynist or a racist or even a basic asshole, those were never my problems. And yet I can be extremely headstrong – and impatient – and seemingly dismissive — and sometimes even rude. Like, ‘Hurry up, man. What’s your problem?’ Why can’t you get even this crazy simple thing? That kind of rushed & critical sentiment comes easy to me. And yet when I head out on any of my walks – or head back deep into the most downtrodden parts of my own neighborhood, I remember that none of that coldhearted crap is necessary, and that none of it is even remotely cool. It’s nothing that Jesus or Buddha or St. Francis or Peace Pilgrim would ever think of doing, so why am I doing it, you know?” ~ inspired by Henry Rollins
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