A lot of my purpose with this account has been about letting go of my past pains, embracing change and sharing some example for moving forward as I personally keep noticing healing & connection with nature. Exploring, what can we learn from that? Feeling an end of this era, a new chapter to create. Im changing my lifestyle to some degree, a place Ive come to know. This feels strange to admit but this little box on wheels has been more of my home than anywhere else Ive lived these past five years. Ive worked many seasonal & remote jobs to create time for a nomadic lifestyle. I took a minimalist approach; recognizing & experimentally embracing you can do more with less. Slowly discovering many cross over philosophies with technology enthusiasts who love to embrace terms like FOSS, Libre, FLO and others alike. Pondering if many in technology fields seem to share similar views & values with ski bums, dirtbags and nomads? Ive met so many incredible people along the way and experiencing how healing it is when we genuinely connect.
The change for me now is of great importance to reflect. To follow through on realizing the healing wouldn't be complete without helping more people ahead. The silence was good, the isolation had peace but the final words of Chris McCandless still strike me deep: "Happiness is only real, when shared." Nothing lasts forever but letting go does feel uncomfortable. Setting my own intention for a mountain mindset based around sharing an appreciation, a love & respect for the land & people. I might have taken a simple approach to experiencing a complex world. And if theres anything Id still like to learn... is it better in life to ask questions than to give answers?
It turns out that to plan a garden, you have to think in 4D: not just how much space the plants take up and how tall they'll get, but how they'll grow over time. And it's not so straightforward because they affect each others' growth: plants in the shade of other plants will grow differently than if they're in the sun, etc. Vining plants can crowd out and stifle other plants. And some plants improve soil quality around themselves, so they can boost the growth of their neighbors.
Ultimately you're making a home for a bunch of living beings who don't move by getting up and walking, but by creating more of their own bodies in the direction of the resources they need.
Maybe I've been sitting in the forest too long, but gardening remains fascinating to me.
"We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books." - W. E. B. Du Bois #DeepThoughts
A photo of W.E.B. Dubois with a quote attributed to him.
"We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books."
A meme with a photo of the entrance to Auschwitz in Poland and something from author Kurt Vonnegut.
“She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.” - Vonnegut writing about Susan Sontag in 2005 shortly after her death in 2004.
He is sooooo fucking time on target with this. And something I know I’ve had to remind myself about over time. #DeepThoughts
"Pain changes shape, but it never disappears. You can’t control what hurts or breaks you, but you can control how you choose to move forward. Fight for what you love, because no one else will do it for you. Every moment in your life is an opportunity to change who you are. Don’t define yourself by what you lost, but by what you do with what’s left." - Keanu Reeves
A photo of actor Keanu Reeves and a quote attributed to him.
“Pain changes shape, but it never disappears. You can’t control what hurts or breaks you, but you can control how you choose to move forward. Fight for what you love, because no one else will do it for you. Every moment in your life is an opportunity to change who you are. Don’t define yourself by what you lost, but by what you do with what’s left." - Keanu Reeves