Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Night Run

Moon shine and night dew soak my tired skin Geronimo prances along the creek Knotted hair from river swims, sleeping in, and coffee grinding Bon Iver droning into the night Feet pound, quicken, with distant headlights To the woods, in and out of shadows Alert, alive, intoxicated

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Deactivate

Yesterday- I got extreme. Well... let's backtrack a little. This summer has been a major decompress / reevaluate time. (Yes, if you've been following this blog for awhile you'll nod your head thinking, yep, another one of THOSE. Unapologetically - I've become seasonal.) So I left the city, and found trail running and country road cycling again : insert heart happiness. I got my older sister married... no small or easy task considering her thoughtful evaluative nature. Living in our childhood home, helping each other, sharing life together for the first time in 5 years- was epic. Because our personalities and lives are so different she makes few appearances in this blog... but you can find her story here : www.sowingseedsoffaith.blogspot.com . (Remarkable Woman) Anyway, sharing time with her, bouncing ideas around about nature, nurture, past, present, and future, was much needed in my decompress/ reevaluate process. Then, there's Outdoor Trails and my extended Botetourt - based friend family. Always uplifting and grounding. In the midst of all this is snippets of vacation - long walks along the water line of America, sun-dappled mornings through a yurt dome sky light, sipping coffee in the Confederate Capitol, and many, many hours in the middle of some great, moving, shifting waterway. Suffice to say, it's all helped me return to the basic fundamentals of being fearfully and wonderfully made. Which has made me reconsider the things I fill my life with, and the things I'd like to fill my life with. I've spent a lot of time thinking about long distance, self propelled travel - and what makes it revolutionarily great in this day and age. At it's heart (and these journeys abound in heart) is its genuineness. All my guide / planning books for the Continental Divide Trail say repeatedly - thru hiking will ruin your life. Which they mean ironically of course - because long-distance self-propelled travel not so much RUINS your life - but it distorts your values, morals, boundaries, and necessities. Probably for life. And these past few weeks, Im feeling less guilty about that than usual. I find myself unashamedly embracing the Vitamin D soaked, dynamic, joyful, adapt, improvise, and flow along lifestyle. Now - let's discuss social media. Bones and I had a charming conversation about the rigamarole bouncing around about the NECESSITY of social media. I've been toying around with having a more obscure online presence for awhile now. Wikipedia defines social media as including "web- and mobile-based technologies which are used to turn communication into interactive dialogue among organizations, communities, and individuals." But what I started noticing on the two networking sites I was on was the amount of quality friend catch up time initiated and supported by these sites was a SMALL fraction of how these sites were actually affecting me. I felt superficially accessible to relationships which likely would peruse my life, with opinion and conversation, but no engagement. Beyond the social media phenomenon I'm realizing I have little desire for superficial skimming of my life facts without engaging conversation regarding the heart of matters. Maybe I've spent so much time in retail lately I've outtalked myself. But regardless - I'm after a certain sort of connection, and not inspired to maintain less than that. SO. After a moonlight soaked mountain drive from east central Virginia back to the mountains of the southwest nook of the Old Dominion, I deactivated both social networking accounts. Which leaves me a little curious what everyone is up to - but feeling free and unencumbered to live my life present and share it discretionally. If you've come to this blog as a friend (old or new), looking to keep up with my life, welcome! send me a message! I'm going to test out the old school forms of communication - you know, Emails, phone calls... anything more archaic than that is appreciated to. And one final moonlit inspiration. One of my greatest heros was a nomadic, unmarried, with no children, jobless, wilderness wandering, house free-loading kind of soul. Jesus Christ. I love that guy. AND it blows my mind why my priorities and necessities continue to perplex a community of believers I would like to be part of, but feel so alienated amidst. Oh well. Moving forward - honestly and with my thru hike ruined life. Gracefully, Bound