i dont exactly know where to begin, or where the beginning was, or when. On november 10th i left for hawaii. in june i left for europe. in 2008 i moved to portland. in 2007 i went to costa rica. before that i did lots of things; college, boy scouts, art school. before that i was a kid, a baby. before that, mayhap, i lived other lives. so who knows where it begins. but i geuss it all comes out of the feeling that there must be more to life than the "distractions from distraction". that those brief, ecstatic, glimpses of the divine, those "i and thou" moments, must be what life is truly about. that our waking life can be filled with wonder, awe, joy, enthusiam and love, in every single moment. i am no longer content to live a life of contentment, i will no longer suffer a life filled with suffering. and so, like so many before me, i have set out on a pilgrimage. it could have been to anywhere, because a pilgrim in one that journeys towards the sacred.

my goal - to be able to make frantis lyrics my reality that, "every bit of land is a holy land and every drop of water holy water". to realize thick nhat hanhs vision of mindfulness, to make wayne proud of my ability to "live in the now!". of course i will fail spectacularily at times. but hopefully, every so often, i will succeed. and with the practice to follow the intent, hopefully, "every so often" will happen more and more.

the guidelines laid out for me by phil cousineau in "the art of the pilgrimage" -

practice the arts of attention and listening

practice renewing yourself every day

practice meandering towards the center of every place

practice the ritual of reading sacred texts

practice gratitude and praise - singing

and most importantly -

pass by that which you do not love

i endeavor to follow these tenets everyday. often i fail, often i forget. but sometimes i remember, or have no need of remembering and just do. and those times, those brief, flitting moments, are indescribable. are infinite. are love. are life. i just hope to always be spiralling towards the center.