Joy Ride Insight #1

Earlier this year (bb ... before blog), my friend Suzanne and I took a Joy Ride from Tulsa to Coarsegold, CA, where I was going to work for a few weeks. It was a beautiful trip, filled with great conversation, incredible scenery and notable insights. As I flip through my journal, I'm reminded of the trip and these insights so I thought I'd capture some of them here ... in no particular order.

#1 -- You Can't Count on Going Back. Early one morning I was walking around Sedona just absorbing the beauty when I happened onto Oak Creek and the amazing L'Auberge Restaurant which has tables that are practically in the water. They have created little nooks for some of the tables so that you feel like you are part of the landscape. I was charmed by the scene and thought that Suzanne and I should come back for breakfast. I started to walk away when this insight hit so, even though the restaurant wasn't open, I sat down at a table and wrote in my journal with the creek burbling before me and the birds singing at my back. It was definitely a joy moment and I was grateful that I stopped for it.

As it turned out, Suzanne and I did go back for breakfast, but the insight stayed with me. When something calls to us, it's important to honor it, to stop and savor whatever it is that captures our attention, for our attention is our self speaking to us. And, if we don't listen to our own self, who else will? Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times in my life I have seen something I wanted to explore or experience and I've said, "I'll do that next time." That's probably not a great plan even when we're young, but as time starts to dwindle, "next time" is definitely not a sound strategy.

A few weeks ago, in the Miksang Photography workshop, I heard this insight in a different form ... "When something stops you, stop." Same idea, notice what calls to us and let it speak its piece (perhaps that should be "let it speak its peace"). Giving what captures our attention the time to become fully part of us is a gift that only we can give ourselves.