E-Words of Wisdom

Following are some excerpts from our favorite inspirational emails from our friends.

Jean Martin sends her best. She says in the famous words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "You must do the thing you don't think you can." The heat be damned. It all sounds great.

"You've entered the Monastery -- "The way of the worldly monk" Funny how we can travel thousands of miles and wake up
to the most wild adventure, the journey of the inside job. Dropping the judgments like jetsam -- too much to carry on THIS road. Waking up in the middle of a wreck - figuratively -- to find the ease with which we can separate ourselves from the flotsam. No worries -- worries -- no worries -- worries -- no worries ... and the road unfolds. There is nothing in any of it,
really -- just that it is what we get to see on the way.

What was that bit? I can hear it now, echoing..."... trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.""

But it seems to me that you guys are getting exactly what you wanted to get. This is the trip that you feel called to do. If you feel called to come back at some time, just depart to the west. Then, you can still say that you went around the world. And remember the great words of Bocanan, the guru from Cat's Cradle, "Strange travel plans are dancing lessons from God."

Remember what Morphious said to Neo (in the movie The Matrix) before jumping from one building to the other? ... "Clear your mind Neo. You've got to let it all go". Maybe Neo HAD cleared his mind ... but just after leaping from the building he made a fatal mistake.... it started when he looked down. But looking down isn't what caused him to fall. And it wasn't what he saw that made him fall. It was what he believed that allowed him to fall.

Remember the Buddha story? The Master holds out a clenched fist. He tells the student that he has a precious stone in his hand. "Do you believe that I have a valuable stone in my hand?" he said to the student. The student replied, "Yes Master, I believe you have a valuable stone in your hand". The Master opened his hand and in it was a plain, common, stone of no
value. The master said "Where is your belief now?"

Feeling homesick is quite normal. It will come and go. Sometimes, it comes after eating weird food for a couple of weeks. Other times, you think you will die if you have to drink Nescafe AGAIN. Then again, you are the big, tall white guy all the time. Once in a while, you will get so irritated, you want to scream. Its then that you might want to take a day and read,
get a massage or spend the day at the park. You will find that you have a different rythmn while traveling.

As long as you stay approachable, this will be the first of many people you will meet. In Asia, a smile goes a long way. It helps to keep generous thoughts.

May you feel the spirit of the divine with you and see yourself on a spiritual journey.

So the only other words of wisdom I have are 1) remember your purpose, why you are there, 2) take care of yourself (sounds
like you are - writing, prayer, alone time), 3) just open a little to the pain and discomfort - welcome it in "just this much".

Remember to live in the moment and be open to whatever experiences you encounter on this trip.

I'm sure everyday might not be bliss, but remember when you old and gray and sitting on your rocker in Colorado with you grandchildren telling them how you saw the great wall, you will feel richer for the experience! I think it is so cool how people want to take pictures with you, it's like you are an alien! Consider this your 15 minutes.

Remember what we used to say with the Wilderness Club: Happy Outlook!

Hey guys, pull yourselves together.

Thousands of other people vist Viet Nam, why can't you? YOu have the credit cards, you have the vaccinations, you have the program, you have a God, and Aaron is 6'6" and 200 plus lbs. What can possibly go wrong????

I always had the "wimp out" feeling every time I went to China in the old days. After the second day on the train, I was DREAMING about getting the F--K out of China, and to a beach in the Philippines ASAP. However, I worked
through this (not unnatural) desire, and then had a BLOODY GOOD TIME exporing weird and wonderful places.

Remember: "You shall not pass this way again".

You MIGHT come back to Viet Nam in 10 years but by then it will have McDonalds everywhere.

I once drew a cartoon of a guy sitting in a library, bored out of his gourd, dreaming of sky diving (you know, anything exciting or dangerous) ... the next frame was the same guy, diving out of an airplane at 20,000 feet, dreaming about being back in the
library.

I love drama but I'm afraid of reality - reality wrapped in drama can masquerade as romance.While I was walking the streets of Souel, Korea one time (I spent a few days there while in the Marines) I came to the conclusion that the contrast between rich and devastatingly poor is bitter sweet, especially if I'm rich (which I was compared to some of the beggars
I saw). I have spent many bored and listless hours traveling to places that held promise of excitement and adventure. The leap from boredom to fear, and from adventure to boredom, often leaves me wondering what the meaning of that excursion was. Why are we always trying to make order out of chaos? It's a big business that, you know? The religions of the world
make it their business, as do computer companies, car manufacturers, distillers, musicians, artists ... etc. Perhaps if we find the "pattern" in life - make order out of this chaos - we will somehow be able to connect the dots and plot the future. Perhaps we can control where the dots go and thus control the future... our future. Perhaps we won't have to live in squalor ... or at least without a comfortable couch.

....I'm trying to love the world by seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling only it. I want to remove the filter from in front of my eyes (I know now that it's there - ..."like a splinter in my mind"). The only thing that is real is what I bump into while my eye's are closed. The rest is a fabrication of the human mind.

I love this lesson the Master gives a young student: The Master takes two sticks and places them together so that one is vertical and the other is horizontal, resting across the top of the other, such that the vertical stick is in the center of the horizontal stick (like this: "T"). The Master asks the student what that is. The student says, "That's the letter
'T' ". The Master replies, "No, that is two sticks placed thus".

You know, going back to the envy theme, I have to say that reading of and seeing the pictures of your adventures is quite the wake-up call in terms of how adventurous we are (or at least, I am) in our daily lives. In the month that you were in Thailand you had so many new experiences; in the same month that I was here in the U.S., I can't think of a single thing I was doing
that was so wonderful I wouldn't give it up in exchange for what you are doing. Does that mean I'm in a rut? I mean, sure, you might miss cooking, or movie day, or Taco Bell (!), but I assume that you continue to gratefully give up these little luxuries in exchange for, say, riding on the back of an elephant in jungles of Thailand. To be able to have experiences of things
that, perhaps, you never thought you might do or see. And I wonder why I am not necessarily willing to be as adventurous as I think I am. Hmmm. I'm going to have to contemplate this a bit.

Yeah, Nepal and India are not the easiest countries on Earth...damn dude, none of them are "easy". I still don't think you understand the magnitude of what you guys are doing (which is a great way to do it!). As Tom Hanks said in "A League
Of Their Own"..."of course it's hard! The hard is what makes it great!!! If it was easy, everyone would do it!" (of course, he was referring to baseball, but world travel is almost the same thing really). Have a great time and learn about yourself...