...still midwinter...following weeks of writing about misery and nostalgia for happy teenaged years that never happened...see recent posts...and not much else...had a conversation with somebody about a not-too-expensive trip to Costa Rica...involving a week...(coinciding, coincidentally enough, with my forty-fourth birthday)...at a distant Pacific beach...lounging out, doing yoga, letting wintry eyes get lost in tropical skies...five hour bus rides across the Central American countryside, nights hosteling in San Jose...and brief layovers at George Bush International Airport...yeah, really...at each end...just a matter of weeks away...but still way beyond my budget...
...I said okay, I’ll go...
...given the details, seems like travelin' light's gonna be the way...perhaps limiting myself to one bag...toothbrush, a few shirts, changes of underwear, a book or two...and...here it comes...seriously...no c.o.m.p.u.t.e.r...
...though working my habit-driven mind around that concept may take a while....have avoided these crazy interwebs on yoga retreats in the past...mostly...but...to forsake this metal and plastic block containing my writing, music, pictures, etc., entirely...haven’t done that for so much as a day in a long, long time....which, actually, makes it seem all the more a good idea...
...maybe it’s been too long a time since I was scramblin’ down in the street...
Joni Mitchell
...used to go for months living out of a backpack...no ipod or cellphone, either...(for that matter, they weren’t even invented yet)...leaving the pack with everything in it in an almost complete stranger’s unlocked van to go see a rock band, harboring little doubt it was worth the risk...sitting on the rocks by a little Greek village in Paros, finding a strange contentment in being so far from anything familiar, anyone who knew my name...scrawling life is good all along the northern reaches of the Appalachian Trail, happy with being warm and well fed, nothing too blatantly feeding on me... unencumbered...relatively speaking...
...not to suggest running away as a solution to anything...nor to romanticize poverty...or a rootless life based on amassing frequent flyer miles like George Clooney in that movie....what’s important, I suspect, isn’t to escape from anything...or even to refuse oneself that new i-Pad thing everybody suddenly needs...(I’m certainly not about to preach asceticism a mere couple paragraphs down from saying I'm gonna go jetting off for a week of downward facing dog in the tropics)...
...voluntary simplicity is a wonderful thing...so long as you remember that, for most of the world, there’s nothing voluntary...or simple...about it...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Sutra 333:76
...but to realize you’re complete with or without all that...non-attachment not in the sense of breaking off from anything...but realizing none of it was ever truly essential to you in the first place...
...maybe it’s been too long a time since I was scramblin’ down in the street...
Joni Mitchell
...used to go for months living out of a backpack...no ipod or cellphone, either...(for that matter, they weren’t even invented yet)...leaving the pack with everything in it in an almost complete stranger’s unlocked van to go see a rock band, harboring little doubt it was worth the risk...sitting on the rocks by a little Greek village in Paros, finding a strange contentment in being so far from anything familiar, anyone who knew my name...scrawling life is good all along the northern reaches of the Appalachian Trail, happy with being warm and well fed, nothing too blatantly feeding on me... unencumbered...relatively speaking...
...not to suggest running away as a solution to anything...nor to romanticize poverty...or a rootless life based on amassing frequent flyer miles like George Clooney in that movie....what’s important, I suspect, isn’t to escape from anything...or even to refuse oneself that new i-Pad thing everybody suddenly needs...(I’m certainly not about to preach asceticism a mere couple paragraphs down from saying I'm gonna go jetting off for a week of downward facing dog in the tropics)...
...voluntary simplicity is a wonderful thing...so long as you remember that, for most of the world, there’s nothing voluntary...or simple...about it...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Sutra 333:76
...but to realize you’re complete with or without all that...non-attachment not in the sense of breaking off from anything...but realizing none of it was ever truly essential to you in the first place...
...thanks to April for the photo of some unidentified individual standing in a Rocky Mountain meadow...
11 comments:
Cool shot of whoever that is ;)
I would love to go on a yoga retreat, even "in country." Good for you for accepting the idea and the deserved break. As I recall --maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong-- your birthday is shared with George Harrison? Which means your 44th will be on Feb. 25?
Your computer will survive in mute oblivion. And your readers will be here when you return and breathe life back into it, i.e., download travel shots to share.
word verification: menses
(no comment...)
"...but to realize you’re complete with or without all that...non-attachment not in the sense of breaking off from anything...but realizing none of it was ever truly essential to you in the first place..."
The above has long been my understanding of wholeness.
as long as you keep moving the mosquitoes do not land in you.
44th birthday..."I remember him (it) well"...well sort of ~ for me that was a lot of birthdays ago. In any case, a trip to somewhere warm and visually new would body comforting and spirit renewing.
As for the quote...happy to share. You would find yourself quoted, along with Douglas Adams, after my signature on my emails! :-)
"...in the most dysfunctional families, the dog still gets along with everybody..."
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 46:72
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by"
~ Douglas Adams
oh ya, whenever i go home for a weekend-week and don't have access to my computer... i feel weird and strangely... happy.
however, i love the internet. hah.
"...non-attachment not in the sense of breaking off from anything..." Exactly. It's about a relationship with yourself and interactions, and not about being rich or poor or isolated... It's not about material effects or results. Non-attachment is something else... Perhaps it is happiness that is not dependent on the weather. Thanks, Jay. Nice picture.
I love your ability to romanticize running away while simultaneously admitting it's not a solution...this was so real.
"...but to realize you’re complete with or without all that..." Lovely... great post.
That sounds like such a fun trip, drjay, and I would imagine that such a beautiful place, sans computer, would be very tolerable. By the way, isn't Charlie the Three-Toed Sloth from Costa Rica?
"...voluntary simplicity..." Another awesome sutra.
What a nice photo...the hiker looks at total peace in his surroundings, like he was born to roam the Earth...
So, so awesome Dr Jay...getting away...we all need respite at times. It is a privilege to travel unencumbered on purpose...a gift many of wish we could experience too. (myself included of course) Blessings for safe and joyful travels. Don't worry, your computer and devoted groupies will be waiting for you when you return. 44...it has been an interesting year for me. A good year over all. May it be so for you as well.
"and I miss my clean white livin' and my fancy french perfume...." gonna be singing this the rest of the day...my FAVORITE song!
oh Dr. Jay, what a great way to celebrate your 44th year of being on Planet Earth, by visiting a faraway place of it... enjoy very much your away-from-technology time, as you wrote, it will help you appreciate it even more and miss it
whenever i go back to my mom's town in Mexico, i try to stay away, as much as possible, from computers and other gadgets... it's a refreshing time
and your birthday i wish you that lovely and strange feeling one gets when coming back home after being away from a while, one gets, when you see your own furniture and stuff "different" sometimes things seem smaller or bigger than what you remembered them, even your block of metal that keeps your digital life enclosed
go, fly high, mister Jay, we'll be here when you land back ;)
Post a Comment