atreesvoice

At the end of September, my soul began to cry for some attention. It was saying “I need to be with the stars, the sun and the earth. I need to be away from the habits we’ve been living. I want to know you hear me and will respect my desires as much as the wishes of your ego and other people.” On a rational level this call seemed frivolous, so I resisted it. Plus, what did it really want me to do? My head wanted specifics and without them, I wasn’t going to be able to follow. Yet, after some time, I began to understand that to keep suppressing this soul’s appeal would be detrimental to my health, happiness and attitude towards life. So, I decided to listen. While the idea was forming I didn’t talk about it much, lest anyone persuade me of what I was already suspicious—that it was a crackpot idea. One that was irresponsible and would lead me to my complete demise. Looking back, that idea seems like the completely crackpot one, but that’s what hindsight can do.

My first instinct was to travel north to be alone in the mountains of the Adirondacks, a place I love and spent a good amount of time as a child. Yet, when I looked at a calendar and realized it would be October, the idea of sleeping outside in the Adirondacks was not very appealing. As it was, I missed the warmth of the summer sun in September. So, I switched directions to the south, and a trip began to design itself. When I sought clarity on where to go and what to plan or even what the outcome of this trip would be, my soul would say; “You’ll find your way without knowing ahead where you are going. This trip is about practicing being in the moment, which means NOT planning in advance but being where you are and open to experiencing that completely. While also trusting yourself to move towards the next moment as you feel directed.” This sounded nice to a part of me, but my conditioned self was not having an easy time fully comprehending the message. This made it complicated to explain to other people. So, I continued to keep it somewhat quiet, although those closest to me knew. Some, did want more of an explanation than what I was able to give. Even though it was challenging to disappoint them, I stuck with my call and set off on a mostly unplanned road trip on October 11, 2011.

What has your soul been calling for? Do you listen? And then follow what you hear? More often than not, the call is small, such as a desire to draw for a few minutes. Or to sing at the top of your lungs to music that fills you with joy. The size of the request is not important, it’s the follow through that makes a big impression on our inner lives. The information age has given us a huge amount of technological advances. May we also remember that which existed before those developments. Soul, spirit, earth, stars, and most of all love.