a few words on satisfaction

Here is a segment from Pema Chodron's book Awakening Love and Kindness. Her words really spoke to me yesterday.

It's very helpful to realize that being here, sitting in meditation, doing simple everyday things like working, walking outside, talking with people, bathing, using the toilet, and eating, is actually all that we need to be fully awake, fully alive, fully human. It's also helpful to realize that this body that we have, this very body thats sitting here right now on this shrine room floor, this very body that perhaps aches because it's only day two of the dathun, and this mind that we have at this very moment, are exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake and fully alive. Furthermore, the emotions that we have right now, the negativity and the positivity, are what we actually need. It is just as if we had looked around to find out what would be the greatest wealth that we could possibly possess in order to lead a decent, good, completely fulfilling, energetic, inspired life, and found it all right here.

Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way. One of the major obstacles to what is traditionally called enlightenment is resentment, feeling cheated, holding a grudge about who you are, where you are, what you are. This is why we talk so much about making friends with ourselves, because, for some reason or other, we don't feel that kind of satisfaction in a full and complete way. Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have. Our wisdom is all mixed up with what we call our neurosis. Our brilliance, our juiciness, our spiciness, is all mixed up with our craziness and our confusion, and therefore it doesn't do any good to try to get rid of our so-called negative aspects, because in that process we also get rid of our basic wonderfulness. We can lead our life so as to become more awake to who we are and what we're doing rather than trying to improve or change or get rid of who we are or what we're doing. The key is to wake up, to become more alert, more inquisitive and curious about ourselves.

beware of crocs

hi, everyone. we're in cairns, australia now. it's our fourth day here and we're just now sort of settling in. we stayed at a hostel for two nights and found a nice sharehouse to stay in for a couple of weeks before we start wwoofing at the winery in mossman (about one and a half hours north of here). the weather is in the 80's and Humid. the 'h' is capitalized on purpose. we don't have air conditioning but we're getting along just fine...it has regular internet access, running water and a shower so we feel like we've died and gone to heaven.

our flatmates are all nice and laid back. we've gotten to know Allen who's from Ireland, Marco who's from France and Lisa who's from Japan. Here's a photo:

we've really enjoyed talking to them and getting to know more about their stories, what brought them here and what their plans are. they all speak english and are very familiar with Obama and US politics. robbie and i had a conversation about ethnocentricity in the US (why is it that I never bothered to become fluent in a foreign language? I couldn't tell you who the prime minister of Ireland is to save my life). shame on me.

today we walked to the "beach" which was to our surprise, to put it nicely, a swamp. the great barrier reef blocks most of the waves from coming into the shores so now the mud accumulated and crocodiles live there. we saw this sign that said DO NOT SWIM! RISK OF INJURY OR DEATH BY CROCODILE! that's alright...plenty of beautiful beaches to come. luckily, there's an awesome public pool area that's open all day. we spent the afternoon there playing the hot/cold game (lay in the sun until you're burning up, jump in the pool and swim until you're chilly again, repeat, repeat). life is good.

tomorrow we'll start the search for an inexpensive car. we're hoping to find a good little hatchback/station wagon that won't break down within the next five months. wish us luck!

technology...what is it?

thank you for posting your comments. it's quite exciting to be able to share this journey with our friends and family back home. i'm so grateful for the amazing technology that allows us to feel so close to all of you when we're all the way around the world. skyping with bill, my mom, my brother AND my dad today was amazing and much needed! 

today was our last day in new zealand. we are at the auckland airport right now waiting for our 5am flight to cairns, australia. should be a long day of travel but we're really excited for the next phase of the journey. the weather was in the 50's and 60's in new zealand (perfect "fall" weather to get it out of our system!) so we're really looking forward to kicking it on the beach at this time tomorrow. we booked a hostel and can't wait to have a proper bed when we get there. i'm really appreciating simple ammenities like running water and a warm shower... twelve days in a campervan really jolts you into appreciating the small stuff! 

new zealand is an incredible place and i'm so grateful we had an opportunity to visit. we swear we'll be back again to do the south island since we didn't have enough time this trip. we'll see! the best days were spent driving and looking at the amazing scenery just marveling at mother earth. so incredible. the thing i appreciated the most is that new zealand has a profound respect for its natural beauty and takes amazing steps to protect and conserve it. the US could learn a lot from the kiwis in that respect. 

can you dig it?

just past the coromandel lies cathedral cove and the hot water beaches. dig your own hot tub? yes, please. we parked at the car park and started walking towards gemstone bay. the sign said about 10 minutes and we passed a couple other travelers on the way down. we heard gemstone bay was a great little snorkeling spot. the beach was covered in beautiful, multicolored rocks just waiting to be climbed on. we both turned into wide-eyed kids and started playing.

we headed to the hot water beach and discovered that it was still high tide. decided to make some lunch and take a nap. low tide came about two hours later. we met four backpackers from germany and they were completely unimpressed that we were traveling for six months...they were just starting their gap year after high school which every european does at some point in their life. had a grand realization that this is exactly what i'm supposed to be doing at this time in my life. felt very at peace in that moment. at low tide, the six of us grabbed our shovels and headed down to the hot water beach. robbie refused to pay the $5 to rent a shovel and instead used the little gardening tool we brought from the US. the germans got a kick out of that and just stood by laughing at us. as we dug deeper, the water got warmer and warmer, steam started rising from the sand! it was incredible!

we hung our wet clothes to dry and watched the sun go down on the beach. such a glorious, amazing day.

beautiful doesn't begin...

greetings from rotorua, nz! we've had quite the week driving around the country in our little campervan. we stayed the first night with our friends kyle and johanna (thanks guys!) who live in auckland and are marine biologists. we got to see johanna feed her carpet sharks...awesome!!

we hopped in our campervan (nicknamed "sally sweet as")...

we made our way north to the million dollar view road...

saw the tasman sea and the pacific ocean collide at cape reinga...

saw the biggest tree in new zealand...

and we're having the time of our lives.

new zealand is a special place. highly recommend it. the pictures don't do it justice...the scenery literally takes your breath away. we're having a great time and figuring it out as we go. loving the spontaneity and go-with-the-flow-ness of it all. trying to soak in each moment as best as we can.

the best part of the trip was probably when we got attacked by well, Robbie says it was a bird but I believe it was a blood-thirsty pterodactyl.

hello from the future

It turns out that loving the journey is easy here in New Zealand. I've never seen a more beautiful place in all my life. It's 2:22pm on September 13th right now. It's been an incredible trip so far. Any doubt I had about coming here has completely flown out the window. We've made it from Auckland up to Cape Reinga and back. This is the first time we've had internet access. I'll upload some pictures soon. We've got to go figure out where we're going to sleep tonight!

demain

tomorrow we leave for auckland, new zealand. we'll get there on thursday, september 9th. we rented a campervan and will travel around the north island for two weeks. some of the stops will be cape reinga, coromandel peninsula, rotorua, lake taupo, gisborne, napier and raglan.

can't believe it's already here. both of us have the butterflies...we can't wait!

what day is it?

my last day of work was last Friday which seems like a century ago. so much has happened since then - we moved out of our apartment, said goodbye to all of our friends in chicago, drove the moving truck down to st. louis and unpacked our life into Robbie's parents' basement. what a whirlwind! i'm unemployed for the first time since i was fifteen years old. on sunday, i woke up and had forgotten what day it was and it was pretty surreal (read: amazing) rolling out of bed at 8am on monday morning. i think i could get used to this. the move went great and i'm so thankful that Robbie's parents are letting us stay with them in st. louis this week. it's been a great opportunity to get organized and get our bearings before we leave the real world for a while. the nerves are starting to sink in a little bit, but i don't think it's hit me yet that we're actually doing it. the big adventure begins on september 7th when we go from st. louis to los angeles. we have an eight hour lay-over in LA (anyone know have a good idea of something fun we can do in the lax airport?). we arrive in auckland, new zealand at 8:30am on september 9th. who needs september 8th, anyway?