Day 5, Monday

I awoke to rain on the roof of the little camper I'm staying  in. A cold front has come through and it is forecasted to rain off and on for the next couple days. The rain stopped today about 9 or 10am though there was a tornado that touched down a few miles north of town, so I hear.

Tom treated me to breakfast at a place named, Nash's. Great food, wonderful atmosphere. Afterward, he drove me out to see a Catholic  monastery that had used stones cut in the 12th century in the construction of a portion of their buildings. While there, we meditated in the church proper and wandered around the grounds a bit. Saw the fattest squirrels I think I have ever seen! I'll try to post some pictures of the stonework.

It was grand, being out there. I was able to reconnect with the peace I've experienced for most of the last 10 years. This was the first time I've reconnected with that level of peace in almost three months. I had the joy of picking up a few walnuts off the ground and revisiting my childhood in memory while eating them. It was the first time I've enjoyed that activity in many, many years.

After we got back to the house, Tom went to do whatever he had planned and I decided to just hang in the camper since it was chilly. My good friend, Keith, gave me a book entitled, 'The Man Who Quit Money' a few weeks ago and I've hardly had the time to crack the book open. So I read a large portion of it. Very good and I resonate with the fellow's lifestyle, though he has taken it a bit further than I want to.

I mentioned in my last entry how people seem to be more shielded than I remember from my youth. This was very evident as I walked around downtown. I was dressed fairly well, was clean and peaceful and had a small smile the whole time I was out, yet almost everyone I passed wouldn't meet my eyes, or didn't acknowledge me and kept to themselves. So sad since most people crave pleasant human interaction and they could easily have had it with me.

But it strikes me that others may not want to put forth the vulnerability of meeting someone new only to have that person be a "taker" rather than a "giver". So, we choose to reserve our extroverted  friendliness for those spaces where our energy invested might be returned with "profit" to ourselves. In other words, we don't say hello on the street to the same people we would hug on first meeting in church, or at a dance. You know, Jesus would likely have never even had been noticed if he had been born now, in America. He likely would've lived out his life in anonymity as so many do. He would've been fine with that, I think, but the world would've missed out on some great teachings. The same is true of most great spiritual teachers who haven't published books.

So, tomorrow I get to pack up and (hopefully) move to a different host for a few days. I've learned that things change...including well-laid plans. If necessary, I'll find a campground. I know everything will work out fine; this trip is being guided by the Universe.  :-)