One Man’s Walk through life

I Wish You Were Here

/> I wish you were here right now. I haven’t been on the farm for a while, and I haven’t been on the farm at dusk during the spring for a long while. It’s magical. As I look around, the sunlight is soft. And there are trees. And a horizon…a huge horizon. I have my little brother taking pictures of me as I write to you. I wanted you to see me
There are dogs in the background and birds. I once thought I could only raise my kids in a place like this. Today I remember why I thought that. It may be that I will let my family grow up for a while in a city, but my kids WILL know what it means to be outside. To breath air that is fresh, and somehow…is it woody? smoky? whatever it is, I can’t help smiling as my nose tastes it, and remembers.
/> To see a sunset. To know the quiet of the outdoors that isn’t really quiet, but a symphony of nature’s many voices. Having the one car that comes every five minutes or so only serve to remind you how few cars there are here. To be awed by the one plane in the sky while you’re lying on your back on top of your roof (where I spent the last 2 hours reading).
To climb a tree. To dig a ditch. To build a fort. To spend days toiling, working, sweating, getting burnt by the sun. And to spend nights knowing that with their hands they have actually accomplished something, built something, changed something, and it was hard, and they can be proud. /> I wish you could be here. Maybe it’s this place that taught me peace. Maybe this is where I return to when I meditate. Even a distant car alarm going off is somehow comforting I am in love with the world, and I wish for nothing more than to share it with you. Lying next to me on this old broken picnic table looking up at the biggest pecan tree on our farm, and the sky above it.

Denver Lindy Exchange2004

As the sun struggles to overtake the mountain light floods the vast plain of New Mexico desert. This is my home. Or close enough. The bus is still actually about an hour away from El Paso.
As I blink the sleep away, I realize that this will be the forth sunrise I see in as many days. However, this time it’s because I went to sleep early. The last three times? Because I was at the Denver Lindy Exchange, the first stop of default.JeremysBigAdventure!
Denver was awesome. It is the last exchange in what has been a year of exchanges for me. (If you don’t know, it’s okay to ask default.WhatIsALindyExchange?) Traveling across the states to spend weekends partying until the sun comes up each day is actually pretty convenient when you’re a consultant that’s traveling as I was. And I’ve been spoiled. Over the year I’ve made so many great incredible friends… All you need to do to see that is look at all my friends that are default.SwingDancers. It’s pretty amazing actually, how many wonderful, wonderful people there are out there if you just open your eyes.
Anyway, Denver was wicked cool. The dancing was amazing. I met a few incredible follows, and hung out with a ton of really good old friends. Moments: * eating at the thai place with Beth, Jake, Chuck, and Ruby * eating at Denny’s with EVERYONE that was still around on Monday * eating a european style lunch outside that store with Ruby, Kermit, ?, Mirabai, and Mihai
Lindy crushes: * people.CeliaGhormley * people.RubyRed * people.EricaDeBlasio

Portland Lindy Exchange2004

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Oh yes…

Portland…wonderful dancers…wonderful music…wonderful friends…

Moments:
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• 4 of us dancing on the sidewalk to Kevin Buster on sax w/ his case open making money…
• That one song with Tina Bunck…
• Those 20 songs with Erin…
• Getting kidnapped by for a dance by Miranda and Anna – holy cow!
• Sarah, sneaking up behind me to give me a backrub at the exact time in the weekend when I needed it most. I was totally bummed and down, and by doing it she instantly broke that and taught me a valueable lesson about how to cheer up someone who’s as tactile as I am
• Dancing with Erin 15 minutes after the last song of the exchange on an empty floor to Andy (I think) playing the piano – amazingly
• Sitting at breakfast with 11 other survivors monday morning – all of us delirious
• Chocolate tongue

Just Got My Ticket To South America

I got my ticket to South America yesterday… WOO HOOOOO

I leave for Bogota, Columbia on April 8th.

So, since I haven’t blogged this before, here’s the plan:

In 2 weeks I leave !ThoughtWorks for a year long sabbattical. After a couple weeks of being a bum in Denver, El Paso, and LA, I’ll leave for Columbia. I finally got a hold of Charles, and it sounds like we’re going to meet up there and travel together for a while.

I plan to eventually make my way to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to live for the rest of the year. However, the entire point of this year is to live in the moment, so it’s really more of an idea than a plan I want to keep my eyes open to any and all shiny new objects and allow myself to be distracted by them.

Why am I going to South America you might ask? (or you might not, but I’m going to tell you anyway)

I’ve been on the same road since I was 17. That was when I decided to go into Software Development. Nine years later, I don’t know if the path I chose for myself as a teenager is the one I want to stay on for the rest of my life. Maybe it is, I do love it, and I’m pretty darn good at it. But I feel like I’m not in a good position to judge while I’m on it, so this break is about getting off that path and looking around. Expanding my horizons, getting some perspective, I want to live in second and third world countries that have great poverty. I want to live in cultures that are very different from my own. Mostly, I want to live.

It’s going to be great to not be tied down at all. Knowing that everything I do, I do because I want to. That I can pick up and leave a city the second I want to, or that I can stay for a month if I want to. That I can work if I want, or sleep if I want, or eat, or write. Of course this is true anyway, but it will be good practice for when I come back. …if I come back.

Anyway, I’ll keep posting details, I’ll be taking a laptop with me to write, so hopefully these entries will be getting more interesting.