August 25

Tremendous sense of freedom and faith and exhiliration that was lost for me at 911 in the world is exuded in Ghana. Riding a tro-tro, or off-roading into tribal villages, it's a sense of traveling empowerent and personal empowerment long needed. I feel more confident in myself and have faith that the world will support my place in it.

A sense that I can make it work.

We work ourselves into such small frames with our lives. We understand our place in the world as specific and "useful". But I have faith after this trip that that place is more general and not at all specific. Such a small reality is damaging to the soul - to life in general.

For me, Ghana, Africa renewed that faith in travel and a faith that life is safe to live, life will catch you when you fall, life will guide you when you falter or you are lost. We can all seek out this place, we all have the power to have faith in something. This place where we find ourselves; our strengths, weaknesses, abilities, loves, interests, connections.

Some have noted that this blog can sound like a tough road. My intent was not to complain, although complaints are a natural piece of unfamiliar or of disconcerting territory that dissents from our smallness and shelter that we take for granted.

I love the tough stuff as much as I do the easy and beautiful. This in a sense is life, living and meditation and the art of being present. Once we can be present with the painful, chaotic and sometimes threatening, we can truly be at one with real life. At least, I honestly believe this. It's a challenge that I continue to struggle with every day and I want to continue to work with every day. I think it's as important to our very essence as happiness. Struggle and challenge and hardship is not a problem, as our society deems it, but a part of happiness. For who can understand happiness without the sad or despair?

Many don't have the opportunity to open to this experience. However, one thing I have learned from Ghana is that there are always possibilities. And I don't just mean in Ghana, I mean anywhere in the world. If it's about money? Go to volunteer or do a travel/work exchange. It's possible. If it's about fear, what's the worst thing that can happen? Let go. Life will carry you in a direction - even if it's not always the expected direction. If it's about time - there is always time. Especially for precious experiences and cultural understanding. Life is short.

There is always a reason not to do something you are afraid of. What if there was that one reason you could do it? What if you knew that money, time, fear, comfort, structure, routine, familiarity were all excuses for just experiencing life - as we strive so hard towards in the process of meditation, yoga, running, balancing our stress and our daily hardships as we know them. Those hardships that have become so familiar in our lives in the god damn United States of America? The stigmas, the labels, the prejudices, the thoughts, the anxieties, the concerns about covering your fears and appearing "okay" or about being socially appropriate. What if all those things somehow disappeared and we just saw ourselves removed from that culture? Then what? Do we still perceive ourselves as such wounded and trapped animals in a warped reality? Or do we see ourselves for what we truly are? As cheesy as it sounds, a verse from the Neverending Story comes to mind. Atreyu is brave and must face the obstacle of the mirror of truth - or seeing himself for what he truly is. Can we do the same? Stripped of our familiarities and costumes and facades what are we REALLY?

Traveling for me shows me all my faults, my fears, my strengths, all in the course of about 10 minutes. A scary rollercoaster, but a gift in my eyes. Dependent upon perception and priority, "a gift" we can all have if we want. I am not saying that it's always easy to do so. But if easy was the way we learned from life, could we truly say that we experienced and lived? I don't know. Not for me.

These are simply thoughts, reflections. My own personal discoveries.

Open yourself. Find the good, the bad and mainly, the different. This is not even in reference to travel, but in an approach to life. Approach it with openness, without fear (but also without idiot compassion - than you Pema Chodron - and be it.

To avoid it and find reasons to not do or experience, and believe in these reasons keeps you imprisoned and the fear looms larger.

Ghana was the most amazing country and trip I have been on. I miss the smells, I miss the people, the sensory overload, the food, the sweat and chaos. I miss simple lifestyles, using all parts of the chicken. I miss people carrying 40 lbs of knock off Gucci sandals on their heads. There is an ease and familiarity in things you've never heard before (music, culture, language and tone). Being the root of Western civilization, Ghana is a father figure more than we might realize. But Ghana just reminded me of a very basic concept - another person might come to this conclusion discovering faith, in another place, or in another activity.

No matter how negative or positive these experiences might sound, actually, they are my best attempt to describe an overwhelming, sometimes exasperating personal experience of life as we know and don't know it.