Ready or not… [#its5oclocksomewhere.]

Tags

3, 5, adventure, car, decision, heart, journey, leap, month, oclock, road, somewhere, summer, trip

June 8th. Friday. 5pm.
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My car is pointing South and I’ve been on the road for several hours already. The wipers slide across the windshield, clearing my vision of the tiny droplets of water this mist has left behind. The rain is an odd paradox to the beautiful sunshine that continues to shine down on me. Peeking up through my open sunroof, the light warms my face and the gentle mist falls on my skin. And I smile.

This is it. I’ve been preparing for this trip – adventure… escapade… jaunt… vacation… whatever you want to call it – for quite some time now. And, here, right in front of my eyes, it’s happening. I glance back over my shoulder and see the giant backpack and suitcase that are accompanying me on this 3 month journey. Back home my goodbyes have been said, my affairs have been brought into order, and now my trusty road atlas has taken its rightful place on my passenger seat. The next three months I will be hanging out with my family, spending time living out of a trailer parked on my parent’s street, road tripping all over the United States’ southwest, camping, hiking, hanging out with friends, reading, writing, and overall just giving my heart room to breathe. Room to just, be.

Did I lose my job, you ask? Experience a recent traumatic event? Lose a meaningful relationship? Face a life-altering and terrifying crossroads? Epically fail at something profound I had attempted?

Nope. To all of the above. No friends, this 3 month adventure is not a response to a negative and/or disappointing set of circumstances. It isn’t a last-ditch effort to improve my life. I’m not running away from something I’m afraid of. Believe it or not, my life “back home” is better than ever.

This adventure is something I am doing simply because I want to. Because I asked my heart, “What do you want to do?” And then I made room for the answer. I planned and saved and bought and sold and made the decisions necessary to shift the momentum of my life in this particular direction. And then I stood on the edge of the beautifully terrifying and wildly adventurous cliff I had created for myself, I breathed in deeply and summoned all of my courage and zeal, and I jumped. I took the leap.

And as I head into the dawn of my little adventure, I pray that you would do the same. That you’ll have the courage to ask, to really and honestly ask, your heart what it desires. And then be brave enough to make room for it’s answer. And, last not but least, when the timing is right, to take the leap.

Because you owe it yourself. And you owe it to this beautiful and glorious experience we call life.

…………………….

“Tell me, what is it you plan on doing with your one wild and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver

“May you live all the days of your life.”
– Jonathan Swift

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courageous spontaneity. [#its5oclocksomewhere]

Tags

5, brave, bravery, coffee, courage, courageous, fear, five, friends, laughter, life, oclock, patio, present, randi, right now, somewhere, spontaneious, spontaneity, spring, starbucks, stories, story, strickland, summer, sun, unexpected, unexplored, unknown

Sunday. April 15th. 5pm
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I have no idea how it is that I came to be sitting here, at this table, with these people. The afternoon sure hasn’t transpired according to plan. The last thing I knew, I was headed to meet some friends for a quick lunch rendezvous and then I’d be off to run some errands, take a nap, and hopefully start my new book. But that was 3 hours ago, and, here I sit. With a smaller group of the same friends from lunch. After having all quickly ran into a furniture store downtown, emblazoned with multi-colored paint splashed across their windows and larger-than-life words that read “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS FOREVER,” “EVERYTHING MUST GO,” “BIGGEST SALE YET!” and other equally dramatic slogans. And now happily hanging out on the sun-soaked patio of a Starbucks, sipping on… you guessed it… a black coffee, and telling each other stories of fist fights, stolen laptops and vehicles broken into, picking up hitchhikers and saving damsels in distress. And mysterious men pulling our out-of-gas cars from the snow banks where they were lodged. You know, everyday kind of stuff ;)

And you know what, as I swallow another swig of my coffee and lean back in my chair the way my mother always told me not to, I am so glad that this afternoon didn’t transpire according to plan. Looking around the table at the faces of these friends of mine, hearing stories that tell pieces of their lives I’ve not known before, and sharing laughter together, I think about the doors of experience and the unexpected memories that are created by the courage to be spontaneous. I reflect on other times in my life when things simply didn’t go “according to plan,” and wonder to myself what other types of opportunities and experiences spontaneity was offering to me but I had failed to recognize because they weren’t as simple and safe as furniture store sales and Starbucks patios. How many other friendly faces, what unknown pieces of people’s lives, will I miss in my pursuit of the perfectly executed plan?

And I make a decision. Right here, at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon that has pleasantly surprised my socks off, I resolve once again to be courageous enough to be present in every moment of my life. Planned or not. To be brave enough to stop manipulating my own life out of fear of the unexpected and the unknown.

Because life is what is happening right now.
And right now, I’m sitting on a patio and surrounded by friends and I couldn’t be happier about it.

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sunlight & shadows. [#its5oclocksomewhere]

Tags

5, adventure, beach, coffee, dog, five, friday, its, kids, ocean, oclock, patio, quaint, salt, sea, shadow, shop, somewhere, spring, street, summer, sun, sunlight, sunshine

Friday. April 13th. 5pm.
…………………………………………..
The last remaining slant of sunshine is inching across the wood panelling of the patio. Judging by it’s speed, and the distance from me to the shade, I estimate that I have about 10 more minutes before the sun on my face is replaced by the shadow of the overhang. I put my laptop away and take my warm cup of black coffee in my hands. Tilting my head back and closing my eyes, I shut out everything but the warm haze of sun and salt that sits on my face, and soak up these remaining moments. I can hear the birds singing as they announce spring with every breath. I can hear the rhythmic panting of dogs as they meander by with their owners. Somewhere a few blocks from where I sit, a group of children are yelling and laughing as they play together. And I can smell the ocean. Even at low tide and distant from the shore, its easy to sense it’s nearness. Opening my eyes, I take in the quaint stretch of asphalt and sidewalk that lays before me and set my gaze on the endless expanse of blue sea that begins where the street ends. And I thank God for another glorious day, grateful for this gift of life He’s given me.

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Not sure what “#its5oclocksomewhere” is all about? Click here for the quick background story on this creative project of mine and get caught up!

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patio patience. [#its5oclocksomewhere]

Tags

5, beer, five, food, friend, friendship, its, laughter, northwest, oclock, pacific, patio, rain, somewhere, spring, summer, sun

Thursday. April 12th. 5:00pm.
……………………..
We finally make the move and head inside. After 2 hours of beautiful sunshine and a steely resolve to stay on the patio and enjoy this weather dammit, we feel the pinpricks of rain and acknowledge the looming black clouds closing in on every side. You have to credit us though – We have lasted more than 2 hours longer than the rest of the patrons that once joined us on this patio. If someone from further south of the border were to grace the restaurant with their presence, they would certainly classify us as crazy. But we are Pacific Northwesterns, thank you very much, and 55 degrees and slightly overcast weather is what we call the promise of summer.

As we carry our plates of half-eaten food in one hand, our second pints of beer in the other, and make the break for indoors we spot a table near the windows and stake our claim. The beer goes down easy and the laughter continues. The chill of the wet rain has yet to hit our bones and the sweetness of the sun continues to bleed into my skin. Looking over my shoulder, I can see the blue sky in the distance. It may be slowly making it’s way away from our little city for now, but I smile, knowing that it will soon return. For it is spring and the world outside these panes of glass is slowing waking up, regardless of the protesting rainclouds.

I turn back to my friend, grateful beyond words for her, and the warmth that is now beginning to leave my skin moves inward and floods my heart. Life is meant to be lived – to be felt and experienced and sucked dry of all it has to offer – and I am suddenly and acutely aware of one thing:

We are living it.

 

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Not sure what “#its5oclocksomewhere” is all about? Click here for the quick background story on this creative project of mine and get caught up!

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