The Road Less Linear

 

    

My more astute readers will recognize the fact that I missed the biggest expectation of them all:  That I would wake up in the morning.  But wake up I did, to a gorgeous day in Morro Bay, the kind for which I have been waiting all summer.   A perfect day to drive away; I had spent two days preparing for departure and happily set off knowing I had put myself in the best possible place for success:  All Beagle’s and Wurzig’s systems were working, I had an order of Luciano’s Duck a L’Orange in the fridge and, because I knew my first stop would include an electrical hook up enabling me to use my toaster, two Pop-Tarts (among other necessary food items like Cheese-Itz and gin.)  We were on the road by 7:30.

Holy shit! Well, this will teach me for not starting a post by setting the scene:  I had just finished that paragraph when River began barking, I looked up to see a Coyote staring us down from a mere twenty yards away.  Opus immediately launched into Killer mode and the two of them tried their best to break their tethers.   It was the biggest coyote I have ever seen.  And not mangy, he was beautiful with a shiny full coat and well-developed body; and he clearly was not afraid of the dogs.  So I jumped up, grabbed my large canteen (the only heavy thing I had near me other than my laptop) and quickly took a few menacing steps toward him (stop laughing), telling him to get away.  He gazed at me rather sardonically before turning and slowly walking back into the brush.

So where is all this taking place?  I am sitting in dappled sunshine, it is about 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, an occasional soft breeze, and the Noses are laying in the grass (albeit facing the way the coyote departed) at the Mono Vista RV Park, a place I have raved about before so will not do so again other than to say, I was planning on only one night (intending to get the heck out of California ASAP) but I can’t help it, I am staying for two; this stop is one of my happy places.  My pitch is at the end of a row, Beagle’s door opens to the mountains (and wildlife lol) and my neighbor is a 16’ Airstream Sport.  Just prior to sitting down under the leafy trees to write, I was washing my dishes, looking out Beagle’s wonderful front windows and marveling, “This is my life!  I can do this as long as I want.”  A perfect moment in time.

To top it off, getting here was one of the most splendid drives I have ever done, certainly since owning Beagle.  Nearly 400 miles and nine hours on the road garnering exceptional external beauty and a deepening internal peace. 

To avoid Yosemite (you currently have to reserve a spot to just drive through due to the fires) I took the Road Less Linear:   Highway 1 to 46, my local stunning drive, then over 41 to Fresno (smoke from the fires burning my eyes and stinging my throat), up the 99 (a break from the beauty just to give my senses time to adjust because beauty, like happiness, only exists if the opposite is sometimes recognized), then 59 opened up to rolling hills dotted with oak trees, hardly a soul on the road, to 108 through Sonora Pass and down to 395.  Although I enjoyed all of it, it was during my time on 108 that I felt completely at peace.  It starts with tall trees and climbs to the typical high-Sierra landscape of light-colored boulders, wide open spaces and grand vistas highlighted by the occasional gathering of trees.  No one in front of me and no one behind me, we meandered, it was heaven.

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Most of us learned in high school that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  Being an efficiency expert, this knowledge served me well in business:  I could look at a process and eventually find the most efficient way of getting the result.  (Thankfully I sold the highly configurable SAP software suite which could support my creative solutions.)  But what worked great in business doesn’t work well in life.  Because, in life, if you are at Point A and focusing on getting to Point B, you have two major issues:  (1) You are creating expectations about Point B (the most basic being the assumption that you really want to be there)  and (2), you are likely to overlook all the wonderful pixels of light just to the right or left of the most efficient route.

This is not to argue against having goals.  I think goals are very important.  The difference to me is that I think goals are generalized, for example, I want to be open to feeling like I deserve Joy again in my life but the shape in which that Joy might appear is comprised of almost limitless pixels.  Only in appreciating the moment do I realize that those pixels are all inside of me and it is up to my very human senses to bring them to light.

Here’s to the Road Less Linear.

-K