Finding the Fountain of Youth

A comment a friend made to me in a phone call last night triggered my “Here’s a blog coming” response.  When I got up this morning, my BON friend “little wing” had left me a note on yesterday’s blog that got me thinking about the chaos within and the chaos without that is a normal part of my spirit journey and, I guess, everyone else’s.  My friend last night commented on the fact that I think and act young; that I don’t talk old.  I am young as a consequence though the calendar as well as my Facebook and BON page says I am 63 years old.

I am sitting in the shade outside the cabin at the “Hotel California” in Sebastian, enjoying a coffee and the soft breeze off the Indian River.  My thoughts are running over the comments on my blog, my spirit journey, aging, and the riding season ahead of me.  My ride to date and looking forward will be to shed chaos.  I move away from chaos whenever it touches me like the smoke from a brush fire.  Just like I avoid the smoke of the brush fire that burns my lungs, chaos sears my soul.  Whether it is external chaos of partners fighting as I observed last night, or the internal chaos caused by negative self-talk and doubt, I choose to reject and move away from it.

I think part of finding the fountain of youth is to know it is within.  The saying “You are only as old as you act” holds true.  Rejecting chaos clears my vision.  I “see” the clearly who I want to be and I can align it with who I am undistorted by the haze of internal and external chaos.  Tapping into my internal fountain of youth, I keep thinking of the lines of the classic hit co-written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey “Take It Easy”.

Well, I'm a standing on a corner

in Winslow Arizona

It's such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed

Ford slowin' down to take a look at me

I know I will make the ride to Winslow, Arizona in October and I will stand on a corner there watching for that girl in the flatbed floor slowin’ down to take a look at me because I feel as young as Glenn Frey was when he wrote that verse!  I feel good about myself and who I am; comfortable in my own skin and in my mind and spirit.  As long as I remain true to myself, I will remain young.  The muse that encourages me to create will live on and my joy with writing, making music, creating new art will stay vibrantly alive.

Tale It Easy -Jackson Browne and Glen Frey performed by JB and David Lindley

From the still untitled new book

How I wondered at the silence

Snow laden forest trail

Pine bough naves reaching skyward

Cedar bark smell and pine needle

Fresh as the crisp air freezing

My nostrils

No breezes rustling bare branches

And in the still shadows

Just presence

Communion

Silence

Joy

Lyrics Take It Easy – Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey

Well, I'm running down the road

tryin' to loosen my load

I've got seven women on my mind,

Four that wanna own me,

Two that wanna stone me,

One says she's a friend of mine,

Take it easy, take it easy

Don't let the sound of your own wheels

Drive you crazy

Lighten up while you still can

Don't even try to understand

Just find a place to make your stand

and take it easy

Well, I'm a standing on a corner

in Winslow Arizona

It's such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed

Ford slowin' down to take a look at me

Come on, baby, don't say maybe

I gotta know if your sweet love is

gonna save me

We may lose and we may win though

we will never be here again

so open up, I'm climbin' in,

so take it easy..."Alright"

Well I'm running down the road trying to loosen

my load, got a world of trouble on my mind

lookin' for a lover who won't blow my

cover, she's so hard to find

Take it easy, take it easy

don't let the sound of your own wheels make you crazy,

come on baby, don't say maybe

I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me, ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh

Oh we got it easy

We oughta take it easy, yeah