Last night I was out with a friend for a couple of pops at the local bar to talk motorcycles, traveling, fishing, music, relationships, and life; the stuff guys who are friends will talk about over an ale on a quiet summer evening. Bud rides a grey Street Glide. He is one of the good friends I have made on this journey.
After we headed off in our separate directions, I came back to the “Hotel California” for a real beer and some time in the balmy evening air on my stoop. The just-past quarter moon was setting, moving in and out of thin veils of clouds and filtered through the branches of the live oaks in the yard.
Our conversation got me thinking about my journey currently paused in Florida and my own situation of traveling alone. I started out traveling alone because it was right for the moment and, as usual, not many people have the freedom to hit the road for an indefinable period of time and without set waypoints. So, that ruled out a regular backseat to join in the adventure.
In recent weeks, I have started to want company on my rides. This is a good thing. I genuinely like people and enjoy time with folks who are generally drama-free and who have life experiences to share in a way that gets below the surface of the pleasantries and into “the heart of the matter” to quote from a recent blog post. I have met quite a few people on the road now and I love the variety and uniqueness of each of their stories and journeys.
As I approach a new riding season when I will leave this bubble of good living and pleasant weather called Florida, I wonder what the future will hold. I can see the train wrecks and joys of the past in my mental rear view mirrors. I have extracted the learning from these experiences and have determinedly kept my eyes forward to the future while living in the moment. It brings to mind something I wrote during a similar period in 1999.
There can be no talk of yesterday
When our future is spread before us
No looking backward
No questioning of what might have been
No autopsies of the spirit
Through social networking on Facebook, BON, and other sites, I am getting to know people all over North America and the world for that matter. Most are part of the biker community and like me, share a passion for “being in the wind”. Many have invited me to stay with them as I pass through their areas and some have expressed an interest to ride with me and show me their part of the country. When I came to Florida, my friend Chris took me all over this area showing me the roads and the sights. It made my introduction to Florida a happy and stress-free adventure.
I am looking forward to seeing other areas of the country in the company of friends I have made and to get below the surface of the street names and maps to the heart of the matter in each place I visit. Part of that adventure will be putting faces and places to names and pictures that come to me via the Great Ether (my pet name for the Internet).
My conversation with Bud also reminded me of my current situation of not having a partner in the romantic or domestic sense. My heart is open to meeting someone if the circumstances and connection is there. I am on a journey spiritually and physically that has many miles yet to go. That is not a simple environment for a relationship of the heart to unfold. However, the journey and the meetings alone the way are something to look forward to and that fills me with anticipation for the season ahead and all that it may hold for me. The dream continues,,,,
On that moon theme from the start of this post I was listening to Emmylou Harris’ recording of Moon written by Patti Griffith:
“Followed your road till the sky ran out
Followed your love till love was in doubt
Followed your love till it never really was at all
Feeling stupid and hollow
Now the moon's gonna' follow me home
Waited for you till the snow fell down
Over my skin like a thin nightgown
Waited for you but you never came around at all
Waited for you till they pulled the plug
Bartender emptied out his big tip jug
They swept all the floors
Vacuumed the rugs and went home
Drank all I could swallow
Now the moon's gonna' follow me home
Time go easy on me tonight
I'm one of the lost sheep alright
Take what you must, take what you must
Of what I've lost as I have roamed
Let the moon follow me home
Followed your tears with a washing pail
I followed your story I followed your tail
Followed you straight through the
Doors of your jail cell too
Followed your voice in the darkness soft
A wind came through and carried it off
I followed your love till it never really was at all
Drank all I could swallow
Now the moon's gonna' follow me home
Drank all I could swallow
Now the moon's gonna' follow me home”
From my own pen last night
The quarter moon
Is a Cheshire cat smile
Settled into the boughs
Of a dark oak tree
Is that enigmatic smile
Aimed at me
Or is she bemused by life
Other moon and night theme favorites from last night’s play list
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