Into The Wild

Finally, my whole self – mind, body & spirit are one the road. My mind mostly, and a little of my spirit, wasn’t fully in it the first day (my body obviously showed up 100℅). Still adjusting to the abrupt change of pace, from navigating my days by foot to navigation by truck. From sleeping in a bed to constructing and sleeping in a tent each night. From having my own time to sharing all my time with a group of then strangers, now friends.

I allow my thoughts to flow freely on the open road. The earth and it’s land is so mesmerizing. Everything has a purpose and a function. Brown, dusty circles spotting the bushy hillside are made by termites, and only certain vegetation grows there. Incredible medicinal plants treating tummy aches line our route, the female plants showing off red tips to their jagged leaves like fire shooting up to the sky in the desert. The clouds make patterns on the earth like an abstract painting, always shifting, ever-changing. Endless land rolls by, uninhabited, reminding me how small I am in this life-sized picture.

I discover rooibos bushes and spend the night at a tea plantation. I’m settling into the profoundness of nature- the perfect silence, the darkness that brings out the brilliant contrast of the stars I miss in my city life. I forget how much I love camping and just simply being in nature. I get consumed by the busyness of life, all the things I want and places to go. All I have to do is be here.

I’m taken once again into the world, out of my wondering mind, my complicated feelings, my planning of outcomes. I’m reminded as I watch the mountains and dry brush pass me by that everything is just as it should be. There’s nothing to figure out. All I have to do is show up and let it happen. All I have to do right now is sit here and let myself be driven into the wild, across the border, and into the beauty of Namibia.
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