Musings... it's been a while

First, some weird Stats:

I’m forever interested in the ways folks find this place, most who arrive here via a search engine never leave a note, or stay more than a couple of seconds.. but I have this strange fascination with how it is the various search engines plop this place in their results. For example I’ve recently been:

• #2 however when you want to find info about “annual physical doctor procedure” via Yahoo
• #4 on the search for “Newport Boy - World Naked Bike Ride 2005” on Yahoo
• #4 on the list if you need info re: “sanding rough-cut wood on an existing wall”
• #4 when searching on the words “humiliating doctor physical exams” on Yahoo
• #7 when you absolutely need to know about “the challenger hot nut” via Yahoo
• #13 on Yahoo when using the search words “code 1, Fire department jargon”
• #15 in a search for - "SBT Accounting System" Import – when my professional pages didn’t even make the list!
• #45 when looking for “tossing salad” using blogsearchengine
• #50 in a search of “chip foose main painter” on MSN
• #86 on Yahoo when searching for “boys doctor physical”… who goes 8 pages deep anyway? I can’t recall the last time I went more than three!
  

But, it’s you folks, the ones who stop by regularly, and leave me comments often that generate the statistics that always amaze me.

Since May 14th, you’ve visited here nearly 2,500 times, viewed nearly 6,000 page impressions and spend an average of nearly 5 minutes here per visit. I know I don’t say it enough, but, thank you!

Thank you for your kind words, encouragement, enthusiasm and a general ‘joy in life’. I find myself coming here, and to your blogs, to recharge myself when feeling low, as well as to improve an already good day.

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With all of the time on the road recently, I’ve been thinking about traveling, specifically the difference between ‘trips’ and ‘journeys’.

In my way of thinking, a trip is sort of an A to B kind of thing. In all honesty, for many years of my life that was traveling for me. Hop in the car, point it towards the destination and drive hell bent until I got there.

In fact much of my life revolved around one ‘trip’ following another.

Then, somewhere in the 90’s, I discovered the ‘journey’. That discovery has made all the difference in the world in my life. I don’t take trips any more, not in my day to day life, not on vacation, not ever if I can possibly avoid it. It’s one of the reasons I prefer to ride, or drive, when ever I possibly can.

First, it slows the travel down. Airplanes are great A to B devices, but they’re certainly not set up to make enjoying the journey easy. It can be done, but it’s always considerably more difficult.

I was pondering, while driving back last week, why it is Maryan and I have so much fun, where ever, when ever, we travel. It dawned on me that we’re never focused on the destination, but the ‘process’ itself. We pause to take little side trips, check out something we noticed, but had no previous pans to see. We almost always leave ourselves plenty of time, so we don’t feel ‘rushed’ to make a particular ‘spot’ by the end of the day.

The other thing we do, more often than not, is travel without any ‘reservations’… preferring to stop, and find a place, when we’re ready to stop moving for the day. Our one concession to this is when we have a vacation ‘destination’, like the most recent trip, where we plan on ‘staying put’ for several days.

This vacation, like nearly all of ours had a few “want to do” events, and only one “plan to do” event. I’m not even sure if we did all the ‘want to do’ things, but going with the flow, taking things one day at a time resulted in experiences we could never have planned and pulled off!

Today, at lunch, we were talking about life and our lives together specifically. One of the things we really do have in common is a taste for the unknown, a desire for freedom from unnecessary structure and a joy in dealing with life as it happens.

You see, I think, that you can spend your life working in vain to try and conform the universe to your ‘plan’… or, instead, learning to cope with the chaos that is life, and embracing the things that get tossed in your path.

We’ve decided to sort of take each day as it comes. To dream and aspire of course, yet not become consumed with those things, to instead, adjust them to the reality we find ourselves in at the moment.

I don’t know if this ‘style’ is right for anyone else, but, I thought I’d pass these thoughts along anyway. Who knows, one or two of you may try it, and find it works for your lives as well!!