Sep 29, 2010 Posted on Sep 29, 2010 | 3 comments

Day 37-50: Iowa Falls – Decompress and Connect

Hi All,

Well first off my apologies for dropping off the face of the earth for awhile there. Well didn’t really fall off the face of the earth, just got lost in the heartland for awhile.

Iowa Falls Iowa to be exact.

The middle of the country, corn, soybeans, cows, deer, geese, squirrels and family.

A place to slow down, unplug, decompress and connect.

The first thirty six days of my quest have been a journey though the wonders of nature that our forefathers had the extreme wisdom to preserve for the enjoyment of all to come. The National Parks.

Such places are my temples, my altars, the places I goto to reconnect with that from which we come. To listen and speak to the Universe. To find my center.

My journey through these magnificent cathedrals, The Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Yellowstone, Devil’s Tower, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, and Badlands National Parks, was wonderfully centering and renewing. But the pace at which I saw them I must admit left me exhausted.

So Iowa Falls is where I am taking the time to slow the pace down for awhile.

The challenge of blogging one’s daily life was also more than I thought it would be. I must confess to just needing a break after 36 straight days. To unplug for awhile.

And then as if I hadn’t gotten the message when I got here Internet access was, still is, not very good. Even my body was telling me I needed this break as it rebelled a bit and I felt like a had a cold for several days. Thank you Universe message received. Action taken.

My Quest is now going to change. In fact is already has.

It has shifted from the quest for the wisdom of the earth to the quest for the wisdom of its people.

And how does one undertake a quest to find the wisdom of the people? By connecting with people.

And we humans connect with our fellow humans by sharing. By sharing conversation, food, laughter, crying, smiling, hugging, shaking hands, or by simply sharing space together.

So as I continue my travels I will be actively connecting with the people I meet.

The first people I am connecting with are the people that have the somewhat annoying property of being able to center us or unbalance us. Those that seem to affect us most, that most shape who we are. One’s family.

You know the old saying, “you can choose your friends but not your family,” well I don’t believe it.

You see I think we all “choose” everything that we experience in this life, including our family. I believe we are all eternal at our essence. If you prefer; your soul; your spirit; that which is truly you.

And I believe that this eternal essence is aware of what it is doing and that it chooses the experiences it will have in each of its physical incarnations. And that this choice includes every detail you will experience in your life, including who will be one’s family.

Now the kicker in this choosing is that once made and manifest into the physical, that is we are born, we forget that we choose all the aspects of the life we are going to live.

But you see that is on purpose. By forgetting that we made the choice to experience all that we do while on this physical plane, the experiences of this life are genuine. To put it another way we learn the lessons and have the experiences we choose to have because we can forget we made the choice in the first place.

So the lessons of family I choose seem to now to be how one deals with family at a distance. Or more specifically how much if hurts to miss out on things when your not around.

My brother, sister-in-law and niece and nephew, have lived half way across the country from me for the last decade or so. In that time I have only seen them five or six times.

So I have missed a lot and its not their fault because as I have said it was the choice of my eternal essence to experience that which I now feel. To come here and see my niece and nephew pretty much all grown up. To realize all I missed and to regret that I did not stay more in touch over the years.

And yet I also realize, its not too late. I can still be Uncle Ron. I can share a conversation, a meal, a laugh, a cry, a hug, a smile, or just sharing space together. And it feels great!

Oh and it gets better still. A lesson I had learned in the past is once again taught. The lesson that family goes beyond the ties of biology or shared blood.

This can and does happen in many ways. Marriage is the most common. We marry, our siblings marry, and our family grows. But sometimes families grow in non-traditional ways too.

We connect due to those forgotten choices. The lessons we selected to learn before our births.

People can come into your life and you are sure they are family even though they do not qualify by relation of blood or marriage.

I have had the most wonderful pleasure of getting to connect with such a new family member, one who comes to my family by non-traditional ways, my niece Corin.

The details of how life brought Corin to my family are not really needed. Suffice it to say that Corin has not had it easy. Her biological family has been the unbalancing kind. The lessons she choose this time around are some hard ones to experience and learn.

I hope she has now entered a time where she gets to experience and learn that life has many aspects to it. She has seen the bad, now she will cherish the good all the more.

I am not yet sure what the lesson is that her and I have chosen to learn from each other but I am sure after just a few days that Corin is family. She has my heart. I will always be there for her. She has an Uncle Ron.

Well I will leave you with those thoughts for now. Will be back in a few days with an update on the Iowa Falls Alden High School Homecoming of 2010. Should be a fun time!

Peace,
-Ron-