Blog 4 Six days to go ....LET IT BE!

‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu

“let it be”  - The Beatles.

Aching to get started now. Have been doing my “homework” about Cehegín and thinking, thinking, thinking about this opportunity.  Andy is going to come and visit me just two days after I get there and I am very pleased about this as he and I can explore and discover some of the practical aspects of Cehegín life. He too is setting out on a new career so we have much to talk about.

In my investigations I have been reading that the biggest problem of all those empty days is just frittering away the time.  Alone-ness has to be learned, I am determined that there must be some red lines:  Limited internet usage, no phone (I can Skype) and in any case who would I phone in Spain! 

The whole idea of doing things slowly and savouring the moment is so, so attractive.  Rediscovering taste, rediscovering literature, music and nature.

Nick and I got weighed the other day and he is an amazing 71kg down from 86kg 2 years ago.  And I am on 77.5 kg down from 88kg a year ago.  According to the BMI index I am on 27.1 and need it to be around 24. Well the plan is to eat well and very healthily, Mediterranean diet, red wine (glass with lunch and dinner) and most important, walking 10-12 kms per day minimum. Aerobic walking getting my heart beat up.

So, I leave on Sunday – Mother’s day here – 10.30pm flight to Lima then a night courtesy of Lima Airport International Terminal, 9.30 flight to Bogota 3.5 hours then a 2:30pm flight to Madrid (9.5 hours), then a further wait of 3.5 hours before my 12:00 flight to Alicante, I arrive in Alicante after an hour and have booked a room in a small hotel in El Altet where I can recover and take some nice strolls along the coast and eat my first Spanish meals.  This is now May 12.  The trip will be some almost 40 hours door to hotel door, but the cost saving for this circuitous route is worth the tiredness.  Interesting fact Lima to Madrid is 400 pounds cheaper than Lima to Heathrow!

May 14^th I take the bus to Murcia and then another to Cehegín and should be there by 11.30am, and in situ by lunchtime!

I have my three bags waiting to be packed and I have a 55kg weight limit, but I want to achieve a kind personal limit of 35 kg.   5 each of, socks, pants, trousers, t-shirts, 3 long sleeved shirts, a suit (why? – this may get dropped), 1 good pair of shoes and 2 other pairs, trainers, crocks. 2 jumpers and a couple of jackets for winter. Additionally my laptop (heap of rubbish Aspire-one), Spanish books, painting gear. Toiletries, sleeping tablets for the flight and that’s about it.

I am giving stuff away again, some paintings to friends (poor them) and all my music going to the conservatoire.

The map is not the territory.   This is an old mantra from my NLP (neuro linguistic programming) days, a map is simple a representation of reality but (obviously) it is not the reality itself – it’s a map!

But we restrict ourselves by following maps and routines are maps for an ordered day.   For me the challenge is to use “maps”  in order to orientate myself to a new lifestyle and then TO ABANDON THE MAP and move BEYOND THE ROUTINE.

Living in the now. The now is the only part of life we can “control”  what we did yesterday has gone and cannot be undone. What we do later today, tomorrow or next week is actually out of our control, we hope to do x, y or z but fate or karma or whatever intervenes. So it is a waste to plan too much (or even at all).  The bit that matters is NOW.

For me this is going to be my greatest challenge, living in the NOW. My mind is always racing away with ideas and plans, it’s how it has been since I can remember, and it was why organisations employed me as I was seen as forward looking, visionary, creative, inventive and intuitive. But now I am coming to realise that it is a curse not a blessing, as focusing on the NOW and only on the NOW is going to be so hard.

Mindfulness

Just like the map is not the territory we are not our thoughts.  Being in the now has even got a name “mindfulness” and a whole industry seems to have sprung up to teach it.  {Self-help books are the most popular books published with sales far outstripping novels and literature!} But, having said that “mindfulness” is IMPORTANT! And that starts with simply noticing our breath, noticing the texture and smell for an apple as we bit into it, savouring the flavour, enjoying the feel of it in our mouth, and eating it slowly with concentration only on the apple.  And that takes time, but time is not a problem! 

I have so much to learn and so much to experience ……wow!

In India at the seminary we had to eat really quickly, at each meal the presiding Bishop rang a bell to start eating and rang a bell to stop, the students taught me that in between you concentrated solely on getting the maximum quantity of rice in to your belly in the quickest possible time. As a result of this experience I eat too quick, gulp my food and only rarely take the time to savour each and every mouthful ……..  that will change! 

Much of this will be done in solitude and I welcome that.

The Benefits of Solitude (from the blog Zen habits)

The best art is created in solitude, for good reason: it’s only when we are alone that we can reach into ourselves and find truth, beauty, soul. Some of the most famous philosophers took daily walks, and it was on these walks that they found their deepest thoughts.

Just a few of the benefits I’ve found from solitude:

• time for thought
• in being alone, we get to know ourselves
• we face our demons, and deal with them
• space to create
• space to unwind, and find peace
• time to reflect on what we’ve done, and learn from it
• isolation from the influences of other helps us to find our own voice
• quiet helps us to appreciate the smaller things that get lost in the roar

And look a just how much that is going to satisfy my own needs.

Simplicity, mindfulness, solitude …………..

I had an idea to by a map and make routes for walks, now I think I will simply “wander” and I am sure that within sometime I shall have wandered the entire area where I will be living and discovered so much, because my head was not buried in a map!  And Cehegín is on a hill so I can’t get lost!

Been looking back at what I have written in these last few blogs, I need to, I have to, I need to, I have to, I need to, I need to  actually “I don´t” I just can  “LET GO” and  “BE” ….. enjoy each and every moment in the moment!

My insatiable curiosity led me to having a very extensive library back in 1995 my library probably consisted of well over 3000 books, and 1000 LPs.    Today I am always reading and discovering new stuff in the limitless library of the internet.  I have been doing it today, reading, reading, reading about simple living, Zen, meditation, diet, routine, asceticism, mindfulness, NLP, blah blah blah blah blah!   I need to know ………why?

Revelation  I don’t need to do any of this!   I have my 12 habits of living like a Zen monk and if I concentrate on just the first of these:

“Do one thing at time with full concentration”  it is enough.

I must become a traveller (experience the now) and worry less about arrival (knowledge and other peoples experiences) …….  I need to explore my territory and abandon the map!

And I must abandon “I MUST” and “I NEED”  …..conundrum ha!   

As the Beatles said back in the heady flower power days  “

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Yeah, there will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be …….. 

(fade to silence a long        long           silence)

And of course my ache “to get started” is a waste of energy as I am already travelling!