Carlos Castaneda

I have been a busy taxi service recently. One of my taxi adventures involved garden centres with my mum. She was tempted to purchase shoes in one of the franchises. Whilst there I noticed a range of comfy walking shoes.

I returned today to test the range shoes and found a perfect choice for everyday walking.

I tested them out on an afternoon walk – they are so comfy.

Those of you who have been following my blog for some time will know that last year presented some challenges for me and that I have not had much time for relaxation.  I was hoping for lots of free time over the Christmas break to enable me to gather my thoughts and get refocussed.  My days were a little bit more crowded and busy than I would have liked but even so my thoughts are coming back into focus (for now at least).

I know it sounds a little trivial, but one of the things I wanted to get tidied up was my flickr account.  I have been very lax with connecting my photos to collections which would make it easier to view a particular holiday or interest of mine.  I have now got that in order which then led me to sorting out all the superfluous groups I had managed to join for one reason or another. Eventually I get to the point and title of the post…

Before life crowded in on me one of the groups I enjoyed was ‘Perpetual Travellers’ (aprox 3 years ago).  It is a group of people that like to explore ideas, pathways, freedom, spirit, enlightenment and the experience of the journey and pathways in life.  These ideas were explored by conversation and through art and poetry.  I am hoping that in 2011 I will have enough free space to further explore these ideas.

Dani who started up the group had this to say:

I very much like the idea of: ” the experience of travel is more important than reaching the specific destination.” as long as we have a direction. But we do this, retaining the freedom of spirit to be able to suddenly change direction, if circumstances force us to, or if we need to change to discover new ways of welcoming the light.

My thoughts at the time were:

I think freedom and learning from others is important and exploring your own thoughts leads to enlightenment and new paths.

From Muslih-uddin Sadi:

Of journeying the benefits are many: the freshness it bringeth to the heart, the seeing and hearing of marvellous things, the delight of beholding new cities, the meeting of unknown friends, and the learning of high manners.

J. R. R. Tolkien expands on the idea:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

There are many pathways on the journey through life…

You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself
Buddha