Doubts

It is getting closer to my departure date and I must say I am facing some doubts. I feel this is a good thing, I mean I don't want to walk blindly into something that has a great potential to be either really, really great or to go horribly wrong. Like this young chap, I want some safety ropes tide to me. Like him as well I am looking at what i'm about to do and questioning if I really want to.

I believe the idea of bravery or strength is not the absence of fear. I really believe that it is the idea of being afraid and doing it anyway. Again like this chap I want to face all of my fears and do it anyway. I want to tackle the unknown with an adventurous spirit and monastic discipline.

Yesterday I stood under a blue tent in a cemetery hiding from the storm. I laughed to myself wondering how many moments like that I would have in my travels. Then my phone's battery died, I had no GPS and because of the storm had got turned around running for shelter. So I was wet, tired, lost and cut off from the world in the middle of a cemetery. A very boring cemetery I might add. As I stood underneath a blue tarp that was the shelter for countless open graves I had to ask myself if I was completely insane for wanting to walk across the country. Of course I am completely insane for wanting to do this. Chances are I will be even more insane after my travels. None of that bothers me. I rather like being out of my mind considering most of all of our problems come from the mind. Being out of it also means a limited amount of suffering. So I will take this wonderful opportunity to embrace my insanity and walk out into the wild frontier. See ya on the road.

Caleb Storms

The Photo-Monk