Escape

My birthday recently passed and during the weeks & days prior to it I found myself looking for the nearest escape route. Luckily, that didn’t offend anyone too much. My friends & family love & understand my various eccentricities or they seem to at least put up with them. So I escaped. Escaped my dread over being at the center of all that Birthday attention and most importantly I escaped the deafening white noise of life.

Solitude is an elusive little creature. I can be alone but the phone is still ringing, the email is still pouring in, and the whispers of obligations still fill my head. I realized that I hadn’t felt solitude in years even if I had experienced it from time to time. A ferry ride & a few hours later I took care of that. I was in the wilds of the OlympicPenninsula where even cell phone & internet signals don’t roam. That week, away from the sea of humanity, allowed me to reach down to to access the unchanging part of myself.The part that lies underneath all of the ever changing perceptions, feelings, opinions, &  reactions. It’s the part that makes my interaction with the world authentic. When life is moving at a break-neck speed and you are so busy responding to the stimuli whizzing by it can be difficult to access that place. I needed to slow down enough to grab hold of it with both hands so that I might be able to maintain my grip as I get back on the ride.