Three month summary-

As I take a few days to rest before returning to the States I have been reflecting upon the last three months. And as I look back I can think of few people that I know that have been as blessed as me. I live a dream life with experiences enough for a hundred. But this does not mean there have not been times when I have cried, been scraped up, and been down with sickness. I have walked in the shoes of a thousand souls and listened to the sound of a billion drops of rain. The wind has pushed me over at times and other times carried me on. I have become even more reflective and maybe even more reclusive in some aspects. I fear that the silence has been a good friend and my thoughts seem to have become cleared by its presence. I have more questions than answers and the answers I have found have only led to more questions.

I know less now than when the journey began, but I have learned trust like never before. Never do I know where I will sleep or what I will eat, all I carry weighs little. It is hard to know if I have changed, in some way I never know this until I return to my home in Oklahoma, then I know when I speak and when I interact with those who have known me for years. Three months on the road has taught me to be a survivor. I can look at the sun's position and tell the time of day. I can pick out a perfect place to camp and can cook cactus from the desert. I can wither the worst of storms; I can sleep with lighting rattling the earth. I have been bitten by bugs and slept among every type of wild animal. Water of every color has cooled my throat. I trust more and fear even less. I dream more and doubt even less. I hope more, see more and feel deeper, sometimes I wonder if it has not all been born out of failing, out of tears and out of pain. Not pain and tears of the one watching a sad movie, but the one of watching a boy die, the one of sleeping in a storm alone up in the mountains, the one of watching hunger.

If we open our hearts then we will suffer, we will cry and we will learn what it means to be alive, we will learn to taste, smell and see. The tears will flow, but the warmth of a touch or a smile, even just for a glimpse is worth all the tears the world. In three months I have lived a dozen life times and yet I still have a million more to live before I will understand a glimpse of what I have seen.