I Decided To Drive Across The Country During A Pandemic

…and this is why

There is no failure except in no longer trying, there is no defeat except in not getting up one more time, there is no unsolvable problems except the ones we refuse to handle and pay the price. — Okorote Emmanuel

Courage is not an ability one either possesses or lacks. Courage is the willingness to engage in a risk-taking behavior regardless of whether the consequences are unknown or possibly adverse. We are capable of courageous behavior provided we are willing to engage in it. Given that life offers few guarantees, all living requires risk-taking. — Alfred Adler

You know, for whatever reason I feel the need to start off with a disclaimer…

What I am suggesting in this written piece is not that anyone follow a step-by-step guide of “How To Be Courageous”, but that we each exude the courage to live our lives from our own unique inner guidance.

I have been living in the mountains of California for a few years. It’s actually quite breathtaking here. I fall asleep at night to a clear sky beautifully lit with stars and a gloriously phased Moon hanging in the forefront. Owls have made their homes in the trees surrounding the property that I live on and each night as the sun starts to set they “hoot” back and forth to one another serenading all that’s in hearing distance.

I wake up in the morning to the sun rising over the mountaintops, beaming through my bedroom window, the birds chirping to its auspicious presence. All of this is quite peaceful and comforting, and yet I have chosen to move on.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. — John D Rockefeller

Although I haven’t left yet, in a few weeks I will be on the road. I have put some pretty substantial wheels in place that only go forward — there is no reverse function. All of my most dear relationships have the potential to flourish with this move, especially the relationship that I have with myself. I would like to cognitively add value with my words towards those of you who are being so gracious as to read my work. And so, that is the intentional effort that I’m putting in. Although this piece is very self motivated and directed, my hope is that the words will connect with and inspire you to follow your own unique inner guidance regardless of any of the external belief systems put in place.

I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that I would move. I could feel the shift coming but I held on tightly to the comfort of what I thought I knew until it no longer existed. I exhausted its usefulness and now it no longer serves me. I am in a relationship that does not honor my values and in a land far away from my family. It has taken both of these circumstances for me to recognize who I am continually becoming and the ways in which I find the truth of my being.

I am by nature nomadic, but I tend to partner with people (in all different types of relationships) who have a fixated tendency to borough into their environment and stay there. I really do still have a lot to learn in concretizing stable, firm, long lasting, relationships with my environment and with people. I can only dig in for so long, but without enough change throughout that process I get restless and begin digging somewhere else. There’s always some catalyst that surfaces, creating the necessity to move on, but it’s NEVER really the catalyst that creates the necessity, it’s the impetus for change itself. That “subconscious” impetus for change comes from within which in turn creates the catalyst through perception, thought, word, and action. Before I’m really conscious of what’s happening I have put some pretty substantial wheels in place that only go forward — there is no reverse function. When I don’t consciously merge with the change I subconsciously create circumstances that unearth the change and that causes a bit of a ruckus.

Uhhh, so this time there was a bit of a ruckus, at least initially, and now the drama of my move is subsiding and the beauty of what lies ahead is beginning to unfold. Could I have picked a better time to drive across the freakin’ country? Maybe. I won’t know for sure until I’ve done it. The US is in suspense of the Presidential election, the pandemic is steadily gaining traction with positive cases for COVID-19 spiking across the country. There’s uncertainty in every system built that once held the perception of sustainability. Amidst all of the chaos I have decided to pack up my belongings, drive them across the United States of America, and start all over again — and in a city that I have never been to.

What, within the human condition, drives some of us to take such big, evolutionary chances with life while others dig in and flourish where they stand? I set such powerful circumstances in motion that if I put the brakes on I would be crushed by the gravity of not following my inner guidance. That guidance tells me to move, to change, to be bold & courageous, to evolve through the experience of taking this chance, pandemic or no pandemic, and to do it now.

May you always have courage to take a chance. — Irish Saying