Hummingbird

AND SO IT BEGINS......... November 2011

50 000 kms, 19 countries (9 Countries twice, 1 country 4 times!), 3 years plus, 1 guitar, 1 bicycle!  

"The reason you have come back here....is to live. But you have not broken away from the things that bind you to this plane so that you can experience the majesty of God and life. You have not walked on a glacier, or hidden under a rock bridge, or peered out a window in winter to see a redbird sitting there, brilliant against the snow. Nor have you been in deep caverns, or walked in the desert and watched a snake in its quest for food. And you haven’t slept in a great pyramid all alone, or gone on explorations where no-one has ever been. And there are many of those places. You haven’t sailed a great ocean and watched great fish jump, or followed a deer into a dappled wood.

You have not done many things that are electrifying and thrilling and wonderful to your being. And not one of them would ever care about your labor, or your schooling, or your status, or the age of your automachine.

Those are facets of your life that you have yet to experience. But when you do, they will break down your neuroses, your fears, your traps and your wonderings. And there will be moments when you will feel like exploding with joy..................You have just not allowed yourself to experience all your options here, for you have been hard pressed to become an illusionary ideal that is utterly alien to the joy and freedom of life..........

The way one finishes his life here is he lives and loves it and becomes a part of the simple things. And he rids himself of ideals that are intimidating, limiting and restrictive to the freedom of life. And he lives in the freedom of himself, and loves himself and ceases to compare himself.

      

When you cease living for the images of society and live instead for your own ideal, your own truth - however that is within your being, and love your eternal being - then you become one with the flora and the fishes and indeed with all life.” Ramtha  

After about 6 years of dreaming and wishing, and thinking and hoping, getting inspired by websites from other people who have done an epic cycle trip........it is now time. And so the planning begins. The web search continues daily gleaning information - what clothing to take, trailer or no trailer, maps, GPS, computer, cameras, webcams, insurance, first aid kits, spare parts, cash, credit cards, sponsorship, renting the house, getting someone to look after the dogs......there is enough there to halt one in one’s tracks right away............but no way......I am going!!! 

I had originally thought about cycling from the southern tip of Argentina - Ushuaia, to the northern tip of Alaska - Prudhoe Bay, but as I started to spend hours on the internet researching an epic of this nature, it started to dawn on me that perhaps, just perhaps, I wanted to do more. I choose to see it all! From Zimbabwe, I will fly to the UK, and from there to Nashville, Tennessee to see my friends, Jeff and Kara Oliver who I met in Malawi, to finalise my gear (much of the gear I want is more cost effective bought in the States!), and then I had thought to fly to Buenos Aires and then down to Ushuaia.

When I started googling air fares from Nashville to Buenos Aires I was horrified at the prices.

And you know how synchronicity works......... At a meditation evening in Harare, on hearing of my plans, a friend mentioned that her husband had spent some time in Brazil and absolutely fell in love with it. Thanks Sharon and Mario!!! Brazil was not on my planned route.....nor was Venezuela, Uruguay or Paraguay.....and so I thought, to reduce my carbon footprint even more, why not start the cycle from Nashville, travel southwards roughly down the east coast of Mexico and Central America into Brazil through to Argentina to Ushuaia, and then follow the West coast of Chile Northwards, up to Prudhoe Bay, then continue along a circuitous route east again through Canada, and back down the East coast of USA to Nashville! 

I hope to raise money for Mary’s Meals, a charity that provides meals and sustenance for thousands of children around the world, so that they can go to school. www.marysmeal.org.uk  Please see the funds page for a link to donate. Thanks.

I will also raise money for the Friend Animal Foundation in Zimbabwe. The Friend Animal Foundation is a Foundation that takes care of abandoned animals. Please see the funds page for a link to donate. Thanks. 

I also choose to create awareness for a greener and more sustainable planet; that there may be a possibility - that there is a possibility - of another way of living; of living in harmony with Mother Earth and with each other; of letting go of the materialism, the attachments, the greed and the fear of feeling that we are separate from one another and from Nature; And adopting the KISS principle for life - "Keeping It So Simple" - and just simply loving one another.

Join me on this journey of a lifetime - you can join me literally on the way if you like to keep me company, or join me in cyberspace for the next three and half years and into Infinity.......

I am planning on arriving in Nashville around May 10th 2012, and once I have finalised and assembled my gear to head out to freedom as soon as possible.

HUMMINGBIRD

"The Hummingbird comes from the family Trochilidae. It is among the smallest of birds and can hover in mid air by rapidly flapping its wings 12-80 times per second.They are also the only group of birds able to fly backwards, and can fly at speeds exceeding 54km/hr (34mi/hr). With the exception of insects, Hummingbirds whilst in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals. Their heart rate can reach as high as 1 260 beats per minute. They also consume more than their weight in nectar each day, and to do so must visit hundreds of flowers daily. They are continuously hours away from starving to death, and are able to store just enough to survive overnight.

Hummingbirds are, however, capable of slowing down their metabolism at night or any other time food is not readily available. They enter a hibernation-like state called torpor. During torpor, the heart rate and rate of breathing are both slowed dramatically (50-180 beats per minute), reducing the need for food.

The migrating Ruby Throated Hummingbird can cross 800km (500mi) of the Gulf of Mexico on a non-stop flight. This Hummingbird stores fat to serve as fuel augmenting its weight by as much as 100%." Wikipedia.

Many Native indigenous peoples attune themselves with the Six Directions (North, South, East, West, Above and Below) and the archetypal animals of the four points of the compass. In the Americas, the Hummingbird is the archetypal animal of the North, and represents the epic journey of evolution and growth. This journey of mine is symbolic of this evolution and growth. The Hummingbird represents  the courage to embark on an epic journey.

"Once touched by the energies of this archetype, we are propelled on our own epic journey that eventually leads us back to our source, where our spirit was spawned. In that ancestral field of flowers, we can drink deeply from the nectar of our lives.

The North energy helps us embark on great journeys despite tremendous odds. When there is not enough time, money or know how for what you are attempting, Hummingbird can provide the courage and guidance necessary for success.......Living beings seek to explore and discover.........When we deny the call of the Hummingbird, we begin to die. When we settle for comfort over discovery, or compromise the soul's longing to grow, we begin to wither. When we re-awaken the great instinct to learn and explore, our lives grow less trivial and mundane and become epic." Shaman, Healer, Sage" by Alberto Villoldo.

I call on the Spirit of the Hummingbird and the Direction of the North.