The basic purpose of my upcoming trip is collecting my bike from where I left it last November, but the trip is infused with so much more meaning. “Cycling Home” is the overall sense I have about it.
I left my bike and stuff in Germany last November during a time of a lot of personal distress for me. My relationship was falling apart, and with that my immediate plans, as well as visions for the future. I decided I needed to re-ground myself in my home town, which I hadn’t lived in for 17 years. It felt an urgent need at that point.
It worked! Although my relationship did not last the storm, I did become re-grounded here. My initial idea was to try living here for around a year, and see how that feels. The longer I stayed and embedded myself, the better I felt about it.
I grew food, built planters out of old pallets with the neighbours, swam in the river a lot, joined projects, made friends, took care of kids (or rather, embraced my inner child together with the kids), took a lot of care of myself (afternoon naps, hammock time, meditation, walks, saying no), cooked a lot of tasty food, read a lot, and explored some deeper aspects of life (through counselling, embodiment coaching, and a Work That Reconnects course).
But it’s still had a kind of temporary feel without my bike and stuff. That bike and stuff feel like an extension of me, it’s my personal autonomy (allows me to travel easily and in a way that is comfortable to me). So The Big Trip (when I go to fetch it back) started feeling like a grand spiritual journey, where my detached soul becomes reunited 🙂 (you can read a bit background story in The Long Journey Home).
It represents deciding to make this place my home, and to commit to being here. I like the feeling when I say that I’ll stay here until I die (I also know that there can still be many unexpected twists and turns in life and that all commitments are revocable).
Here’s a little bit of life here:
The planters we built 
My regular swimming spot 
A pretty local field 
Some food we (co-op) grew
The Trip involves me and Dad driving over in his campervan to where my bike is, then he will make his own onward trip, and I’ll cycle back over a month or two. I’ll visit various people/places on the way back, but not much planning.
You can imagine me staying in places like this:
I’ll see what I feel like sharing on the blog along the way, and I’ll welcome comments!
I’m hoping to not make it like a smug “look at me” kind of blog… it’s never quite what it looks like in the pictures. Maybe I’ll take some pictures of the horrible concrete infested places I travel through too.
