This beautiful life

I’ve been letting myself enjoy the hibernating pull that exists for my soul this time of year.

All I’ve been wanting to do lately is sit by the fire (which I’m doing now as I write this) and alternately eat healthy food (which my fridge is now stocked full of) and eat cookies (which I just pulled from the oven-yum).

But when I did go out this week I saw 3 exceptionally beautiful things in Marin and met one really interesting person.

3 exceptionally beautiful things (pictures to come):

1st beautiful thing: @ empty lot at Lincoln and Mission (where they tore down an apartment complex and weeds are growing over the lot) there is a stubby little weed/tree that has emerged. I’ve noticed him for months as he’s grown from a foot tall sprout until his current nearly 3 feet in height.

I imagine that he was so excited when the apartment complex came down.  “Finally I get to emerge,” I imagine him saying when he popped out of the ground after years of waiting.

Anyway, someone put Christmas tree balls on him! So cute. I loved that they honored this tenacious little guy. Photo to come soon.

Update from me: Photo below of the tenacious weed/tree–minus the Christmas balls…someone took them off. 🙁

2nd beautiful thing: @ Tamalpias Ave near Bread and Roses building in Corte Madera: A gorgeous tree that is devoid of anything except for hundreds of these beautiful orange fruits. I think it must be a persimmon tree although I’ve never seen one without leaves?! Upon seeing this tree with its harvest I literally gasped out loud in amazement. Beautiful.

3rd beautiful thing: 5th Street in San Rafael: someone has carved an ordinary 12 foot tall shrub into the shape of an elephant! And you get to walk under the trunk when you walk on the sidewalk (or ride your bike on the sidewalk as I do).  So cool. Tonight I was riding home in the dark and someone had placed blue Christmas tree lights on the elephant and a little Christmas ball at the end of his trunk. Photo of day/night picture of elephant to come.

And now for the interesting person I met this week:

On Friday I rode my bike to the Good Earth to do my weekly shopping and eat some lunch. As I was riding out of Fairfax it started to rain heavily. I ducked into a shop to wait out the rain and then realized that I’d be waiting for hours. So I left the shop to brave the rain on my bike.

There was a guy standing next to a bike outside the store I was leaving and we smiled at each other. Two crazy people riding bikes in the rain. 🙂

We started to talk and he told me that he and his girlfriend were from Canada and they had, to date, been biking for 150 days. They were bike-camping across the United States.

Wow.

His name is Matt and what I immediately noticed about him was how open, relaxed, and peaceful his face was. I’ve only seen that look of utter peace on true spiritual teachers or travelers who have quit the rat race (like Matt has).

“I used to be an engineer. I was totally stressed out,” he said. “I quit my job to explore the world.”

We stood in the rain talking about long-term travel and how incredible it is: the freedom, the adventure, the sense that anything is possible. He’s met numerous Americans along his journey who have invited he and his girlfriend to stay a night or two in their homes.

Good Americans, you get a biscuit.

I’ll be interviewing Matt soon for this blog but meanwhile you can check out his bike riding/camping adventures across America on his blog here: antimattr.com

Have a beautiful week everyone!

Tagged as: Bike camping in California, Bike camping in United States, Biking across America, Matt Wood