For the past 30 hours we drove from Albuquerque to Madison non-stop (after some amazing New Mexican food shown to us by Marshall Berg!). Heading home after more than 3 months on the road was surreal- a feeling only enhanced by fatigue and cabin fever.
I had hours of enlightenment where a beautiful vision of what we’re creating stretched infinitely through time, leaving me peaceful and entirely inspired to bring 7cees to its next chapter. I also had hours of regret for the opportunities we’re passing by in LA and Arizona State University that left me feeling frustrated. Getting from the latter to the former, and indeed deciding it was worth it to get there rather than turn around, was an exercise in meditation that revealed a lot to me about the ways I get caught up in expectations.
Why are we heading back to Madison only 1/4 of the way into the year of travel we had originally planned? It’s a good question and I sometimes have a hard time explaining it.
We set out to evolve ourselves and others. We devoted ourselves to following our intuition and pursuing that which we care most about and openly allowed an exchange of experience and understanding with numerous communities and individuals. There were many beautiful and powerful moments, and there were also many logistical limitations that were distracting and disruptive. We discovered a freedom, a precious sense of adventure and alive-ness, and feel that spending time steadily in one place now will allow us to take our venture to the next level.
Personally, being in Madison lets us to explore relationships on a deeper level. Culturally, it allows us to create longer-term projects that have greater impact on members of the community. Though we’ll be giving up the chance to find ourselves in entirely new communities and geographies every week, we’re confident that our adventurous spirit will continue to bring new opportunities and experiences into our lives.
I read an interesting book during the drive called The Dip by Seth Godin which is all about quitting- when it’s right, when it’s wrong, and why it’s one of the most important talents of highly successful people. In it, he says to quit tactics but not strategies once you’ve found something you can be the best in the world at. We may be quitting the tactic of driving around the country in a bus, but we’re not giving up the strategy of living in the moment as ourselves and working to be the best in the world at make a true and open creative environment for people to express themselves in.
How to make the right decisions in life? That’s a question that’s at the heart of this whole intuition-filled venture.
Through trusting myself over time I’ve developed a fledgeling sense for figuring out whether a decision will lead to happiness and I’m confident this one will for me and for others we hope to work with. Seems it’s more about what you make out of what’s in front of you than whether you chose the right fork in the first place. I think that’s a key for us and anyone making a major transition like this- to remember to stay present and not let regret and worry take away our clarity moving forward. We’re going to take the momentum we’ve built and pivot it into our new direction. Of course, our new direction is about as up-in-the-air as the old one, but that’s how we roll and even though it can be confusing I think we really like it :).
Thank you. Thank you!