In the Chute

I leave for Tibet (India and Nepal) on Tuesday Oct 7, though I'm pretty sure I don't arrive in Lhasa until Friday. When I signed up for this-in particular the 22-day bike ride-I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking. I was reminded of this when my (18-year-old) daughter asked me why I was taking this 2 month trip and I actually drew a blank. Why AM I doing this? Because it's there? Or rather, I'm here working on forgiveness (still!) and acceptance and trying to move into a new way of being in the world. So i seemed like leaving the country might be a way to get something going there. And things are moving, These last few days I've been moving between excitement and fear. As a good friend of mine observed to me, this trip, particularly the 700-mile bike ride across the Himalayas from Lhasa to Kathmandu, is a kind of spiritual practice. My work is to get on my bike and ride until we reach the day's destination. Ideally with compassion and discernment. It will be a daily spiritual practice to stay present to my experience. I'm excited about the ride and seeing a part of the world I have really no experience with. I'm afraid of the physical demands of the altitude and the distance and the hills. And of my ego. I will embrace and keep opening to possibility...