In Search of Transcendence
Dharma Dawn, her smoke-eyed dog and I hoist up the trailer jacks and get on the road by 9 AM bound for Somewhere State Park in Florida. My Tundra - Big Red - pulls like a faithful Clydesdale and we motor thru the ever present Jacksonville rain showers and spit out of town on I-10, westbound.
We limit our drives to less than 4 hours, a huge difference from our scalding pace on other trips. This time is different too, because there is no deadline, no schedule, no certain destination. Without structure, we feel a giddy vertigo. Not since my ski bum days have I travelled so unemcumbered by time or place. Honoring those long ago days, Echo and I sing along with Crosby, Stills and Nash hippy music while the miles roll away. Wooden Ships and all that.
Its not carefree tho, wheeling 3 tons and 40 feet of hot metal, oil, gas, and plastic on 8 wheels at 70 miles per hour inches from a diesel behemoth, hauling 20 tons of industrial supplies on 18 wheels. At the truck stops, drivers and I nod and grunt good day...road dogs.
We stop at Falling Waters State Park in Florida west of Tallahasee. The highest waterfall in the state is here. A creek trickles 73 feet into a narrow sinkhole. Its a strange, beautiful place. Ferns and moss cover the sides of the sinkhole. The tiny cascade cools the air near the hole. They searched for oil here in the nineteen-teens, came up dry and capped her off. A sign points out the wellhead next to the trail and the campground is in a re-seeded pine clearcut. Industry mauled this land, yet it recovers in spite of us. The meadow under the plantation pines is yellow and purple with tiny lovely wild flowers. While not wilderness, it is better than a WalMart parking lot.
At our next campsite - near Hattiesberg Mississippi - we paddleboard on a 250 acre glassy lake till sunset. Canadian geese swim and flutter along the far shore. An eagle chitters unseen in the oak and pine forest. The hiway is 2 miles away, across the lake and through the trees. A mysterious deep far-off intermittent whump signals either military or commercial violence. The roar and din make any kind of meditation or introspection impossible. I float on my back looking into blue infinity doing my best boddhisatva, but its no use. I can feel the peace and mystery of deep awareness. When I try to grasp it and go for a sweet deep dive, the road noise and distant explosions intrude and I slip back into mere mind chatter.
Cut loose from obligation, real estate and employment, we are as free as this old world allows. We have a rare opportunity to transition from the everyday world of distraction, craving and empty routine to the enchanted world of awareness, joy, love and gratitude. The path to this world is via meditation and awareness, and is marked by transcendence.
The tricky thing about transcendence? The more you try to grasp it, the farther away it seems. Yet, when you stop trying, there it is.
Maybe tomorrow.....I got time.
