to bike or not to bike….

Wow! Since I came up with this plan to bike 700 miles, I have been planning and thinking so much in my head – going back and forth: can I do this? Why do I really want to do this? What is my intention? What do I have to prove?

So, these thoughts have been circling around in my head on and on and on! It’s a big undertaking, especially for someone like me who has never done a cross country trip alone, or at all for that matter, on bicycle.

I am noticing that there is a part of me that is not sure about this trip. There are so many unknowns, and this whole trip is still a concept in my mind, as I am gathering funds and equipment needed at this point.

I find myself visualizing riding all day long, in the hot sun, and feeling what it will feel like to be on my own on the open road, everything I need packed on my rig, and wind flying through my hair, sounds romantic, peaceful, tiring, beautiful all at the same time.

So, some reasons I have for doing this trip:

1) sense of accomplishment of a long-held dream

2) getting in really good physical shape

3) raising awareness of sustainability

4) raising awareness and funds for a charity/non-profit initiative

5) making a personal commitment to live a sustainable lifestyle, this trip would be a major turning point in my life in that regards

I have been thinking of making a statement and returning my driver’s license before I set out on this trip as a political and social statement. The plan being that from here on out, I will use a bicycle as my main method of transportation to make a positive personal impact on the environment, and as a calling card to others who have thought about this issue. It has become plainly obvious to me that the trajectory we are currently heading in regards to fossil fuel consumption is insane!

Every day we as humans are using more and more oil to fuel this growth economy we are living in. With everything I have studied into population growth, expansion of cars on the roads, environmental concerns and health issues around smog, it seems like humanity is currently certifiably insane!

We know burning oil, gas, coal, diesel, etc is damaging our environment. This is beyond a doubt. We know that the peak of oil production has come and gone. Now we see a mad dash around the world by the oil cartels to secure the last remaining reserves, this is being done militarily, with invasions and occupations of foreign oil rich lands. These oil wars are resulting in millions of deaths, more destruction of the environment, continuing political, economic, and social instability, and we are feeling the effects daily as basic food and commodity prices soar.

All these issues have been making me think long and hard about my participation in this insane system, and what I personally can do to be a change I wish to see in the world. To quote George Clinton “If you don’t like the effects, don’t produce the cause.”

With so many environmentalists hopping planes from city to city all across the world to speak and preach and lobby and plead, the very mechanisms and organizations that are pushing for reform are currently all participating in the very systems that they are trying to change, it’s getting INSANE!

So, what if I just made the decision to never own a gas consuming vehicle again?

That is one of the big questions I am working on right now, as I ponder these big issues facing humanity.

There is no right answer that will apply to every person on the planet. This is a situation we each need to personally look at, and make appropriate decisions for ourselves in how we want to personally interact and make a difference in this system that is going crazy all around us.

Could it be as simple as switching from a gas powered car to a human powered vehicle?

I know it’s not the ultimate solution, yet I find myself more and more liking the idea of making a switch in my personal life to bicycle.

I have been looking at trailers, work bikes, different models, and thinking how I could use a bicylce for business purposes as well as personal travel.

There are so many options out there, and I am researching what the best solution will be for my life. It’s challenging right now on planet Earth, yet we are all empowered to make decisions for ourselves, and the more of us that start looking at how our personal consumption affects the planet we live on, the more we will be able to confidently step into the future making choices that are healthy for ourselves, our communities, and ultimately our dear home planet Earth.

See you next time as I ponder more of these issues, and learn how to blog them. I hope this information is useful to at least one other person out there, it would make my heart happy!

peace and love,

Nate

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose

So over the last 5 years or so I have been on a program in my life of letting go, releasing, creating space for a new creation to come to life, and dreaming that into being. The allure of the commercial world, the corporate world, and the material world started to wane in my life, and I knew I wanted to experience something different.  I had been dreaming for years of hitting the road in a veggie oil powered vehicle. So, It started when I left my 9-5 job at Peace Coffee, downsized my apartment to fit into a 32′ RV that ran on used veggie oil, and hit the road with my partner Celestial into the wild blue yonder.

What a feeling of freedom! No more 9-5, no more bosses, no more schedules, no more phone calls. Just me, the love of my life, and the open road. Well, it was beautiful, but just because I had downsized my personal items, does not mean that my mind was not still full.  I was stressed out all the time about where money was coming from, how to support the resources we used, and what needed repair on the RV.  The stress was very hard on me, and very hard on my relationship with my partner.

I learned through that experience that you can change the external to line up with your intended vision, but until you do the internal clearing and cleansing work on your own soul, you will still realize the results of your thinking.

It was a great experiment and experience in setting forth boldly in the direction of my dreams, yet it was not all the way there.

I have recently come to a place in my life where some clothes, books,  and some musical instruments are the last remaining personal physical items I own in the world, it has been several years of getting rid of more and more baggage that I have carried around, both internally and externally. It has been an intense experience letting go of so much!

I am finding I don’t need much in this world, and that the material physical possessions never made me happy, and I am finding so much more energy and time to be present with whatever I find myself doing.

I’m thinking every day of going back on the road again, this time on a bicycle. Yesterday I had the flat on my single gear Gary Fischer fixed, and took a nice ride around town, it was amazing! It felt so good to just cruise around town, the wind on my face,  the sun shining, the sound of the stream as I passed by.

I am in a transition period in my life, where I am still working on my dream of being on the land somewhere, planting food with my family/community, and living close to the earth, slowing down, feeling the peace of connection to the land. This has been a dream of mine for many many years now, and I have been slowly working my way towards this dream of sustainability.

I believe that taking an extended bike ride is going to be deep medicine for my soul, and will be a powerful exercise in moving one step closer to sustainability in my life. I love living on my own time! I love getting somewhere on my own power. I love camping, waking up to the birds in the morning sunshine. I am already on my way in my mind!

work, produce, consume

Work, produce, consume. The culture I was brought up in. Go to school, get good grades, so you can get a good job, so you can work 40 years to buy what the culture sells, then retire in the “golden years” of your life.  Be a good person, pay your taxes, listen to authority, don’t rock the boat, and definitely don’t question the culture! This isn’t working, not for me, and it doesn’t appear to be working in our culture as well.

We are being swallowed whole by our possessions. The ever pressing need to buy more, own more, collect more things is bringing our world to an ecological/cultural genocide, where billions of us are walking around as walking billboards, advertising for the companies and corporations that are sealing our species fate with every factory built to produce more of what we consume.

Something doesn’t feel right to me about this scenario. Something hasn’t felt right to me about this culture for a LONG time.

Are people really happier these days? Does the houseful of accumulated manufactured goods bring more health, happiness, and peace to our families?

Do the items, things, and possessions we accumulate satiate the longing in our souls for deeper communication, deeper relationships, more peaceful living, more harmony within, a clean environment for ourselves and future generations, and a life where we have time to enjoy what’s REAL?

In my life, for so many years I chased the dream that was brainwashed into me, the lie that was sold to me about a good corporate job, benefits, perks, etc. I did years in the corporate environment, all the while feeling my life’s energy being sucked out of me every day 9-5 – but it doesn’t stop there. The corporate life sucks the very creativity out of your soul, as who you are is replaced with what you do.

“So, what do you do?” A common question we hear and ask each other, usually followed by “I’m a plumber” or “I’m a teacher” or “I’m a cabinet maker” none of which really sufficiently answers the original question, nor does it define who you are. We are so much more than the jobs we perform. Our lives are much more meaningful than the part we play in the corporations we give our lives to, so we can buy other corporations items and live “comfortably” until we retire, go on a few trips, then die.

Does this sound familiar? Do we go through the same routines over and over again, work, produce, consume…I’m a retail sales specialist….I’m a cab driver….I can’t take it anymore!

I’m a HUMAN BEING – an Immortal Spiritual Being – and I have the power to create something different that the status quo – I have the power to live a simple life, to NOT consume, to not be defined by my consumption (wow, did you see those new shoes so and so just got, OMG, those are an amazing brand, etc) WE ARE NOT OUR SHOES!

So, this is some of the impetus behind my decision to set off on a bicycle journey. I’m tired of working and putting my time, life, and energy into buying cars, that I then have to put more life, time, and energy into to maintain – it’s been seeming like a waste of energy to me. So many people are so busy running around to so many places, mostly to shop, and get more items to consume, and it’s all been driving me quite mad to be honest! I have thought: THERE’S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO LIVE!

So, for me, I am preparing to make a big shift in my life, a shift back to sanity, back to nature, back to natural cycles, seasons, listening to the birds, taking time to really enjoy this experience on the planet, taking time to deconstruct the thought patterns that have built up around being raised in the consumer culture. Getting my groove back, taking back my natural ability to THINK.

I am excited even to be working with this idea, it gives me hope that people truly can change, and be the change they want to see in the world.

Can you imagine if masses of people stopped doing what they think they have to do to get by, and started doing what they loved to do to THRIVE? Maybe there would be less manufactured plastic animals that people buy for their kids, and more people actually getting outside to interact with real life!

See you soon, thanks for allowing me this space to learn how to blog, share my experience, share my thoughts, and share my adventure with you all, peace and love!

Nate Starchild

Rucksack Wanderers and Dharma Bums

Rucksack Wanderers and Dharma Bums….

See the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ’em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures. – Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac has inspired my life in ways I hadn’t even remembered until I saw this quote several days ago, and was reminded once again of WHO I AM, the influences that have shaped my experience, the dreams and visions I carry with me, and the love for life that lives inside my heart.

I have woken up every day this week with a simple recurring daydream that has lingered with me for many years: a long distance bicycle ride through the heart of America.

When I was 12, I rode the MS 150. I raised several thousand dollars for the “fight against MS”.  It was amazing, yet the cause was not my inspiration per se.  It was the lure of the open road, the freedom that comes from getting on a frame with 2 tires, and using my own energy to propel me forward down the open road. Riding through the beautiful countryside, seeing the trees, the grasses, feeling the wind, gazing at the bright blue sky above me, having the time to take it all in at the speed of my own choosing.

I have loved the freedom of riding a bicycle since I first got up with scraped knees and hands after falling a few times and finally got the feel of 2 wheels under me. The balance, the soft wind flying by my face. The freedom to follow the streets, sidewalks, trails, or to forge my own way wherever I choose.

For many years now, a dream has been building in me to get back that feeling of freedom, of the open road, of powering my own journey and I feel like it’s time to get going!

Sometimes in life it feels like everything we have worked for, dreamed of, and longed for all converges upon a moment, and we realize that NOW IS THE TIME.

So, I have been planning a ride into the Heartland of the USA, a ride of freedom. A ride of purpose. A ride of a lifetime!

Stay tuned for my next post, I will talk about some of the reasons I’m doing this ride, some of the causes I would like to promote, and some of the personal missions I would like to champion in this world.

I’m getting ready for the ride of my life!

Stay tuned…..and be sure to check out The Wild Earth Project at http://www.thewildearthproject.org