(written on the 20th and 21st)
I don’t want to leave the beach. 🙃
Here I am, 10:50 at night, 48° outside, walking barefoot on the beach through the water, toes going numb. 🙃
Having possibly stepped on a jelly fish? 😅 (Stepped on something that stung quickly, even with the Frozen feet. Maybe I’ll find out when the feet fall out when I finally exhale my last deep breath and walk off the beach.)
It wasn’t a rough night last night, but it wasn’t a great night. I woke up several times, and my back is really sore, as if I slept in a really bad position, but it’s not any different than the position that I’ve been sleeping on again and again and again for a good long time now, so I’m not sure what the deal is.
A government truck passed me sometime fairly shortly after I woke up for the last time, stopping at my van as if sort of scoping it out and then continuing on, and then doing the same thing on their way back down.
Okay, maybe it’s not a jellyfish. Just had the same sharp sting happen in pretty much exactly the same place, which would be quite the coincidence. Wonder what it is. Probably just my nerves freaking out.
Anyway, did my morning routine a bit today, spent a fair amount of time doing catch up on my journal posts, and I also had a goal to make a few dollars today, given that I haven’t really made anything for several days, and I’m spending a pretty hefty amount 😅.
After finishing some journal updates, I started chatting with Cory. And chatting some more. And chatting some more. 🙃
We ended up chatting for somewhere around 2 and 1/2 hours, I think. 🙃
Mostly just one long gospel conversation, interrupted by some signal outages as I drove from my overnight spot to the beach, driving past several beach access areas trying to find one with no people, if possible, but it was not to be. In fact, the last Beach I went to had like 40 or 50 cars. 😅
Rather shocking given that this is a pretty quiet part of the peninsula, and most of the other beaches only had a few cars, so I ended up driving all the way back to a beach access spot that was just to pull off on the side of the road in an area where there weren’t any trees, which would mean that I would be able to have satellite internet access. 🙏
Oh, the beach. 🥹
I worked here and there as questions came in. I ate food. Chatted a little bit with my sister Heather. I think I finished one more catch-up post?
Not too long after the rain stopped, I put my headphones on, turned on my uplifting music, and went out and played and danced for a good long while in the ocean shallows. 🥰
I took some pictures, then I worked a bit more. As the sun started going down, I decided to get my oil change done, during a call that took nearly an hour with a customer, I changed my oil and filter. 🥳
It had been about 6,000 miles, so it was definitely time. 😅
And what a last Beach day! I have been hoping for days and days to get a sunset with lots of bright colors, but every single night that I watched the Sun go down, it went down without much color at all.
Not tonight!
🙏
The sunset tonight was a beautiful bright orange, with orangish pinkish rays radiating out from behind the clouds.
What a wonderful sendoff. 🥰
…But I didn’t leave. 🙃
Well after the sun was down, I made my way barefoot down the rocks to the beach and played danced a bit in the ocean shallows, headphones in, just… enjoying everything. It was wonderful. 😊
Heart happy. 🥰
I took more pictures, texted with my brother Richard a bit, and enjoyed the beach and the icy creek runoff until I think about 11.
I thought about heading back to where I stayed the night last night and then spending one more day on the beach, just because… I’ve fallen in love with the beach. 🙃
New Zealand is feeling pretty enticing at this point–gorgeous rugged mountains so close to amazing beaches… It’s… a paradise. 🙃
🐿️
In the end, I decided that it was best to go ahead and head out, and to be grateful for my colorful sunset sendoff.
So I got onto Google maps and looked for the boundaries of the national forest, figuring I would choose a side road out in the middle of nowhere to bed down for the night.
Gratefully, I found a place in the direction I was going, about an hour away, and headed out.
After spending some time listening to some recordings of my personal spiritual experiences that I made, I decided to go back and listen to some recordings of some important conversations that I had from a handful of years ago.
Boy did those bring back a lot of memories and feelings.
Found the forest roads (paved, to my surprise) and did find a barely used dirt road through the thick forest undergrowth, where, given how massively overgrown it was, simply parked right on the trail for the night.
Continued listening to recorded conversations at 1.5 speed until about 2 a.m. below crashing–hoping to find a position I could sleep in without pain/discomfort.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful for the brilliant sunset.
- I’m grateful that I apparently didn’t step on a jellyfish (after my feet thawed out, there was no pain at all), although it would have been a fun story. 🙃
- I’m grateful to have found a place to sleep so quickly.
- I’m grateful to be in the place where I’m at mentally and emotionally and spiritually right now. I certainly have a long way to go before I get where I want to be, but I’m grateful for where I am right now.
- I’m grateful to have been able to answer at least a handful of questions today.
Success:
- I think I once again did really really well at not using my phone while driving. 🥳
Improvement:
- I found myself getting frustrated with customers a little bit. Want to be more patient.
Onward.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 