The Taxi Driver that picked me up when I left the Man could, as we say in England, talk hind legs of Donkeys. Actually he was so good at it he could leave a field of donkeys legless and crawling around on their bellies. Having shared all his love life difficulties he then said to me ‘If you open your eyes today and you are alive, today is your best day.’ However he said that didn’t make it sound like overused, saccharine piece of pop wisdom. It made it sound real. How my god awful day could ever seem to be my best day was something I couldn’t at the time ever hope to fathom. I was however open to the notion that there was more to that day than being emotionally clobbered.
Kindness as currency
I know I have said this before, but increasingly I am realising that this journey had little to do with the Man now and everything to do with finding out who I am and some of the great truths in life and my life.
Abundance is a term bandied around a lot in personal development circles. Too much so. The way the word is used is the same way that Down Under use the word awesome for everything from a hotdog to a breath taking vista of a snow capped mountain. No one seems to know what the word actually really means anymore. That did include me too. Regardless of what is said abundance invariably means ‘having more’ and thus ‘having more money’ to most people. And because most people don’t have as much money as they would like abundance becomes a goal for the future rather than something realised in the present. Here on this journey I am realising abundance isn’t money. Money is the mere shadow of it. It’s what happens in every moment. And we don’t have to change umpteen things about us to have it. We can have it right now.
I Promise to Pay The Bearer
If I added up all the accommodation I have been offered from friends, friends of friends, strangers, couch surfers and anyone else I have forgotten I could live in Auckland rent free for the best part of 6 months. If I added up all the trips in cars, teas, coffees, meals in and outside of people’s homes I have been given or offered for the future I could survive here almost bill free – for that read money free. This doesn’t mean I am doing nothing for it or giving nothing for it. It’s just that I am trading on a different currency at the moment. This currency is kindness. And when you trade on that you don’t lose anything, but gain everything. You bank gratitude in every transaction and the compounded interest is colossal. This isn’t some manufactured Pay It Forward experiment anymore. It’s a true example of how random acts of kindness that are kept circulating by genuine warmth and promises form part of the very fabric our world is built on.
Gandhi said ‘live like it is your last day on earth, but learn like you are going to live forever. ‘ Well I am learning what all those pop wisdom phrases ‘contentment is wanting what you have’ actually really mean.
Spiritual readings
“Perhaps in the end all we can do is trade the love we need for the loved we need to receive. Sometimes life is hard through no fault of our won. Make yourself laugh and let God do the rest.” (The I Ching on Love- Guy Damian Knight)
In NZ it is normal to hike it to the homoeopath, hypnotherapist or herbalist before the doctors. Astrology, numerology, psychic and spiritual readings also abound. Such a pass time does not proliferate in the same way as it does in LA where such readings seemed to be born out of a need for answers and to fix something. In LA neon signs of psychic premises line strips of road like sex shops for the soul. No, in NZ it’s about fun, personal discovery and curiosity. In NZ they go tramping through their souls as much as they go tramping through their mountains. For a bit of fun Ruth gives me a reading using I Ching and numerology. I am staggered by its accuracy. And rather relieved it bodes well for the future even if I no one have any idea what that is anymore.
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