Nomadic Zen – A Vagabond’s Guide To Happiness

I wanted to write an article because I haven’t done so in a really long time. After coming off from traveling, I feel less inspiration in my life. There’s too much hustle and bustle and I find myself so overwhelmed with it, that I shut in and don’t get much done. The jolly green giant sent me a link to this scene from “Gross Pointe Blank.” I’m reminding myself to slow down and realize that this is me breathing. Becoming conscious of the moment is a great way to ground yourself.

This is me walking through the grocery store.

I saw a can of chickpeas and was brought back to a night in San Diego, California almost 2 years ago. I had been in town for 3 days now and I was trotting along Newport Ave in Ocean Beach and wanted to grab a beer. I asked around for what was good and was told to go check out Newport Pizza. I pleasantly learned when I asked for something local that Stone Brewery was just north of San Diego.

I ended up sharing a conversation with an eccentric rock collector. She told me she wanted to give me a stone and proceeded to rummage around in a grocery bag full of them. She ended pulling out a small piece of quartz and said it was mine and placed it in my hand. Throughout the conversation, G overheard us.

He lived quite a different life than us and was curious to overhear our stories as they unraveled over delicious beer. He was an Indian man who is doing well as a chemical engineer and lived locally. He ended up buying me a another beer as I got to understand his story a bit more. He invited the two of us back to his place to crash and we had a good time getting high, drinking beers, and dancing to David Bowie videos.

The next morning the girl left and I kicked it with G for a bit. I told him about this trip I had laid out ahead of me and my passion for travel. He told me about south India where his family is from and the hospitality of their culture. He offered to make me a dish he had learned from his mother and I was excited to get some good proper Indian food. It was a simple dish that he told me was chole, but said in English was essentially chickpea curry. That dish stands out as one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I had him email me the recipe.

This is me adding the can of chickpeas to my basket. I thought about what else I would need to prepare a dish inspired by his. I’ve tried in the past to emulate his recipe and it has always been decent, but lacking something. I decided I’d make my own version of it.

Chickpea Curry (Chole) Recipe

1 large onion
1T olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1T fresh ginger
pinch of salt
2 cups fresh tomatoes
8oz tomato sauce
1/2 coconut milk
2 inch cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1 can of chick peas
1/2c cilantro

Saute onions in olive oil and a pinch of sea salt until brown. The jolly green giant also told me that the longer you saute the onion for, the sweeter they become. You want these bad boys brown and succulent, but not fried crispy. Throw in the garlic and ginger. Add in the tomatoes and cook for awhile. Add the cinnamon and cloves and simmer for awhile. You want the oils to separate from the tomatoes and start giving a bit of liquid to the dish. The flavor from the cloves and cinnamon with infuse with the oils giving the dish a wonderful aroma and complex flavor. Add the sauce, coconut milk, and chickpeas and simmer for 30 minutes until the chickpeas are soft. Smashing a few of them up will give the sauce a thicker consistency.

With some typical and not so typical equipment I carry sits a small Kodak Playsport about the size of a cell phone. With it comes the ability for me to capture time and remember the details a bit more clearly. I was hoping that from the road I could share some of these moments that I was able to capture, but I didn’t have the means to edit the videos. Merely record them. I’ve only just begun watching them today and they’re reminding me of times I wouldn’t know for sure existed if I didn’t have a second viewing.

Today, a video in particular, got a third, fourth, and fifth viewing as I snapped my fingers and danced in my chair. I made some friends by being a barefooted backpacker walking around a gay pride parade. I met two nice folks whose name I can’t remember, but until I opened a computer file today, I’m not sure I’d even remember they existed. He made comment of my Detroit shirt and that somehow segwayed to a long talk about social justice and revolution. Next thing I know we got a guitar player to start playing for us as we danced around barefoot.

This is where the video picks up.

He gave me a flyer that got lost in the sea of chaos of my life but eventually added me on facebook. I remember enjoying his music when it happened and was really happy to get it on video. Today, 6 months later, I got to watch the video for the first time and be reminded of why I was happy to be there.

When I left for Pittsburgh it was for a couchsurfing event that I had gone to in the past. I was hoping that by the end of the event I’d find someone cool going somewhere new and I could tag along, but it didn’t quite happen that way. The reason I left Pittsburgh when I did was because I lined up a job in Atlanta as a brand ambassador. I took it because they were willing to pay me enough to cover my plane ticket down there and to be honest, I didn’t really have anywhere to go.

I ended up spending 3 weeks in Atlanta after I met good people, found work, and enjoyed the city well enough to dedicate some time to it. I spent my time hanging out in little five points and midtown. I worked in a couple places around the city and got to experience some cool things. Really though, like any place I go, it was the people that I met that made it worthwhile. From the time I stepped off the plane to the time I hopped in a car in little 5 points to leave, I was surrounded by good people.

It’s fun to go through these photos and get a chance to be taken back to that time before now. I traveled a lot of distance and have grown in a tremendous way since then. All of the problems I faced in Atlanta, Georgia seem a lot less significant to me now. It’s comforting to see the constant reminders that the worst days of our lives just end up days that have come and gone.

Basically my last trip started off by me heading off to Pittsburgh for the annual PGH couchsurfing event. I packed up my backpack with the hopes I’d find someone cool there who I could tag along with to wherever they were going. It didn’t quite happen how I planned, but 5 months later, I finally came home. These are a few of the photos I took on the first stop of this epic journey!

These photos as well as many others are for sale from my zenfolio.

I feel the need to write but I’m lacking. It’s not words, but more of subject matter. Ideas, thoughts, and memories are racing through my head, but how to organize them is where I’m falling short. I feel like my life is moving faster than it ever has before, but I feel calm as I sit here as a participant of it unfolding. All the while I simply try not to try too hard.

I’ve been using the running joke that I have a plane ticket to cancel in the next 5 days, but the truth of it as it sits now is that I will be on that plane. I will say goodbye to all that has been important to me over the past 7 weeks and move forward from here. My friends, my home, and what I have defined as my life for the past duration will be just a memory that I recall on days for no reason at all when I need to go back to San Pedro, Guatemala.

I’m going to miss the sensory that I try not to take for granted here. I’m going to miss the sounds of avocados falling around my tent and the birds that chirp in the distant background. I’ll miss the feeling of sunshine as I lay in my hammock writing or the lakeside wind that reminds me of free falling. I’m sure it will be a long time before I taste Oaxacan cheese, and I’ll think about that every time I have to pay more than 3Q for a taco.

I’ve also made a lot of really solid friends that I will forever be grateful for. I swear one of these days I’ll see them all again, and I feel that with each person I connect with, my world gets a bit smaller. I’d like to romanticize that the afterlife is like a giant family reunion where I get to spend the rest of eternity with those that I love. That may not be the case but it won’t hurt to dedicate a life to that notion and try to hold on to those that matter.

When I step off the plane in Detroit, Michigan to most people my “trip” will be over. For me it’ll be a few steps closer to the end, but I hope not too close. What started as an uncertain adventure for the weekend turned out to be way more than I bargained for as my brain races to sort all of this new information. To fully understand it all may take a bit of that stuff we call “time,” but I am for certain I’m only seeing the tip of the iceberg of what I’ve learned since leaving.

I found myself going through several shifts over the past 5 months. With each one a new set of challenges were brought forth and a new way to approach them. It was like a series of tests laid out that had relevance to the situation happening at the time, but more important to understanding of the bigger picture. I’m excited to see how this information will be used as I bobble through life trying to figure it out.