Just follow the Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy and your ride will be smooth.
www.grateful4.org
Gratitude
Intention
First
Things
The G.I.F.T. Today
Grateful: for the feeling of giving myself credit for all that I have challenged myself to do over the last few years. Celebrate the vision and effort!
Intention-enjoy all the steps as if going up Kilimanjaro step by step
First-Airbnb Jupiter next week
Things-Calendys
Morning Meditation from The GratiDude
My housemate bro from The Lodge, Hunter, and I would first need a sizable piece of cardboard that wasn’t stained from its previous contents and original function and purpose.
This cardboard banana box from Eunice and Kyun Kang’s market on the corner of 15th St. and East Cliff Drive is about to be repurposed using magic markers and the right hemispheres of our brains.
You see it was the night before one of our hitchhiking adventures where we would leave our house next to Sunny Cove Beach on the east side of Santa Cruz California back in the years of 1990 1991 and set out on an adventure to restore our faith in humanity and to get to Southern California Without the use of our own car or public transportation .
We were using the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
We found that a hitchhiking sign decorated with bright colors and happy images was disarming and would increase the likelihood that someone would pick up two random long hair dudes. Keep in mind we would tie our hair back and tight ponytails, but everyone could see through that bullshit that we were really hippies from NorCal trying to sponge a ride down to SoCal. Facts.
And we would start walking towards Highway one right from our front door and we would never walk more than a half a mile before we would get our first ride even at six in the morning. We learned lots of lessons hitchhiking the types of people that will give you long rides the types of rides to avoid and the importance not necessarily of how long the ride is that you get but being careful where you get dropped.
If you get dropped at the wrong spot, it can be a long day. Let me tell you, this is JUST like LIFE!
One time on our way down to Beverly Hills to see my sister Jane we got dropped south of San Luis Obispo north of Santa Barbara however, at an exit with no services no businesses and the closest gas station a few miles away.
What this means is, we found out the hard way is that the only people pulling off on this particular exit on Highway 1 were locals. The people that live back in the hills and when they pulled off this exit they were gonzo and going home.
There was nobody going south from this exit at all it seemed, and we sat there for about two hours with only about eight cars going by none of which stopped.
To top it off, and what we thought would really be the nail in the coffin for our day of hitchhiking, was when a ZZ Top looking cliché hobo set up, literally across the on-ramp from us no more than 100 feet away, hitchhiking in the same direction. Well fucking great, we thought. This should really give a stranger comfort to pull over now because instead of two relatively clean hippies we’ve added a third giant bearded sticky hobo, looking cat that smells like he rolled in cat shit and cheap wine.
May I please have a ride, Sir?
Hunter and I looked at each other and just started laughing.
A few minutes later, the local sheriff drove by and paid us no mind at all, but stopped and talked to hobo man and they were on a very familiar in first name basis. Hobo man set a line that I’ll never forget as he asked the sheriff if he was “threatening me with a free meal and a warm place to sleep tonight?”. And he started laughing at a toothless grin laugh, and we were rolling on the other side of the street because the timing and delivery was everything, and it really got under the sheriff of skin apparently because he sped away in quite an aggressive manner. Hobo man obviously knew that they would be coming back to check on him so he actually skedaddle and walk the other direction and back into the woods never to be seen again a few minutes later.
And because God and the universe are ALWAYS conspiring for my happiness, within 15 minutes a young man pulled over in a pickup truck with a camper shell cover and inside the back were snacks, beanbag cushions and beer. “Get in Boys!”.
I remember that it was Anchor Steam beer from SF, the whole experience was so out of nowhere and incredible.
You can’t make this shit up.
He asked us where we were heading, and we told him all the way to LA, and he gave us the unwelcome news that he was NOT going that far, however he had an offer for us. If we wanted to, he could call his mom from the payphone at the gas station and ask her if it’s OK if we spend the night at their house and then he’ll give us a ride a little closer to LA in the morning. We felt a little bit like the hobo, but in a much better way, and of course we eagerly encouraged him to make the call to his mom who is more than willing to host us.
We ended up having our own bedrooms in a big house on Top Of The Mountain and woke up to the smell of sausage and bacon and a big ass breakfast.
We made it into LA by lunchtime the next day and had a great visit with my sister and her husband Stanley at their little bungalow in the midst of all those cool old Mediterranean style houses in the flat part of Beverly Hills right in the middle of LA.
Hunter and I loved visiting my sister Jane and Stanley and they loved having us as we laughed, listened to music, cooked and had a really good time every time we came through.
We would end up back to Santa Cruz by Sunday night with many more adventures from the ride home to share with our housemates and our friends for many days after up in Santa Cruz.
Hitchhiking like this was a great lesson for what I’ve been doing the last handful of years as I’ve taken a giant leap from the programmed expectations and financial security and for sure, and instead pursued a higher aim of building a life that every single day is giving back and finding ways to contribute to the well-being of other others.
It is often implied or given as a warning that when you make a big move like I have and many others have before me that you will suffer, painful consequences and crash and burn.
The reality is that the moment that you make the decision to trust your higher self and follow your intuition.
You no longer need a spreadsheet to measure whether or not you’re being successful because your personal satisfaction and level of happiness goes up so much that you realize you’re cracking the code.
The fear was just bullshit because they wanted me to keep working for them and not for myself.
When you make the leap, you don’t crash and burn God in the universe, catch you with love in a feather bed, and you land softer than the softest sweet dream of a baby.
This is real, and this is from the source of someone that took the leap.
The challenge is when you have a dream or an aspiration to let it fly and sore and to throw gas on it and to not attach a fear or a doubt to a dream. That is like attaching a rocket pointed in the opposite direction of a rocket you’re trying to blast off up into space. The power is offset each other and you end up going nowhere.
Surrounding yourself with other dreamers and people that will encourage you and is often what helps you prevent the counterproductive practice of attaching fear to dreams.
Everyone needs a perspective outside of their own to help them continue to grow and aspire without fear and that’s we’re having a very strong mentor leader in your organization or personal coach if you’re an entrepreneur is not only a good idea but necessary in order to grow and thrive.
Almost like the experience of when I did counseling and therapy in an attempt to prevent getting divorced my therapist, Bruce was able to point out blind spots from trauma that I could not get to through meditation even in my alcohol free state. We need a different perspective in order to see things sometimes and having another person as a sounding board is truly helpful.
And you don’t have to hitchhike to have your faith in humanity restored, you can simply do what my buddy Gavin has done in this last week here in my neighborhood and that’s go out and talk to people and see how kind and open the average person is to connecting with other humans when they are approached with kindness.
Yes, research suggests that talking to strangers can positively impact your emotional well-being, often leading to feelings of increased happiness, a greater sense of belonging, and improved mood, even from brief interactions; contributing to a more positive outlook on life and community connection.
Key points about talking to strangers and emotional health:
Boosts mood:
Casual conversations with strangers can elevate your spirits and provide a small positive boost to your day.
Sense of belonging:
Engaging with people outside your usual social circle can make you feel more connected to your community.
Social practice:
Talking to strangers can help you practice social skills and become more comfortable interacting with new people.
Positive perception:
These interactions can foster a more positive view of others and society.
As I drove Gavin to the airport and it’s only a few miles away last night he named about 10 different people in the neighborhood as we drove by houses that he met their background and something about them that he really enjoyed. I felt like I was giving Rain Man a ride back to the airport who had been doing door-to-door sales in my neighborhood selling vacuum, cleaners or something, ha!
The result is that he had a really incredible visit that restored his faith in humanity because he had the opportunity to connect with new and different people in a new place.
Also, because he lives up in the mountains, not in a neighborhood with a dense population like mine, he can’t just go outside and walk around and talk to people because there aren’t any people around.
It’s important you know what you enjoy and what you like and put yourself in a situation so you can have more of that and maybe Gavin will move somewhere as he thinks about his next stop to a place where he can walk around in the neighborhood and be the mayor like he turned into here in Sarasota.
Please remember that the universe and God makes perfect beautiful things out of love and us humans come along with our fear and ego and generally screw it up.
Don’t lose faith in people or in humanity just because our systems are sending a lot of unhealthy and confusing messages to people that prevent them from operating in a healthy, compassionate way.
Those of us that are feeling good need to help those that are not. That’s just the way it is, man.
Enjoy your Fat Tuesday and remember there’s nothing wrong with humanity. We’re right where we need to be because there’s nowhere else we can be. That’s an attitude of gratitude.
EVERY DAY:
Love
and
Gratitude
https://www.instagram.com/GratiDude_abides
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com/941.894.8030
Thank you sincerely.
IN LIFE AND GOLF, GET BETTER…..NOW!
HERE: https://grateful4.org
Every day, every way, grateful.
KC
I am here to help, add somebody that needs a “check up from the neck up”
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com
Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.