When I started this life that I call following my Fate, I thought that I would be doing it for a year or so. Well, it has been almost 25 years and so far, there is no end in sight. My long time friend and advisor the I Ching has accompanied me for the entire journey, only Kelly has been with me almost as long. I would have never even guessed 25 years ago how this has turned out so far, it has been pure majick. When I started out I had different ways of following my Fate and they all start out the same way. Most morning I would get up at dawn and after my toilet, do yoga for an hour then follow that with 20 minutes of meditation then consult with the I Ching and sometimes the Tarot, then meditate on their advice for the day until I understood it. If I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me, I would consult with them again then meditate again. If I didn't understand that time, I would try a third time and by then I would usually get it. Most days I understood them after the first time so would be ready to face the day by 8 a.m. although sometime it would be noon before I got going. At sundown, if it were possible, I would do a quick set of yoga, meditate then consult with my friends again about the days events. Also, depending on what was going on I would do a quick 5-minute meditation at noon and midnight.
If I were in a city I would follow my Fate this way. I would just start walking, when I came to a corner and there was a traffic signal, I would go the way it directed me to go: green and "walk", straight ahead; green and "don't walk", turn right; or green and "walk" to my left, turn left. On streets that had no lights I would watch the traffic or the other people, whichever way they went so did I. Sometimes I would spend the entire day doing this and would see a lot of different parts of a city this way. Sometimes I would meet people who would stop me and we would talk about what was going on for awhile then we would split apart going our own separate ways. Other times I would get to a place where the world would break apart and I would have to use my Will to put it back together again, or sometimes I would have a seizure. When I awoke everything would then be back together again and I would be high and at peace.
In the country it was a lot nicer, no traffic and few, if any people. Again I would start out by just walking down some trail then I would watch for the flicker. It could be sunlight glancing off of a rock or off of some water. It could be a leaf moving all by itself on a tree or a bush, or it could be just out of synch with the rest of leaves surrounding it. It could be a sound or a smell, whatever it was I would follow it. Sometimes the forest itself would turn into a pattern then I would follow that. This was sometimes dangerous and always exciting. Especially in the dense jungles of Hawaii where it was easy to get lost if you lost faith. But even in the desert where it's pretty hard to get lost, still if I wasn't on a trail, one slip while hiking up some ridge and it would have been all over but the crying. However, it was worth the risk because sometimes something truly wonderful and majickal would happen. Like the time a golden eagle circled over my head and showered me with a silver confetti of light. Or when the entire forest would turn into points of light and shadow that was like looking at a Van Gogh painting real close up. Other times my Fate would lead me into danger and I would have to figure my own way out, but a lot of times it would just lead me to a beautiful place where I would spend a day or two simply watching all the beauty that surrounded me.
My favorite way of following my Fate was hitchhiking. I spent three entire years on the road and loved almost all of it. I was extremely poor but totally free. I would walk out onto the blacktop with my back pack then just stand there on the side of the road and either flash the peace sign or just wave as the cars rolled by in both directions. A lot of times folks would stop just to talk to me. We would sit in their car for hours sometime and never move an inch. Other times I would be in San Diego in the morning then in E1 Paso, Texas or Portland, Oregon or high in the Rocky's 24 hours later. The longest ride that I ever got happened when I was standing on a freeway in Columbus, Ohio and two hippies stopped and gave me a ride right to the front door of the 25 St. commune in San Francisco. During those years I also hitched Europe starting in France and going all through Germany with a bit of Greece thrown in. I hitched Mexico too, going down the West Coast down to Acapulco then back up through the Baja. I hitched every state in the US except for the extreme Northeast. I tried to avoid snow because even though it is beautiful, it's cold and sleeping in it even in a down bag in a tent, still sucks and being caught in a blizzard sucks donkey dicks big time. I do not know exactly how many times that I crisscrossed the good old US of A but it wasn't a 10th as many times that I hitched up and down the west coast, San Diego to Seattle and back, and every time it was different.
You would not believe how many times I was picked up by people who were just driving. I would hop in their car and they'd say, "Where ya going?”
I’d say, "Where ever you are."
And they'd say, "Well, I'm not really going anywhere."
I would ask them how many days they had to waste. Just a couple, then let's go to Yosemite, Death Valley or the hot springs of Oregon. A week, then how about the Grand Canyon, the Great Salt Lake desert or the Olympic Peninsula. Unlimited time, then let's check out Yellowstone or Matzatlan. Some folks would pick me up and want to party, then how about Cave Junction or San Francisco. Sometimes we would only spend a day or two together, other times two or three weeks then they either got homesick or sick of me.
One guy who did take me to Matzatlan stayed with me for six weeks before he couldn't take it anymore, of course him being drunk the whole time helped. Some people took me home and told me that I could stay with them as long as I liked. Other's kicked me out of their car as soon as I opened my mouth. But what the hell, it was all in fun because it did matter in the slightest who I was with, what we were doing or where we were going. I was just going for the pure joy of it. I met every kind of person there is from the rich and famous to the psychotic and dangerous, and to be truthful I never did have one bad experience. A lot of really weird ones but never a truly bad one. I was never robbed, raped, beaten or killed. In fact, almost everyone, even the strange ones were very kind to me, some even feeding me and letting me, a perfect stranger, sleep in their homes with them. Of course, almost all of them wanted something from me for the ride. Some just wanted to have someone to tell their stories to, others so they could stay awake, or some who wanted me to do something either for or with them. As long as it wasn't violent or too risky, it was no problem. I have always believed in Quid Pro Quo.
After three years of hitching I wanted to get more into yoga and meditating so I moved to Hawaii. First to the Big Island then on to Maui. There were no cities to walk in and if you hitched you only went around the island. However, the jungles were fantastic; green, lush, full of waterfalls (and mosquitoes) and very steep high volcanic ridges. Some of which were sometimes only a few feet wide on top with a drop of hundreds of feet on either side to a watercourse below. I always got real high hiking them because I had to be very aware and very careful. Death always awaits the unwary.
A year later Kelly and I moved in together and have followed our Fate together ever since. People ask how we do it. We tell them that all you have to do is to give up everything you own, then just do it. It's easy, simple: just have Faith and everything else will take care of itself. So if you see us, stop and say, "Hi!" We'll be happy to chat with you and share this wonderful life.