So in this one Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, the boy and his tiger are walking around in the foods during fall, when the boy starts talking about how much he hates love because people are jerks. They look around and Hobbes replies, "Yeah, sometimes people are jerks, but look at the colors of the trees today. I think its more fun to see something like this WITH someone than by yourself".
This is how I felt today, this is how I feel often.
This is how I felt today, this is how I feel often.
Today after teaching my morning 90-minute yoga class I took a long walk by myself down to the other end of the beach. It ends with a fresh water river running into the sea, and a mass of huge boulders tumbled together stretching around the point. I took off my shirt and shoes, hid them in the bushes, and scrambled from rock to rock for hours. Its one of my favorite things to do, missioning on rocks, climbing, jumping, sliding, scampering even. Every time I climbed up onto another rock, or rounded another corner I discovered more boulders in my way, and had to figure out how to get passed them. It’s like a kind of puzzle you must solve to get to the treasure or end or something, and every time I play on rocks I feel like a little kid again. I went on until I was too hot and tired in the midday sun, and found a huge rock shaped like a head from Easter Island, Where it’s chin would have been, was a kind of overhang that gave the perfect amount of shade for two, but I was only one. I sat down, resting my scraped and burning feet and looked out at the greenish-blue of the Arabian Sea, the hills of the jungle and remote points across the bay, shrouded in mist, and it was so beautiful. But, I couldn’t help but notice that it was the kind of beauty that was almost meaningless, because there was no one to point it out to, no one to share it with. Being single is wonderful and freeing, I can do anything I want! But there is a difference between being single and being alone.
But don’t think I was feeling sorry for myself! I was actually enjoying the solitude, the sun and it was almost a kind of moving meditation. Later, I walked back up the beach toward my hut and passed by a group of people I had briefly met a few days before, and they invited me for a sit and a swim and later for some thali at my favorite restaurant. It’s great making friends, and while traveling it is so easy to do because everyone else is as lonely as you are. However, the friends you make abroad are a different breed usually, it’s the kind of friendship that burns hot and bright and then is suddenly done, and you don’t ever see them again. That’s both good and bad. I mean, on one hand you are instantly best friends, not wasting any time feeling each other out or on all the petty differences. But on the other, in a day or two (or week) you exchange email addresses and go your separate ways, and then must do it all over again in the next spot… Again, not complaining really, just observing.
