“My  Personal Daily Therapy, published Weekly or so…”

        ~ Ellie Hadsall ~

This week, well… “Running on Faith”, Mr. Eric Clapton from his Album “Unplugged”

[audio:http://www.theoasisofmysoul.com/wp-content/audio/08_running_faith.mp3]

What a chain of events suddenly as we are now back at "The Oasis" sitting tight through another very windy storm and amazingly actually "cold" this morning. A welcomed drop in temperatures which unfortunately is not going to last long. So much has happened from the moment we rode into Sandia BMW, that moment when the small crowd in Service turned around at the sound of "Old Faithful" in much pain shortly followed thereafter by a verdict which made my Heart miss a beat or two, or for that matter a few more. 

Our Presentation was not too far away, the clock was ticking. I had to turn myself around and get on the positive wave of it all. Test of the moment. She made it to our destination, she was now parked amongst competent hands and spirits so helpful toward our situation. This was all bound to happen with such mileage year after year and abuse from the elements. My video slide show had been ready for days now, the time approached quickly and the rooms suddenly filled with riders eating, laughing, conversing, including a couple acquaintances I had not seen in an eternity. 

I was amongst Friends. How to convey a physical and mental Journey that is in it’s sixth year? By bits and pieces, by choosing a few destinations close to my Heart, by pronouncing the aspects of the changes that internally have taken places. Some in a broad meaning and some with a few details that will let the mind linger on their meanings for times to come. Hopefully. Mixed in with Photos and a couple Videos the hour went by fast. My own World has put on such a distance  from the reality of the so many present, my Passion for our Path, it was all I could do to not go on for hours "sharing" it all as to me this what it is all about.

"Sharing". Distributing those bits and pieces physically and mentally acquired with such common denominators as motorcycle riding, sidecar driving, camping, cooking, on the road with a four legged Buddy such as Spirit, photography, new Friends met on the shoulders where we at times rest, and the biggest and most important of them all "Mother Nature’s" incessant gifts, sometimes throughout peaceful days and others throughout the stormy ones which each builds up our character and personality on a physical and mental level making us stronger by the day to confront it all with an incessant growth. That is the core of this path. 

It was a gratifying time. It was a good time as I look forward to the few more upcoming presentations lined up. Some of my inner aspects have changed. I did not want anymore to run away from this Urban environment. I knew it was only for a couple of days and the "City" actually became entertaining as I knew soon I will be harbored back into our own little and yet very large World. I started watching others, feeling them. Others driving, riding, talking, their facial and body expressions never quite hiding their own Lives which maybe they themselves wanted and needed to escape. Everything was moving so fast around us, and I was moving so slow, and all was alright as everyone went around us with no mental or physical collision. 

We were provided with a real nice Hotel room for a couple nights. Nice breakfast awaiting every morning. An elevator. A king size bed. A far cry from a mummy sleeping bag laid on some hard ground sometimes with some forgotten rocks under the tent. A shower and even a little refrigerator. I know, I am aware, nothing exceptional for many as it also was for myself in years past. We like glided through those couple days as Spirit did really well, specially in the elevator. He did well with the crowds present, better than ever and I have been so proud of him even though I have to say so many gave him the attention which he loves to receive.

 

Ah! the two words come back to hunt me always. "Bitter~Sweet". So much so. Can Lance hear me? Is he listening to my "Thank You" and more toward him to have put us on this path amongst others which now also join us within such gatherings? Was all this his plan all along? So many questions, answers which will never be present, only now, today, within these moments thinking that "yes…", all is his doing and truly not mine. 

So some will say "your machine broke…". I now smile. A Friend even wrote that it might be time to "scrap" it. Like a dagger the words penetrated till I realized not everyone looks and feels as I do, as "we do" toward, yes… a machine. "Old Faithful" she is. She is the one that has carried us for the last 280,000 miles. Off road, on road, smooth and rocky, sand and hard packed, hot and freezing, when sunny and stormy. We found a new engine for her yesterday. I am thinking a bit as a "heart transplant" while saving her “Soul”! 2 years younger and only with 30,000 miles on her. It is going to be strange.  

In my effort to stay on the road “we” now have a T Shirt and Merchandise store. I think you will like it. “SpiritedOasis.”
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Be well… Always.

Ara and Spirit