Gearing Up

It's Tuesday, four days before I leave for Buenos Aires, and I have been searching for gear and staging my pack for a couple days. I bought a great pack from Eagle Creek called the "Switchback 22" and it's a carry-on bag that that is two bags that join. The pack itself is really cool, it has a laptop holder, a daypack, a set of wheels for airports and a fully concealed backpack harness which can be opened in a minute. It's completely carry-on and is the max capacity for most airlines (which means its pretty small too). I'm leaving for three weeks on this "beginner" trip so, I hope there's enough room for all I got.

I say my trip is a "beginner" trip because I haven't really travelled like this since 2002 when I went back to Australia for a month to see my old friends. I thought a trip with a few friends might be a good way to open myself up to the travel scene and I picked B.A. because I know two friends and two acquaintenances (all travelling together) are going to be there. When I return from B.A. and finish up my dealings in LA, that's when Inspiritas Global will really kick off.

I am not sure the details yet, but Inspiritas Global is my way of saying "around the world with spiritual loving kindness as my guide." I know that it begins with either a Los Angeles - London flight or a Los Angeles - Tokyo flight but I am not sure which yet. Besides, enough of the unimportant stuff...

People have been asking me how excited I am to be traveling and I have to admit... I have been feeling a bit nervous. Fear has been creeping in me and I am wondering if I should just cancel the whole trip and stay home where it's safe.

When I first went to Australia in 1995, I remember a phone call to my mother about 3 weeks into the trip when I cried and said I missed her and wanted to come home. I was 22 years old and had never been around the world before and my expectations were not living up to my dreams. My mother comforted me and told me to give it another month and if I still wanted to come home, I could. She promised me things would get better- niether of us realized it at the time but she was promising Little Peter.

By the time a month passed, I was in Sydney and having so much fun Little Peter was okay. I look back on that time and realize how tender Little Peter was in that moment on the phone when he was crying to Mom and I see some reflection of what is going on now. Little Peter is a bit nervous... I am holding him tight though and trying to shield him from fear because I know what he doesn't yet. I can feel it now eveyday; there's a place inside me that knows a Peace unlike I have ever experienced in my life. That Peace tells me that as much as is possible that could "go wrong" in the external world - nothing can go wrong in Spirit.

All this leads me to a truth I understand about myself now. I am not cancelling the trip and I am not changing my plans, because in my heart, I know... I know I am at peace with what happens. Little Peter, can you hear me? I am at peace, I am in the loving and nothing, not even death can stop that. I am love, and more than ever I know who I AM.

So with that, I bid thee, my readers, good night. More to come.

Peter (and Little Petey)