Pushing the boundaries … seeing beyond the horizon
I remember my first day in Japan.
I woke early, eager to explore this new land, new city, new surroundings. So, accompanied by father in law, who also loved to walk, I walked to the top of the hill in our residential neighborhood. It was a brand new world and each step was a stride into brand new territory. It was magical. I looked down on the Yada river valley below our house with its patch work rice paddies and across the flats to a gasoline station on the other side. It reminded me of entering the Neretva valley in Bosnia and brought back memories of friends who still lived there. I felt emotion.
This exploration continued and a few months later, having procured a bicycle, pushed the boundaries further . . 5 km, 10 km, 100 km, and eventually 3,000 km - cycling the length of Japan.
Now I am pushing the boundaries again. I have just left our log house in Nagoya to return to Tokyo, to Wahine and to the next adventure:
Pacific Solo
I feel emotion again, having left my wife, my dog (both, whom I love dearly), and my home to embark onto unknown territories. This time, it is the ocean, not land, that draws me.
I am increasingly being asked, "What happens after you arrive in Vancouver?" The question always causes me to ponder as I do not have a ready answer. The best I can come up with is, "I don't know." And the reason I don't know is that I cannot see beyond the challenge ahead. Sure I have ideas, even intentions, but this challenge is so daunting that I can only focus on it alone.
When you are traveling across a flat terrain the horizon is continually moving at the same pace you are. But when the horizon is a mountain protruding from the surface of the earth, it dominates the horizon and you do not know what is beyond it until you are passed it, or until something even larger and higher appears above it.
It is that way for me and Pacific Solo.
Okinawa Solo
I leave this month for two months at sea . . solo to Okinawa, way offshore and harbor hopping back to Tokyo. It is a huge challenge for me and in itself would have kept me awake, dreaming, fretting, and planning it for last two years. But because there is even something larger beyond, the crossing of the North Pacific, through the garbage patch to Vancouver via Nemo North, the Okinawa voyage seems a mere waypoint along the way perhaps making it less daunting. Yet it deserves my unreserved attention and respect.
Whether flat or uneven, it is the horizon that draws the explorer forward. It is compelling and alluring. Curiosity of what lies there and beyond lures us forward. Yet always filled with emotion because of those you leave behind and the ties you have with them.
So here we go. Okinawa solo . . then Pacific Solo, then...who knows???
Well, I will have to wait and see.
