Emptying my mind and filling my senses

My annual ramble

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When I was a kid, my parents bought my sister and me a series of tapes called Little Thinker to keep us busy on long road trips.

I’ve always been a thinker. Because of some combination of factors (anxiety disorder. ADHD, childhood trauma, daily life, etc.) I’m an overthinker.

A few years ago, I realized that I had lost touch with my gut. I could no longer hear my intuition. I have healthy meditation and journaling practices. But I needed something more.

Now, every year around my August birthday, I go on a day-long ramble. I have no agenda. I don’t pick a destination until after I leave the house. I pack a bunch of stuff that I may or may not need and leave early in the morning.

My mantra for these rambles is “empty my mind, fill my senses.”

This year I started my ramble at Starbucks and brought along three guidebooks.

I was trying to decide if I was going to head into the mountains or out to the ocean. I ended up splitting the difference and going to the Oregon Coast Range. This way, I could get some mountains in and still see my beloved ocean.

My next stop was Munson Creek Falls, outside of Tillamook, Oregon.

Since it was the end of summer, the creek and the falls were low. It was a pleasant hike. The guidebook says that Munson Creek Falls “might be the highest waterfall in the Oregon Coastal Range.”

Might be? That seems like something we could be more certain about.

My rule for these rambles is that I do not think about work or life problems. If I have thoughts, I write them down in my notebook and then let them go. I want to focus on the experiences I’m having.

A few days later, I go through my notebook and read the scattered thoughts I had.

During this jaunt up to the waterfall, I made these notes:

• Feels like a scene in an epic fantasy story

• No human noises

• Creek was whispering for my mind to shush

The lack of road noise or any other human sounds was startling. Before I got back in my car, I sat by the creek, closed my eyes and immersed myself in the soundscape. It was the most peaceful I’d felt in months.

Having lived in Salem for more than 20 years, and having been up and down the Oregon coast many, many times, I knew Tillamook had the best ice cream in the world. My gut was telling me it was time for a sweet treat.

The Tillamook Creamery is a big tourist attraction in this tiny town. There are tours, a large gift shop, tons of places to take pictures with small ice cream trucks, a restaurant, and an ice cream counter.

Since I was about to turn 46, I made the grown-up choice to have ice cream before getting lunch.

I bought a sampler since I couldn't decide what flavor I wanted.

After getting sugared up, I turned to my guidebooks again for my next destination. I didn’t see anything exciting, so I got on the highway and headed south.

I saw a sign promoting Cape Lookout, and decided to go explore that.

The trail description said it was an easy hike. It was a five-mile hike. My guidebook confirmed the description.

They both lied.

I did see the sign indicating lots of mud, but it had been almost a week since it had rained, and the trail looked okay.

I was wrong.

The elevation doesn’t change much. But the trail goes over some rough ground. More than half of the trail is covered in tangles of tree roots.

It was a fun hike. But you had to do a lot of scrambling over fallen trees and rocks, and the mud past the midpoint of the hike was indeed thick and frequent.

I passed a lot of tired hikers coming back from the cape.

The views were incredible!

After I made it to the end of the trail, I was a little disappointed at how anti-climatic it felt.

Only a single bench and a fence marked the end of the trail.

I sat and wrote some notes. For some reason, ideas for stories and novels were pouring out. I had decided a while ago that I would focus on other things besides novels.

I have never published a novel. I did write a novel about ten years ago, but it was not in any shape to do anything with. It had some flaws that I didn’t know how to solve. I’ve also started two other novels, but they remain half finished.

Sitting on that bench, I understood exactly what I needed to do to fix my one completed novel. I would need to rewrite it completely, but the solution was clear.

The insights and rest reinvigorated me, and I headed back towards the trailhead and my air-conditioned mini-van.

I passed a large group of hikers around the midpoint of the trail, where the mud is the worst. A man asked me if the rest of the hike was worth it. Without any hesitation, I said, “Yes! The views just get more spectacular!”

The hike felt more like a moderate hike than an easy one

He thanked me, and the group decided to keep going. When I got back to the van, I looked at my pictures and was shocked to see that every picture of the view I had taken along the trail looked essentially the same.

Perhaps the view I could see with my eyes was the same, but the view from my soul was definitely brighter for having finished the hike.

The day was winding down, but I now had one more destination in mind. The ocean.

I drove to Oceanside, a small unincorporated town that has some of the best surfing on the Oregon coast.

I soaked my aching feet in the cool tide and enjoyed in the soothing sensation of being where I belonged.

I stayed in Oceanside until the weather changed, and then I meandered down Highway 101, taking the scenic way back home to Salem.

While I was sore from all my hiking, I was incredibly relaxed and focused in the days after my ramble. Spending an entire day trying not to think and living for the moment always reboots my brain.

Two things lept out at me as I reviewed my notes from the day. One, I need to get back into writing fiction. Two, I need to publish a lot more than I currently do.

I know the best way to build an audience is to consistently and frequently publish high-quality work. The challenge now is creating the right processes to allow me to publish at a faster rate than I have the past two years.

My initial focus is on finishing the two books I’m in the middle of (a collection of time travel haiku and a collection of my haiku comics). Once those are done, I’m going to get my first novel ready to go out into the world!

Creative Challenge: What is your gut telling you? find some quiet time to empty your mind and fill your senses. What does your gut want you to do?

Thanks for reading this epic post!

Be the weird you want to see in the world!

Cheers,

Jason