Road Trips In A Universe of Oneness

A few ramblings to end the week:

After a long, tough week at the office I was due for a weekend of rest and relaxation. I took Friday off and Mr. Oz and I packed up the Civic and headed out of town. It was road tripping time. Our destination was 6 1/2 hours west and north of the Twin Cities. The plan was to spend some time catching up with family -- my sister and brother-in-law as well as my parents. We converged upon the little town of Karlstad, MN and had some fun grillin, chillin, sitting by the fire pit and just generally enjoying each others' company. A few fun facts about Karlstad:

1) Apparently it is the self-annointed Moose Capital of these great United States. I'm not sure if that means that moose roam about freely in the streets. I must confess that I did not personally spy a moose whilst there but they could be vacationing somewhere else for the summer months. If you don't believe me about the moose, you can just check out the official city of Karlstad's web site (see link above). They have a big Moose Festival coming up with a parade and such. I won't be able to make it this year, but am hoping that the Sollunds will go, take pictures and post them online.

2) Ned Beatty, the actor of Superman and Deliverance fame, lives in Karlstad. It's true. He does. His wife or his wife's mother is from the area. Maybe Ned likes Karlstad for its peaceful, small town charm. Maybe he feels like he can get away from the Hollywood scene and escape into the forested wilderness and bountiful arms of Mother Nature. Maybe he likes the Moose. Is it Meese? Mooses? Moosi? What is the plural form of Moose? Hmmmm.

3) I alluded to this in my second fact above, but Karlstad is just a quiet and rather friendly little town. A small slice of northern Minnesota goodness where you can kick back and let the cares of the world wash away. I would recommend a visit. If you go, make sure you watch out for the moose.

When we weren't carousing with the family, I found some time to finish a book I had been reading. It is called Waking by Matthew Sanford. I had first heard about the book last week when I was driving home from work and listening to the Oprah channel on XM Radio. Dr. Oz's show is on everyday at 5pm and he was interviewing Matt Sanford. While I didn't catch the beginning of the interview, I was able to gather that Matt had suffered some type of physical trauma as a child and had gone through a long and difficult recovery. His book was focused on his ordeal and personal story. Some of the points he made were fascinating to me so I picked up the book to have a closer look. I'm glad I did. The trauma he experienced was a car accident at age 13. His father and sister both died. His mother and his older brother survived. Matt's own life hung in the balance between life and death and he was paralyzed. The book is focused on his physical recovery but, more so, he delves into the mind, body connection and the silence we face when part of us fades away or diminishes in its vitality or energy. He writes a lot about how he experienced this silence and is able to tie this to the silence that everyone faces as they age or lose something they once held dear. The book was much less about the physical recovery he went through and much more about the mental and spiritual awakening he had as he tried to recreate his existence and reframe his life around this notion of physical disconnection.

He found a way to bridge the silence through yoga. Through yoga he realized that his mind, body and spirit were still connected and able to talk to one another and the world around him. I like this idea a lot. Sanford's philosophy echoes the spiritual principle that everything in the universe is one. We are all connected. Each molecule, each thought, each being is inextricably linked to everything else. God may be outside of us and surrounding us, but God is also within us and we are within God. Some might go so far as to say that each one of us is God for if you believe that we are all one and the universe is tied together than surely God is a part of that vast and expansive oneness. If you think about our experiences here on earth in this light, it is easy to see that negative emotions like fear and hate are useless for in our practice of fear and hatred of others, we are only fearing and hating ourselves. And, in that same vein, if we strive to love and help one another we are, in turn, only loving and helping ourselves. Pretty heavy stuff. Pretty remarkable stuff. I dig it. Near the end of the book I was in tears. This guy is really onto something. Despite (or in some regards, because of) his accident he had a unique window into the space between life and death and he turned toward life and healing. He doesn't take it for granted and, it seems, he appreciates the beauty that many of us don't even notice. This book is well worth the time to delve deeper into the mind, body connection regardless of your own spiritual leanings and ideals. Are we who we think we are? Are we our body, our physicality? Are we more than that? I don't have all the answers and neither does this book, but it asks some excellent questions. I recommend it.