What Dreams Do Bring

In Albuquerque, Dave called me Chad the Dreamer. I thought it was a funny name and one that I fully accept and own. I am a dreamer. I always have been. My entire life I have seen countless examples of what it looks like when people stop dreaming and "come back to reality." Whenever I meet someone who was taught to abandon their dreams for a pragmatic reality, well, it breaks my heart. A life without dreams is like dinner without salt. Tasteless and bland, not to mention detrimental to your health.

Well, I haven't ever abandoned my dreams. I live by them, follow my heart in every step and will never stop until my heart quits beating. Then knowing me, I will keep the vision alive through whatever realm I start flying around.

My dream, since I was around 13 or 14, was of a small village somewhere in the world. It definitely was not where I am from because it didn't have paved roads, no telephone wires, small circular huts, and brown-skinned women and children running, playing, working, and laughing. I would sometimes just be viewing the scene and other times I would see myself as an old man among them. It always felt beautiful and real.

I have in the meantime traveled, met amazing people, and honed my vision of what is possible in this world. I have also met someone who has become a brother of mine in the world, another peaceful warrior amidst a chaotic reality. Lale Labuko is from Ethiopia and has been a champion for peace and compassion for over a decade, having saved almost 50 lives of children who would otherwise have been killed. Today him and his wife, along with a staff of workers, take care of these children in every aspect of their life. Lale has 2 kids, soon to be 3 of his own, but when asked says he has 50 children.

Today I awoke from a dream and knew that I needed to be in Ethiopia as soon as possible. But this is not the point of this post. I am not begging for help through my words, because I KNOW that Great Mystery has a plan and I am walking through the gates opened for me. All will be provided.

Why I am writing this is about THE DREAMS. If you're not following your dream at this point, if you're living for a paycheck that takes more from you than it gives, if you're working to pay for the things that leave you more empty than you were before, and if you wake up with cold chills from dreams that haunt you...then there is literally no time like now to do something about it.

Don't worry about the details. All you need do is step through that door in your spirit, climb up through your heart, and look out your forehead to see which direction to choose. Don't second guess it. Just step into it. Your arrival is your ticket.

I can't tell you how unbelievably important it is to be living within your power right now. The world needs you. Seriously. Everyone around you will be better for it when you decide to live within the dream.

Now, some might say, "Chad, isn't it foolish to live in the dream when so much real stuff is going on around us? Isn't it selfish to be dreaming while everyone is suffering?" Is it fair to the world for you to be suffering while you're sleeping, suffering while you're awake? Imposing your suffering onto everyone else around you because you aren't happy with where you are? Stop making excuses and using the rest of the world as a scapegoat. The world will not be free until you are free.

I can't give you a blueprint, but one thing I have found is that traveling by bike is ONE way to get closer to the dream. There are so many ways and you have to find yours. I can tell you that if you're not feeling it, then you're not doing it. The moment that feeling of weightlessness comes, when you are brought to tears by a cloud, when the kindness of another shows you the deep scar you have over your heart, and when you can't walk past another person suffering without reaching out your hand...then you will have arrived at the station. Just board the train. Don't make an excuse as to what else you've got to do. Just board that train.

Maybe my words fail already because the experience is so personal, or maybe you're reading this and planning your escape. I encourage everyone to follow their heart. Every moment. The next you hear from me, I will be getting cradled by Mama Africa. Connect the global struggle. If Africa no free, no native no free, no river no free, no woman no free, whole world no free.

/wēd/

weed

wēd/

noun

1. 1.

   a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.

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verb

1. 1.

   remove unwanted plants from (an area of ground or the plants cultivated in it).
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   "I was weeding a flower bed"

      My time in Mexico was amazing, blissful, and educational. I learned heaps about the differences between our cultures, and especially the generosity that exists North and South of the arbitrary border. I went to Mexico with maybe $300 in my pocket, which is a lot for me, and even more when the exchange is 20 to 1. The exchange, however, allowed me to give my money more freely than I may have thought possible here with giving dollars. I was able to buy a roof for a friend's house, get some bikes for some kids, build a compost system, and then just hook random people up with a bunch of cash. 

      In this whole process I forgot that I would be returning to the U.S. and had a 2,500 mile bike ride ahead of me. I crossed the border with 400 pesos in my wallet, which when I exchanged it with a fellow here it turned into $20 USD. So here I was in Arizona with enough money for about two days of regular frugal living. I am pretty resourceful, so dumpsters are groovy, folks are generous when asked, and intelligence plus good timing can amount to a lot sometimes. Regardless, I needed to make a repair on the bike and had to ship a box of stuff home, which in the end requires some greenbacks. 

      I made it to Safford, AZ where I inquired with some folks about part-time work and ended up getting a gig pulling some weeds at a rental property. Since I was a kid, pulling weeds has been one of my least favorite activities. As I have grown and have learned systems of plant stewardship and have developed a system that makes sense to me, pulling weeds has become even more absurd in my eyes. Yet, when you've gotta make moves in the world sometimes we have to do stuff we don't exactly love. The redeeming factor in the pulling of the weeds is that my host Jay is going to come collect the green waste, chip it and turn it into compost. So not all is lost in the immediate act.

      But as I was pulling these plants from the place they chose to grow, knowing they would positively effect the ecology of that particular location, a piece of me reached the end of its tolerance. That piece is the world's misunderstanding of the word Weed and the huge effects that has on the planet. I wrote a paper in school about the Dandelion, prompted by the school's practice of weed management against the beloved medicinal plant, which I will post in conjunction with this essay. My feelings around the misconception of weeds has only become more resolved and possibly more urgent now. 

      What is a weed? The definition above says it is an unwanted plant, but I would argue strongly that it is only unwanted because it is misunderstood. I think currently the metaphor of immigrants could be placed in here and draw the same conclusion. Do we want to eradicate immigrants from this country, Natives, Africans, Latinos as well because they are in competition to the cultivated culture of White America, or is the culture of these people just misunderstood and thus rejected by the cultivated "majority'? I know farmers who couldn't identify more than a dozen plants, a dozen being a high number, yet they know they need to eradicate that unknown plant asap because it is stealing nutrients from their crops?

      The truth is that every plant, in my eyes is a blessing and can be utilized to create fertility and balance when diversity may be lacking. The "weed" growing next to your tomatoes, sure, it might be pulling nutrients away from the soil that the tomatoes could be grasping, but how many people in the world then spray round up on the weed, or pull it and take it to the burn pile to eradicate it? This is so common it is mind numbing. Rather than pulling that plant, or nuking it, stop and think about this for a moment. That plant spent all of that time pulling nutrients from the air and soil so create roots, stalk, leaves, flowers, seeds, etc. It worked tirelessly to convert raw materials into green matter. It has captured those nutrients into its being and concentrated them right there next to that tomato. What if you cut the stalk, laid it down next to the tomato and let those nutrients drop right down to where the tomato can eat it? The roots become worm food and a channel for water and air to have access to the microbes.

      This all seems so simple, but I have encountered so many people who find this to be as foreign to them as chicharon. A story: I was in Boulder, CO chilling with Pfrangenstein and wanted to help out around the house while I was staying. There was this little garden in the backyard with a Buddha statue, so I thought that would be a great place to start the new vibration. It was full of thistle that had just started to flower so I knew it was a perfect time to chop and drop the plants to achieve a high level of nutrient conversion and at the same time add a big shock to the plants in hopes that a succession of something else could be planted and take over the space. 

      I cut all of the thistle back and laid them right where they grew, the next step would be to plant some seeds around and maybe lay a little compost down if it was available. Well, the homeowner Greg came home and immediately questioned why I did what I did. I explained the thought process and the science behind it, but I could tell he wasn't really listening. At the end of my explanation he said something to the effect that his house wasn't a farm so my idea wasn't going to work out. He didn't want it looking that way. Certainly, Greg, considering you had 3-foot-tall thistle growing in your garden. But I knew what he was getting at. Another slave to the aesthetic, and that IS the largest issue with why folks even have a perception of something called a "weed." 

      When your aesthetic is based upon a limited understanding of plants, maybe 4 plants that belong in a landscape, of course everything else would be a threat to that aesthetic. So we spray Agent Orange on our lawns where kids play, let it run into clean waterways, all for the aesthetic. I know the frustration is coming out in my words, good. I think if you're reading this and not completely enraged about the unwillingness to examine our systematic destruction of the ecological bubble we need for survival, then I suggest suicide, because your complacency is creating matricide. 

      Next time you see the goon in the truck spraying Round-Up at guardrails, say something. Next time you see your neighbor treating his lawn with weed-be-gone, do something. Take a tomato over and have him sprinkle some on it and ask if he'd like a bite. If he says no, then perhaps you could move into a conversation as to why the heck it's utterly idiotic to sprinkle that stuff anywhere on this planet. If we continue to lay down to the destruction of our planet, then we won't have one.

      Been feeling sick recently? This will only get worse people. Our planet has a cold, it might catch a flu soon, and what happens if it gets pneumonia? The word Weed is simple, but its effects are catastrophic. Every plant is sacred and every plant gives a gift. Chances are you're pulling up food or medicine, so think about that one when you've made up your mind it is an invasive plant in your landscape. The only invasive organism I've ever met walks on two legs and looks around like it's lost in its own landscape...

Below is the Essay from a few years back on the Dandelion. Enjoy.

Click IT

No Maps, Just Naps

When traveling in a manner where you are the pilot, it is generally helpful to know where you're going. But what if already knew where you were going, you just needed to practice finding the way?

The conversation around travel by plane and car and how rapid and disconnected they are has come up a lot recently. I meet so many folks who feel completely helpless in their options to move without a petroleum based option.

The squad and I have coined the term "slow travel" in hopes of engendering a radically different culture around traveling. Moving slowly has undeniable virtues over rapid movement. It allows for so much more flexibility and openness,, giving you the freedom to stop and take it just what's in that very moment. But this is well known and hopefully obvious at this point.

What I'm getting towards requires a little more of an open mind to grasp. The map, a tool of so many intrepid explorers before me, a simple piece of paper that holds mountains of information. This is the go to when you're trying to plan a trip of any sort. You map a course and proceed to follow it with diligence.

Yet, is it possible to travel without a map and still get to where you need to go? What happens if you take a wrong turn? What happens if you push your bike hours down an arroyo only to realize you need to turn around? What happens if you get lost? Well, what happens?

The answer for me thus far has been to stop, find shade, hydrate, eat a snack and take a nap. When i wake from my peaceful slumber I will still be lost, but at the very least I will be rested and ready to double back and find another way.

I'll find my way eventually, and perhaps some light will be lost in the quest, if you're worried about counting hours, but if you can shift your perspective and see that being lost is just a perception then those hours won't be lost in the end.

I'm not advising to throw away your maps, or even hint that maps are a bad thing. They're cool and fun as heck to look at, but what I am advocating is to get lost and allow yourself to work through the process of getting lost. It's possible you might come to the conclusion that you're exactly where you should be. Stay wild, get woke, slow down.