I cant remember doing anything in my comfort zone the past five years. Starting weight lifting as a feather weight. Starting to write a book as a dyslectic person. Moving into a truck to live in nature as a city person. Learning energy work being educated as an engineer. Now making content about ancient trees as an introverted person. Trying to avoid interacting with people most of my life.
It fits the state of the world though. Breaking with the familiar and inviting the potential of the unknown. It has been a great adventure and a great context for writing about the transformation the world is in. Writing from being, not from how it should be.
A lot of people have called me brave, but I don’t feel courageous. Honestly, if I would have a choice, I wouldn’t do it. I tried. I tried a normal job and a fancy apartment in Amsterdam, but it was way more scary than what I’ve been doing the past five years.
Not doing this scares me the most. The world is dying and what we’re doing doesn’t have the slightest resemblance of what is needed. This is my way out.
What is your way out?
The journey
We headed out of Thunderbay into a new terrain and a new culture, the prairies. They look very much like the countryside of the Netherlands. Flat and full of farms. The farms are of a different size though. Instead of 10, 20, 30 hectares they are 1000, 2000, 3000 hectares. All monoculture.
It’s 1600 kilometers long. Each day we drove about 250 km, half a day writing, half a day driving. Often the route planner gave us just one direction: straight on. So we mostly drove without.
Along the highway there are two train rails full of freight trains that carry the food from the farms from East to West and West to East. They make a horrible noise in the night and the farms seem to have their own station and apartment building sized storage next to it. Food can’t get more industrialised than this.
Ok, half food, half containers. You get the point. This is 20% of the train lenght.
After being in the hills for a few months, it hit me flat land shows you a lot of sky. The sunsets on the prairies are stunning. The prairies were also the place where we finally could sit outside in the evening. Quebec and Ontario has too many mosquitos to do it. I guess that’s why everywhere we went we were almost alone in those provinces.
Half way a rock hit our windscreen. Repairing that I saw an almost deflated tire. Repairing that I saw a headlamp was broken. Waiting at the next fuel station we found one 8bar air tube was leaking disabling the handbrake. Clearly, it was time for a break.
A local welding shop fixed the connection and it brought us back on the road in 24 hours. Sleeping that night we heard we picked up a visitor; a mouse was eating our rice. One night we tried to catch it in a bucket but it didn’t work, so the next day we drove to a town to buy a trap before it would start eating the cables. Also with a trap we didn’t catch the mouse the first night.
I looked up what the spiritual meaning of having a mouse was and internet told me it was: “pay attention to details”. Leaving it aside and carried on writing my book for the rest of the day on a beautiful place on the prairies; the red rock valley. It looked and felt like a green dessert. Time for ceremony and honoring what is.
The sudden repairs made us rethink our plans. Having plans in general really sucks. It puts me in a doing- and a conditional mode. As if something isn’t good until I’m there. We decided to leave Alaska for what it was and just follow the signs of the road again.
On Google Maps I found the oldest tree of Canada was right between Banff and Jasper in the Rocky Mountains. Where we were heading. That was as much a plan as I needed to just leave the rest and enjoy the present moment again.
Thinking about the km ahead of us I realised I have driven 20,000 km this year. Meaning it was time for maintenance. Grabbing my notebook and went through the things the previous owner had told me. Then grabbed the manual and read what it had to say: clean the air filter, change the oil, change the gearbox oil, -differential oil, -transferbox oil, -wheel axle oil, change the diesel filters and the oil filter. I have never done any of those things before.
Sitting on the couch inside, processing all the things I learned I had to do, I heard:
”CLICK”
The trap went off, the mouse dead in its metal mouth. Details payed attention to. We gave him a nice funeral and thanked him for his service.
Arriving in Calgary we ordered the parts, found a garage where I could work and could borrow their tools and got to it. It was a lot of fun actually. Definitely something I enjoy and looking forward to learn more about. Maybe find a garage to work and earn some money while learning about the machine that we call our home.
What Thunderbay was in the east of the prairies, Calgary is in the west. A point of transition. From the parks in Calgary we could see the Rocky Mountains gloom on the horizon.
Yesterday we drove in the mountains and it is as breathtaking as everybody told us. The panoramic window of the truck, driving 75 km/h and sitting straight makes our setup ideal for taking it all in. It is also the first place where we noticed it is high season. Everywhere it is overflowing with people and wild camping is strictly prohibited and enforced. The first night we got sent away by agent Smith.
“Good evening, I’m park agent Smith, I see you are setting up for the night?”
“Hello, I’m Neo.” I replied. “Yes, we are.”
He didn’t smile, or replied with: “Mr. Anderson”. I’m sure he still sleeps bad knowing he missed the pun.
Banff and Jasper are two of Canada’s most famous natural parks. Here the Canadians showed us for the first time they know how to take care of nature. It’s the first place we come where there is no litter and no clear cuttings. The mountains are covered in a perfect green blanket of pine trees. As it should be. It breaths like one organism and it’s awe-inspiring.
Like in the Alpes the once mighty gletsjers are gone. Only a little stump is left, showing us a little bit of the magical blue light of their millions years old core. In a few years the stumps will be gone too. So sad.
Thank you for the beautiful valley you carved.
Thank you for showing us the strength of being patient.
Thank you for your fresh water.
Thank you for protecting us by reflecting excess sunlight.
Thank you for your beauty.
Thank you for the adventure of walking on you.
We hope to see you again in a few million years.
We quickly ran away from all the restlessness and found a mountain lake for our self after a little hike.
We ordered headlights from the Netherlands and the Magirustig club send us a package with spare parts to permanently fix the air brake system. Sending them to a postoffice in Banff. The headlamps arrived (+ 2 spares), but the Magirustig package has some delays. So we continued to the oldest tree of Canada.
Between Banff and Jasper there is a highway heading east. Where after 20 kilometers supposedly the oldest tree of Canada resides (1200 years). Nothing indicated us it was worthwhile to go that way. All signs go to Jasper. How lucky we are. There is a stunning white river flowing through gorgeous steep mountains. Right of the highway we found a place to camp right next to the beautiful river. Just 5 km walking to the tree and we could swim naked walking right out of our truck.
We learned the highway we’re at is decorated as the most beautiful highway of Canada. No park fees, no camping fees and almost no people during high season. What a gift from the tree, just from the intention of visiting it.
The visit to the tree was as beautiful as the place. The turquoise/white ice cold river. The tree on the river bed proudly standing on a rock. The energy of the tree was very soft and small. Like it contracted its energy, making it more dense. Everywhere you touched the tree you fell in a hug and a deep rest. I sang it my first song in ceremony. We danced under its screwed branches. It was magical, joyful and the message was clear:
“Maybe Alaska is still possible.”
The experience also made clear to me how to share the experience of the trees with more people. I want to make pictures and drone movies to show the location and beauty of the tree and share it on socials.
We’re also creating a Patreon with two options. One to view online ceremonies and use our empathy and imagination to honor the tree with our attention and presence. A second option for people who want to learn more about ceremonies and embodying reality with us. Doing online sharing circles and as soon as we get the Starlink connection for RV’s joining our ceremonies live. Looking forward to it and growing more trust, appreciation and love for our shared reality. We’ll let you know when they’re online.
The location of the oldest (pine) tree of Canada. Just below the centre on the shoreline right next to a natural whirlpool. It was perfect.
We had a little holiday at the ice blue river (North Saskatchewan River). Waiting for the package from the Netherlands, to continue our journey to Jasper. Searching online for a biodynamic farm in British Columbia who wants to host us this autumn.
Not a bad summer. I now miss the twice daily river ice water swims.
Embodying Reality
Finished upgrading it the 4th of August. Getting it back from the editor the 25th. Hopefully the designers can make it an eBook in just a few days and the 1st of September it is ready! So cool.
As I wrote earlier, English felt way better to write the book in than Dutch. Possibly because I read mostly in English, but more likely because it is a global topic, for a global audience. It should be in English and accessible for everyone.
It was surprisingly fun to do. Adding all the lessons of the past year into it and seeing a better and deeper book emerge. 30% more words, 43,000 this time. So still a relatively small book, and the two extra chapters awesome. One is about the surprising overlap between my two questions: What is real? and What do we make real? and the explanation of Iain McGilchrist about our two brain hemispheres. Where the description of our left hemisphere is identical to my description of the modern myth and his description of the right hemisphere is “our connection to reality”. So it are no longer ideas, it are now things in our bodies.
The other extra chapter is about the changes in the world that are already happening for sustainability that are often not called sustainability. Reconnecting with what is real is happening everywhere already and that is very hopeful. While sustainability from a perspective let’s-optimize-the-system-so-we-can-keep-doing-what-we-know is very confusing and good examples are very scarce, if not absent.
Hence the title of the English version: Embodying Reality - a new paradigm for sustainability. Because a sustainable world needs a new paradigm and to achieve that sustainability needs a new paradigm.
It will only be available as an eBook. I wish I could say because of the trees. Now I’ve seen the devastation the paper mills do to the forests in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but that’s only part of the reason. The main reason is that I don’t have the money for it, or the knowledge how to distribute it in North-America. Maybe a publisher reads it and wants to do it for me. Let’s see.
We hope you have a great summer too.
Lot’s of love,
Monica & Casper
Great thing about the drone is you are on the picture yourself. The bad thing about it is you look like playing a video game.
The prairies lightning river
Please help us to see that what is real is important and what we make real we can change.
Sunset at the Prairies. I saw the bird the next day!
An Osprey who came very very close. So cool.
Sang my first song in Ceremony for the tree. Very life-giving.