Pathwalking 241
It’s that time of the year again. As you are reading this, I am on vacation.
I wanted to look back and see what I wrote last year at this time. That, in turn, led me to read what I had written the previous year during this same week.
I didn’t stop there. I paused and took a quick look back to all of my previous Pathwalks that were posted while I was on my annual vacation. This year is my fifth.
Why does it matter that I still Pathwalk while on my vacation? This is the question I find I must pose to myself.
The first thing I should mention is that this is the twenty-first year I am attending the Pennsic War. I have been to every consecutive one of these grand events during that time, alongside ten to fifteen-thousand others, for the past twenty years.
The Pennsic War is a two-week long event of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a world-wide medieval re-creation society I have been a part of since college, twenty-five years total this fall. I have made amazing friends across the world in the years I have participated in this game, and this event is one of the biggest and most colorful.
I generally attend for about ten days total, and spend those days walking all over the place, fencing, shooting archery, and enjoying the company of some of my favorite people. Many of you who read this might even be with me, or possibly facing me across the field.
When I created Pathwalking, it began as part of a New Years’ Action. Rather than a resolution, when 2011 became 2012, I determined that I would take an action, and that action was a weekly blog. It has been more than four-and-a-half years, and I continue these weekly posts, exploring this philosophy I continue to develop and work to improve upon.
Ok, so what? Well, one of the things I most enjoy about attending Pennsic is that, being medieval re-creation, we dress in time-period appropriate garb, and use the event to escape the pressures of our modern society.
Twenty years ago this was quite a lot easier. They used to bring in banks of pay-phones, for which there were still usually lines, to accommodate ten-thousand people checking in at home from time-to-time.
With the popularization of cellular phones, which themselves have evolved into incredible micro-computers, it is easy to remain connected to the real world, and still keep tabs on the wonders of social media, and of course the news.
Personally, I choose to use this vacation to escape from the modern world. This is why, while yes you are reading a new post, I wrote this ahead of time and set it up to post on this day, while I am offline resting, relaxing, and having a good time with friends.
Yes, I have an iPhone and can totally connect to Facebook and G+ and Twitter. I could even connect a larger wireless device and still write this on my vacation for posting. However, I choose to disconnect, because this is part of my reset process.
In a past year I wrote about how disconnecting from time to time is a very helpful thing. I mean, looking at the awful political climate here in the United States, let along other world happenings; it is rather soothing to be able to disconnect and escape from the insanity.
Yet it is important to me that I keep up with my action, and these weekly posts still go on. It is extremely important to me that I maintain this unbroken chain, and that I keep the action I took for myself going. Four and a half years on, I have not missed a week, and strive to keep going with that.
So what’s the point of this rambling post this week? I want to say thank you. Thank you for continuing to travel with me on my path. I created Pathwalking for my own need to find my own way in life, and decided to share because I thought it might be a helpful notion for others.
However, as I have continued this through the years, knowing that I have touched others with these posts, and my ideas, I am even more grateful that I have you to bounce this concept off of. You are why it is important to me that this post is still here, even when I am taking a break from the so-called real world.
I have written a lot across these posts. Two-hundred and forty-one weeks, as many posts, a lot of different topics of focus, sometimes a different angle on a previously discussed matter. While I take my vacation from my job and from the instantly-connected world, and social media, this is too important to me to let go, because you are so important to my path.
This might be a bit sappy, I suppose, but I still feel I need to express to you my gratitude. Thank you for reading, and I hope you will continue to travel these paths with me, as you explore your own.
What do you do on your vacations?
GOAL LOG – Week 31:
Note – I am not maintaining my goal log during my vacation, but still want to leave this here.
Diet: I am probably not eating my best, but likely burning it off with the walking alone.
Exercise: If this is a typical Pennsic, I am walking miles every day, and fencing, and shooting archery, and getting a ton of exercise in.
Writing: Likely little of this is happening.
Meditation: Unknown.
Gratitude: I hope to be maintaining this.
This is the two-hundred forty-first entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.
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