I walk up the stairs to the renovated Admin office at 8:00 this evening, to finish up some work for the Co-op, and Steve, the Bloomingfoods Member/Marketing guru, is the only one there. The day before I had confirmed my departure, and though Steve knew I was departing, he didn't know why. So I begin to talk to him about the journey, and our conversation turned toward the topic of human behavior. We talked about choices one makes, and how we choose to live certain lifestyles, and how both agreed that inspiration, or idea, commitment, and action directs the way life unfolds, or how basically whatever it is we choose and act on directs our life.

I personally have been on an experiment, to see what happens if I actually work towards fulfilling my ideas. How does life unfold with the choices I've made? Clearly, I see patterns in my life, but I also see that I am confident on what I value and how I want to live in the world, and am aware that every action I make has some effect on the direction.
So, I've went through a process and asked myself very specific questions on what I was passionate about, what has seemed constant in my life that I enjoy, what are the things I have always wanted to try, what are my strengths, weakness, what do I want to development, what concerns me, what could I be motivated about, what would I like to see changed in this world, what things excited me when I was young? The list went on; it was almost a self help class on future endeavors, say what a business class would teach in terms of the next step though I was embarking on the journey through my well used library card.

This journey across the country is the culmination of that process of inspiration, and in this phase for the last couple of months has been about commitment. I'm committed to this project and with Andy on this ride, and now preparing for the ride and taking the trip will be the action part. As Steve and I discussed further, and though cliche as sounds, we agreed that it really isn't about the destination it's about the journey and the things we learn about along the way and the people we meet. And this trip and documentation will be the perfect example; however, it will also undoubtedly give us other directions to choose from.

Ironically, as life unfolded this evening, Steve asked if it would be okay if he could post our blogs when we are on the journey on the co-op enews, which goes out to over 3000 people, as well as offered his knowledge and contact info on the nations' co-ops he knows along our route. "Of coure", I said. Indeed, life is amazing how it unfolds.