Day 3: The Pre-Departure List...

There is a list (inside my head) of things needing to be done prior to departure.  I am thinking, "If I can hammer this list out here - and tick of the things that need to be done - perhaps it can be the last list until I return?  I have already arranged to have the chimney repaired (mid July), and to have topsoil delivered (next week) and booked my flights to the Conference and back... but the list remains:

  1. alignment on car
  2. purchase oil and filter for bike
  3. change oil and filter on bike
  4. write a service for Sunday June 19th
  5. do a 2nd dry run pack on bike
  6. finalize presentation for PFI Convocation
  7. get ready for Justin's graduation celebration
Pam Bowman and a number of other colleagues are attending the Atlantic Seminar in Theological Education where Miriam Therese Winter and Micheal Morwood are leading participants in exploring the theme "Let Us Pray..."  As I was reflecting this morning on some of the words shared with me from that conference I was reminded of these words from Henri Nouwen in his book, With Open Hands:
[Praying] demands that you take to the road again and again, leaving your house and looking forward to a new land for yourself and your [fellow human]. This is why praying demands poverty, that is, the readiness to live a life in which you have nothing to lose so that you always begin afresh." 
Yesterday a colleague at the prison commented on the "boyscoutness" of doing dry run packing.  I laughed with her at the time but as I think about it, this is one of the attraction for me of travelling on a motorcycle - travelling with little - or as Nouwen suggests, travelling in poverty.

With limited space it is essential that everything that is packed on the motorcycle have a purpose - and if possible two purposes.  Each day of travel on a motorcycle is beginning afresh: new sites, new sounds and smells, new people to meet, and a new place to lay your head to reflect on the day past and contemplate tomorrow.

The sabbath road...
Location: Sackville, NB, Canada

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