Draperstown (Northern Ireland) | Wish You Were Here - Day 13 & 14

By the time I arrive in Draperstown (pictured above), despite having taken a bus most of the way, I can barely walk. Without a doubt, I pushed too hard in Omagh yesterday. Fortunately, I’m locked into a two-day stay at the Whitewater B&B. Paul, my host, picks me up from the bust stop. Our conversation is limited, I’m feeling a bit vulnerable, disappointed, and in pain. He shows me to my room, inside their beautiful house. I inform Paul of my plans to rest up. “My girlfriend Jayne broke her foot hiking downhill, she’s currently in a cast,” he says. A reminder that I am fortunate despite my injury. My goal over the next two days, spend as little time on my feet and give myself a chance to start the recovery process.

This post doesn’t have beautiful pictures and doesn't cover any adventures. I'm going to take a bit of risk here, try something new, and pull back the curtains on my world a little bit. I spent two solid days, in a comfortable bed, during that time I never left the house. If you are interested in understanding my process, and psyche, and appreciate the vulnerability that comes with having things go sideways, I invite you to read on. If this makes you uncomfortable or would rather skip this post, feel free to stop at the end of this paragraph and wait for my next post. You won't hurt my feelings. There will be the next post, I promise.

I spend the next two days, working through many things. I’m gonna need to deviate from my original plan. I would be foolish to press on in my current state. I need to take this injury seriously. I overestimated my ability to manage this and underestimated the limitations of the injury over the past few days.

In recent years, I’ve learned to lean into the discomfort, and difficult times, and have come to appreciate my gift of intuition by listening to my heart and body. Deep inside the murky waters of pain and disappointment is where the light of hope resides. So I sit, then allow the sadness and disappointment to surface. The Mind tries to rationalize the experience, it can’t help itself. 

I'm going to go down a rabbit hole for a second here, and share with you aspects of my spiritual philosophy. I believe to understand my process, you need to understand my philosophy, or it won't make sense. The Mind believes that Existence (I AM) and The Mind are synonymous, a trick it plays on us all. The Mind thinks in a dualistic manner, start-stop, good-bad, right-wrong, black-white, and so on and so forth. It also loves to craft stories around experiences. It thinks it knows what is best, and inserts an "I AM" into the stories it creates. This gives us a false sense of the self (I AM). Ask yourself what happens to the false self, created by The Mind, when severe amnesia is experienced? Does your body stop existing? What happens to the stories involving the false self? This is how The Mind operates. The spirituality associated with non-duality is difficult to describe using words. Words are simply thoughts created by the mind to help craft stories. 

Still not making sense? I invite you to get curious and ask yourself some important questions about life and existence. If you explore thoroughly, answers will begin to reveal themselves. Alternatively, I invite you to spend some time listening to one of my favorite podcasts by Terrence Stephens which is a more direct path to understanding Non-Duality. You can find his podcast on most channels. I won't claim to know all the answers, nor am I trying to sway anyone into my path. Rather, I've grown to appreciate The Mind as a separate organ from the brain and as something different than who I AM. This is pivotal to what follows. The brain keeps my body alive, it is responsible for conveying all the vital functions of life. The Mind's role, on the other hand, is to interpret and describe life experiences. Without the body to see, touch, feel, hear, and taste, The Mind has nothing to interpret.

So The Mind does what it does and tries to interpret my experience. Immediately it begins crafting stories, and they start with questions like these…What were you thinking about coming here? Why didn't you prepare better? Why did you leave all the security of home, friends, family, and job, without trying it out first? How can you get home? Why not put an end to all this nonsense? The mind loves safety and always wants to return there. I'm sure you know the stories that follow these questions and the downward spiral that follows. The Mind believes that creating this dialogue and crafting these stories is keeping me safe. What is The Mind really doing? The Mind, unknowingly, is attempting to rob me of my experience by pushing for me to return to what The Mind likes, the safety of the comforts I chose to leave behind a few weeks ago. 

After allowing myself to feel this discomfort, I tune into my heart and body. I started this trip by following my heart. It's telling me this experience is not over. My body is telling me it is more than capable of doing this. Despite the setback, it has proven it is capable over the first couple of weeks. After checking in, I decide The Mind doesn’t get to write the story this time, I AM here for the experience. I came to enjoy Ireland, the coast, the history, the people, and the beautiful scenery. There is still room to do that. This injury is part of my experience. It is part of being on foot, and a risk I willingly took when I started. 

I shift my focus to reflect on the two weeks I’ve spent in Ireland. First, what have I enjoyed? The 70+ miles, I covered since Bunglass Point have been spectacular! The coast makes my heart sing. Meeting people and following these social threads makes me happy. It is one of the highlights of each day. I also love solving important simple problems that involve basic needs (e.g., where am I going to sleep? or How am I going to get food?). I enjoy being in a constant state of what I call, nonequilibrium. Lastly, ancient rural Ireland is much more appealing than modern urban Ireland.

What kinds of experiences am I interested in having moving forward? I use the thoughts above to ground my ideas. I remember a few of my conversations with Pamela, and the books she shared with me while in Omagh. I feel blessed to that have had the opportunity to sit with Pamela. I spend the next several hours online molding my ideas, like a sculptor giving them shape, and bringing them to life.

What is physically realistic? That is a very important question. I realize I must be honest with myself here. I can barely walk without my pack even with a couple days of rest. This means I must abandon any plans that involve me carrying my pack for any length of time. Continuing with a pack on my back is not feasible at the moment and simply unrealistic for me to even entertain any option that involves me carrying my pack at this point.

I take an inventory of my gear, trekking poles, tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and pillow. Hmmm. An idea surfaces…What if I car camped my way through Ireland? I stop to ponder this. This is not what I had envisioned at all for Ireland. Then again, let’s get real, I never once envisioned that I would get hurt and have difficulty walking either. My goal is to enjoy Ireland. Car camping allows me to stay grounded within my goal. After the initial shock wears off, I start to get excited about the possibility. I’ve never driven on the “wrong side” of the road before. This could be a fun experience. It would definitely push my homeostasis boundaries too. Then I notice, after chewing on the idea for a while, that I’m starting to grow really fond of it. I can experience Ireland in a whole new way, and see things I would miss on foot. Bonus, I would be able to leave my pack in the car and not worry about it. I like it!

So where can I hire (rent) a car? I’m in Draperstown, what’s nearby? What’s the cost? Can I afford this expense? What if I used credit card points? I spend the next few hours solving each of these tiny problems. After a bit, I’ve got two options: 1) head back to Letterkenny, a really long day via bus system; and Option 2, a half-day journey via bus to Londonderry (simply called Derry). I have enough points to cover a week-long rental. That’s good news! After some thought, I decide. I’ve already seen Letterkenny, let’s go north to Derry to hire a car.

A few problems remain that need my attention. Once I hire a car, where am I going? 

Where am I going to pitch my tent? Great questions! You’ll need to keep reading on in the coming days to find out. I don’t know how it’s going to go. I do know, I am excited to find out. I hope you join me and enjoy this next week. This is a twist to my trip, and I plan to enjoy every moment! 

If you made it all the way here, I want to thank you for sticking with me and making it to the end of this post. One of the promises I made to myself was to lean into this experience. This means not shying away from sharing all of my thoughts and experience with you. Curveballs are part of life. The key, in my opinion, stay flexible and learn to adapt. Events in life never happen as we would like them to, no matter how detailed we make our plans. In fact, I would argue that adding details simply reduces flexibility and limits our ability to adapt to the unknown. I hope you enjoyed reading and found this post worthwhile.