Adventures of the Soul, Part One: Out of the Box

One perspective

A question was asked on Hubpages, "Under what circumstance would you pick up a hitchhiker? Or, do you feel it is altogether too risky?"

At last count, the yays and nays were equally divided. Thirteen said "Yes" they would use common sense and stop for a hitchhiker in general, and thirteen said "No" they would not under any circumstance. Many acknowledged their fears. In the writer's experience, fear attracts the experience of which he is afraid - and trust attracts the magic of life.

Over the years, the writer has given and received numerous rides. All were positive experiences. By following the wisdom of intuition and stretching himself in trust, lives were enriched and minds expanded. The saga tells the true stories of rides he received.

Police Out of the Box

After the couple had lived a year in Spain, making healing and counseling available by donations, Gary needed to return to America to tie up loose ends. The pair had made a conscious choice to discover the abundance of the heart rather live according to the security in a bank.

As they prepared to leave Spain, they had a heart wish to give a monetary gift to their two teenage sons who would stay behind. At the last minute, a woman requested a Reiki attunement and her donation enabled them to fulfill their wish. In America they hitchhiked from Orlando, Florida to the rolling hills of northeastern Georgia.

In Florida, a woman driving alone left the couple on the highway at her exit, ten miles from any town. They walked and stood with thumbs out for hours, carrying backpacks and suitcases.

The afternoon sky turned black, then opened in a heavy thunderstorm. The pair sat on the suitcases, covering themselves with ponchos, the wind blowing them off their backs and over their heads. Coming from sun-drenched Spain, the pair was not prepared for the change of weather. Seeing Kati's despair grow, Gary felt deep compassion.

Finally he had enough of sitting passively in the wind and rain. With his heart feeling charged, he stood and put a prayer command into the stormy air, "Stop playing around and send someone NOW!" Immediately an older white car pulled over. Two burly guys helped them load their luggage and took them to a motel. Ordinarily, the couple would have avoided such rough looking characters. Having put the prayer out, they took the lesson to not judge by appearance.

The next day they thumbed rides up through Georgia to the northwest corner. They found themselves walking wearily with their luggage and backpacks down the middle of the street - as it was more even - of a small southern town at 2:00 in the morning.

A police car rolled up behind them and the county sheriff asked through his open window, "Folks, do you mind telling me why you are walking down the middle of the road?"

The couple told him their story and he offered to make arrangements. Each sheriff could only give a ride to their county line, so they coordinated a relay, meeting at the lines and passing the pair from one patrol car to the next, across four counties! The sheriffs had real interest in the stories of the pair. They seemed to enjoy the unusual 'load' and feeling of a mission. The travelers arrived at their destination as the sun was rising.

They stayed with Gary's friends for a few days. The woman of the house, who only knew Gary by sight, offered to loan the pair money for a vehicle. That night they watched a movie together, "Pay It Forward." The story is of a boy with an idea to make the world a better place. His plan is to help three people in ways that cannot be paid back - and those three will help three more each, spreading over the world in good deeds – they pay it forward.

The next morning their hostess came in with a big smile and said, "I just received an unexpected check for exactly the amount you need for your car, and I want to pay it forward!" She bought a used mini-van for the couple and they drove across America.

Police Out of the Box

We were hitching on the road, in the early morn
and with the rising sun, we were also newly born.

We were headed to north Georgia, an area I enjoyed
and there would see my friends, with a chance to be employed.

‘Tween midnight and the morning, we climbed out from a ride
and walked the center line, through town and countryside.

When behind us came a sheriff, who called through open window,
“Would you folks mind telling me, why you are walking so?”

I answered, “We are tired, and not thinking straight.”
He said, “Come on, get in, the hour is really late.”

In a waffle house we shared what all that we’d been through.
He thoughtfully replied, “I’ll see what I can do.”

My preconceived idea, of police was hard and tough,
and in the southern states, they are especially rough.

But this sheriff gave an answer, that was out of box
and the solution he created, was clever as a fox.

He said as county sheriff, he has a territory
but he would like to help us, after listening to our story.

Our destination was four counties to the east
and he devised a plan, that was creative at the least.

He arranged with other troopers, by his radio
to carry us across, to where we had to go.

At every county line we were passed on like baton
and we reached our destination, just before the dawn.

Adventures of the Soul

Part One tells of the writer's return to America from Spain with his partner and their hitchhiking to northern Georgia. In the wee hours of the morning, four Georgia sheriffs relayed the couple across county lines to their destination.

Part Two tells the beginning of the writer's odyssey in New Zealand with his partner as people stop spontaneously to give the couple rides from Auckland to Wellington and receive gifts of insight and a poem.

Part Three continues the writer's journey in New Zealand with his partner as they are given remarkable rides to Christchurch and Queenstown, with marvelously magic moments and life lessons on the way.

Part Four concludes the hitchhiking saga with the story of a ride given to a man who had left his troubled life for a new beginning. The writer gave the hundred mile ride in a mountain snowstorm and lived to reflect on it.