52 Miles in a Day

Life awareness. That is the motivation - that is the reason I do it. The pain, the sweat, the 15 hrs of steady pace, it all fades, compared to the absolute peace and joy of being alive and knowing it.
The LIFEWALK is a journey that takes about 15 hrs of a day. It is a walk that covers 50 miles of pavement, along a busy highway in Alabama - it is incredible. We forget that we have the choice to experience motion that goes against everything our culture covets. To say no to comfort for a day, to say no to safety, to say no to speed, no to expectations, to say no to convenience, to say no to the mundane - you and I have that choice. We spend day after day prisoners of the ordinary, victims of our elaborate minds. But there is hope.
The LIFEWALK is about experiencing the simplicty and beauty in the moment. It is about feeling pain, feeling pleasure, feeling exhaustion, feeling like you can't continue - and realizing that feelings don't dictate who you are at all. 1 step after another step.. 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1... it is a symbol of life, of the moments and fleeting days that build upon each other to create an entire LIFE. Every step we take, every moment is critical to our endeavor - without any of the steps, we would not reach our goal. Some steps are more exciting than others, some more thrilling, some more painful, but all are absolutely necessary.
Along the LIFEWALK, you meet people, you interact, you see amazing things, you hear ideas, you challenge thought - you find that the world cares less for you than you realize. There is peace in walking, there is peace in giving up our fetish of approval, there is peace in living free, and cherishing the day.

(Andrew Tipton)

SHIFT YOUR THOUGHT

There are moments in life, when you find yourself suddenly, abruptly, and sometimes violently torned from a direction - you experience a shift. Great or small, the change happens, and it radically challenges the perception of you who are. I experince this shift in thought, when I am least looking for it; when my direction has been placed on autopilot, and I am comfortably watching myself moving along. BANG, it happens. A switch in my brain goes off, and I am compelled to close my mind, and restart my thinking. Why it happens I am unsure, but it is necessary.
Why change, when the objective seems so clear, so defined and easy? Why change your mind about a thought that has no met resistence, met no barries or encountered no problems? Why do we change at all?
It is the flow of motion. It is unavoidable. We must, we have no choice but to change, to grow, to rethink, to break down the thoughts that we know, and start over. It the midst of ease, of pleasure, of security, we are captives to our minds. We must continue to move.
Shift your direction, shift your road, shift all that we think we know about who we are and what we are doing.
It is a perpetual flow, and never-ending rushing wave of movement - this life we live in. Contrary to what we beleive about change, it is not un-natural; change is the very essence of life. To stay in harmony with motion we must never complain, never linger, never breathe a shallow breath. Swim with the current of the river, and experience the intensity of motion! SHIFT YOUR THOUGHT! In the tangle of easy, change is waiting to take you in a brave new direction. Take it.

(Andrew Tipton)

Here's to Adventure

I am facinated by the way people react to actions out of the ordinary.
There seems to be this lull encompassing the majority of living, breathing persons around me. They are docile, predictible, easily ruffled, uncertain, and naive.
Like ants, we move about in our own little patterns, our own tiny thoughts, and tiny problems, and our own small ideas. I have noticed that we are absolutely caught of guard, when someone, anyone, acts in a way that does not fit the particular "Way" life is supposed to move.
Shock, distrust, curiosness, question... even attempts to ignore the action. We are so used to being ourselves, and knowing what will happen - what should be happening, that we are totally unprepared for the unexpected!

Walking 50 miles in a day. That is an action. That is an action that is met with questions. Why? Why? Why? People look at you like you're from a different planet. Why do something totally out of the ordinary.. when you don't have to? Because that is entirely the point! Sure you don't have to swim to an island, sure you don't have to climb a tree, or hitch-hike, or run, or scream in church, or sleep on the beach, or swim naked in a river, or drive to 1000 miles for a photo, or challenge thought - but, BY GOD, you can!!
We have forgotten that movement is a privilege, that adventure is an honor, that the unteathered human heart cannot be bought, caged or harnessed. We are so shocked by the "unusual only because we are so "Ordinary". Open your mind, open your eyes to see that there is more to existence than the simple trudge, the reactionary stupor that keeps our eyes on ourselves.
I love getting looked at like I'm crazy. I love getting ignored like I'm crazy. I love life, because life is dangerously, compellingly insane.
Here's to adventure.

(Andrew Tipton)

Subjective

I find myself subjected to subjective thoughts nearly every moment of every day. I twist truth with my idea of how life is supposed to be - and the outcome is less than centered. Life becomes subjective to me. To what I do. To how I live. To who I think I am.
This is inevitable, because this is the only way I've ever looked at life, and the only way that I ever will. However, wouldn't life be so much more free if the world could be seen from eyes that were objective?
When I forget the stories in my head about who I am, what I know, who others should be, and why everyone would be better off if they were more like me - I begin to taste freedom. Let go.. just let it go. Let go of subjective hate, let go of the realitivity of your own mind!
To realize that I am just a piece in an incredible puzzle; a puzzle that has billions of different pieces, each unique, each fitting in somehow - that takes the pressure of me to change everyone. I can start living. I can smile, I can breathe, I can function as a part of the motion instead of a barrier to it.
As long as I am wrapped up in the faults and differences in others, I will never truely break out of the box of self. Get out of the cage already. Grow already. Focus your attention on what else you could do, not what someone else should be doing - and the world will change.

I am the most subjective person I know. Damn subjectivity.

(Andrew Tipton)

Sound is beautiful

This day was incredible. Rain, then sun, then clouds swooping sideways, then dark rolling coulds - amazing, beautiful combinations.
I began thinking about beauty. why does it exist? How do I know what is beautiful and what is not? Why do people agree on what defines beauty?
I don't have answers to these questions, I am simply a bystander, helplessly enthralled with the raw splendor of existence.
Beauty is so incredible because it is intertwined in every part of our world. The sunsets, the mountains, the ocean, a womans body, a face.. beauty is everywhere - even in sound. In sound? In sound!
How can a sound be beautiful? why can I enjoy the sound of a song? What makes music so intricately pleasing to my ears? I started playing notes on my guitar.. some I enjoyed, others I didn't. I played a few melodies on my guitar.. several I found beautiful, some I did not. This is facinating!
The ability to detect beauty, it seems, is in my mind. I can see it, I can admire it, I can even hear it!

I was wondering though.. half way out of fun, if music is actually an ancient language - forgotten over the years. A language that is universal, known to by every creature. Notes, just perhaps, are the most elemental words. Maybe the energy I generate when I play a "beautiful" song, is so pleasurable because I am playing words that are filled with strength, love, wisdom, peace, power and mystery. What are all words after all? sounds.
the world is incredible.

(Andrew Tipton)

TOUCH EVERYTHING

I had a dream a few nights ago about touch - the word has been spinning in my head ever since. Touch everything
It is incredible how much the world would change if I did that. TOUCH is such a loaded word.
I love to be touched. I was born that way, with an absolute addiction for contact. The feeling of hands kneading my muscles, or bare skin across my skin, is like drinking pure energy - I can't get enough. I love to touch as well, I love to feel, to grasp, to run my fingertips along an object until I know it. I love the energy that flows between myself and some other concious being. The roughness of a boulder, the fuzzy underside of leaves, the massage of sand between my fingers, the warm splash of ocean waves, the bark on trees, the slickness of mud, the coldness of metal, the slight thump of a heart in a chest. There is so much to touch.


TOUCH EVERYTHING? What does that mean to me? In order for me to touch anything, I have to go to it - literally. I have to be where it is, journey there, climb, run, jump, fall, crawl, whatever it takes -- to touch everything, you must reach it first.
What happens when I do touch something? If I do touch an object, it becomes part of me.. I feel it, I know it, I see it differently, understand it in a more complex way. And when I touch something, I leave a part of myself with it - be it figerprints, tracks, blood, sweat, thoughts, words, tears; I change that object.

Imagine touching everything. Imagine using every part of yourself to touch this incredible world. Imagine placing your hands in freezing streams, running your fingers through summer grass.. imagine touching people with your words, touching their minds with your ideas.. imagine touching someones heart with a smile, imagine touching the future with your writing or your art, or your music. Imagine touching everything - and letting it touch you back.

I want to touch.

(Andrew Tipton)

ARIES

I am an aries. Born April 7th. Its amazing how much I resemble my zodiac sign. There is a visible corrolation between myself, what I do, what I love, and the stars. That is highly arousing!
I do feel that the basic outline of an ARIES doesn't fit me perfectly. There are sides to me, facets and twists that have been etched by journey and motion. I can' help but wonder why there is an propensity towards behaving a certain way, simply because astrology says so..? Why only 12 signs? Maybe 365..? creative, introspective, open-minded - also Aries - at least this Aries. Limitation it seems is once again in our minds.

(Andrew Tipton)

The Truth in My Head

Curious isn't it, how much life depends on how close you are to the edge.
Pain, love, size, warmth, distance.. all relative in their proximity to our concious minds. I was looking at a tree yesterday.. I would say it was tall, very tall. I would only say that though, because it is tall compared to me. After the tree, I looked at some ants. I would drescribe them as tiny. Tiny only though, compared to me.
Truth is bent.
The tree and the ants are not truthfully large and tiny - I only see them that way, because that is how they appear relative to myself.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
How much of my truths are actually just reflections of true life? I'll explain.
Is pain real? Is the death of a person a universally bad experience? The answer is.. Only to the extent it reaches ME. I know of a person close to myself that died, and I felt pain, the anguish. I tell myself that death is bad, that the truth of death is painful and evil. But, I read this morning of 100,000 people dying in a storm.. and I am moderately unaffected. WHAT?? How can truth exist in a moment, if it is relative to my understanding or my knowledge of its existence? It does not! Truth is deeper than that, quieter, stronger. CHALLENGE WHAT YOU KNOW!
Trees are not tall.
Speed and distance are just ideas. Subjective ideas relative to size and non-movement. Soooo much changes when you know that you are not an objective creature - let it, watch it, and begin to see a different type of motion - truth

(Andrew Tipton)

WHERE YOU ARE

Live free. Live strong. Live well.
Life is shorter than you can possibly imagine, motion is spinning faster than you can possibly imagine, and you will not be here longer than necessary. Don't worry where you are. Don't worry about where you will be, or where you will go.
Don't listen to lies. Don't listen to yourself.
Laugh.
Give people things.
Share.
Treat everything with respect - Demand the same.
Challenge everything, doubt nothing.
Talk about the beauty of life, listen to wisdom.
Run. Jump. Climb. Swim. Sweat. Bleed. Often.
Dance without reservation. Experience the language of music with your body.
Give thanks daily - you deserve nothing

Smile.
Touch Everything.