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Rafting is key

Old 08-24-2016, 09:05 PM
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Rafting is key

Im going to construct a raft out of seltzer bottles and package tape and pilot it down the hudson river. Rafting may be key to the vital experience.
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Old 08-24-2016, 09:37 PM
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I'm not sure the Hudson is a wise choice.
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Old 08-24-2016, 10:03 PM
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Is this a metaphor?
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Old 08-25-2016, 01:26 AM
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Riggins, anyone?
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Old 08-25-2016, 09:56 AM
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Lol,, great post!
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Old 08-25-2016, 10:25 AM
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Bellingham hey. Maybe the Fraser or Columbia first? I think you're onto something though. Gotta throw ourselves into something new. Being drunk and/or hungover ate up a whole lotta time.
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Old 08-25-2016, 10:37 AM
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Certainly an unusual idea, care to expand more on it David?
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Old 08-25-2016, 11:58 AM
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I suppose this is about the seltzer bottles in my room, about my own boredom and desperation for a vital experience and a cluelessness about how to get that experience. There were times in my life when i felt like my best self. Brief moments. Usually with proximal booze. Usually in another country. I just dont see that possibility in the here and now of achieving a rich experience. The people i come into contact with seem amazingly guarded and shut off. The readily available experience seems lonely at worst and monastic at best. Better of course that horrific at worse and manic at best. Maybe im simply uninteresting. I love everyone right away. What tom B says on youtube resonates. Its not a case of learning to love yourself first; its never loving yourself because youre too busy loving everyone else. Booze makes this even more of a trap of course and the answer is to start loving yourself and stop letting all of the squalor in and internalizing it. Being drab has its challenges.
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Old 08-25-2016, 01:35 PM
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it almost sounds like you need to live a little or soak in some expierineces. like I dunno go for a walk and stare at a butterfly or something and take it in that kinda thing.

tho the raft idea sounds kinda cool too tho .

I keep telling myself to go for a hike on the appalation trail and i'm gonna sooner or later. Idealy i'd love to just take off of work and run it for a few months but that whole wife and kids and money thing and all *Sigh*.
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Old 08-25-2016, 02:01 PM
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Originally Posted by davaidavai View Post
Maybe im simply uninteresting.
Er um..nope. I wouldn't say that dav...
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Old 08-25-2016, 03:00 PM
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Originally Posted by davaidavai View Post
about my own boredom and desperation for a vital experience and a cluelessness about how to get that experience.
I have found that once my mind was free to start experiencing my surroundings ( vs numbing/distorting it with alcohol ) that vital experiences are everywhere. A blooming flower, a hike up a steep hill, growing a garden, actually talking with someone - all of them can be vital and vibrant experiences.

I feel it goes back to my addictive tendency to seek instant gratification. I wanted things to feel good NOW and without any effort on my part.
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Old 08-25-2016, 05:12 PM
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I agree people are guarded I think it's cultural to the US

How is it elsewhere? I haven't had the means to do much traveling.
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Old 08-25-2016, 06:40 PM
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I am emotionally unsober.

This place has its unique character but culture is too complex to really parse.

The emotional solace i achieve is in solitude. Sometimes i worry that the core of sobriety and the impulse toward is really a rationalization of an underlying impulse toward a ritualistic format for living. Somber, pleasure free, contemplative, alone. A carthusian monk. I guess there are worse things. Thanks everyone.
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Old 08-25-2016, 06:48 PM
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I am strange at worst and odd at best....

How about make some hooly huly chicken?
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Old 08-25-2016, 07:03 PM
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Originally Posted by davaidavai View Post
Sometimes i worry that the core of sobriety and the impulse toward is really a rationalization of an underlying impulse toward a ritualistic format for living. Somber, pleasure free, contemplative, alone. A carthusian monk.
I think that's a common worry, yet unfounded. Entire cultures exist and thrive without alcohol or drugs. Even in western cultures some of the brightest and most successful/charismatic people choose not to use mind altering substances, and not just because of addiction.
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Old 08-25-2016, 07:09 PM
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I hear ya. I moved to Central America and have been living in the mountains here for the past 2.5 years. With all the online jobs nowadays, anyone can do it. What's stopping you from living your dream? If you've been sober for at least a year, maybe it's time to take that next step and create a more worthy life experience?
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Old 08-25-2016, 07:12 PM
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ah; for me, contemplative and somber IS pleasure.

as for you...vital, you mean, as in necessary or vitality?
isn't this where people usually/often suggest outward-looking, other-focusing volunteering?
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Old 08-25-2016, 10:48 PM
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A suggestion davai, one I can't act on until circumstances permit. Go and find a great big night sky away from the city. Somewhere that allows for a blanket of stars at night where you can see all the constellations. And just watch it.

This always helps me. Even a drive through the southern part of my state at night allows for more night sky than where I reside and it eases my anxieties. I watch the moon a lot too. It's been surprising how many great big, gorgeous moons we've had this summer and nobody seems to stop and marvel at them.

This was noted by a stranger once when my bf and I were walking to the car through a parking lot and I asked him to stop and look as I often will.
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Old 08-25-2016, 10:57 PM
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You know, if you go far enough north to the Adirondacks where the Hudson begins, it is little more than a glorified stream. I would suggest you start out there before making your way down to New York City.
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Old 08-26-2016, 02:09 PM
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Bigsombrero what online jobs would you recommend? What worked out for you?
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