all aboard

With the help of a few of you, and large circumstances seemingly with a mind of their own, I boarded an early train in San Luis Obispo yesterday morning and rolled down to Santa Barbara, about two and a half train hours south. Then, just after noon, I boarded another train and rolled back up to SLO. The first and second train rides of my life.

On the 6am platform a kid named Matthew, a student at Cal Poly on his way home to San Diego for the weekend, explained the ins and outs of getting in and out. An hour later the sky cleared just south of Lompoc. I sat stunned, two large windows all my own. A billion yellow wildflowers both seaside and hillside. The breathless blue of the ocean. Rolling green hills dotted with Zen cows. Jagged cut ravines down to the surf. A large bird I didn’t know. Breathtaking. Enchanting. A family of wild boar.

The difference in the sensation of a train whistle. What has always felt something of a yearning, today was experienced as an exclaiming – Here I am. Here we are. My experience of this one piece of my life (a train’s whistle) doubled Thursday morning. My life got bigger.

The ride back. Observation car. There are so many stories out the train’s windows. Beautiful black cows. Sections of ancient fence in the middle of nowhere. Abandoned shacks. This California. Like being in a movie as the movie.

It was a special day in my life, riding the train.