Morris, Dalton & Casey headed out to start their Extreme Karma Challenge…

“The wheels of Karma spins … Do I choose this or that?”

Amtrak losing our box was unacceptable. Losing a day was stressful and caused problems, lots of them. There were many misdeeds to keep track of. Plans to change. Money wasted. We had been wronged and lied to, many times. People had been mean to us and disrespectful. “It will be ok”, they said, “don’t worry”. Mistakes, incompetence, apathy, this was a sacred time they were dealing with. Important.

There were so many things, horribly unjust. I began writing down all the Amtrak people that had disappointed us, the agents, the bus drivers, the baggage handlers, customer service, it was a lot of work just keeping it straight, the person, the deed, the resultant pain and misfortune. It took a long time, very complex, do I count the mechanic that worked on the bus that broke down or the manufacturer? The driver once or twice?

After a while I decided to list the people that had helped us, the parlor car attendant that spent 30 minutes on his own phone calling Los Angeles to have his buddy go through the baggage terminal there looking for the lost box and put it on the next train after he checked each piece on our car, the customer service girl that spent her break calling stations along the way to get someone to go on the baggage car to confirm it, the guy working the night shift at the Hostel that spent a bunch of time moving a full hotel around so we could keep our room another night. There were many. It was complicated, time wasted on us, sacrificed, union jobs had been jeopardized. So many good things.

We bought cookies for the guy at Feathered Friends that offered to let us keep our bikes there, “walk he said”, it will feel good, relax you guys take it easy, we’ll watch your bikes, they will be safe here”. The people in Seattle that tried to explain forgiveness. The excellent dinner we had. The baggage manager in Seattle that texted us, that he had “our box and it was missing us”. Did I say forgiveness? After all isn’t that what we came to find?. Like working our biking muscles maybe flexing our forgiveness muscles are how we practice. The journey continues…

Our lost box, once found I notice my mind groping, like a man in the dark, for the next thing to grab hold of.

August 16th, 2016

Posted In: Extreme Karma Event

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