Solitude and the changing psyche

“I didn’t come out here to change anyone’s mind… I came out here to ease my own…” (Todd Snider)

Solitude…
I was having a discussion with someone about my walk across America, and how much it was going to change me, inasfar as really being alone and getting to know myself, and sort out the things that need sorting out, and fixing the things that need fixing, and focusing on the things that need to be focused on, and learning to filter out what is extraneous and unnecessary within myself. It was pointed out that that type of change does not happen overnight----an agreeable statement to be sure but one that is based on everyday logic. I am here to tell you that there is nothing logical about what I am doing: a 51 year old man walking 2900 or so miles? Rough on the feet, legs ,and at times the psyche, and to correct the earlier statement, you can FEEL the change happen, almost literally overnight. It might need to keep happening over an extended period but you can indeed tell when things are rearranging their totem pole positions in your head. It is similar to immersion learning, where you dive in head first and surround yourself with nothing but your goal. The endless hours of walking with mostly no human interaction, and a constant barrage of thoughts and questions and songs and words and images and feelngs and emotions swirling around in your head and soul…you can feel it. New thoughts and logics and conclusions and even songs will pop into and out of the brain at the oddest times. “You KNOW something is happening here, but you dont know what it is….”
Change is happening. Everyday.