This posts contains random snaps from yesterday's and today's drives; coasting past Madrid, after staying with beautiful people in the very very nice community of Paracuellos de la Ribera...
Dearest Hive Friends and Living In Gift Folks,
We’re sitting in a great old-school bar in a lowland mountain town, partially abandoned (like Guardia Sanframondi was, when I moved there 15 yrs ago), having arrived here an hour before. A very long day of driving several hundred kilometres, and a rare coffee in the late afternoon to keep up my concentration as solo driver. There is a cacophony of chatter going on – some seems to be in dialect, some in botched-together French or other – but mostly Spanish and Vincent turning occasionally to relate something back to me in English.
Our Airbnb host just cancelled. There are no other B&Bs in town. It is dark and cold, and we already stopped for the night – the thought of doing another internet search and calculating distances, when we already have settled in with a wine and a beer and some pork-related bar meal in this warm place with lovely company….
We seemed to have ensconced ourselves into a beautiful wee warm niche already: a group of locals (including around 7 cats) gathered around us almost as soon as we turned the steep corner into this piazza, and each of them has at least one option for where we could stay the night. We smile and laugh, play and tease for another hour or two, until a phone call is made to some folks at the top of the town, and a semi-garbled conversation results in them coming down to meet us at the bar.
Then ensues a glorious synchronised connecting and solutioning; half an hour later we are in a handmade, expertly crafted cob house, marvelling at the artisan aspects in every direction. I am super-inspired and excited to discuss my own training in permaculture and even strawbale building, from years ago. My passion for composting and natural grey/ black water treatments comes to the fore, and we spend some time being shown around this incredible tattoo artist’s home and studio.
We end up, not even 9.30pm, in the back of the property, in a small-but-perfectly-formed outhouse with the cosiest bed as if it were made just for us. Feeling absolutely at home, and in great contrast to the other B&Bs that we have stayed in along the way, on this big drive from Italy to Portugal. The attention to detail and the fine handwork in everything is so noticeable, especially after the last place where everything was noticeably ‘off’. Such a Gift to be received by artistic people, who love their environment, and who are so happy to share it with others who are in need.
The older guy at the bar was the perfect medium for us: he seemed to figure out exactly who we were, and to match us with this gorgeous couple. I love when Natural Law works like this: people who live fully-immersed in Nature are often able to tune in and to effortlessly bring others together, to solve problems, to co-create and expand reality – how it is meant to be. We are meant to be in this present moment, and open to all possibilities – as we were, even tired and pretty darned disappointed about the host on Airbnb (who strangely is the only host in town, with 6 properties) being absent… We nevertheless were able to stay focussed sufficiently to hone in on where the right vibes were.
This feeling is incomparable, the Knowing that we have found the golden thread, and that we are weaving a new story with folks we’re meeting. The sense of being truly at home, no matter how far from our own hearth. The warmth of new connections, as if we have known them for much longer, because we are so attuned and synchronised. Strong, natural connections which might last a lifetime.
It feels so easy to do this, despite the beginning of our journey west from Barcelona being pretty gnarly, and our both being very stretched and uptight as we navigated expensive bar food and accommodation that first night. We were conscious of the difference between being strung-out and being in-tune. And we consciously unlocked the tensions that might have got us further into that black hole, as it were. I love this new relationship which feels like I’ve known him for lifetimes. I love how creatively we can navigate even silly and stressful situations. Our ‘bad luck’ always turns around and ends up being the best thing that could possibly have happened. Losing things ends up in finding them – or other, even better things. Being disappointed ends up in joy-full celebration of something more fun/ free/ satisfying.
Like the Airbnb debacle. Which again reminds me of how automation in rural areas simply does not work best. The resolution centre/ help desk even going so far as to phone me, but having empty suggestions, and my eventually having to ask them to finish the call, so we could negotiate a room with some people we’d met in a bar… The whole situation could have been wholly different, IF we’d been in anything other than a relaxed and living vibration. The vibes are everything. Our uptight vibe the night before ended in us spending muuuuuch more money than we wanted to, and in attracting a drunk guy who hung onto us for several hundred metres and needed ‘paid off’ to leave us be. Again, we unwound the tension of this, but it was unnecessarily expensive and exhausting.
Whereas today we are comfortable, relaxed, inspired and enthused: so ready for the next leg of our epic journey - 
