I often like to hunt alone. Sometimes I like not having to be concerned with anyone else’s comfort, needs, opinions or well-being. It gives me time to think and process what’s happened or could happen. It’s also easier to enter “the zone.” Then again, the right person can be a gift. When I’m hunting, my whole world is about hunting. If I’m with other good hunters, then all’s well. I don’t know and don’t care if I’m a good traveling companion or not, if I’m a hunter among good hunters. It doesn’t matter if we find a piece of art Deco furniture or a primitive statue, a stone table top or a tribal necklace. Chills and goose bumps do occur. It surprises me how seldom chills are mentioned and how often they are a shared phenomenon.
Yesterday we were standing in front of the workshop (in Bali), looking at the second prototype of a dining chair we were designing. It didn’t “sing” yet. Why? Putu thought that the leg supports should be rosewood, not teak and Jakfar agreed. In a flash of clarity, I saw it: if we remove the leg supports and trim down the size legs and seat, we’re there! Perfection! Chills and Goosebumps. I looked at the other two and pointed to our arms. We all had Goosebumps. This “resonance of rightness” happens with people, experiences and creations all the time. Goosebumps are one of my guides in life. I’m informed by chills to pay attention to something, now.
Similar scenes of shared chills punctuate my life on the road. These are moments of confirmation beyond my making or control. They are imprints on our consciousness and memory. It is something like sharing the same green flash at sunset, the same horizon to horizon meteorite or the same branched lightning strike on the open prairie. Shared or not, these sensations and occurrences are a great gift.
To all of this, with both reverence and ecstasy, I shout a resounding “Yes!!!”
