"I set out one night when the tide was low.
There were signs in the sky, but I did not know
I'd be caught in the grip of the undertow."
from Undertow by Leonard Cohen
It can't be called a journey unless you have a way of knowing that you've moved off of the previous spot. It's been just over two weeks since my car was impounded due to late registration. Through a stroke of good fortune I was able to finance the car's release, but not without learning a few things along the way.
To think that I could have averted my problems by simply coughing up the $60 to renew my auto registration was somewhat simplistic. As part of the registration, I had to get to the car smog checked. Driving away from the towing yard, I noticed the engine check light. It had been on for many months and I now realized that this had to be rectified to pass the smog certification.
That I had to spend $800 for those repairs alone means that I would have spent that same money 6 months ago...money I most certainly didn't have at the time. It seems I was headed down this path in any case.
Perversely, I wouldn't have discovered the source of a financial windfall were it not for all of this. That money was just enough to cover all the costs accumulated with little left over. For all that was spent, I could have gotten a new car.
"Ditched on a beach where the sea hates to go
with a child in my arms and a chill in my soul
and my heart the shape of a begging bowl."
"Beg" is to receiving as "alms" is to giving.
Asking for financial help is the most difficult thing. Receiving charity only feels awkward and uncomfortable because I don't feel deserving. But if the heart can transform into the shape of an alms bowl, I can be nourished by the good intentions of others rather than be starved by my own self-criticism.

I remember a moment when it required all the courage I had just to give a dollar to a newly homeless man. He looked scared and embarrassed to have to ask. Me, looking quite the same because I did not know how to really care. Now I understand that a gift from the heart can be freely offered and graciously accepted, that we all grow from these exchanges.
It is good to be traveling under my own power once again.