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Hitchiking Synchronicities

by Chloe Markgraf

Taking off, for me, means hitchhiking. And in a way it's sacred. i mean, everything is sacred, but really, there’s something special about hitching. i’ve always felt it’s a direct interaction with the universe. i’ve often screamed my needs to the open road and watched as he, she, or they would pull over to pick me up soon after. There’s magic at play in those open spaces. i’ve found it there so often.

One time that especially astounded me happened about five years ago when i was traipsing around BC with some kinfolk whom i will name mamaya and bridg. i knew of the open road and all it had to offer, but this time i really got a dose of the incredible.

We were headed to Salt Spring, a wonderful island off the coast of BC. Unfortunately we had run out of money, but were determined to make it there despite the cost of the ferry. We knew that if we could catch a ride with someone who was going our way we could hide in their car and get on the ferry for free. But there were three of us, so it had to be a fairly big car... or better yet a van. We thought of our friend mike who was somewhere on Vancouver Island and we playfully called out to him, come and get us mike, let's go to Salt Spring and you can hide us in your van!!!

Time went by, perhaps half an hour, which i guess was a long time back in those days. And well, we sat there and ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches and decided that when we were done, mike, with his perfectly large vehicle, was going to pick us up and take us to Salt Spring. We munched down on the sandwiches and then stuck out our thumbs. A few minutes later a full-sized school bus pulled over!! We hopped on.

"Where you headed?" i asked.

"Salt Spring," said the driver.

Wow, we all thought. "Can we hide on your bus to get on the ferry for free?"

"Of course!"

Cool! Exactly what we needed, amazing. And we pulled off...

"Hey, what's your name, by the way?"

"It's mike."

Who would've thought?

This was the power of three womyn. But understand, it goes both ways.

There was another time when i was hitching from Vancouver to Nelson, with two other sisters, mamaya and val. It was late at night, but we had ambitions. We absolutely had to get to Nelson and leave the next morning for the US; we had magically found a ride from there leading straight to the Utah rainbow gathering in this beautiful school bus with a Quebecoise womyn. Seemed so perfect. But, apparently we had other lessons to learn Unfortunately the three of us were still working out our traveling dynamic; we left Vancouver latewanting, or feeling like we needed to get back to Nelson that night, no matter what. So we traveled through the Okanagan and made pretty good time, but inevitably it got dark on us and we were only two thirds of the way there. So, we kept at it. Now some people just don't hitch at night, but i'm really not one of those people. i'll hitch all night long, and then into the day if i want to get somewhere. i don't know if this is where the disagreement started, but someone, somewhere, about something or other. Tired, hungry, dark and cold, something set us off, and we started getting on each other's nerves. Of course, the next car that pulled up was off in some way. Well, there were actually two cars, and they wanted us to separate, which we refused to do. For some reason, we all got into one of them.

And we were off.

It seemed as though the two drivers were brothers, although we only met the one we were riding with. They seemed to be playing some kind of backwoods game: see how fast you can drive through the Kootenays. Now if you've ever been through the Kootenays, even during the day, you'll know how dangerous it is to drive on those long and winding roads, where deer and other animals appear out of nowhere.

There we were, speeding down the pitch-black road, and i was in the front trying to understand what was going on. Clearly they were messing with us, and there were no straight answers. He drove us for awhile, all three of us alert as hell because he was driving faster than we felt comfortable. Out of nowhere an elk darted out onto the road. Luckily we missed it, but just barely, and i think it slowed our friendly driver down a few notches.

Thankfully, they let us off in a town just outside of Nelson called Castlegar. Funny place; i always seem to wait ages for rides there. So predictably, we waited, and fought some more. Something had really thrown us off--probably the stress of the last ride--we were yelling at each other at this point. i don't even remember what we were angry about. Eventually we stopped some kid headed in our direction, and he ended up letting us off in the middle of nowhere, without even so much as a light above us. So there we were hitching in the pitch-black, on a road that saw a car every fifteen minutes. Not a good scene. We were pissed and not really conscious of the implications of our fighting; personally, i had failed to recognize the cost, in that moment, of wanting more freedom in my life.

A car eventually pulled up with four young guys in it. We looked at them and were desperate enough to believe that they could fit us all in. So we threw our bags into the trunk and before we could give it a second thought, the car took off. We could hear them laughing as they squeeled away.

All our stuff, mine and mamaya’s passports, all our ID and our money. val still had her wallet (smart girl), but all our gear was gone. These were not days of high-tech camping gear by any means, but the loss of a passport was crucial to our plans.

There would be no crossing borders the following morning.

A few minutes after the realization of what had happened began to sink in, a truck pulled over and took us directly to Nelson, where we happened to meet a friend who put us up for the evening. What a lesson. i learned that thoughts manifest, good as well as bad.

i’ve since noticed that ‘dangerous’ is also a relative term; i can choose to be afraid or i can take it as it comes. Really, i’ve hitchhiked in some obscure places, at all times of the day and night, in all realms of danger and safety. And the more i hitch, the more i remember my ability to determine the outcome of the situations i get into. People often worry about my safety, and it’s hard to explain it all to them in a nutshell, but all i can say is that it has to do with awareness.

Some people say i’m just lucky, but i know that ‘random’ luck is simply misunderstood synchronicity. Everything happens for a reasonalways. There’s always room to grow, and i know, both consciously or subconsciously, that i draw experiences to me in the form of learning opportunities, and that i also play a large part in this trip i take by choosing my attitude, my outlook and my way of dealing with all that i meet.

i don't know about you but i feel as though the more awareness i harness, the more i become my own guide on this journey, and it never ends.