It's Time: The Tales of My Nomad Soul

By Ray Gudrups and Raimonds Gudrups

It's Time to Reconnect to the Person You Were Born to Be... the Person You CHOSE to Be!

It's no real surprise that words such as "story" and "journey" feel so similar and even interchangeable. A person's story is simply an account of their journey through this life. The joys, sorrows, adventures and insights gained along the way give life to the story, making it as unique as the one living it.
In this "hyper-connected" age, we can often feel disconnected from ourselves and why we're here. We blindly follow paths laid out by others, feeling increasingly unfulfilled as time goes on. Our stories feel as if they don't belong to us, like we're living another person's life. We get caught up in trying to find some purpose for our lives, some reason for existing. As a result we desperately search for it outside of ourselves, as if it were a treasure to be unearthed, or a secret to be revealed.

Every one of us at some point asks questions such as, "Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?" We ask it of our mothers, our fathers, our gods... but what if the answer is within us, waiting to be rediscovered? What if the only thing standing between you and your true, fulfilling path in life, is a choice?

That's the goal of this book: to help you understand and remember the choice you made but have forgotten. It's Time: Tales of My Nomad Soul is far more than a travelogue, or the story of one man's spiritual renewal among sacred stones found deep in the jungle. It's a tale of discovery, of reconnecting and reawakening to the subtle energies that mould and shape us all. It's an allegory to help you remember who you really are, and the reasons you chose to be right here, right now.

Author Ray Gudrups' journey along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain acts as the perfect metaphor for the journey each of must follow to find our true path in life. The insights gained throughout his travels will inspire your own inner pilgrimage. It will help you remember a time when you were full of joy, when your eyes sparkled with wonder and your spirit rejoiced in the infinite possibilities. Those feelings still exist deep within your soul. You've simply forgotten how to access them.

There's no need to wait for someone to push you from the edge of a cliff. You only need to catch the wind and spread your wings wide.
You were born entirely unique. In the entire history of the universe, there has never been another being exactly like you, and there never will be again. It's time to reconnect to that fundamental truth, and to be the person you chose to be so long ago. The answers you're looking for lie within. Check out It's Time: Tales of My Nomad Soul today!

Ready to begin your journey? Scroll up and click the “Buy Now” button 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ray Gudrups
• Release date: Mar 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9789934871061

Book preview

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Timeline

Prologue

It’s Time

The First Steps

A Different World

Pain and Disappointment

Help and Support

Loyalty

Love

Self-acceptance

Opening

Finding Yourself

Belief

Challenge

Birth

Epilogue

RAY GUDRUPS

It’s Time

The Tales of My Nomad Soul

© Raimonds Gudrups, 2017

ISBN 978-9934-8710-6-1

EDITOR – Paige Duke (archangelink.com)

TRANSLATION from Latvian by Kerija Ozoliņa-Ozola

COVER DESIGN by ArchangelInk.com

BOOK DESIGN AND LAYOUT by Marika Latsone

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS by Raimonds Gudrups

Visit www.mynomadtales.com

Table of Contents

Timeline

Prologue

PART ONE

It’s Time

Magnetic cycle. Drawing energy

I start my way to Santiago, but I am emotionally connected to Mexico, a place that gives me unconditional love and energy for new challenges and inspiration for this book.

PART TWO

The First Steps

Lunar cycle. Looking for stability

It’s raining heavily in northern Spain. There are still more that 900 kilometres to go and more than a thousand unanswered questions. I get lost at the very beginning. After finding my way back, I recover my vigilance and determination. On a long hike, somewhere between the sky and the earth, I let the path take me back to Mexico, where everything began during my first visit to Rancho Nuevo Leon.

PART THREE

A Different World

Electric cycle. Showing initiative

I have understood the meaning of this path and I become a part of it. The road up a hill in Mexico and another in Norway bring me to this realization.

PART FOUR

Pain and Disappointment

Independence cycle. Realizing the events

After my first days, covering 30 kilometres each day with a heavy bag on my shoulders, I start realizing what this path really means. My body feels the effort and voices multiple complaints. I reflect on two stories from Mexico. One about disappointment at Chichen Itza, and another about daily life as a stranger at Rancho Nuevo Leon.

PART FIVE

Help and Support

Sign cycle. The opportunity to open up

I meet a Canadian pilgrim who has come here at the recommendation of his psychotherapist. Jimmy, the tough and determined former soldier, and I, the Latvian child of nature, walk the Santiago Way side by side, encouraging and supporting each other. I look back on the time I had to leave the rancho and another visit to Chichen Itza when I witnessed the descent of Kukulcan.

PART SIX

Loyalty

Rhythmical cycle. Finding the balance

Having only walked half the day’s route and feeling every mile in my body’s aches and pains, I desperately need a new source of energy. Also, I have no idea where I will be staying the night. But I determine not to worry about it; I am learning to trust my path. I consider this pain and suffering as part of my challenge. I reflect on a story about Robin and his Rancho Escondido and another memory of three adventurers in Mexico.

PART SEVEN

Love

Resonating cycle. Energy and inspiration

My thoughts are tossing me from one wave to another, carrying me with them. I dive in, just beneath my feet, to emerge on the coast of the Caribbean till a wave lifts me up and carries me in a swirl on the coast of the Pacific Ocean near Mexico, and from there to the white sands of the Baltic Sea, and then back to the Bay of Biscay. I am here and I am everywhere. It all belongs to me. I scoop a small part of the sea in my hands to hold all the world. That is my love. I dive into it to become a part of it.

PART EIGHT

Self-acceptance

Galactic cycle. Honesty ordination

I have never understood the border between a dream and reality, between the past and the present—but here it was. I was like a bird with heavy frozen wings as I struggled through vague memories. This dream, this moment, was like a thick cloud of fog in a clear blue sky, and everything that was happening, everything that I felt seemed orchestrated to bring me to some honourable destination; I am still searching for it. I had the key, but I had no idea what to do with it, I hadn’t found the door. Everything has its right time, I tell myself, and I believe it.

PART NINE

Opening

Sun cycle. Self-realization

I wonder what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, one of my companion pilgrims asks one evening over a glass of wine. Has anyone checked the forecast? Are you staying at home if it rains?

I laughed. What, will you just sit and wait for better weather?

You don’t need a lot of time to accept the rules of this path. You put your shoes on and go. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s raining or the sun is shining, whether you feel lazy or dead tired. You become part of this path—you don’t walk it, the path leads you. It opens you just like a book, and you have to read it yourself. Some chapters have been forgotten, some characters left behind. On my rainy trek, I remember another story about rain during my time at the rancho.

PART TEN

Finding Yourself

Planet cycle. A moment of crystal-clear energy

Life whispers to me. You accept the wind with its gusts and you don’t ask where it is taking you. You hear the sound of the sunrise, and your footprints follow into mine on a seashore before a white wave washes them away.

Your hand rests on my shoulder; my breath warms your heart. I find myself in you, in your forests and seas, in your meadows and mountains. I find myself in the wind that you breathe, on the path that leads me. I find myself in a prayer. While looking for myself, I found you. This is the story of my time in Venezuela.

PART ELEVEN

Belief

Spectral cycle. Liberation

The path to Santiago has turned away from the sea for the last couple of days, and now it quickly takes me closer to the destination. The cold, vicious rain cannot break me, and a full rainbow is a celebrated prize appearing over a small village, finding its way straight into my heart.

My soul smiles with the tears of the clouds. I take this path as a part of me. I open my heart to the world so that it can feed my mind through my soul.

I spend the night in a monastery, which sparks the memory of my time in San Juan Chamula, a Tzotzil Indian village, at its mesmerizing church.

PART TWELVE

Challenge

Crystal cycle. Cosmic opening

This was my last day before reaching Santiago de Compostela. I wake up late, but there is no rush. I feel as if I am getting ready to receive my prize. It is still raining outside, but by now the rain has become my companion, my friend. It is the challenge of my path, my strength, and my faith. And here I am—the destination is within my reach, only a few steps away on the wings of the wind. I savour these last moments of my adventure, reliving a story about my lonely night on a deserted island in Norway and another time on a road trip in my old Beetle.

PART THIRTEEN

Birth

Cosmic cycle. Surprising your existence

And here I am at the crossroads. One path ends and a new one begins. I walk my life to live it again. The same sun, the same birth. This is the story of a moment. Don’t wake me…

Epilogue

Timeline

Prologue

What is this story about?

It’s about the world: the world inside of me and inside of you, the world that I hear with my heart and see with my soul. It’s about a dream that merges with reality—it is impossible to tell them apart, and I don’t even want to. I live in both worlds, being born in each of them again and again and waking up to experience a miracle—to flying side by side with the birds and converse with the wind. I travel in time because time wishes it that way, and time has no borders. Time goes on, and I go along for the ride. On one of my travels, I walked the path to Santiago. With every step of that journey, I felt as if I were walking through my life again, experiencing the emotions, the adventures, the situations for a second time. I was going through my life again.

I was returning to the rancho in Mexico. Spending a night alone atop a mountain on an isolated island in Norway. Walking the Mayan paths in the jungle of Guatemala, and letting the sun rise in my chest. With every step along the Santiago Way, my life and my travels came back to me, playing out again before my eyes. It is these travels, these memories coming back to life, that I wish to share with you.

As in the ocean of dreams, with no way to separate the surreal from the real, I kept floating in those memories of my past, remembering and reliving those moments again. There was no beginning and there is no end. It is time to be here and now.

The wind is alive, and the birds talk to me, and I know that it is time to go.

I take the first steps with pain, support, and help, earning trust and love to accept myself. I open myself to the world and find myself through faith and the challenge to be reborn.

It is time to go, but I stay.

It is time to go, to find myself.

Along the Santiago Way, I walk through my life again in 13 cycles, in step with the Mayan calendar.

***

Close your eyes. Can you hear? says the Muse of my life. Her voice is my voice, her words my words. She whispers in the depths of my heart so that I must listen with my soul.

"You accept the wind with its gusts, and you don’t ask where it is taking you. You hear the sunrise.

And your footprints follow mine along the seashore before a white wave washes them away. Your hand rests on my shoulder; my breath warms your heart; I find myself in you.

In your forests and seas, in your meadows and mountains. I find myself in the wind that you breathe, on the path that takes me, I find myself in a prayer. While looking for myself, I found you.

My sky mixed with earth long ago, lakes of clouds in the valleys, river rapids in the sea of stars. I know that the sun rises from a deep, dark sea and after a long day, it paints an hour of contentment with orange and gold with its paintbrush of rays.

I hunt the sun.

I catch it rising in the morning and let it set in the evening so that I can catch it again the morning after.

There are so many various sunrises in my soul.

***

This account is based on a true story … or maybe it’s not. I have never been able to truly distinguish between a dream and the reality.

Let me tell you a story! This is a story about me, a story about you, a story about all of us. It’s a story about each and every human being anywhere on this planet.

This is probably one of those days you have thought to yourself yet again, That’s enough! What am I doing here? Why? You reproach yourself. You poke yourself with a proverbial stick you just grabbed from one of your friends, who had just taken it from somebody else. Find your own stick and make yourself walk your own path. Take the road you feel is yours. Follow your footsteps to embrace your true feelings. You were born unique, so don’t die as a copy of someone else.

Do you remember the time when you were full of joy all day long? You were laughing and smiling. You were cheerful. There was a sparkle in your eyes, and they were full of amazement. It was your choice to be in this family. It was you who made the decision to be human—right now, right this moment.

We all made this choice to learn something new, to achieve something. We became humans with flesh and bones and wings to transcend unlimited boundaries for freedom and flight. From your spiritual past, you have inherited the power to fly with your soul, and you have never forgotten it. You have always known it and felt it in your chest. You have always wanted to spread your wings and fly. So what are you waiting for? You don’t need to wait for someone to push you from a cliff. All you need is to catch the wind and spread your wings wide.

This story is not only about getting from point A to point B. It’s not only about a pilgrimage or a pile of stone admired by a tourist somewhere in the jungle. This story is so much more. It is about time and space, the space that we have filled with time, and the time that we move around in this space by letting it go or bringing it back. Yes, exactly, bringing it back. Feeling it. The time that exists simultaneously in the past, the present, and the future—the time inside you.

This story is about the energy we play with, the energy that feeds us and moulds us into what we are. And this is what the story is about: the subtle energy that most of us have switched off or ignored. I, on the other hand, have learned to let it be my guide, my teacher, my punisher. I swim in the balanced energy of male and female. I feel the subtle movements and nuances of karmic energy that take my soul on this journey. And I simply follow where it leads.

Back in the days when I started travelling, I created a blog where I posted about my experiences and adventures. To be honest, I never liked travel stories that spoke only of the mundane details of eating and sleeping; so, naturally, my stories were more personal and philosophical tales. But even so, the stories were too different from each other, and I couldn’t find a way to tie them together.

Several years later, I decided to walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain, and that’s where I found the concept and the name of my book. As all books need a structure, I found mine in the Mayan lunar calendar (as I believe my soul has a deep connection with Mexican Mayans). Each chapter moves with this energy, emotions, and cosmic pulse.

The original title, Laiks iet, has a double meaning in Latvian: Time to Go but also Time Goes. It was a challenge to find the perfect match in English, but eventually my translator and I agreed on It’s Time. And in time, it has proven to be THE ONE.

Part One

It’s Time

Magnetic cycle. Drawing energy

I have a tattoo of a colourful, blurred watch. It represents the irrelevance of time. Nevertheless, it rushes by fast … and I go with it. I go where it takes me, I savour the moments it gives me, and I understand that my time passes. I know it will never stop.

Still, time has no particular meaning for me. It has never had limitations, deadlines, the beginning, or the end. There is time for everything. This statement has taken me on the most extraordinary adventures. And that is what this story is about.

We all perceive time differently. For some, it is a road from point A to point B. For some, it is a schedule full of various events. For some, it is a river that flows by with breathtaking adventures while they stand on its bank, choosing the right moment to jump in. I often jump in and just let it carry me. I am not disappointed if something does not happen or happens differently than I had anticipated. It just means that the time was not right yet; I was not ready. And even if it rushes me through cascades, and I end up on the opposite bank. I know the experience was not bad. There was EXPERIENCE! And the truth is, if you let the current and emotions carry you, the possibility of getting in the wrong spot is pretty slim.

I have always known that the path is more important than the destination itself.

The path is the one that leads us, it teaches us, it scolds and indulges us, and then it rewards us for all the effort with a prize: the destination.

Life is a road that we walk upon. Step by step, day by day, we take the turns of adventures and mountain paths of emotions; and as soon as one road finishes, another begins. Each of them teaches you and gives you something. They supplement each other and become the road of your life, painted by you. It is easy to accept it, learn from it, or just ignore it until this experience lights up something behind the next turn in the labyrinth of life. That is the way it moulds us and leads us down this incredible, adventurous river.

Just go with the current and let it carry you …

I let it. But it was not so long ago that I did not even dare to dream that I could.

I have always deeply appreciated the peace of the world around me and the peace inside of me. Silence and nature. These are places I can go to be one with my thoughts and feelings, to be with myself. When all my senses are awakened, I feel truly alive.

And then I felt the world that I had so desperately longed for. The energy it gave me was incredible, and it moved in the same frequency as the waves of the river of my life. It carried me; it protected me. And that is why Mexico became the destination of my pilgrimage. It is the kind of place where you don’t have to do anything; you simply let it carry you along. It is unconditional love. My soul feeds on it. I have returned.

And it is the only place this book comes to life, here in Mexico. This place spoke to me, and I listened to its message.

A couple of years ago when I felt that the writing of the book had come to a halt and I was not able to go on with it, life put me on the road of Camino de Santiago de Compostela and said It’s time!

At that point, I was between chapters in my life. My long-term relationship had just ended, and my writing was in a crisis. I just needed an extra boost and new motivation—time to gather my thoughts.

The road led me, and each day it told me something, it taught me, it scolded me until I blindly trusted it, letting it become the path of my life.

And there it is: two worlds, two roads, one story.

Well, let’s say it all began when, still being small and insignificant, I understood that I saw more, I heard more clearly, and I felt differently. I came to understand that I am not the same as everyone else.

When I completed my pilgrimage and returned to the present for the first time, everything seemed miraculous, vibrant, and tempting. I knew that I had never taken this road before. Everything seemed new to me; even a moonlit silver alley surprised me with its beauty.

I believed. I truly believed. I believed that it was possible to walk any road, and even if it were in the dead of night, each turn seemed like the one before—you remember just how many steps and breaths you had taken till the next one. The darkness was created so we could seek for the light.

It was like the quiet flapping of a bat’s wings or the dance of fireflies against the stars. Each curve, each turn along my journey was different. Taking a breath fulfils you, and when you let it out, you fulfil the world. You are one with it.

The Mayans knew this. In lak’ech hala ken: I am another you, you are another me.

An eye for an eye. A breath for a breath. A thought for a thought. Each thought that quietly comes to life inside of you is its own thought. It has always wandered alone along this path. And when I take my first faltering steps on its stony body, it finds me here.

A human being is never alone until the thoughts cease, until the courage to start a new path dwindles.

And then I heard the words, as if for the first time: Don’t be afraid. Let the thoughts lead you just as a road would.

And then I touched the ground that is called the Land of Gods. I touched it slowly as if kneeling in front of it in appreciation for the history, for the energy, for the intellectual wealth, for the smell and the taste, for each smile. That simple smile that is the true garment of the nations who are dwelling here, no matter how powerful and mighty their ancestors were—Maya, Olmec, Toltec, Aztec. And yet, they have not been forgotten. Zapatistas are fighting for their Indian rights in the region of Chiapas, while the Mayan descendants live their tranquil lives in Lacandon, although just a hundred years ago they never even imagined a different life. From unsettling fights for their rights to complete peace and jungle laws. And this is exactly the way a big part of the inhabitants of Mexico live their lives—in complete tranquillity and peace about the things to come. They embrace purity, naturalism, true values, and deep respect for their history and culture.

It is an early morning in the region of Chiapas, not far from San Cristóbal de las Casas. I think I’ve just heard a quetzal, the saint bird of the Mayan people. The dripping of the raindrops against the leaves makes a hypnotizing drumming noise. The heat is palpable, and a subtle fog rises just above the jungle, slightly covering the tops of the trees. I am thrown back thousands of years; each path is a witness to the greatness of Pacal, the King of Palenque, and his crusade, his retreat and return to the birthplace, the marvellous city of Palenque. The land bears witness to the bloody fights of the Mayans to gain territory and captives for their sacrificial rituals. It is a witness to Chichen Itza, one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites that keeps amazing visitors with its magical phenomena, like the descent of the god Kukulcan to his nation in the Yucatán Peninsula.

With each beat of my heart, I feel the amazement and fear that the Mayan nation felt when observing their mighty god slowly moving down the stairs of the El Castillo pyramid towards the mass of thousands as the quetzal bird spoke to the crowd from the top of this sacred place.

And not only that, I also stand in awe of the Mayan scientific achievements. Their grasp of mathematics, astronomy and physics, medicine and agriculture, politics and economics—knowledge that even now is admired for its insight.

But just as day turns into night, the numbers of the Mayan nation dropped from several millions to a couple of thousands in just two hundred years, and they were not able to withstand the legions of conquistadors.

It is quite possible that history would be different if the arrival of Cortés had not been foretold and awaited in the old Aztec prophesies as the return of their god to the nation. And so, the old civilizations gave their cities to the gods of forest, rain, and wind. But they took their knowledge with them wherever they went.

Every step in Mexico is proof of the gods and the great civilizations; every step is a step back into the past, into the unknown and secretive world that is like an open book to everyone who can see beyond tequila and cucaracha.

And so I spent some time wandering around with a heavy backpack, looking for somebody who would help me to unpack it. And with every turn I took, every village I dropped