skeithtacey
Observations and stories from across the planet.
Nope, my real name isn't Skeith
Howdy.
The name is Keith Stacey, perhaps by reading my name you could understand how a classmate in high school stumbled over those two names and accidentally made "Skeith" a moniker for me. I'm a born and raised Tennesseean, but having family in the Rocky Mountains I was exposed as a young kid to a sense of wonder and need for what John Muir calls The Wildness. The lowlands of the American South raised me, but I always longed to be in the High Country of New Mexico and Colorado.
I bade my time as a youngster pacifying this need with a lot of skateboarding and playing drums in churches and a punk band for a short while. Spending all my formative years involved with church services, I had a knack for behind the scenes work in live event productions (such as concerts). I did small event production work all over middle Tennessee in college; this allowed me to pay bills and rent on time without risk of eviction.
Before long I was a bonafide holder of a Bachelors of Science degree at the end of 2009, finding myself broke and jobless in an economy recovering from a recession. I was freaking out about life... as you do at that age. All I knew was I felt stuck in Tennessee; my beloved 1993 Chevy s-10 pickup truck was great, but it wasn't going anywhere long distance without the likelihood of exploding, thus cross country road trip adventuring was not an option.
After about of year of angsty existential misery in a state of depression, I found myself working in a warehouse for a stage-lighting rental company. I learned that warehouse work enhanced the angsty existential misery in a state of depression.... most people would have probably quit, but I had rent, bills, and student loans. I dealt with it. Then within a year I found myself on a tour bus traveling all over North America setting up stage equipment. That's when everything changed.
Before long I was traveling across the globe, working 16-20 hour days. On time off I was discovering coffee shops, languages, local taverns, occasionally escaping to the Wildness of the various regions I found myself in, and I discovered people from very different cultures than my own. And that's a big deal. My job forced me to leave Tennessee at long increments, and I'm all the better for it.
There's no shortage of evidence from humanity's greatest minds (and humble minds) advocating the importance of foreign travel to expand one's education and soul.
Comfort zone's are deadly...they cause people to feel safe and alive but really they're strangling the soul. My comfort zones definitely needed uprooting.
It's a constant process.
All of that verboseness to say, this website is me sharing my stories, the adventures I never knew I needed. I hope they're enjoyable and helpful. Mountains and Wilderness are my soul's haven, I need them and I seek them. But I can't stay in the out there forever. There is always the moment to go back down into the valley.
For years local coffee shops and cafes served as my meeting point between the mountains and the valleys. Coffee is typically farmed in mountainous climates. I particularly enjoy the imagery of harvested coffee traveling the planet to serve the purpose of, yes, caffeinating people, but also, more importantly, bringing people together in the valleys of life.
These stories and observations I've acquired didn't come about by any intent on my part; they came from being present to my surroundings on a job I was hired for, more or less, by accident—I showed up to the warehouse one day and took a chance when asked if I could up and leave. I'm glad I risked it.
Everyday I'm alive is full of chances and risks. The daily invitation to ALL of us is to take those chances and risks..... I suck at it and you likely do too. But we all have a beautiful thing called a BRAIN and as long as we maintain awareness of the NOISE (social media, etc) pummeling our psyches, we have access to abundant adventures and risks. Although my stories sometimes involve traveling great distances, most of life's risks and adventures present themselves within our own homes.... which is a good thing as there's a pandemic going on. (This was written in 2020.)
Everyday is a new invitation.