Category: Outreach

December 27, 2016

Not talking doesn’t work for me. Relating with him now is like relating to my own 40-year old self. Keeping my opinions and preferences bottled up til they explode out, silent response and revealing body language, poverty consciousness and feigned then regretted generosity. 

I want to relate and create from where I am NOW! Relate with conscious purpose, striving for conscious, vibration-raising conversation.

The situation: john is driving along the carlsbad coast witbout speaking. I don’t know his plan or his desire. He spoke earlier of gping on the walk he told me about which I didn’t hear (“you weren’t listening”). I had envisioned doing our REI errand then returning to take johanna back. Well, we just got on I-5 going north. No walk? Dont know. No speaking.  read more

November 8, 2016

Election Day, and I believe that the Radical Forgiveness tools could make a difference for people in the aftermath! Colin shared a  blogpost about that very topic. My mind spins with the idea of having a FB group to field stories and share the tools. 

The idea is followed immediately with doubts and beliefs! “I don’t have time! I don’t have internet! I shouldn’t charge for membership!”

What can I do? What could go wrong? Why not do this?  read more

October 6, 2016

There are things I want to do and ways to be that I have been putting off. Although it’s easiest to say that it’s because I “can’t do those things from within my current partnership.” I put that in quotes because I know that those words are spoken by my victimself settling for her unfulfilling Old Story!

Here are some of what’s missing:

Singing/Playing Satori/Regular Touch-for-health/Using Radical Forgiveness tools every day to expand into love/Visiting friends and family/Fulfilling Forgivenesswalks/Walking slowly and observing Nature/Painting….. read more

October 5, 2016

It seems urgent to me that my mother has an explicit plan for her life’s concluding chapter. She’s 89 and says, “this body just needs to die. I miss Jim, and just feel ready to be finished.”

She doesn’t want to talk about how to do that, or what quality of life she wants, or the many variations of those conversations that seem important to ME.

So, it occurs to me that maybe these are questions for ME to explore for myself!

What’s important to me about rounding out my life- physically, emotionally, spiritually. What is this even called? Who is discussing what it looks like to live fully, in good health and spirit and then leave one’s body in completion? I don’t mean suicide, I mean at one’s time of completion!  read more

September 20, 2016

“Where am I? How do these covers work?” I wondered as I tugged at the thick comforter on the hotel bed. “Maybe this is another world from the trail, after all!”

Yesterday morning, light rain pattered on the tarp a couple of feet above my head. I pulled the down bag around me and snuggled back to sleep. “The rain was predicted to start around 3 a.m. so I have time to sleep some more before our final dawn walk to the border.”

A few minutes later John stirred, wondering what time it was. “6:05! The sky is getting light. Time to get up!” We would have slept in, delaying our arrival at the B&B at trail’s end where a shower and laundry beckoned. read more

September 15, 2016

Johnson, VT 5:22 p.m.

We are finishing up a fantastically successful resupply stop in Johnson. The last two days have been challenging for me. That rain we missed on Mt. Mansfield slowed us down – and made me colder than I like to be.

There’s an existential question in that for me about my limits between comfort and survival, speed and observation. I’m still exploring that, and will keep it til later.

For now, we’re heading out again – without an overnight in town, proving my mettle in laundryfree living, for the last 50 miles on the Long Trail. read more

September 13, 2016

It’9 p.m. and I’m standing on the highest point of Vermont. No, really! I climbed Mt. Mansfield, the highpoint of Vermont, at night! 
We reached the first peak, The Forehead, at 6:21, just as the sun was setting. The almost full moon was up. Happily, we had made it that far in daylight. Some of those obstacles had challenged my agility greatly. Leaning ladders, a slot called Eye of the Needle, an oblong and rounded boulder squeeze, things like that. 

The moon lit up the slope for the last half-mile easy slab walk up the final knob called The Chin. We kept our headlamps off and picked our way over the gray rocks. I kept thinking, “This should be scary and forbidding, but it’s actually very thrilling and not even so hard! What a neat thing to do!” read more

September 11,2016

My New Story that my amazing body takes me up stunningly beautiful mountains whenever I want helped me fulfill a wonderful accomplishment today!

We kept going past the Montclair Shelter, a good stopping point for a comfortably short day, to Camel’s Hump!

Tricky rock climbs, slabs, and straight-up trail made our approach up the 4,080 feet to a windy, cold summit.

But…

Wow! What a place!

360 degree view, perfect visibility, and even a siting of a surprise mammal, perhaps a flying squirrel. read more

September 11, 2016

First, I remember the World Trade Centers. May all the significance of that day be sanctified and elevated to its spiritual clarity, in perfect timing.

Now, for my current story. It’s 6 a.m. Thunder rumbles in the distance. The severe weather that motivated us to choose yesterday’s early stop at the Birch Glen Shelter has finally arrived.

I have no idea how many hikers are bedded down in this structure. After we had gone to bed, granted 7 p.m. is early, two college orientation groups of 8-10 hikers arrived!
They were graciously quiet, except for their clumping boots. It was a remarkably quiet night! Apparently, college freshmen sleep through the night! read more