Saturday, August 24, 2013
The soup garden farm market place.
The soup garden farm marketplace I imagine initially being two long post and pole buildings facing each other, the roofs shading the thoroughfare but allowing for some sun. Venders would have a ten by twelve foot permanent stall. These are some of the types of venders I imagine seeing at the marketplace; lots of fresh colorful
flowers, flower venders, fresh baked breads, soup stands, vegetable venders( local farmers), Painters, artist stalls, craftsmen, quality garden tools, locally produced textiles, honey venders, seed vendors, lots of color. A vibrant and wholesome market place, perhaps even with a small square with a micro stage. I have also thought that we could have a demonstration aquaponics system greenhouse attached to the marketplace. That’s all so far.
I also have been collecting pictures of marketplaces from around the world, online.
If you have any pictures of marketplaces,
I would be grateful if you shared them with me.
Thank you
Seth
Thursday, August 15, 2013
A online garden design competition.
A online garden design competition.
A online garden design competition for installation at The soup garden farm by a flash crowd.
There will be two different types of gardening at The soup garden farm,
permaculture and our primary soup garden of annuals.
Permaculture design completion vision;
Along the outside edges of the soup garden farm will be a permaculture boarder and walking path. A edible walk with shady places to rest and enjoy the permaculture.
The benefits of having a permaculture border around The soup garden farm are many. For instance, having a wind block and screen helps reduce evaporation. The border screen also limit’s the amount of noxious weeds, like yellow star thistle, that travel by wind. The trees in the permaculture screen aid in bringing moisture into the farm by disrupting the air flow over the farm and during storms causing the air to tumble and drop moisture on the farm. I would like to think that we could incorporate in to the permaculture boarder a large variety of flowers blooming from early spring to late fall. I believe it is important to give the bees as much healthy food as possible so that they may make it through the winter and thrive in the spring. I think humans also respond well to vibrant colors and smells, that the flowers would certainly provide.
The design competition vision for the soup garden of annuals;
I imagine the soup garden farm with all its facilities, (restaurant, shaded out door market place, student housing and gardens) to be from fifty to one hundred acres.
The show piece is the central garden. The design competition for the central garden, should reflect a view from above, so if you were flying over the farm you could look down and see a vibrant artistic expression.
I imagine a crushed granite path would lead from the restaurant to the center of the garden. The path would make the garden accessible by the public, further tours of the garden would be student led. I imagine this path could be shaded by hoops that annuals like hops, beans and a multitude of different flowering climbing annuals. Designers please allow for walk ways and access.
The flowers and vegetables are the pallet of paints and textures for those that compete in the design competition. Color, lots of color, a vibrant and fragrant, garden scene. The winning designer will have that years garden named after them.
One last thing;
The soup garden design competitors should incorporate the different flowering times in to their garden design so it is always becoming, a changing scene and design.
Please share this with your gardening and artistic friends.
And by all means start a conversation below.
The soup garden farm idea, is a idea I am forming right hear and now… and hopefully with you..
Funny idea;
At the restaurant there could be a periscope for people to see the garden design through, from higher up.
A online garden design competition for installation at The soup garden farm by a flash crowd.
There will be two different types of gardening at The soup garden farm,
permaculture and our primary soup garden of annuals.
Permaculture design completion vision;
Along the outside edges of the soup garden farm will be a permaculture boarder and walking path. A edible walk with shady places to rest and enjoy the permaculture.
The benefits of having a permaculture border around The soup garden farm are many. For instance, having a wind block and screen helps reduce evaporation. The border screen also limit’s the amount of noxious weeds, like yellow star thistle, that travel by wind. The trees in the permaculture screen aid in bringing moisture into the farm by disrupting the air flow over the farm and during storms causing the air to tumble and drop moisture on the farm. I would like to think that we could incorporate in to the permaculture boarder a large variety of flowers blooming from early spring to late fall. I believe it is important to give the bees as much healthy food as possible so that they may make it through the winter and thrive in the spring. I think humans also respond well to vibrant colors and smells, that the flowers would certainly provide.
The design competition vision for the soup garden of annuals;
I imagine the soup garden farm with all its facilities, (restaurant, shaded out door market place, student housing and gardens) to be from fifty to one hundred acres.
The show piece is the central garden. The design competition for the central garden, should reflect a view from above, so if you were flying over the farm you could look down and see a vibrant artistic expression.
I imagine a crushed granite path would lead from the restaurant to the center of the garden. The path would make the garden accessible by the public, further tours of the garden would be student led. I imagine this path could be shaded by hoops that annuals like hops, beans and a multitude of different flowering climbing annuals. Designers please allow for walk ways and access.
The flowers and vegetables are the pallet of paints and textures for those that compete in the design competition. Color, lots of color, a vibrant and fragrant, garden scene. The winning designer will have that years garden named after them.
One last thing;
The soup garden design competitors should incorporate the different flowering times in to their garden design so it is always becoming, a changing scene and design.
Please share this with your gardening and artistic friends.
And by all means start a conversation below.
The soup garden farm idea, is a idea I am forming right hear and now… and hopefully with you..
Funny idea;
At the restaurant there could be a periscope for people to see the garden design through, from higher up.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
My, To do list, for The soup garden farm idea.
OK, time to get to work!
This is where I shift into my, get it done pitch. Lol
I believe we can do this gracefully and beautifully. The soup garden farm idea, has the potential to create an organic and wholesome hub for communities around the world to grow out from. The soup garden farm idea, a market place with flowers, fruit and vegetables, local artists at work, locally hand crafted items and a gourmet soup restaurant. A restaurant, supplied by a artistically planted and designed garden. All tour-able. All managed by students.
On the farm, I imagine, the evening air filed with the music of instruments and voices.
This is my plan of action for this week and the week after. I will up date you on my progress.
These are the resources I am going to investigate in my area. You could explore your communities and see what resources you have available. I imagine we can build The first soup garden farm where ever it is popular enough and has the support to do so..
Resources in the Redding-Anderson area to develop the soup garden farm idea.
What do I have as possibilities and resources around me to further the soup garden farm idea in my area?
The need is hear in the Redding and Anderson area. The need being the homeless population, especially in Redding. I think that the soup garden farm idea could alleviate some municipalities of a considerable percentage of their homeless and less fortunate by offering and enrolling those folks into the soup garden farm idea two year residential student program.
Many municipalities have property that is vacant. These municipalities could transfer title of five or more acres over to the soup garden farm idea organization. Redding has several large pieces of unused property with water available on site.
I can go visit the Good news rescue mission and talk to Cesar Padilla.
The rescue mission in Redding is well connected and established in Redding.
I visited with Cesar Padilla the director of the Good news rescue mission a year or more ago. He told me that they had been gifted a large tract of land, several hundred acres. I am uncertain if there is water available on the property. Perhaps some relationship can be formed that would be mutually beneficial.
I can talk to the city council in both Redding and Anderson, to get the word out and see how receptive they are.
I can talk to the local garden clubs as well.
I can also talk to local produce farmers and see how they feel.
I can talk with the large box stores ( Home depot and Lowes) to see what kind of support they could offer.
I can talk to Starbucks, Yaks and Dutch brothers, to see what support they can offer.
I know some Starbucks have meeting rooms that we could meet in while organizing.
I can talk to local businesses, organizations and municipalities about the potential to draw tourist dollars off of I-5 in to the community, by drawing them to The soup garden farm idea. A purposely built local hub of cottage industries.
I can talk to the various organizations and meeting halls around the community, VFW, IOF, Elks and granges. Many one these organization have large meting rooms with chairs for larger groups to meet.
I can take pictures of the unfarmed and fertile fields in the area. I know many of these fields are choked with Yellow star thistle. These fields could have great potential for hands on farming. We could eradicate the Yellow star thistle epidemic in the area.
The bottom lands around Redding are from ancient river channels, most of the loam deposits are from the Sacrament river.
I can keep telling my story until I get enough support to get this done.
If you want to try this in your area lets compare notes and work this to fruition.
Seth j Galli.
This is where I shift into my, get it done pitch. Lol
I believe we can do this gracefully and beautifully. The soup garden farm idea, has the potential to create an organic and wholesome hub for communities around the world to grow out from. The soup garden farm idea, a market place with flowers, fruit and vegetables, local artists at work, locally hand crafted items and a gourmet soup restaurant. A restaurant, supplied by a artistically planted and designed garden. All tour-able. All managed by students.
On the farm, I imagine, the evening air filed with the music of instruments and voices.
This is my plan of action for this week and the week after. I will up date you on my progress.
These are the resources I am going to investigate in my area. You could explore your communities and see what resources you have available. I imagine we can build The first soup garden farm where ever it is popular enough and has the support to do so..
Resources in the Redding-Anderson area to develop the soup garden farm idea.
What do I have as possibilities and resources around me to further the soup garden farm idea in my area?
The need is hear in the Redding and Anderson area. The need being the homeless population, especially in Redding. I think that the soup garden farm idea could alleviate some municipalities of a considerable percentage of their homeless and less fortunate by offering and enrolling those folks into the soup garden farm idea two year residential student program.
Many municipalities have property that is vacant. These municipalities could transfer title of five or more acres over to the soup garden farm idea organization. Redding has several large pieces of unused property with water available on site.
I can go visit the Good news rescue mission and talk to Cesar Padilla.
The rescue mission in Redding is well connected and established in Redding.
I visited with Cesar Padilla the director of the Good news rescue mission a year or more ago. He told me that they had been gifted a large tract of land, several hundred acres. I am uncertain if there is water available on the property. Perhaps some relationship can be formed that would be mutually beneficial.
I can talk to the city council in both Redding and Anderson, to get the word out and see how receptive they are.
I can talk to the local garden clubs as well.
I can also talk to local produce farmers and see how they feel.
I can talk with the large box stores ( Home depot and Lowes) to see what kind of support they could offer.
I can talk to Starbucks, Yaks and Dutch brothers, to see what support they can offer.
I know some Starbucks have meeting rooms that we could meet in while organizing.
I can talk to local businesses, organizations and municipalities about the potential to draw tourist dollars off of I-5 in to the community, by drawing them to The soup garden farm idea. A purposely built local hub of cottage industries.
I can talk to the various organizations and meeting halls around the community, VFW, IOF, Elks and granges. Many one these organization have large meting rooms with chairs for larger groups to meet.
I can take pictures of the unfarmed and fertile fields in the area. I know many of these fields are choked with Yellow star thistle. These fields could have great potential for hands on farming. We could eradicate the Yellow star thistle epidemic in the area.
The bottom lands around Redding are from ancient river channels, most of the loam deposits are from the Sacrament river.
I can keep telling my story until I get enough support to get this done.
If you want to try this in your area lets compare notes and work this to fruition.
Seth j Galli.
Moving forward with The soup garden farm idea.
Moving forward with The soup garden farm idea, in the Redding and Anderson, California area.
Hello folks.
I write a lot about calmness of mind and lately I have been developing a idea on Facebook, “The soup garden farm idea“. the conversations I have engaged in with many of you, the readers, is humbling. My conversation about practicing and maintaining calmness of mind is my personal search for a understanding of myself, the world and all it contains. I have been sharing this exploration with you. My conversations with you my friends while on this journey…. Well… I couldn’t have made it this far with out you! You folks.. knowing you are out there and that we share so many interests and concerns in common…well, it really calms my mind…I sense that it calms some of you to, dear friends…. Our online activities and exchanges really inspire me…you, have given me the strength through positive feedback and input to strive to create a organization truly focused on bettering humanity.
This is where I am at now.
I have been caretaking this house, I fixed it up before I moved in several years ago. Now, I water all the shrubs, the flowers and keep the grass and various invasive plants mowed down. I have intermittent work that keeps me just above broke.. Lol…I am very blessed and grateful. My situation gives me time to write and develop ideas… I have been minamalizing and exploring for the last ten years, exploring through writing, the best use of my self for the betterment of humanity. I have had a broad range of experiences. I have read many books, mostly in, philosophy, business, and history. I grew up on a ranch with parents that where a part of the back to the land movement, in northern California, in the early seventies. One of my parents from San Francisco, bay area, San Rafael and my other parent from a Los Angles suburb, Torrance California. I grew up wholly in the country. We moved, I helped my Dad build and work on our family cattle ranch in Idaho. Our cattle’s home range is around two thousand acres.
I have always wanted to see what was over the next hill. The more mountains, valleys, oceans, rivers, countries and communities I visit, the more I wished for a better way for them. Perhaps not a better way, just a way, a way to stem the tide of suffering that communities seam to be plagued with, what I see as ultimately the result of a social sickness.
Looking for a solution, I have settled into developing the idea of; “The soup garden farm idea.” There are many parts of this idea I don’t have the experience to develop. I hope to find some of those people locally and online to fill in for me where I lack in knowledge and experience. If you read my writings on my blog and on Facebook, I think they will reflect my character and intent. I come on kind of strong, but it feels to me like it is going to take a amazing amount of momentum and bravado to get this done with no money. I see in my mind, The soup garden farm operating. Perhaps I should write you a short story of what The soup garden farm idea smells like , sounds like, looks like, and feels like. I will write that story in the next couple of days…
OK, time to get to work!
This is where I shift into my, get it done pitch. Lol
I believe we can do this gracefully and beautifully. The soup garden farm idea, has the potential to create an organic and wholesome hub for communities around the world to grow out from. The soup garden farm idea, a market place with flowers, fruit and vegetables, local artists at work, locally hand crafted items and a gourmet soup restaurant. A restaurant, supplied by a artistically planted and designed garden. All tour-able. All managed by students.
On the farm, I imagine, the evening air filed with the music of instruments and voices.
This is my plan of action for this week and the week after. I will up date you on my progress.
These are the resources I am going to investigate in my area. You could explore your communities and see what resources you have available. I imagine we can build The first soup garden farm where ever it is popular enough and has the support to do so..
Resources in the Redding-Anderson area to develop the soup garden farm idea.
What do I have as possibilities and resources around me to further the soup garden farm idea in my area?
The need is hear in the Redding and Anderson area. The need being the homeless population, especially in Redding. I think that the soup garden farm idea could alleviate some municipalities of a considerable percentage of their homeless and less fortunate by offering and enrolling those folks into the soup garden farm idea two year residential student program.
Many municipalities have property that is vacant. These municipalities could transfer title of five or more acres over to the soup garden farm idea organization. Redding has several large pieces of unused property with water available on site.
I can go visit the Good news rescue mission and talk to Cesar Padilla.
The rescue mission in Redding is well connected and established in Redding.
I visited with Cesar Padilla the director of the Good news rescue mission a year or more ago. He told me that they had been gifted a large tract of land, several hundred acres. I am uncertain if there is water available on the property. Perhaps some relationship can be formed that would be mutually beneficial.
I can talk to the city council in both Redding and Anderson, to get the word out and see how receptive they are.
I can talk to the local garden clubs as well.
I can also talk to local produce farmers and see how they feel.
I can talk with the large box stores ( Home depot and Lowes) to see what kind of support they could offer.
I can talk to Starbucks, Yaks and Dutch brothers, to see what support they can offer.
I know some Starbucks have meeting rooms that we could meet in while organizing.
I can talk to local businesses, organizations and municipalities about the potential to draw tourist dollars off of I-5 in to the community, by drawing them to The soup garden farm idea. A purposely built local hub of cottage industries.
I can talk to the various organizations and meeting halls around the community, VFW, IOF, Elks, Moose lodges and granges. Many one these organization have large meting rooms with chairs for larger groups to meet.
I can take pictures of the un-farmed and fertile fields in the area. I know many of these fields are choked with Yellow star thistle and remain unused. These fields could have great potential for hands on farming. We could eradicate the Yellow star thistle epidemic in the area.
The bottom lands around Redding are from ancient river channels, most of the loam deposits are from the Sacrament river.
I can keep telling my story until I get enough support to get this done.
If you want to try this in your area lets compare notes and work this to fruition.
Seth j Galli.
Hello folks.
I write a lot about calmness of mind and lately I have been developing a idea on Facebook, “The soup garden farm idea“. the conversations I have engaged in with many of you, the readers, is humbling. My conversation about practicing and maintaining calmness of mind is my personal search for a understanding of myself, the world and all it contains. I have been sharing this exploration with you. My conversations with you my friends while on this journey…. Well… I couldn’t have made it this far with out you! You folks.. knowing you are out there and that we share so many interests and concerns in common…well, it really calms my mind…I sense that it calms some of you to, dear friends…. Our online activities and exchanges really inspire me…you, have given me the strength through positive feedback and input to strive to create a organization truly focused on bettering humanity.
This is where I am at now.
I have been caretaking this house, I fixed it up before I moved in several years ago. Now, I water all the shrubs, the flowers and keep the grass and various invasive plants mowed down. I have intermittent work that keeps me just above broke.. Lol…I am very blessed and grateful. My situation gives me time to write and develop ideas… I have been minamalizing and exploring for the last ten years, exploring through writing, the best use of my self for the betterment of humanity. I have had a broad range of experiences. I have read many books, mostly in, philosophy, business, and history. I grew up on a ranch with parents that where a part of the back to the land movement, in northern California, in the early seventies. One of my parents from San Francisco, bay area, San Rafael and my other parent from a Los Angles suburb, Torrance California. I grew up wholly in the country. We moved, I helped my Dad build and work on our family cattle ranch in Idaho. Our cattle’s home range is around two thousand acres.
I have always wanted to see what was over the next hill. The more mountains, valleys, oceans, rivers, countries and communities I visit, the more I wished for a better way for them. Perhaps not a better way, just a way, a way to stem the tide of suffering that communities seam to be plagued with, what I see as ultimately the result of a social sickness.
Looking for a solution, I have settled into developing the idea of; “The soup garden farm idea.” There are many parts of this idea I don’t have the experience to develop. I hope to find some of those people locally and online to fill in for me where I lack in knowledge and experience. If you read my writings on my blog and on Facebook, I think they will reflect my character and intent. I come on kind of strong, but it feels to me like it is going to take a amazing amount of momentum and bravado to get this done with no money. I see in my mind, The soup garden farm operating. Perhaps I should write you a short story of what The soup garden farm idea smells like , sounds like, looks like, and feels like. I will write that story in the next couple of days…
OK, time to get to work!
This is where I shift into my, get it done pitch. Lol
I believe we can do this gracefully and beautifully. The soup garden farm idea, has the potential to create an organic and wholesome hub for communities around the world to grow out from. The soup garden farm idea, a market place with flowers, fruit and vegetables, local artists at work, locally hand crafted items and a gourmet soup restaurant. A restaurant, supplied by a artistically planted and designed garden. All tour-able. All managed by students.
On the farm, I imagine, the evening air filed with the music of instruments and voices.
This is my plan of action for this week and the week after. I will up date you on my progress.
These are the resources I am going to investigate in my area. You could explore your communities and see what resources you have available. I imagine we can build The first soup garden farm where ever it is popular enough and has the support to do so..
Resources in the Redding-Anderson area to develop the soup garden farm idea.
What do I have as possibilities and resources around me to further the soup garden farm idea in my area?
The need is hear in the Redding and Anderson area. The need being the homeless population, especially in Redding. I think that the soup garden farm idea could alleviate some municipalities of a considerable percentage of their homeless and less fortunate by offering and enrolling those folks into the soup garden farm idea two year residential student program.
Many municipalities have property that is vacant. These municipalities could transfer title of five or more acres over to the soup garden farm idea organization. Redding has several large pieces of unused property with water available on site.
I can go visit the Good news rescue mission and talk to Cesar Padilla.
The rescue mission in Redding is well connected and established in Redding.
I visited with Cesar Padilla the director of the Good news rescue mission a year or more ago. He told me that they had been gifted a large tract of land, several hundred acres. I am uncertain if there is water available on the property. Perhaps some relationship can be formed that would be mutually beneficial.
I can talk to the city council in both Redding and Anderson, to get the word out and see how receptive they are.
I can talk to the local garden clubs as well.
I can also talk to local produce farmers and see how they feel.
I can talk with the large box stores ( Home depot and Lowes) to see what kind of support they could offer.
I can talk to Starbucks, Yaks and Dutch brothers, to see what support they can offer.
I know some Starbucks have meeting rooms that we could meet in while organizing.
I can talk to local businesses, organizations and municipalities about the potential to draw tourist dollars off of I-5 in to the community, by drawing them to The soup garden farm idea. A purposely built local hub of cottage industries.
I can talk to the various organizations and meeting halls around the community, VFW, IOF, Elks, Moose lodges and granges. Many one these organization have large meting rooms with chairs for larger groups to meet.
I can take pictures of the un-farmed and fertile fields in the area. I know many of these fields are choked with Yellow star thistle and remain unused. These fields could have great potential for hands on farming. We could eradicate the Yellow star thistle epidemic in the area.
The bottom lands around Redding are from ancient river channels, most of the loam deposits are from the Sacrament river.
I can keep telling my story until I get enough support to get this done.
If you want to try this in your area lets compare notes and work this to fruition.
Seth j Galli.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Many tinny taps are as great as on big blow.
Many tinny taps are as great as on big blow.
Old Chinese proverb.
Humanity uniting, to perform a collective graceful action.
I have been writing about; practicing and maintaining a calm mind. Recently I have been sharing those writings with you. Why? Over the years I have been working my way through understandings and observations of humanity and myself, attempting to find a starting point for my self and the ideas I have been developing over the last ten years. During this personal search I discovered the brilliance of a calm mind.
A calm mind gives a human being the ability to observe the world around them un-tinted by the erratic, variable and irrational nature of emotion. A calm mind is the purest, logical and stable base of observation a human being can observe themselves, the world and the humanity around them with, with clarity. A emotional decision is a compound error that twists the reality we coexist and live in and is devoid of any truth except the pain one experiences from it, A self induced pain. When ever a human being is out of integrity with the rhythm of life, which is within us and all around us, they experience the pain of miss directed attention energy. Miss directed attention energy creates self induced illusions, within ones self and society at large, leading to perversion, extremism and social fracturing, the polar opposite environment is of humanity united and in harmony with the rhythm of life.
Humanities deepest fear and desire is to unite in peace. The what, that prevents us from uniting is the fear of the unknown out come, what unity and peace would be like. So instead humanity returns to the familiar pain that seams to validate their existence, pressing on, devouring the vagueness of mist, smoke and cloud as if to edify themselves, starving and always on the weary path of pursuit. Its like saying; I put my hand on the lit stove top every day to validate for myself that I am alive, then I sit with other burn victims and discus how to heal myself.
What about prevention by using logical reflection?
A calm mind is the only mental environment that has the potential to unite humanity in a , growing, enriching and stable future coexistence on this planet, a foundation built of logical reflection. Logical reflection, the purest form of observation, which can only be experienced within a calm mind.
I understand the draw of mental emotional sensation and one might think that logical reflection is devoid of emotion. The experience of logical reflection within a calm mind actually gives you access to the fullness of emotion without creating a personal deficit of illusion, that an erratic, emotional mind creates. Logical reflection, within a calm mind creates a stable foundation for a building emotion of love and joy. High points of the human experience being the discovery and exchange of information and experiences with other human beings about the rhythm of life. Within the experience of practicing and maintaining a calm mind and building a foundation of logical reflection, is the most natural, euphoric and vibrant emotional experiences one can experience. It is the most important experience humans can share, it naturally creates a sense of trust, it is the experience of unification and unity in all of its non-detrimental forms. Unity in the sense of all is one, including ones self, giving ones self to the whole, loosing the self in the whole and then finding ones way, uniting, until united.
The miserable, the less fortunate, those that are experiencing ternary and the homeless lost, are all bankrupt of a calm mind and the skills to logically reflect. This bankruptcy of being, is the state of the world and the state of humanity at large, now.
This time, our time, now, is like no other time. The opportunity and tools for humanity to unite is in our hands right now.
We only need but to proceed forward with a calm mind and logical reflection.
Proceed forward to where?
To unity of course, a organic unity, a sense of being complete.
The frame work required to unite humanity appears quite self-evident from the perspective of logical reflection within a calm mind.
The frame work being; transparency, free flowing communication, a building conversation and the opportunity to act, in response to, rather than reaction to, a growing, calm knowledge that is alive.
This ideology I have presented to humanity to consider, is the ideology I am approaching “The soup garden farm idea’’ with, a article I posted on my blog, sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com
“The soup garden farm idea“, the idea I am working towards, a location to unite around logical reflection and to begin organically growing and transforming our shared existence and future world.
What makes this possible?
We have the tools, the internet, social networks, human to human connections and our ability to share or growing experiences with those around us. We have the ability, right now, to unite a majority of the planet online around a foundation of fluid rather than resistant ideology. Focus that planetary unity on one location, plant the seeds of world transformation, nurture it and watch it grow.
In reflection of the old Chinese proverb,
If we where to unite online and focus our attention on one location, how big of a positive effect could we have on one location acting as one? And the next location? And the next location? And as our effectiveness grows, we champion larger and larger projects for the betterment of humanity.. Authored by humanity.
Please;
-Share this article.
- Start connecting and following folks online.
- Share your enthusiasm
- Practice maintaining a calm mind.
- Exercise logical reflection.
- Friend me or follow my blog
- Review “ The soup garden farm idea”
On my blog; sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com
- Contact me if you are interested in participating in earnest, in a specific way.
First assignment; first step towards unity.
Step #1 Share this article first, then the two, “The soup garden farm idea” articles second.
Step#2
Build your following and social networks online for the rest of this week.
Step#3
Then share these articles again at 12:01 pm on Saturday the 17th of august in your time zone.
I am looking forward to uniting with you.
If you have any questions, please ask me.
I look forward to communicating with you.
Seth Galli
Old Chinese proverb.
Humanity uniting, to perform a collective graceful action.
I have been writing about; practicing and maintaining a calm mind. Recently I have been sharing those writings with you. Why? Over the years I have been working my way through understandings and observations of humanity and myself, attempting to find a starting point for my self and the ideas I have been developing over the last ten years. During this personal search I discovered the brilliance of a calm mind.
A calm mind gives a human being the ability to observe the world around them un-tinted by the erratic, variable and irrational nature of emotion. A calm mind is the purest, logical and stable base of observation a human being can observe themselves, the world and the humanity around them with, with clarity. A emotional decision is a compound error that twists the reality we coexist and live in and is devoid of any truth except the pain one experiences from it, A self induced pain. When ever a human being is out of integrity with the rhythm of life, which is within us and all around us, they experience the pain of miss directed attention energy. Miss directed attention energy creates self induced illusions, within ones self and society at large, leading to perversion, extremism and social fracturing, the polar opposite environment is of humanity united and in harmony with the rhythm of life.
Humanities deepest fear and desire is to unite in peace. The what, that prevents us from uniting is the fear of the unknown out come, what unity and peace would be like. So instead humanity returns to the familiar pain that seams to validate their existence, pressing on, devouring the vagueness of mist, smoke and cloud as if to edify themselves, starving and always on the weary path of pursuit. Its like saying; I put my hand on the lit stove top every day to validate for myself that I am alive, then I sit with other burn victims and discus how to heal myself.
What about prevention by using logical reflection?
A calm mind is the only mental environment that has the potential to unite humanity in a , growing, enriching and stable future coexistence on this planet, a foundation built of logical reflection. Logical reflection, the purest form of observation, which can only be experienced within a calm mind.
I understand the draw of mental emotional sensation and one might think that logical reflection is devoid of emotion. The experience of logical reflection within a calm mind actually gives you access to the fullness of emotion without creating a personal deficit of illusion, that an erratic, emotional mind creates. Logical reflection, within a calm mind creates a stable foundation for a building emotion of love and joy. High points of the human experience being the discovery and exchange of information and experiences with other human beings about the rhythm of life. Within the experience of practicing and maintaining a calm mind and building a foundation of logical reflection, is the most natural, euphoric and vibrant emotional experiences one can experience. It is the most important experience humans can share, it naturally creates a sense of trust, it is the experience of unification and unity in all of its non-detrimental forms. Unity in the sense of all is one, including ones self, giving ones self to the whole, loosing the self in the whole and then finding ones way, uniting, until united.
The miserable, the less fortunate, those that are experiencing ternary and the homeless lost, are all bankrupt of a calm mind and the skills to logically reflect. This bankruptcy of being, is the state of the world and the state of humanity at large, now.
This time, our time, now, is like no other time. The opportunity and tools for humanity to unite is in our hands right now.
We only need but to proceed forward with a calm mind and logical reflection.
Proceed forward to where?
To unity of course, a organic unity, a sense of being complete.
The frame work required to unite humanity appears quite self-evident from the perspective of logical reflection within a calm mind.
The frame work being; transparency, free flowing communication, a building conversation and the opportunity to act, in response to, rather than reaction to, a growing, calm knowledge that is alive.
This ideology I have presented to humanity to consider, is the ideology I am approaching “The soup garden farm idea’’ with, a article I posted on my blog, sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com
“The soup garden farm idea“, the idea I am working towards, a location to unite around logical reflection and to begin organically growing and transforming our shared existence and future world.
What makes this possible?
We have the tools, the internet, social networks, human to human connections and our ability to share or growing experiences with those around us. We have the ability, right now, to unite a majority of the planet online around a foundation of fluid rather than resistant ideology. Focus that planetary unity on one location, plant the seeds of world transformation, nurture it and watch it grow.
In reflection of the old Chinese proverb,
If we where to unite online and focus our attention on one location, how big of a positive effect could we have on one location acting as one? And the next location? And the next location? And as our effectiveness grows, we champion larger and larger projects for the betterment of humanity.. Authored by humanity.
Please;
-Share this article.
- Start connecting and following folks online.
- Share your enthusiasm
- Practice maintaining a calm mind.
- Exercise logical reflection.
- Friend me or follow my blog
- Review “ The soup garden farm idea”
On my blog; sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com
- Contact me if you are interested in participating in earnest, in a specific way.
First assignment; first step towards unity.
Step #1 Share this article first, then the two, “The soup garden farm idea” articles second.
Step#2
Build your following and social networks online for the rest of this week.
Step#3
Then share these articles again at 12:01 pm on Saturday the 17th of august in your time zone.
I am looking forward to uniting with you.
If you have any questions, please ask me.
I look forward to communicating with you.
Seth Galli
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Getting started with www.kickstarter.com and The Soup garden farm idea.
www.kickstarter.com, appears to be the best place to get The Soup Garden farm idea the necessary funds to implement and install.
The next step is to write a business plan.
I believe if we want to become believable in the eyes of our kickstarter supporters, every
Thing from our financials to our process of development should be transparent and shared with the public, at minimum. I am going to develop that plan hear with you on Facebook and on my blog where I publish from. You the reader are encouraged to interact as much as you desire. I will ask for Online assistance once in a while, if you are interested in participating, do. Spreading the word about this conversation is the most important thing you could help me do right now.
I am going to brake down, The Soup Garden farm idea, into its separate areas of interest and brake down each area of interest, into it’s individual pieces, parts and activities.
From there we can get some scope on the idea and the estimated total costs to install, the Soup Garden farm idea.
The Soup Garden farm idea.
The Soup garden farm idea is a farm that produces all the vegetables for a restaurant on the farm that makes primarily soups. The farm is ran by students. The students, each on a two year program, operate every aspect of the business, the restaurant, the garden- intermixed with flowers, A bread oven, a soup cannery, a farmers market, a media and entertainment division as well as teaching customer tour groups. At the end of two years, groups of seven students will be sponsored to open a franchise location of The Soup Garden farm idea. The seven students become managing partners of a particular Soup Garden farm Idea franchise, they in essence become operating owners. A percentage of the income from each Soup Garden farm idea franchise will be reinvested in to the infrastructure and sustainable efficiency of that Soup Garden farm. A incremental expansion, with in a planed franchise process.
We want to duplicate farmers and farms by providing wholesome food, education, and a atmosphere for the local population to relax into.
Areas of operation, The Soup Garden farm idea;
www.kickstarter.com;
Kickstarter is a web site that a person or persons can submit an idea too to be considered and sponsored by online supporters. When we and or I, have the idea for The Soup Garden farm idea condensed into a business plan that is agreeable with all those that are participating I will submit the idea and business plan to kickstarter.
The Location;
I am going to base the Information I collect on the area I live in, the Redding and Anderson California Area. With the intention of Building a “The Soup Garden farm idea” in the local area, Chico California is another possibility as well, which ever community is the most receptive to the idea is where we install the first, The soup Garden farm idea.
The real resource we have hear in the Redding area Is Interstate highway 5, I-5.
I-5 has a massive amount of traffic on it, daily millions and millions of dollars roll by in the pockets of humans traveling north and south.
Just south of Redding is Corning and the Olive Pit. The Olive Pit is a localized cottage industry based on olives. The Olive Pit, is a store front, with a small food bar. The rest of the store is filled with a huge variety of jarred olives, it is the every flavor olive store, with just as many varieties of olive oil. It’s a wonderful place if you like olives and olive oil. The place is busy with I-5 customers. The Olive Pit is generating millions and millions all pouring into the local economy.
Chico location note;
Chico has a large college and student population, also highway 99 passes through town. More needs to be learned about Chico and the surrounding area to better understand how a Soup garden farm could sustain its self there.
Land Note;
I will be looking for land available that fits or can be mortified to fit the soup garden farm idea as it develops in the Redding area.
The activities, entertainment and media group;
This group will be the heart of the operation. This operations group will communicate with our online followers, promote and run Campaigns for the installation of additional Soup garden farm ideas as well as the scheduling of weekly evening entertainment At the Soup garden farm. This group will also develop a Youtube channel and design a reality TV show around the development of the Soup Garden farm idea and other projects that champion the betterment of humanity.
The student program and curriculum;
Each student of The Soup Garden farm idea,
Will be in a weekly rotation and be required to pass a competency exam in each area of operations within the soup garden farm idea to graduate and qualify as a franchise manager/ owner.
Each student is encouraged to build a off site support group that he or she communicates and shares their experiences with online daily.
The students will work in a group of three to seven members. Weekly they will rotate to a new educational work stations together.
A conversation of camaraderie and understanding will be part of the curriculum to help each team/group become more efficient as a functioning unit.
Student housing and hygiene facilities;
The student housing, I imagine as a bunk bed, barracks style housing, with community showers and bathrooms. Females and males will have separate housing and hygiene facilities.
Classes will be held on personal hygiene and food handling.
The restaurant and cannery;
Restaurant;
Menu items;
- I am starting the menu out with,
Soups, breads, roasted vegetables and salads. Everything grown in the garden or on the farm.
Note;
As for the menu items listed above, I will start menu development conversations on my timeline on Facebook. I will be looking for recipes. These same recipes will help guide us in choosing the vegetables to plant in the garden.
The cannery;
The purpose of the cannery is to can in canning jars, soups made from extra vegetables from the garden that are not used in the restaurant or sold at the farms farmers market. These canned soups will be sold at the farmers market and at the restaurant. A deposit will be charged on the canning jars, the deposit will be returned when the canning jar is returned.
The garden;
Garden design;
A design competition will be held online for each years garden design. The winning design will be installed in stages by a flash crowd. The designer of that years garden design will be rewarded with a one year pass for one, for free soup at the Soup Garden Restaurant and that years garden will be named in their honor.
The garden design as I hope and imagine it should be vibrant and colorful, a broad variety of flowering plants. My desire and vision of the garden is that it would draw life to it, bird, bees and humans. I want the garden to fill people with a overwhelming sense of joy.
The water and water systems;
The property that The Soup Garden farm idea is established on must have a good source of water. Either free flowing water from a irrigation district or wells.
In the event that our water source is from a well, solar powered pumps need to be researched and the right application installed for the site. If the property is on a slope holding tanks should be located at the highest point on the property, even then the tank or tanks may need to be elevated.
Water Note;
Total potential water usage needs to be established.
The Farmers Market;
During the summer months, the farmers market will be held out side, under a shaded market place. Soup garden farm will have a permanent display area for our fresh produce, canned goods, seeds, starts, breads and other products produced on the farm.
Farmers and craftsmen in the area will be invited to participate for free if they sign a attendance contract and make a deposit that will be returned to them at the end of the season.
The food delivery system;
I have not developed this section out at this time. I need to do more research. If you find any articles and or examples of a farm-to home delivery system you the viewer can refer to me, I would be grateful.
The retail and whole sale seed and starts program;
Seed collecting can be done in the garden off of the flowers we intermix in the garden and in the processing room in the cannery. These seeds can be saved for Soup garden farm to replant and the excess can be sold online and at the on site farmers market. We can also sell vegetable and flower starts in the spring and early summer.
Accounting;
All accounting will be run through a accountant and updated regularly/ daily.
All accounting will be transparent for the public to see and audit.
Energy use and alternative energy development;
-Solar water pumping
-Solar electric powering facilities
-Natural gas or propane
-Digesters for natural gas?
- Wind generator
Each one of these areas of function in The Soup Garden farm idea will be transparent and available for you to interact with.
When The Soup Garden farm idea has developed to the point that, the Activities, Entertainment and Media group, are functioning and online, they will manage the online conversation and updates. The audience will always be informed, and we will be informed by them and you.
Thank you very much for reading.
I look forward to your input and participation.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Soup Garden farm idea Update and progress report(1);
The Soup Garden farm idea
Update and progress report(1);
We are making progress, the idea and conversation is developing on my facebook timeline between several people now. Friend me, if you haven’t already and join the conversation. If you read my blog, follow me there as well, I want to stay connected with all of you folks.
Note; this project is intended to give human beings a way. We are focusing our efforts on the homeless and less fortunate. I believe it is necessary for this organization to be financially self sufficient. I believe it is essential to start building new models of sustainable business, to create a different and sustainable transformed future that is financially feasible.
After ten years of experiences, searching and writing, I stumbled on to a jewel, some thing that brought every thing into clarity. My deep desire for peace and calmness of mind. I am a bipolar chemically imbalanced human being that has experienced a broad range of emotional extremes… from catatonic to euphoria and back. By practicing and maintaining a calm mind…I have peace and joy now. I eat healthy foods now and as a result I feel more chemically balanced . A calm mind is a wonderful place to start a project or live life from.. No more madness.. I am practicing and maintaining a calm mind, I am responding well to life.. The most I can share with you are my experiences.. What I see and how I would do it.. I recognize that there is great intelligence and capability out there that would rather be doing some thing different with their lives, I hope this offers a way.
First conversation.
Below are some of the highlights of a conversation I had with, BlueOak Farm, a friend of mine on facebook.
Some background:
I went to Chico this last Tuesday to attend a writers group. I arrived in Chico a little early to have a look around the down town. Lots of little boutiques, coffee shops and art galleries. Chico‘s, down town has a nice feel to it. The down town area has a nice water feature in the town square, that kids and adults alike where playing in. In the town square I observed a scattering of trees where a large population of homeless people lounged in the shade, some gathered in calm conversation.
I stopped in a antiques shop and fell in to conversation with the shop keeper. She told me about a customer of hers that had been beaten in Bidwell Park, she was very distressed about the incident. We talked about a broad range of subjects, conversations mostly stemming from the art of local artist she displayed in her shop.
We exchanged contact information, we both shared many social interests.
I got in my car programmed my GPS for the house the writers group was meeting at.
About five minutes latter I was there. I parked in front of the house, got out changed my shirt. Across the street I could see a entrance to Bidwell park. I was more than a half hour early. I thought, I will just go for a walk in the park, but first I should let the folks hosting the writes group know what I am doing. I walked to the front door and knocked, a lady in her late fifties answered the door, I introduced my self and told her I was going for a walk at the park before the group met. She was very welcoming and said she would see me in a half hour or so.
I walked across the street to the park, I followed a dirt path to a asphalt bike path that follows a stream, the path is wide and is skirted by huge old oak trees and other large trees I failed to identify. A guy road by on a bike, I asked him if there was a map of the park around… he ignored me.. Another person road by he to ignored me… I was dressed in clean clothes, fresh haircut and shave.. Humm.. I thought about the conversation with the shop owner, about the man that was beaten in the park.. Living in Redding California, only sixty or so miles from Chico, I had heard similar reports in the news, about incidence in Bidwell park.
I stopped and shared a status report on face book;
I’m at Bidwell park going for a walk, it’s nice, I asked for directions from several people and they walked by or rode by on a bike and ignored me. I guess there has been some youth violence in the park. Nice park.
A moment later two older gentleman walked towards me on the bike path, I asked them if they knew if there was a map of the bike path. They acknowledged me and told me that they weren’t aware of a map of the park, but that it was a green belt that followed the stream, they added, that it was a big loop. I could feel their apprehension in talking to me..
I went to the writers group, enjoyed the exchange of information, ideas and writings.
I headed home to Anderson.
I got home and made dinner. I checked to see what was going on on Facebook.
There was some comments on my Bidwell park status update. I responded to the comments, a thread of comments became a conversation started between my self and BlueOak farm. We started discussing the homeless problem in Redding and Chico..
( Look on my timeline at the status that starts out; “I’m in Bidwell park..” Look at the comment section for the conversation we had (48 comments).
We both agreed the homeless problem was a difficult social problem to solve.
BlueOak farm had read an earlier post I had shared from my blog, Sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com, About;
The Soup Garden farm idea.
The Soup garden farm idea is a farm that produces all the vegetables for a restaurant on the farm that makes primarily soups. The farm is ran by students. The students, each on a two year program, operate every aspect of the business, the restaurant, the garden- intermixed with flowers, A bread oven, a soup cannery, a farmers market, Entertainment and teaching customer tour groups. At the end of two years, groups of seven students will be sponsored to open a franchise location of The Soup Garden farm idea. The seven students become managing partners of a particular Soup Garden farm
Idea, they in essence become operating owners. With a fixed percentage of the income from each Soup Garden farm idea being reinvested in to the infrastructure and sustainable efficiency of that Soup Garden farm. A planed incremental expansion. As a duplicatable franchise process.
We want to duplicate farmers and farms by providing wholesome food, education, and atmosphere for the population to relax into.
That is the basic out line of the Idea that BlueOak farm and I discussed, we discussed ways and concerns of integrating the homeless into the student program of Soup Garden farms idea.
I will leave that conversation there for now.
It is a good read, look at it in my timeline, the conversation that starts out “I’m at Bidwell park..” look at the comments section for the thread of conversation.
Ok, the next conversation, yesterday, Wednesday, I had a great conversation with another friend of mine on facebook.
Bronny NZ, chimed in about the Soup Garden farm idea and read the conversation that Blue oak farm and I had had. She posted a picture and a link on my timeline, that read; “A few More ideas added to Seth’s “Soup Garden farm idea”
Great Idea!!” with a picture,
The picture is a backyard thriving with greenery, a table with cloth, some folks sitting around playing guitars, it appears to be a really relaxed atmosphere.
Then a link to my Blog. In the comments section she posted several links to a bunch of different project people are working on.
Bronny NZ, brought a bunch of resources to the conversation, resources that would have otherwise taken me a long time to sort through and find. She also gave a out line of an idea that she had come up with, “hut” stop, little organic food trailers along a long stretch of highway in New Zealand.
All and all, Bronny NZ brought a lot of support, resources, experience, ideas and enthusiasm to the conversation around The Soup Garden farm idea.
The purpose of this update is to illustrate by example how people can align themselves online and find the middle ground and develop an idea. With the details from these two conversations we have created and have given The Soup Garden farm Idea more Depth and clarity as well as supporting articles. As we have more conversations we will uncover more details, until we have enough interest and support to install A “Soup Garden farm Idea“. join the conversation, present an idea that would apply to the Soup Garden farm idea, ask a question.
Please use the comment section below, on my face book timeline, to continue to grow the conversation into a “Soup Garden farm idea” installation.
Please share this conversation, from my blog or from my Facebook timeline, Seth j Galli, with every one you know and can. The more we spread the word about this developing idea and raise the level of awareness, the closer we come to watching A Soup Garden farm in action, on the ground, growing and creating abundance into our lives.
One last thing!
I will start the conversation off, look at my first comment ;-)
Update and progress report(1);
We are making progress, the idea and conversation is developing on my facebook timeline between several people now. Friend me, if you haven’t already and join the conversation. If you read my blog, follow me there as well, I want to stay connected with all of you folks.
Note; this project is intended to give human beings a way. We are focusing our efforts on the homeless and less fortunate. I believe it is necessary for this organization to be financially self sufficient. I believe it is essential to start building new models of sustainable business, to create a different and sustainable transformed future that is financially feasible.
After ten years of experiences, searching and writing, I stumbled on to a jewel, some thing that brought every thing into clarity. My deep desire for peace and calmness of mind. I am a bipolar chemically imbalanced human being that has experienced a broad range of emotional extremes… from catatonic to euphoria and back. By practicing and maintaining a calm mind…I have peace and joy now. I eat healthy foods now and as a result I feel more chemically balanced . A calm mind is a wonderful place to start a project or live life from.. No more madness.. I am practicing and maintaining a calm mind, I am responding well to life.. The most I can share with you are my experiences.. What I see and how I would do it.. I recognize that there is great intelligence and capability out there that would rather be doing some thing different with their lives, I hope this offers a way.
First conversation.
Below are some of the highlights of a conversation I had with, BlueOak Farm, a friend of mine on facebook.
Some background:
I went to Chico this last Tuesday to attend a writers group. I arrived in Chico a little early to have a look around the down town. Lots of little boutiques, coffee shops and art galleries. Chico‘s, down town has a nice feel to it. The down town area has a nice water feature in the town square, that kids and adults alike where playing in. In the town square I observed a scattering of trees where a large population of homeless people lounged in the shade, some gathered in calm conversation.
I stopped in a antiques shop and fell in to conversation with the shop keeper. She told me about a customer of hers that had been beaten in Bidwell Park, she was very distressed about the incident. We talked about a broad range of subjects, conversations mostly stemming from the art of local artist she displayed in her shop.
We exchanged contact information, we both shared many social interests.
I got in my car programmed my GPS for the house the writers group was meeting at.
About five minutes latter I was there. I parked in front of the house, got out changed my shirt. Across the street I could see a entrance to Bidwell park. I was more than a half hour early. I thought, I will just go for a walk in the park, but first I should let the folks hosting the writes group know what I am doing. I walked to the front door and knocked, a lady in her late fifties answered the door, I introduced my self and told her I was going for a walk at the park before the group met. She was very welcoming and said she would see me in a half hour or so.
I walked across the street to the park, I followed a dirt path to a asphalt bike path that follows a stream, the path is wide and is skirted by huge old oak trees and other large trees I failed to identify. A guy road by on a bike, I asked him if there was a map of the park around… he ignored me.. Another person road by he to ignored me… I was dressed in clean clothes, fresh haircut and shave.. Humm.. I thought about the conversation with the shop owner, about the man that was beaten in the park.. Living in Redding California, only sixty or so miles from Chico, I had heard similar reports in the news, about incidence in Bidwell park.
I stopped and shared a status report on face book;
I’m at Bidwell park going for a walk, it’s nice, I asked for directions from several people and they walked by or rode by on a bike and ignored me. I guess there has been some youth violence in the park. Nice park.
A moment later two older gentleman walked towards me on the bike path, I asked them if they knew if there was a map of the bike path. They acknowledged me and told me that they weren’t aware of a map of the park, but that it was a green belt that followed the stream, they added, that it was a big loop. I could feel their apprehension in talking to me..
I went to the writers group, enjoyed the exchange of information, ideas and writings.
I headed home to Anderson.
I got home and made dinner. I checked to see what was going on on Facebook.
There was some comments on my Bidwell park status update. I responded to the comments, a thread of comments became a conversation started between my self and BlueOak farm. We started discussing the homeless problem in Redding and Chico..
( Look on my timeline at the status that starts out; “I’m in Bidwell park..” Look at the comment section for the conversation we had (48 comments).
We both agreed the homeless problem was a difficult social problem to solve.
BlueOak farm had read an earlier post I had shared from my blog, Sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com, About;
The Soup Garden farm idea.
The Soup garden farm idea is a farm that produces all the vegetables for a restaurant on the farm that makes primarily soups. The farm is ran by students. The students, each on a two year program, operate every aspect of the business, the restaurant, the garden- intermixed with flowers, A bread oven, a soup cannery, a farmers market, Entertainment and teaching customer tour groups. At the end of two years, groups of seven students will be sponsored to open a franchise location of The Soup Garden farm idea. The seven students become managing partners of a particular Soup Garden farm
Idea, they in essence become operating owners. With a fixed percentage of the income from each Soup Garden farm idea being reinvested in to the infrastructure and sustainable efficiency of that Soup Garden farm. A planed incremental expansion. As a duplicatable franchise process.
We want to duplicate farmers and farms by providing wholesome food, education, and atmosphere for the population to relax into.
That is the basic out line of the Idea that BlueOak farm and I discussed, we discussed ways and concerns of integrating the homeless into the student program of Soup Garden farms idea.
I will leave that conversation there for now.
It is a good read, look at it in my timeline, the conversation that starts out “I’m at Bidwell park..” look at the comments section for the thread of conversation.
Ok, the next conversation, yesterday, Wednesday, I had a great conversation with another friend of mine on facebook.
Bronny NZ, chimed in about the Soup Garden farm idea and read the conversation that Blue oak farm and I had had. She posted a picture and a link on my timeline, that read; “A few More ideas added to Seth’s “Soup Garden farm idea”
Great Idea!!” with a picture,
The picture is a backyard thriving with greenery, a table with cloth, some folks sitting around playing guitars, it appears to be a really relaxed atmosphere.
Then a link to my Blog. In the comments section she posted several links to a bunch of different project people are working on.
Bronny NZ, brought a bunch of resources to the conversation, resources that would have otherwise taken me a long time to sort through and find. She also gave a out line of an idea that she had come up with, “hut” stop, little organic food trailers along a long stretch of highway in New Zealand.
All and all, Bronny NZ brought a lot of support, resources, experience, ideas and enthusiasm to the conversation around The Soup Garden farm idea.
The purpose of this update is to illustrate by example how people can align themselves online and find the middle ground and develop an idea. With the details from these two conversations we have created and have given The Soup Garden farm Idea more Depth and clarity as well as supporting articles. As we have more conversations we will uncover more details, until we have enough interest and support to install A “Soup Garden farm Idea“. join the conversation, present an idea that would apply to the Soup Garden farm idea, ask a question.
Please use the comment section below, on my face book timeline, to continue to grow the conversation into a “Soup Garden farm idea” installation.
Please share this conversation, from my blog or from my Facebook timeline, Seth j Galli, with every one you know and can. The more we spread the word about this developing idea and raise the level of awareness, the closer we come to watching A Soup Garden farm in action, on the ground, growing and creating abundance into our lives.
One last thing!
I will start the conversation off, look at my first comment ;-)
Monday, August 5, 2013
THE SOUP GARDEN FARM IDEA
The soup garden.
A chain of organic farms incorporating; restaurants, farmers markets and canneries.
The soup garden.
Imagine a 5, 10, 20, acre piece of farm ground,
Now imagine on that farm ground towards the front and near a main road, a large ( 80 by 200 ft), simple, low, barn roof style building, open in the inside, with screened in windows, a cement floor, a big brick bread oven in the center, picnic table style with benches.
An aroma of herbs and spices, the smells of reducing soups, and fresh bread sticks, would be the first thing you would smell when you walked in. Our goal would be to capture the imagination of; your gut, your tongue and your mind.
The garden.
I would like to imagine flowers generously sprinkled and growing everywhere in the garden. When a customer comes to tour the farm I want them to be overwhelmed with vibrant colors and smells.
The garden would be focused on growing all of the soup ingredients for the restaurant and canning the surplus soups for sale.
The garden would also be designed to be tour-able and educational for the public.
The first Soup Garden Farm.
The first soup garden restaurant, cannery and farmers market would all be run by students.
Students that would go through a two year residential program to learn every aspect of the operation of a Soup Garden farm franchise.
After completing the two year course, groups of seven students, would be sponsored to open up another Soup Garden farm, in a community that wanted and supported one opening in their community.
How I imagine making this work.
Well it all starts with a media and entertainment organization, that promotes ideas such as this one, on a reality TV show, the promoters and the idea developers are the show, every thing trans parent to our audience, and the audience gets to vote and help direct our ideas and the ideas we are working on.
How do we get started?
First I am looking for a team of seven people.
Those seven people and my self will build up our audience base hear on facebook, on twitter, on Google plus, on pintrest, on Youtube and send a copy of this idea to every news and media organization.
We will spread the idea above, until we garner enough attention, to put together a kick starter project or a sponsor/ spokesperson steps forward willing to help us get established.
The reality TV show is how we can make this idea and others like it thrive.
Your welcome to join me in creating this organic community oriented rejuvenation project and the many more to come.
Our primary goals as a media organization are; To unite people, to educate people, to create jobs, to plant gardens and feed people, to house people, to strengthen communities and clean up the planet.
Tools the reality TV show participants will be using; flash crowds, audience participation, transparency, online design competitions, and shear numbers of followers to influence a transformation for the betterment of humanity and the planet we live on.
Please share this idea, I believe this it is the most important thing you can do to bring this into being. E-mail it everywhere.
Thank you.
PS. Pleas feel free to contact me if you are interested in working with me.
sjgalli@gmail.com
Please share this with the world.
I love you all deeply.
A chain of organic farms incorporating; restaurants, farmers markets and canneries.
The soup garden.
Imagine a 5, 10, 20, acre piece of farm ground,
Now imagine on that farm ground towards the front and near a main road, a large ( 80 by 200 ft), simple, low, barn roof style building, open in the inside, with screened in windows, a cement floor, a big brick bread oven in the center, picnic table style with benches.
An aroma of herbs and spices, the smells of reducing soups, and fresh bread sticks, would be the first thing you would smell when you walked in. Our goal would be to capture the imagination of; your gut, your tongue and your mind.
The garden.
I would like to imagine flowers generously sprinkled and growing everywhere in the garden. When a customer comes to tour the farm I want them to be overwhelmed with vibrant colors and smells.
The garden would be focused on growing all of the soup ingredients for the restaurant and canning the surplus soups for sale.
The garden would also be designed to be tour-able and educational for the public.
The first Soup Garden Farm.
The first soup garden restaurant, cannery and farmers market would all be run by students.
Students that would go through a two year residential program to learn every aspect of the operation of a Soup Garden farm franchise.
After completing the two year course, groups of seven students, would be sponsored to open up another Soup Garden farm, in a community that wanted and supported one opening in their community.
How I imagine making this work.
Well it all starts with a media and entertainment organization, that promotes ideas such as this one, on a reality TV show, the promoters and the idea developers are the show, every thing trans parent to our audience, and the audience gets to vote and help direct our ideas and the ideas we are working on.
How do we get started?
First I am looking for a team of seven people.
Those seven people and my self will build up our audience base hear on facebook, on twitter, on Google plus, on pintrest, on Youtube and send a copy of this idea to every news and media organization.
We will spread the idea above, until we garner enough attention, to put together a kick starter project or a sponsor/ spokesperson steps forward willing to help us get established.
The reality TV show is how we can make this idea and others like it thrive.
Your welcome to join me in creating this organic community oriented rejuvenation project and the many more to come.
Our primary goals as a media organization are; To unite people, to educate people, to create jobs, to plant gardens and feed people, to house people, to strengthen communities and clean up the planet.
Tools the reality TV show participants will be using; flash crowds, audience participation, transparency, online design competitions, and shear numbers of followers to influence a transformation for the betterment of humanity and the planet we live on.
Please share this idea, I believe this it is the most important thing you can do to bring this into being. E-mail it everywhere.
Thank you.
PS. Pleas feel free to contact me if you are interested in working with me.
sjgalli@gmail.com
Please share this with the world.
I love you all deeply.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
The future is coming to you!
The future is coming to you!
Fiction or reality, you choose!
So what it comes down to, is really building it, the future!
To many I may appear bodacious, but if you read through the history of my writing, you will find that’s not entirely true…. Lol.
I believe I observe the world uninhibited and transformable.
I have a vision of the world transformed.
I started out on the opposite end of now, I envisioned huge city’s that where single building cities, I envisioned recycling whole cities, I investigated a lot of necessary internal systems and added efficiencies where I thought they could work. I have many ideas for what I call Efficient human living systems.
Imagine a pyramid two thousand feet tall that comfortably housed a million people or more. Imagine all the land for miles around it, the view from the city, sprinkled with flowers and Farms organically built into the landscape, and then beyond that, forests and savanna. Trains would service the people and the city. All tracks leading north and away from the city.
My problem wasn’t designing the city, there is smart people to do that and there is lots of futuristic cities out there on the internet.
The real challenge was to get people to want to live in a single building pyramid city, to even imagine it, the money to buy the land, to design it, to collect the resources and build it, that was the tough part to figure out…
So I started thinking about humans, I started observing humans, I started observing myself.
What did I really want?
Not this building.
I wanted to contribute back to humanity for the grace humanity has offered me in my life.
Appreciation and introduction.
I discovered the starting point
Just a couple months ago, It all started with a calm mind and you my wonderful friends online supporting me in my writings. You folks hear on facebook and blogger, have given me the courage to dream on and connect the dots. I believe in you, because you believe in me, and you know that I am just another foul-able human being that wants to be present and participate in the world transformation that is necessary.. My friends, humanity, you are what and who is important, I know that.
Actually, we have already started down the path to pyramid city or some future efficient city. The moment I started writing this document your reading, the movement was begun, the idea planted, the vision shared. The ripple effect of this document and the ideas within, are now transforming our future even as you read.
We are going to start off as a media and entertainment company.
We are going to entertain you, as we recruit followers, participants, design and install
The transforming future right in front of you, with your help, you get to choose.
We are creating a continues reality TV show, that interacts with you the online audience. First on Youtube, then cable, The audience gets to chose what our transforming future looks like, Our direction, our designs and our own high standards which we hope to achieve. With out you, the online interactive participants, to help guide us with choice, we would have no audience and no interest. The whole thing is based on you choosing your potential future, with some creative and organizing assistance.
The whole organization will remain transparent and audit-able by all followers at all times. We expect the feed back, so we may become more efficient and transformable, eventually reflecting a constant state of trans formative being.
Online groups will be formed on fully interactive platforms and managed by teams, who’s completely transparent developing conversations will be online and on camera available for all to observe.
These online groups and conversations will range from; the soil food webs, microbes and mycelia, that supplies us with our food, to; the content in the steel that erects our future cities. The entertainment will be the future we are building.
First; We will start building our base of followers off of my Facebook profile page.
We need to build a large group of followers to build a voice.
We can talk about this idea there.
Second; Once we garner enough attention, either I will find some one that can help me put a Kikestarter idea together to get the initial financing necessary to assemble the first team of reality TV world transformers.
Or, a person steps forward to sponsor and speak in support of the team of reality TV world transformers.
Third; Establish a headquarters/ barracks and start interacting online and filming the reality TV continuum.
That’s the plan so far, once we assemble in a headquarters we will continue further developing the idea, and you with us there watching, choosing and participating In the design of our future.
My function is to be an observe, support, participate, contribute and be present with a calm mind.
I only ask that you share this if you find this interesting, and please do friend and follow me.
Note;
I will not be forming any other groups unless I announce it, on line and on camera.
Thank you, and I will see you in the future we make together.
Seth J. Galli
NOTE;
I reserve the right to this collection of harmonious ideas for humanity and the betterment of humanity.
PS. May a calm mind overtake you and sweep you away in joy.
Fiction or reality, you choose!
So what it comes down to, is really building it, the future!
To many I may appear bodacious, but if you read through the history of my writing, you will find that’s not entirely true…. Lol.
I believe I observe the world uninhibited and transformable.
I have a vision of the world transformed.
I started out on the opposite end of now, I envisioned huge city’s that where single building cities, I envisioned recycling whole cities, I investigated a lot of necessary internal systems and added efficiencies where I thought they could work. I have many ideas for what I call Efficient human living systems.
Imagine a pyramid two thousand feet tall that comfortably housed a million people or more. Imagine all the land for miles around it, the view from the city, sprinkled with flowers and Farms organically built into the landscape, and then beyond that, forests and savanna. Trains would service the people and the city. All tracks leading north and away from the city.
My problem wasn’t designing the city, there is smart people to do that and there is lots of futuristic cities out there on the internet.
The real challenge was to get people to want to live in a single building pyramid city, to even imagine it, the money to buy the land, to design it, to collect the resources and build it, that was the tough part to figure out…
So I started thinking about humans, I started observing humans, I started observing myself.
What did I really want?
Not this building.
I wanted to contribute back to humanity for the grace humanity has offered me in my life.
Appreciation and introduction.
I discovered the starting point
Just a couple months ago, It all started with a calm mind and you my wonderful friends online supporting me in my writings. You folks hear on facebook and blogger, have given me the courage to dream on and connect the dots. I believe in you, because you believe in me, and you know that I am just another foul-able human being that wants to be present and participate in the world transformation that is necessary.. My friends, humanity, you are what and who is important, I know that.
Actually, we have already started down the path to pyramid city or some future efficient city. The moment I started writing this document your reading, the movement was begun, the idea planted, the vision shared. The ripple effect of this document and the ideas within, are now transforming our future even as you read.
We are going to start off as a media and entertainment company.
We are going to entertain you, as we recruit followers, participants, design and install
The transforming future right in front of you, with your help, you get to choose.
We are creating a continues reality TV show, that interacts with you the online audience. First on Youtube, then cable, The audience gets to chose what our transforming future looks like, Our direction, our designs and our own high standards which we hope to achieve. With out you, the online interactive participants, to help guide us with choice, we would have no audience and no interest. The whole thing is based on you choosing your potential future, with some creative and organizing assistance.
The whole organization will remain transparent and audit-able by all followers at all times. We expect the feed back, so we may become more efficient and transformable, eventually reflecting a constant state of trans formative being.
Online groups will be formed on fully interactive platforms and managed by teams, who’s completely transparent developing conversations will be online and on camera available for all to observe.
These online groups and conversations will range from; the soil food webs, microbes and mycelia, that supplies us with our food, to; the content in the steel that erects our future cities. The entertainment will be the future we are building.
First; We will start building our base of followers off of my Facebook profile page.
We need to build a large group of followers to build a voice.
We can talk about this idea there.
Second; Once we garner enough attention, either I will find some one that can help me put a Kikestarter idea together to get the initial financing necessary to assemble the first team of reality TV world transformers.
Or, a person steps forward to sponsor and speak in support of the team of reality TV world transformers.
Third; Establish a headquarters/ barracks and start interacting online and filming the reality TV continuum.
That’s the plan so far, once we assemble in a headquarters we will continue further developing the idea, and you with us there watching, choosing and participating In the design of our future.
My function is to be an observe, support, participate, contribute and be present with a calm mind.
I only ask that you share this if you find this interesting, and please do friend and follow me.
Note;
I will not be forming any other groups unless I announce it, on line and on camera.
Thank you, and I will see you in the future we make together.
Seth J. Galli
NOTE;
I reserve the right to this collection of harmonious ideas for humanity and the betterment of humanity.
PS. May a calm mind overtake you and sweep you away in joy.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
See you in a future past life, Chapter 16
See you in a future past life
Chapter 16
A almost daily journal / journey.
Team work, groups and forming the traveling group.
Team work and groups. A team is a unified
group, the group is unified in to a team
through a plan. Ideally, the plan is the reason
each individual joined the group.
Interestingly enough, the outward reasoning
for the forming of any group, “the plan“, is
not the most influential reason for the group
forming. People are drawn together for
much more primal reasons.
I believe the list of universal human needs is
A insight to those primal reasons groups
form and crowds gather.
On the internet I located a list of universal
human needs. The list I found has about
sixty five universal human needs. I see these
needs for what they are, primal switches,
not in absolute terms as in on and off.
Hum. To know, is to experience.
The experience.
The list is extensive and is admittedly
incomplete . Below is a list of universal
human needs. Please, If you would, reflect
on each word and consider what it means to
you. Consider, how often you engage in
each human need? What universal human
needs where you unaware of?
Think of an activity, How many universal
human needs dose that activity have the
potential to stimulate/ satisfy?
Most activities, stimulate, satisfy, engage or
energize multiple universal human needs at
once.
Reflection.
Marriage, a bundled experience of universal
human needs, the commitment to form a life
long team. Ideally, marriage sets in motion
a life time exploration and practice of
universal human needs, doing so, keeps the
marriage/ the team in balance with its self as
it matures.
Please consider.
A list of universal human needs.
LEARNING PLAY FUN
INSPIRATION CREATIVITY
INITIATIVE
RESPECT LOVE HUMOR
SPIRITUAL EXPRESSION
INDEPENDENCE TO MATTER
MEANING PURPOSE JOY
PEACE COMPASSION FREEDOM
INTEGRITY CHOICE
CONTRIBUTION APPRECIATION
MOURNING BEAUTY
AUTHENTICITY PEACE OF MIND
INTEGRATION HARMONY
SPACE EASE ACCEPTANCE
INCLUSION EMPATHY PRESENCE
SUPPORT SHELTER HEALTH
WATER PHYSICAL SAFETY
FOOD SUSTENANCE REST
PHYSICAL MOVEMENT TOUCH
SEXUAL EXPRESSION MUTUALITY
DIVERSITY TRUST EQUALITY
CONSIDERATION CONNECTION
COMMUNITY BELONGING
NURTURANCE WARMTH
EXPRESSION WELL-BEING
UNDERSTANDING CLARITY
SECURITY STABILITY ORDER
AUTONOMY INDEPENDENCE.
I believe, that being familiar with these
words and there definitions and searching
out the experience behind these words can
develop a balanced full human experience.
Obviously, if people live in a tyrannical
country, some of these experiences are
beyond their grasp. (Freedom, It is of the
greatest human importance.)
Please consider these possibilities into your
life.
Reflection.
I imagine, a healthy person, unaware of the
list of universal human needs, but
practicing them through primal intuition,
would feel a sense of balance as well.
Many paths lead to the same destination.
How dose the list of universal human needs
relate to a group or team?
I believe that the universal list of human
needs should be one of the first discussions
a newly forming group should consider as a
regularly scheduled conversation.
I believe the list of universal human needs
can increase the continuity and effectiveness
of a group.
More about teams and groups.
I love the radio. I listen to NPR and the
BBC. I hear a lot of interesting bits of trivia.
Several month’s ago I heard a snippet that
fascinated me pertaining to groups.
“ A group retains its continuity until it
exceeds seven people, then its continuity
and its efficiency, begins to break down.”
Team work.
Lets say there is a football field and at one
end of the field there is a stack of one
thousand bricks. For some reason a person is
charged with the task of moving all of the
bricks from one end of the field to the other.
What are some of the feelings that could go
through that persons mind while considering
and moving the stack of bricks? First I
imagine, a feeling of dread, followed by a
slight depression. If the person is not in
shape it may even feel hopeless. Carrying as
many as four bricks it would take two
hundred and fifty trips, that person would
walk one hundred fifty thousand feet. All of
these negative emotions make that person
less efficient and resistant, not to mention
exhausted from physical activity and stress.
If that person was able to recruit some help,
say seven of his friends, and he asked them
to recruit seven of their friends, their would
be three hundred forty three people. Now to
move the bricks from one side of the field to
the other would only take three trips per
person to complete the brick moving task.
It would be done in less than a half hour.
Because of the large number of people that
showed up to move the bricks, the
individual peoples efficiency increased
because of the lack of resistant emotions.
So, when a group of people forms around a
shared interest to perform a singular strait
forward task, the forming and presence of
the group empowers the individual
amplifying the potential of the group.
About forming a group of travelers.
This book has evolved from a fictional story,
to a journal and a plan. As the plan has
evolved, it went from me on my own, to a
search for a female companion to share the
trip with, to a invitation for other folks to
participate in the journey.
I and led to believe, from what I understand
of groups, to keep the traveling group to
around seven. The question is, what rolls
will each of the seven play on the journey?
Some ideas.
1) Writer
2) Computer genius
3) Cinematographer/ Filmmaker
4) Yoga instructor / Dietitian
5) Motor cycle mechanic
6) visual artist / painter
7) me/ writer
Do any of these rolls appeal to you the
reader?
If so, please contact me through my profile
Page on my blog.
Have a great day.
I thank you for your readership.
Seth Galli
Chapter 16
A almost daily journal / journey.
Team work, groups and forming the traveling group.
Team work and groups. A team is a unified
group, the group is unified in to a team
through a plan. Ideally, the plan is the reason
each individual joined the group.
Interestingly enough, the outward reasoning
for the forming of any group, “the plan“, is
not the most influential reason for the group
forming. People are drawn together for
much more primal reasons.
I believe the list of universal human needs is
A insight to those primal reasons groups
form and crowds gather.
On the internet I located a list of universal
human needs. The list I found has about
sixty five universal human needs. I see these
needs for what they are, primal switches,
not in absolute terms as in on and off.
Hum. To know, is to experience.
The experience.
The list is extensive and is admittedly
incomplete . Below is a list of universal
human needs. Please, If you would, reflect
on each word and consider what it means to
you. Consider, how often you engage in
each human need? What universal human
needs where you unaware of?
Think of an activity, How many universal
human needs dose that activity have the
potential to stimulate/ satisfy?
Most activities, stimulate, satisfy, engage or
energize multiple universal human needs at
once.
Reflection.
Marriage, a bundled experience of universal
human needs, the commitment to form a life
long team. Ideally, marriage sets in motion
a life time exploration and practice of
universal human needs, doing so, keeps the
marriage/ the team in balance with its self as
it matures.
Please consider.
A list of universal human needs.
LEARNING PLAY FUN
INSPIRATION CREATIVITY
INITIATIVE
RESPECT LOVE HUMOR
SPIRITUAL EXPRESSION
INDEPENDENCE TO MATTER
MEANING PURPOSE JOY
PEACE COMPASSION FREEDOM
INTEGRITY CHOICE
CONTRIBUTION APPRECIATION
MOURNING BEAUTY
AUTHENTICITY PEACE OF MIND
INTEGRATION HARMONY
SPACE EASE ACCEPTANCE
INCLUSION EMPATHY PRESENCE
SUPPORT SHELTER HEALTH
WATER PHYSICAL SAFETY
FOOD SUSTENANCE REST
PHYSICAL MOVEMENT TOUCH
SEXUAL EXPRESSION MUTUALITY
DIVERSITY TRUST EQUALITY
CONSIDERATION CONNECTION
COMMUNITY BELONGING
NURTURANCE WARMTH
EXPRESSION WELL-BEING
UNDERSTANDING CLARITY
SECURITY STABILITY ORDER
AUTONOMY INDEPENDENCE.
I believe, that being familiar with these
words and there definitions and searching
out the experience behind these words can
develop a balanced full human experience.
Obviously, if people live in a tyrannical
country, some of these experiences are
beyond their grasp. (Freedom, It is of the
greatest human importance.)
Please consider these possibilities into your
life.
Reflection.
I imagine, a healthy person, unaware of the
list of universal human needs, but
practicing them through primal intuition,
would feel a sense of balance as well.
Many paths lead to the same destination.
How dose the list of universal human needs
relate to a group or team?
I believe that the universal list of human
needs should be one of the first discussions
a newly forming group should consider as a
regularly scheduled conversation.
I believe the list of universal human needs
can increase the continuity and effectiveness
of a group.
More about teams and groups.
I love the radio. I listen to NPR and the
BBC. I hear a lot of interesting bits of trivia.
Several month’s ago I heard a snippet that
fascinated me pertaining to groups.
“ A group retains its continuity until it
exceeds seven people, then its continuity
and its efficiency, begins to break down.”
Team work.
Lets say there is a football field and at one
end of the field there is a stack of one
thousand bricks. For some reason a person is
charged with the task of moving all of the
bricks from one end of the field to the other.
What are some of the feelings that could go
through that persons mind while considering
and moving the stack of bricks? First I
imagine, a feeling of dread, followed by a
slight depression. If the person is not in
shape it may even feel hopeless. Carrying as
many as four bricks it would take two
hundred and fifty trips, that person would
walk one hundred fifty thousand feet. All of
these negative emotions make that person
less efficient and resistant, not to mention
exhausted from physical activity and stress.
If that person was able to recruit some help,
say seven of his friends, and he asked them
to recruit seven of their friends, their would
be three hundred forty three people. Now to
move the bricks from one side of the field to
the other would only take three trips per
person to complete the brick moving task.
It would be done in less than a half hour.
Because of the large number of people that
showed up to move the bricks, the
individual peoples efficiency increased
because of the lack of resistant emotions.
So, when a group of people forms around a
shared interest to perform a singular strait
forward task, the forming and presence of
the group empowers the individual
amplifying the potential of the group.
About forming a group of travelers.
This book has evolved from a fictional story,
to a journal and a plan. As the plan has
evolved, it went from me on my own, to a
search for a female companion to share the
trip with, to a invitation for other folks to
participate in the journey.
I and led to believe, from what I understand
of groups, to keep the traveling group to
around seven. The question is, what rolls
will each of the seven play on the journey?
Some ideas.
1) Writer
2) Computer genius
3) Cinematographer/ Filmmaker
4) Yoga instructor / Dietitian
5) Motor cycle mechanic
6) visual artist / painter
7) me/ writer
Do any of these rolls appeal to you the
reader?
If so, please contact me through my profile
Page on my blog.
Have a great day.
I thank you for your readership.
Seth Galli
Friday, September 21, 2012
See you in a future past life chapters 1 - 14
See you in a future
I my self believe some of the best true
stories start out by being inspired by fiction. SJGalli
Chapter 1
October 15 2012
This is what happened.
I was driving like a fiend out into the
northeastern Oregon desert night.
Dreaming out into the night.
It was early morning, I stopped my truck in
the middle of the vastness and stepped out
on to the solidness of the two lane highway,
it was cold and crisp. The universe filled the
sky. I in awe, felt like an antenna picking up
the vibrations of the great expanse.
What lay beyond? I thought
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, screen
lit, one thirty, morning, no bars. I attempted
to take a picture of the heavens with my
phone, no dice, and the milky way right
there, as if I could run my fingers through it.
I got back in my rig and the warmth of the
cab. I rolled down the window and started
the truck, lights on, brights on, I rolled
forward into night.
“I needed to find some higher ground to get
a cell signal“, I thought.
I was between Wagon tire and Riley
junction headed north on three ninety five.
The highway cut over ridge after ridge, dark,
but I could still see the buckled tectonic
plates that made up the land scrape. A rabbit
darted out of the sage brush on to the road,
crumpled and bumped as it passed under my
truck. I slowed as I reached the top of a
short steep grade. On the right hand side of
the road I could see the out line of a gravel
pile, I turned off the highway, drove up to
and parked in front of the mountain of
gravel.
I got out and hustled to the top of the
Pile. Sitting down on a wool blanket I had
grabbed from my truck, I crossed my legs.
Facing north west, I took off my hat to take
in the fullness of the milky way galaxy.
I looked around at the vivid broken horizon
that separated the earth from space.
It was quiet with a light breeze.
There was magic happening out in
the desert, In a strange dark kind of light.
As if the deserts only purpose was to
enhance the night sky.
Then like little raindrops a ribbon of meteors
showered and filled the northern sky.
I felt an exhilaration.
The shower faded in the same moment.
Full moments passed.
I sensed the universe was moving, but
rather, I thought, “it was us on this planet of
mal- and discontent entwined with awe and
epic beauty, screaming through space,
vibrating the void as we pass, then the
emptiness returning to silence and calm,
as we hurdle on in to a future of predictable
repetitiveness, spinning on through the
cosmos.
The universe looked calm from a distance.
The desert and wind had fallen silent.
The air crisped, the moment became vivid.
I plugged in to the source, down loading
knowledge, knowledge, etched in to my
Mind with vivid imagery and the emotion
of awe. Taking in the epic universe, every
grain.
A car hissed by, traveling north,
disappearing into a swale, then lighting the
apposing ridge, summiting and vanishing
into a distant glow beyond my view.
The link was broken, I sat dazed for a
moment. The vision was in tacked .
I felt very calm.
My phone pinged, I pulled it out of my
pocket and turned it on, almost five am,
I had been up on the gravel pile for three
and a half hours, it felt like thirty or forty
minutes, “wild” I thought.
I could see a faint glow and a bluing of the
eastern horizon.
I had been up all night.
I decided to cruzz up north and find some
mountain shade to sleep off the morning.
I checked my phone again it was five thirty
I had a few bars, at least enough to send out
a text message, I thought.
Thirty minutes later I had a text ready that
recounted the night and early morning
events. I sent it to a friend of mine in
California and another friend in Iowa.
I got in my truck and out on to the road
headed north. Two hours later, the sun just
breaking the horizon, the hot light scorching
my dry eyes, I drove in to the shadow of a
canyon, the canyon bottom narrowing as I
drove up the gentle grade. A creek flanked
with willows wound back and forth along
the canyon bottom occasionally skirting the
road.
I pulled off In to a turn out some one had
once used as a camp site with a fire circle in
tacked.
I got out, took a leak, then walked a couple
hundred feet over to the creek.
Reaching in to the chilled gurgling liquid, I
splashed water on my face and head,
working the coolness in to my scalp
and rubbing the stiffness out of my eyes.
I walked back to my pickup and pulled the
wool blanket out from behind my seat, threw
it across my windshield closing both doors
on it to hold it in place, filtering out the
light.
I took my shoes off and settled into the front
seat of my truck for a nap.
See you in a future past life.
[What is this that dances before my eyes, but that which perplexes and accelerates the human demise. Yes, meaning making, my friend, meaning making.]
Chapter 2
A traveling day.
I woke up to the sound of a approaching
vehicle. I sat up, opened the door of the
pickup and slipped on my shoes. The vehicle
slowed then stopped. I ran my fingers
through my hair smoothing it, then dawned
my hat. I stepped out and Looked across the
back of my truck. Two game wardens
walked over from a rig they had left parked
on the road. They said hi and asked if I was
doing any hunting or fishing.
I said no and that I had just found this place
to nap earlier that morning.
I told them about the meteor shower and the
amazing scenes from last night and this
morning. They both had stories
of night in the desert. We talked for a while.
They told me about springs, mountains and
old trails in the local area. I told them I was
headed to bend that afternoon for supplies,
and that I was going to go back out in to the
desert and camp to watch another night of
sky and landscape. They bid me fare well,
got back in their truck and eased up the
road.
I unwrapped the windshield and folded up
the wool blanket. I grabbed a shovel and
toilet paper from the truck. I walked up the
creek and found a place to cross.
Behind the screen of willows and away from
the creek I dug a hole, squatted and took in
the view. Finished, I covered up my relief.
Shovel in hand, I crossed back over the
creek to my truck. Stashing the shovel in the
bed of the pick up, I hefted my wooden
kitchen box out and set it next to the fire
ring. I retrieved a bagged bar of soap from
the box and headed over to the creek to
wash up. At the creek I lathered up and
rinsed off with numbingly cold water.
There was a smell close to the water, a sweet
green smell with a waft of juniper spice. At
the creek I collected a arm load of dead
willow stalks and branches. I returned to my
truck and the fire pit, started a fire and made
a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. After
washing the breakfast dishes, I loaded up the
kitchen box. I checked the camp site for
trash, picked up a few bits, got in my truck
and headed down the canyon in to the wide
valley below.
Rim rocked ridge lines dotted with junipers,
wide valleys of sage and grass, lone
mountains with hillocks leveling out on to
valley floors, gorges cut through the black
volcanic rock between valleys, with plateaus
above and beyond ending at the foot of real
mountains. This is central and eastern
Oregon.
I fueled up at Riley junction, then headed
west on highway twenty towards Bend.
Window rolled down I took in the desert air.
I had no idea what time it was, I wasn’t in a
hurry and had no schedule to keep. I reached
for my phone, battery dead, I plugged it in to
charge. I looked at my watch, one thirty,
funny, twelve hours ago I was communing
with stars, dreaming along the milky way.
I traveled the highway, inside the southern
rim of a long wide basin. The southern rim
of the basin was defined by a continuous
volcanic ridge with the occasional conical
shaped volcanic mountain and some times
chains of them.
At what looked like about half way up the
basin twenty turned hard to the left and crosscut a series of broken and lifted
tectonic plates. Rising above the valley
floor, the views became epic in almost every
direction. Junipers became more common,
the broken plates and ridges softened into
decaying rock drainages and the
surroundings became more that of a
plateau.
I slowed for a rest area, it looked nice, I
pulled in.
I kind of felt like and idiot peeing in a urea
fumed bathroom in the middle of the desert.
Finished, I washed my hands and walked
out in to the landscape. Then I just
wandered off.
[Note;
It was no place for meaning, only feeling
and being. The landscape drew out from me
some poison, as if I had been long since
snake bit and just now freed from its
sickness. Praise the planet, landscapes heal.]
I was wandering around slowly weaving
between sage brush clumps and junipers,
eyes scanning the ground at my feet for the
unusual, in a land of consistently tiny stones
and grains.
I stepped to the edge of a little clearing in
the sage brush and junipers, an ant hill was
at its center. The ground meticulously clean
except an ant scree field of ant size boulders.
Each pebble seamed polished, I noticed,
” perhaps it was, by the thousands little legs
it took to get it there“, I thought.
I watched the ants work. “What order and
organization”, “amazing” I thought. “What a
fantastic level of cooperation!” I beamed.
“There doing it, why cant we?” (The mental
rift went on, far beyond what needs to be
written hear.)
I imagined the ant hill in its depths, layer
after layer of food, larva, eggs, molds,
microbes, grains of sand and what do they
use the desert dust for…? Humm.. A virtual
city, thousands upon thousands of ants,
farming in the desert, right hear.
I wandered off in a cloud of imaginings.
Finding a little patch of rocks strewn around
and under the sage brush and bunch grass.
Kneeling down, I examined a few, some
kind of soft tan shale.
I noticed the shadows were getting longer. I
headed back to my truck and the rest area.
About an hour later at dusk, I walked in to
the rest area. I got a drink from the fountain
and filled up some water jugs I had and
returned them to my truck. I was about to
get in when I spotted the rest area map. I
looked at the map along twenty towards Bend. On the map I found Glass Buttes.
Years before I had met my mom there, she
was participating in a primitive technology
rendevou. I didn’t feel like driving to bend,
it would make a great place to camp for the
night.
I got back in my truck and took off west to
Glass buttes.
About forty minutes later I pulled up next to
a large dry man made pond, in the saddle on
the back side of the main butte.
Tired, I started a fire in an old fire circle and
heated up some dehydrated beans. I opened
up a can of diced clams and found some
corn tortes’ in my kitchen box, some garlic
and sea salt. It was flavor full and I ate
well.
I took a large canvas tarp from my truck
along with a couple of wool blankets, folded
them together into a bed roll. Climbed in
and fell asleep.
Note ;
To, the reader first and foremost, thank you!
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 3
I was where I was going to return to.
I woke up around five thirty. The morning
light was just starting to reveal the details
of the landscape. It was chilly with a light
morning breeze.
An occasional bird flittered between sage
and junipers with what seamed to me
anxious chirps, probably just warning their
world of my presence.
I felt rested and calm..
I had just spent the last five months working
in Redding California, roasting through the
summer. The temperatures were record
breaking. The heat had an angering affect on
the population. Like a hive full of bees
flapping there wings trying to cool the hive,
an angry hum, as if they were just waiting
for some thing to offend them, wanting to
strike.
I savored the cool air and thought back on
the summer events.
____________________
Earlier this spring, a gal I know was telling
me about compost tea and the huge harvests
she was getting from her vegetable garden.
I had been thinking about growing a bunch
of hot peppers.
I also was interested in worms and
producing worm castings. I looked on the
internet for worms locally. I found an add
directing me to the farmers market and Ken,
the worm guy.
Ken expanded my view of the world through
soil. He gave me an entirely new world to
dream in.
I met Ken early one Saturday in late spring
at the Redding farmers market . He had an
old ford pickup with a blue tarp canopy he
had rigged up on his lumber rack off the
back, shading beyond the tailgate. he had a
little table, couple of books on soil and
worms. A batch of actively aerated compost
tea bubbling away in a milk jug colored
tank on a stand in the back of his truck .
I could see the dark brown liquid agitated by
a air pump.
A white haired man was sitting on a
cushion on the tailgate of the old ford. He
wore a shorter brimmed straw hat and stood
five foot ten or so in height, medium build
short sleeve shirt with a collar and shorts
down to flip-flops. I walked up and
introduced my self. He had a very open
nature and personality, we quickly fell into a
conversation about worms, teas, soils,
microbes, bugs, shredders, mineralization,
plants, and all of their inter connected
relationships.
People occasionally dropped
by to chat, buy worms, worm castings,
inoculate their plants with worm tea
(Actively aerated compost tea). It was an
inspiring atmosphere. He told me to get a
book called ;Teaming with microbes. I
bought and read the book the fallowing
week.
The next Saturday and many after, I
would meet Ken at the farmers market,
early, we talked about soils and worms. We
talked about methods of application and
products that might be able to fund a large
scale soil building program.
Ken is passionate about building healthy
soil. I now share his passion. There is a
certain kind of rightness about building
healthy soils, It dose the mind well. That
was a period of magnificent learning.
[ I am now “Pan”, the Greek God of nature,
In my dreams now, I paint landscapes with
fertile soils and lush grasses:]
_________________
The top of Glass Buttes was just catching
the early morning sun rays, starting out gold
then transitioning to a clean white light, all
the while the activity of the birds rising in
sound.
I started a fire and made coffee.
Drinking a cup of cowboy coffee, grounds
and all, I took in the surrounding area. I was
in the shadow of a ridge line, in a saddle. I
watched the shadows move as the sun rose
over the landscape. After I had finished
several cups of coffee, I packed up camp.
I drove up the road toward the
summit.
Close to the summit, I parked and
walked the remaining distance to the peak.
I took in the stunning view.
There were numerous huge valleys that
stretched out beyond site.
(Glass Buttes sit on a ridge back between
multiple converging valleys/ basins.)
I looked out towards the city of Bend,
it lay beyond site.
I thought, “I wonder if I can get
service on my phone up hear?”.
Heck, I hadn’t looked at my phone since I
had plugged it in the day before to charge.
I walked back down to my truck, found my
phone and unplugged it. I turned my phone
on and watched as it reoriented its self.
I returned to the summit. My phone pinged a
couple of times. Reaching the summit, I
unlocked the screen, I had a bunch of emails
three texts and five voice mails. Nothing to
out of the ordinary
I read the texts, they were from two
different friends of mine in California.
The first text was from George. He told me
he was headed up to Idaho to visit family
and had received the text I had sent him the
day before. He asked me where I was and if
I wanted to meet up, camp and watch a
three day meteor shower that was coming
up. I had good signal, so I called George.
He answered, turns out he had got a late
start and was just passing through Klamath
falls. I told him I was standing on top of
Glass Buttes summit. He said he wanted to
meet me there and that there was a three day
meteor shower starting to night. I told him I
had received his texts about it.
I said I was going to head in to Bend
and get some supplies and more water, then,
I would be back.
Plans set, we hung up. I took some pictures
of the surrounding valleys, ridges and
mountain ranges. I sent a couple pictures to
Georges’ phone and then down loaded all of
the pictures I had taken of the area on to my
face book page.
With a short note; “Camping at Glass
Buttes, Oregon, meeting George there
Tonight, to camp and watch a three day
meteor shower.”
I got back in my pick up, turned around and
headed down and around the Buttes to
highway twenty. I turned on to the hard
smooth surface and headed west to bend.
After bumping around on desert roads,
I enjoyed the asphalt and the speed at which
I could travel, A few stops to look around
and an hour and a half later I was in Bend.
I found the health food store. I bought
several pounds of a granola berry mix. I
picked out some fruit, bananas, oranges and
apples, five pounds of oats, two pounds
of a nut beery mix.
At a gas station I filled up my truck and
topped off my water supply.
Even though Bend was busy, I hardly
noticed any thing out side of getting
supplies, my mind was in the desert.
Before I knew it, I was east of Bend on
highway twenty, headed for Glass Buttes
and camp.
I rolled into the camp I had stayed at the
night before. I was stoked that George was
coming to camp for a few days, I was stoked
that there was going to be a meteor shower
and I that I would get to watch it here in this
place. I thought George would probably
show up around dark.
It was around four in the afternoon.
I set up camp. I put together my bedroll, the
kitchen box and a pile of sticks I had
collected earlier and staged them all around
the fire pit.
I had eaten my fill of granola, drank
some water and was satisfied. I decided to
take a nap before George showed up.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 4
Light and wonder.
I woke and sat up. It was dark. Finding my
phone, I turned it on, it was just past nine.
I got up an straitened my bedroll, folding the
flap at the head of the roll to keep out the
wild life.
I had camped in a saddle, but not at the top
, the air was calm and cooling.
I started a fire.
George hadn’t showed up yet.
Figuring he probably visited friends along
the way, I was not surprised.
I put some water on to boil for coffee.
Staring into the fire, I watched its forbidden
landscapes of molten change and then
dissolve.
The water boiling, I add some coffee
grounds to the pot.
A few more minutes in a cooler spot on the
fire and the coffee would be ready.
I added a couple of sticks to the fire.
Hearing a road gravel noise from down the
draw, I looked to see a dome of light moving
through the juniper, a mile or so away.
Probably George, I thought.
Moments later George showed up with his
usual beaming grin.
We sat by the fire and talked.
He talked about his days drive and some of
the sites he had stopped to check out.
He then showed me some pictures of rivers
he had scouted out over the past summer.
I could tell things were going well with him.
We quieted and stared in to the fire,
enjoying a cup of coffee.
Georges car was squat, loaded down with
adventure gear as usual.
Bike on its carrier hanging dangerously low
to the ground off the back bumper. Back
windows obscured by ropes, bags, climbing
shoes, a milk crate full of food odds and
ends, paddles and a tent. I am sure there was
a boat deep in the gear in the back of his car,
some where.
The car dusted brown.
A adventure travelers car.
I was staring at his car in the fire light,
smiling wryly.
George looked at his car and then back at
me and smiled.
He had been having fun in some un traveled
region, seeing and climbing and traveling
through.
George likes to walk.
We put the fire out, gathered up water,
snacks and other essentials and started
walking up the road to the peak.
We left the road a couple of times, short
cutting across switch backs.
With out using our lights, our eyes had
adjusted to the darkness, we made our
way up the mountain.
Almost at the top, the rounded peak stood
out, black and backed by the milky way.
Summiting, we stood quiet.
A shooting star, then two, streaked and
vanished mid sky.
Silence.
[I knew I was at the right time and place in the universe, doing what I was suppose to be doing.]
I saw a vehicle turn off highway twenty and
start making its way up to the saddle and our
camp site.
George said, out of the silence,
“I invited some friends from bend’’
I looked further up twenty towards bend,
Three sets of headlights each miles apart
were headed towards us, one fading red
glow bound for Burns vanished in the
distant dark.
I asked George if he thought we should
return to camp to meet his friends, he
seamed to think that every thing would be
alright and that his friends would find there
way up to the peak.
We went back to watching the sky.
It was about eleven.
I heard their breathing, then their foot falls
as they approached, lots of feet and some
mild gasping for air.
Every body whispered,
It was great,
like we where at a theater,
And we were!
They where five, two bucks and three does.
Some of Georges friends
We where now a party of seven.
We settled in and watched the sky.
The meteor shower had just begun.
It came on strong, many meteors a minute.
The group was taken by uncontrollable fits
of exclamation.
Out of the ruckus someone said “there is
somebody coming up the road”.
Sure enough, there it was, a truck, rounding
the hill.
One of the gals from our group walked to
meet them as they parked below.
A greeting of familiarity resonated, from
the party now piling out of the truck.
There must have been eight or ten people.
They where friends of Georges friends.
Another rig came, more friends of friends.
Our group met their groups, after we all met
and mixed, I couldn’t figure out who was
who any more.
A hole bunch of names of faces and voices
in the dark.
Turns out, several people sent texts to there
friends to let them know where they where
going incase they went missing.
[A good adventuring policy, when going to the remote, let someone know where you are going. ]
And their friends followed them.
People kept showing up.
We stayed seated as a group and watched the
shower of rocks from space paint the canvas
of the Milky way.
And the cars kept coming.
Every one was surprised at the number of
people that showed up, there may have
been as many as a hundred and fifty people
there.
It was freaking me out a little, as I don’t
prefer crowds.
That night was all about watching light in all
its forms.
It was rad, awe and wonder was in the air.
I fell asleep on my blanket on top of
Glass butte.
See you in a future past life
Chapter 5
Morning October 17th
Anna’s spring.
Morning, October seventeenth.
The morning breeze child me awake.
It was dawn, I could see from the peak,
the eastern horizon waking.
Looking around from my fetal position and
from under what turned out to be a pile of
coats.
I could see other piles of coats,
blanketed fetal lumps, that could only be
human.
I sat up and stood up all in one motion.
Wearing my jacket, still, I was cold.
I hadn’t completely bathed in several days.
Coated in a funky and greasy cold,
I simply had to get bathed and warm.
I was hungry, I could feel the lack of
nourishment in my body.
Spreading out my wool blanket, I stacked all
the coats in the center with the remains of
my provisions, grasping all four corners, I
hefted it over my shoulder.
fetching my hat,
I stuffed it down on to a head of dusty,
brittle, lengthening hair and a sore scalp.
It took a few moments to feel balanced and
focus my swollen eyes.
Still not quite light, I could see the ghost
white of the road below.
I loosely walked on week knees down to
the road.
I was thinking about food, the few handfuls
of granola I had snatched while gathering
things up, left a dry film in my mouth.
I was out of water, I was hungry.
I walked and dreamed about eggs, bacon
and toasted bread slathered with butter.
Humm.. My mouth began to water.
It was starting to get light, I walked across
the saddle and down the road towards camp.
Twenty or more cars where parked just off
and along the road, windows fogged.
I walked up to my truck and camp.
Someone was asleep on top of my bedroll,
covered with a blanket.
I looked around camp.
George was buried in the bottom of his
sleeping bag, not moving.
I set the bundle of coats I was carrying in
the back of my truck.
Someone had add to the pile of wood that I
had collected the day before.
I walked over and collected a hand full of
twigs and some smaller branches from the
pile.
Crunching up the twigs into a wadd of
tinder, I broke and stacked the smaller
branches over the tinder.
Getting up, I walked to the edge of camp
and collected some dry grass.
I waded the grass up into a ball, walking
over and leaning down to the fire pit,
I tucked the ball up under the tinder.
I pulled my lighter out, reached down and lit
the grass.
The fire jumped to life.
Adding more and larger sticks, I built a good
breakfast fire.
I filled the coffee pot with water and
balanced it over the fire between three
rocks, to boil.
Grabbing a cast-iron skillet from my kitchen
box, I wiped the dust out of it with a
kitchen towel and placed it on the fire to
warm.
I retrieved a loaf of bread, olive oil, eggs
and some bacon, from a box on the
passenger side floor board of my truck.
(Supplies I had brought from Redding.)
Returning to the fire, I dug through the
kitchen box, found salt, pepper and some
garlic salt.
A splash of olive oil in the hot frying pan, a
glove and a swirling motion, the pan was
ready.
I put two pieces of bred in the skillet.
Taking a coffee cup, I cut a mug sized hole
in each slice of bread, removing the center.
I filled each hole with an egg.
Its what my family calls a one eyed jack, an
egg fried in a hole in the middle of a piece
of toast.
I examined the bacon and gave it a sniff.
Ever since my navy days and a bout with
food poisoning, I have been weary of foods
that parish and examine them closely.
I flipped the jacks, a crackle and hiss came
from the pan, garlic, salt, pepper added.
The coffee water started to boil, I added
some grounds and set the pot to the side of
the fire to bubble and steep.
I looked up to see an orange glow on the
buttes, the sun was rising.
I heard people stirring.
I looked up the road towards the saddle, a
blanket wrapped straggler from the butte
was making his way down the road.
Minutes later he walked into camp and sat
down on a rock at the edge of the fire across
from me.
He stared at the items cooking on the
breakfast fire.
I collected two plates from my kitchen box,
Forking a jack out of the skillet on to each
plate.
I handed him a fork and one of the plates.
He said “thanks“.
Coffee ready, I Poured two cups of coffee
from the steaming pot and handed the
unnamed visitor a cup.
He smiled and nodded in appreciation as he
ate the jack.
I filled the cast iron skillet with the whole
packet of bacon and pulled all the slices
apart with a fork.
Bacon frying, I picked up my plate to eat.
We ate and drank coffee in silence.
People where waking up, getting up.
A car started.
The bacon started to steam, hiss and pop.
I stirred the bacon with a fork, it hissed and
popped excitedly.
A thick smell rose from the pan.
A car rolled by, a sleep faced driver waved
and smiled through a fog wiped window.
The person on my bedroll stirred.
Sitting on my kitchen box, I turned to see a
woman with black hair lifting herself up
to a sitting position.
She brushed back her hair with a hand
revealing a shy but impish smile, naturally.
She got up and asked “ what do you guys
got cooking.”
I stood up and pulled the last two coffee
cups from the kitchen box.
Filing a cup, she got up, walked over and I
handed her the cup of coffee
She returned to my bedroll and sat down.
Sipping her coffee, she asked our names.
The guy across the fire from me said his
name was “Travis“, I introduced myself , “I
am Seth, what’s your name.”
“Anna“, she said, with a European accent.
“Nice to meet you Anna“, I replied.
I turned to the fire and stirred the bacon.
I was feeling a little uncomfortable, I was
stunned by Anna.
I stood up and walked to my truck.
Reaching in to the bed of my truck, I
grabbed a five gallon bucket containing dry
goods I had purchased in bend the day
before.
I set the bucket near the fire for Anna to sit
on.
I retrieved several more buckets and placed
them around the fire.
Anna came and sat on a bucket and warmed
herself by the fire.
The sun was shining on the buttes.
Glass Butte was half shadow and half sunlit
slope.
More people wandered in to camp.
Several more coffee cups were produced
from the group.
The coffee pot empty, I rinsed the grounds
out, filled the pot with water and set it on the
fire to boil.
Travis, sitting nearest to the wood pile, had
been keeping the fire stoked.
Bacon finished, I drained the fat into a
coffee can and placed the wadded and curled
strips on a plate, with a paper towel
underneath to soak up the excess grease.
Anna asked me if I was Georges friend from
California. I said “yes“.
She said she had gotten a text from a friend
the night before about some guy from
California and that he was on a spiritual
journey in the desert and was at glass buttes
to watch the three day meteor shower.
________________________________
I had texted George the first night up from
California and told him I was in
the eastern Oregon desert for a spiritual
journey, to clear my mind and reorient my
life path.
I wanted George to know where I was and
what I was doing ,incase any thing
happened.
___________________________________
“Yes“, I said, “some thing like that.”
I told her I hadn’t known about the meteor
shower, until George told me about it.
She asked me what I was searching for.
I told her I was searching for answers and
questions.
Also that I was practicing just being and
seeing.
I told her I found it easy to be calm in the
desert and that the desert had very little
movement with great spaces to contemplate
in.
Every one was looking into the fire, minds
entwined with the licking flames and radiant
coals.
I was feeling self conscious and crusty.
I remembered back, yesterday, from the
peak of the buttes, I had seen a splash of
green on the desert floor, water.
I excused my self and walked to my truck.
I grabbed a jug of water, a towel, a
wash cloth, my bagged bar of soap and put it
all in a bucket.
Anna asked me where the showers where,
ribbing me, with a smile.
I told her about the water I had seen on the
western side of the buttes from the top of the
Glass butte, the day before.
Surprised, she asked if she could join me.
I told her I was walking there.
She stood up and walked over to me.
I turned the camp activities over to Travis,
showing him where all the food was and
giving him free rain.
Anna and I walked up the road and through
the saddle.
We found a game trail that cut across the
lower slopes of Glass Buttes, rounding to
the west. We followed the trail around and
through its forking nature, always following
the most well worn path. Until we came to a
saddle between the two main buttes. In the
saddle, the grass short cropped. At its
center a large depression where animals had
licked away all the soil in search of salt that
had leached out in to the ground, possibly
years ago. Animals laid in that saddle at
night, mostly deer and elk, from the signs.
We sat down at the cusp of the saddle, right
before the ground fell off in to a south
eastern facing drainage, to
take in the view. We took in the fresh
morning air of the desert. We drank deeply
from my jug of water, we got up and started
walking around the side of the adjoining
butte. We walked around the butte to the
southwest and on around to a west pointed
ridge, pointing right to the green splash on
the desert floor. We walked in silence.
We made our way down the ridge to the
desert floor. On the desert floor the trail
widened and pointed strait to the greenery,
almost a half mile from the buttes base.
We arrived at a rock tank, a little while later.
The tank was twenty or so feet across and
four feet hi, it had been built of local rock
and cement.
The rock walled tank was cracked and
empty.
A few hundred feet away, across a used
gravel road, was a water trough, and the
green grass that had drawn us there.
Anna hung her long wool coat on a steel
fence post driven next to the trough.
I bent down, untied my shoes and slipped
them off, leaning on a fence post I removed
my socks and stuffed them in my shoes.
Looking up, to see Anna removing her dress
with care, up over and just clearing her hair.
She hung her dress up and over her jacket
already draped on the post.
She was nude, she turned back facing me,
she smiled as only a shy heart dose.
She was perky, it was everything about her,
Anna, the corners of her eyes, her lips, the
way her ears swept back her hair, her brown
body.
I looked in to her light brown eyes,
and felt peaceful and rejuvenated.
She picked up the bucket ,walked over to the
water trough and scooped water up. She
raised the partially full bucket of water in to
the air and over on to her self.
I heard a controlled smooth gasp.
I was shocked, I had felt the water moments
before, it was cold.
Standing there dripping, I could see mischief
in her eyes, her head lifting in to
challenging adolescent laughter.
Anna was in her mid thirties.
She had challenged me!
I took off my coat, hat, shirt, T-shirt,
unbuckled my belt and stepped out of my
shorts and pants. Nude, I walk over to the
water trough , grabbing the handle on the
partially submerged bucket, I lifted and
dumped the water over my head. A shock
wave passed over my body.
After I caught my breath, I looked to see her
wrenching with laughter, water dripping
from her body.
I reached for the soap and lathered up my
hair, it was cold.
In no hurry, she continued her playfulness
splashing me as I scrubbed up.
She walked over to me and said “turn
around” we had spoken very little, so I
turned around. She started scrubbing my
back with what I imagined was my wash
cloth, she told me to lean forward, grabbing
the bucket from the trough she walked to
my side and pored water over my head and
back.
Gasping for air, I stood up.
I dried off, as she soaped up.
She handed me the soapy wash cloth and
turned around.
I washed her neck, smooth, cleaning her
shoulders and shoulder blades, I ran the
cloth down her spine and out along her ribs,
washing her back with focused care.
She thanked me with a soft voice.
I grabbed the bucket from the trough and
walked to her side dumping the water over
her head, back and butt.
She took a deep breath and breathed out
slowly. She stood up. I handed her a towel.
The rising sun had chassed the shadows of
the buttes back, the sun broke on us and
brought warmth. I looked at Anna, sun lit
drops dripped from her body as she dried
her hair. I was in awe.
We put on our clothes, in a pleasant silence,
collected our stuff and walked by the old
rock walled tank.
The morning sun warmed the desert into
smells of sage brush and juniper.
I heard gravel popping under a tire.
I looked north and to our left, A car was
coming, coming down the gravel road we
crossed. We walked back to the rock tank
and waited.
Several minutes later, a light SUV drove up,
it was Anna’s friends, they had come to
check on her and give us a ride back to
camp.
Though I would have preferred to
walk, the ride was a relief. We arrived in
camp clean, no sweaty walk back, no dust.
Anna and her friends, Travis being one,
where returning to Bend. I felt shocked by
the reality of it. Anna smiled at me, she said
we are going in to town to get supplies for
the next two days and replacing the food we
ate of yours, we are coming back to camp to
watch the meteor shower tonight with you
and all these people.
I felt anxious as they drove away.
There where twenty or thirty people milling
around and at the edge of camp.
I was baffled.
I walked over to George at the fire, said “hi”
He gave me a rye smile, said “cheers” and
told me
“They where all staying another night and
more were coming.”
See you in a future past life
Chapter 6
Inside information.
Glass Buttes gets their name from the multi
colored obsidians that are generously
scattered on their slopes.
From what I understand, in days gone by,
Indians use to come to Glass Buttes and
collect obsidian for tool making.
The brittleness and the grain of the
glass like rock makes great spear tips,
arrow heads, and knives.
Glass Buttes has been a destination for many
humans for thousands of years.
The wind swept crown of Glass Buttes is
skirted by junipers shaped by wind, snow,
and time.
These junipers stunted, swept, and gnarled
give the area a deep spiritual feeling. I could
easily imagine these junipers as elders.
To settle in to an area, one must take in the
view, study it in detail. Watch the clouds,
watch cloud shadows lull, and race. Watch
the sun shadows pivot. Smell the air, hunt
sent. Bathe in the wind, find, and feel
textures with your eyes and fingertips.
Scan the ground and horizon for
movement, For change. Identify sounds.
Make your landscape make you curious,
learn.
Challenge your self with a foreign
environment often, relax and move into it
with your mind. “Things that seam foreign,
make common.” you might be surprised
of how it changes you.
____________________________________
I had started on a spiritual journey seven
years ago in two thousand five.
I left California in my car for Iowa.
I built a twenty seven foot trimaran
sailboat out of pallets, plywood, and lumber
retrieved from the logjams, and shorelines of
the Mississippi river.
I ran out of money.
I picked up aluminum cans and did odd jobs
to pay for the screws, and glue I needed to
finish my boat. Humility.
I ate peanut butter and honey.
I washed my clothes and bathed in the
river.
I drank loads of coffee.
I read Gondi’s book, “My experiments with
truth” and listened to Eckhart Tolle’s CD
Series. Vulnerable, I was humbled.
In the course of motoring, and sailing 200
miles to Hannibal, Missouri.
I saved my self many times on that journey.
It was a journey of fears, of capability, of
emergency, of incompetence, of openness,
of restlessness, of long moments of stabbing
fear, of reflection, of solitude, of lengths of
awe, it pealed away many layers of what I
thought was me but didn’t need.
In Hannibal, I was taken in by
the population, I cooperated and
participated, I was cared for and given work.
It was an amazing time in my life.
I traveled all over Missouri, with a potter,
and as a machinery operator for several
rock cories.
This section of the journey, to and from
Iowa, and all over Missouri, lasted about a
year.
I continued my journey to winter in
California,
then Texas where I lived on a sailboat for
the last months of winter.
Realizing I needed a place of solitude to
write, sort things out, and come up with a
plan, and a life coarse.
I went to see my mom in Hells Canyon for
the summer.
On the Idaho side of Hells Canyon, in a
north west facing drainage.
My mom has a homestead, fifty miles to the
nearest serviceable town, no power, no
phone, no TV, running water from a spring,
flower gardens, vegetable gardens,
outhouse, wild fruit trees, blackberries, mint,
a creek with fish, an old wood cook stove,
canning jars full and empty, spices, and
Herbs. An eclectic front porch.
In the bottom of a canyon of black dirt and
red walls.
Another cabin on the property was vacant.
I contacted the owner over the summer
through neighbors and was fortunate enough
to care for the cabin for two years.
I spent most of two winters snowed in, in
the back country.
Desolate winters, with no movement but
storm clouds and shadows on canyon walls.
In the winter, a jet boat delivered mail to
the mouth of the drainage I lived in, where it
flowed into the Snake river, five miles
below my cabin.
With my XM radio (a gift from my Dad),
BBC news, stacks of books, stacks of note
books, oats, beans, canned goods, olive oil,
hours of silent, cold solitude, several
thousand pages of writing, madness of the
mind, a twisting in the human.
I searched my mind for social solutions and
whittled them out on paper, in ink with
words.
I lived in a landscape, of epic proportion.
Hells Canyon and its drainages,
massive, intricate and forbidding.
I traveled back to California, to work in the
fall fields, with a fist full of idealism.
I worked created and built, engaging in
idealism, continually adjusting my ideas to
adapt to the evolving new normal and the
evolving core vocabulary.
I eventually found a house in the Redding
area, where I raised worms, grew peppers,
built worm bins for sale, studied soil
building, revisited and reworked old
writings and plans and had worked to keep
me in loot to pursue my ideas.
Manny of the ideas I worked on are on the
blog the story you are reading now was
originally published on.
All along the way I met amazing people and
formed what will be life long relationships.
____________________________________
Days before, when I left Redding, I was
traveling up to the central Oregon desert and
Glass Buttes to under take another spiritual
journey.
And now, hear I was in a crowd of
people, in the desert, with vivid experiences,
of Anna in my mind.
See you in a future past life
Chapter 7
When multiple foreign perceptions converge
within ones mind, at one time, it easy to lose
the now of the moment.
Out of that haze of mind, I remembered my
purpose of being hear and now, on a
spiritual journey.
Looking around I saw ghost like images of a
crowd of people, my kitchen box came in
focus. I sat down and faced the fire. I was
reeling. I brought my head up out of the
dizziness and focused my eyes on the fire.
Staring in to the fire, I felt this rolling return
of stability to my mind, things cleared to a
vividness.
I regained my mental balance.
I looked up to see George grinning.
Realizing my mental paralysis had been
brought on by an overdose of now.
When I had got out of Anna’s friends rig,
I had looked up and across the group of
people standing on the far side of the fire
ring. Most of them where looking at me and
murmuring. I heard some one say “its him,
its Seth.” it happened right then, a mental
stroke, a panic attack,
Now I was looking at George across the fire,
calm, smiling.
He recognized that I was having
A mental reaction to something.
I swung my head to the left and looked at
the people looking back at me smiling.
I returned a nervous over-smile frozen for
what seamed to be moments. I turned my
head back to George and unlocked my smile
relaxing the muscles in my jaws and cheeks,
(I call it painfully shy).
I looked down in to the fire, George Said,
“these people want to ask you some
questions“.
My heart raced, I felt the adrenalin sear my
veins. I breathed deeply, steadied my
breathing, focused on slowing my heart. I
relaxed, one large clearing breath. I was
relaxed.
I looked back at the group of people and
smiled a relaxed comfortable smile.
My stomach feeling a warm pain of mixing
acids and a ulcer.
Pain has always brought clarity to my mind.
The pain was just enough of a distraction to
bring clarity and focus in to the moment for
me.
Now relaxed and grounded. I asked the
attentive group what they wanted to ask me.
A couple of hands went up, I pointed to a
gal, She lowered her hand.
“Why are you on a spiritual journey?”
I responded with out thinking, “I ran out of
answers.”
She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment,
then thanked me.
Hands went up,
I thought about the exchange between her
and I, the change in expression that crossed
her face, a confirming look echoed in her
eyes, then her mind, in her posture.
I picked another hand, a dusty, blond haired
guy asked, “how do you prepare for a
spiritual journey?”
I smiled, the irony of the question and the
asker, The group laughed lightheartedly.
I paused, I thought, composed I said.
“It starts with, what I bring with me, what I
use as transportation and then what I am
going to do when I get there, to start the
spiritual journey.”
I paused. Then said.
“Planning is important,
unless you need to learn about competency
and preparedness.”
I smiled.
I felt tense, sick.
I needed to get up and walk around. I stood
up and excused my self.
I said to the group and George
“ I just need to go for a walk, clear my mind
for a moment.”
I reached down and grabbed my water bottle
sitting next to the kitchen box.
I looked up the road, there was quite a few
vehicles, I looked down the road, more rigs
parked along side the road. I walked across
the road and up the cut bank, east.
I just needed some desert to think in, Take in
the smells, walk.
I had wanted what was happening to
happen.
But I didn’t imagine it happening hear, or in
this way.
I had to pace my heart, slow my mind, stay
focused and open. I had no answers, but
knew, All the answers I would need would
arrive when the question presented its self.
“If a question is asked at the peak of ones
curiosity, the answer is remembered.” I
thought.
Humm.
“I will answer questions and watch how
things progress.” I though and nodded.
I watched some ants toting loads and
chatting with on coming traffic about the
source of their bounty.
A gust of cool wind, stirred the sage brush,
then a warm current of air settled in its
wake, with desert scents.
I stood up from my crouching study of ants
and smiled.
I walked back to camp refreshed and calm.
I set the tone of my voice at calm and
peaceful, I felt it.
I greeted George “Hi bud”
He said “How is it going man?”
I said “good”
I smiled comfortably and open.
I looked, the group of people where sitting
now, a few less than before, spread out and
talking amongst them selves.
I opened my kitchen box. All of my dishes
where washed and stacked in the box. I
picked a mug out, turned to the fire, and the
warmed pot of coffee, poured myself a cup
and sat down.
He smiled again, saying, “ they have more
questions.”
I got up and walked over to the group.
The area they where sitting had a short
cropped grass and taller tufts of bunch grass.
It looked like wild game and cattle had
nipped the grasses short during the summer.
Clear of sage brush the area looked like a
natural place to gather. Perhaps we were
gathering in the middle of an old Indian
camping spot, it had the feel.
I sat down. The woman who had asked me
why I was on a spiritual journey came and
sat down ten or so feet away facing me, she
raised her hand and waved it back and forth
in a humorous way.
I smiled. I pointed at her and said “do you
have a question mama ?” playing along
with her.
She said “yes”
Then asked “ what did you do to prepare for
your spiritual journey?”
I hesitated. Thinking back, I re-traveled in
my mind the steps I took, gathering up
supplies in Redding and how the plan had
slowly come together.
I asked her, her name.
She said; “I am Jasmine”
I started; “Jasmine’’
“This is what I learned from my experiences
so far.”
“All of my spiritual journeys have had a
jumping off kind of beginning .’’
“I had very little adventure experience in the
beginning.”
“ I have been ill prepared for most of these trips.”
“ On these journeys, I brought to much of
things I didn’t need, and not enough of what
I did need.”
“ Since then I have narrowed the list of
things one must bring down to a essentials
list.”
“First, is always food, you can never go
wrong buy buying non perishable, basic,
easy to prepare or ready to eat foods.”
“This makes the spiritual journey free of
raw survival, unless you are challenging
your capability to survive.”
“Suggestions of essentials to include; “
-“oatmeal.”
-A variety of fruit, oranges, apples, bananas
etcetera.”
-“several different trail mixes, mixed nuts
and mixed dry fruits“.
- “two different mixes of granola. I like to
have some variety even when it comes to
simple survival foods, helps the attitude“.
-“Good water containers with plenty of water.”
“A way to filter or treat water you come
across.”
“All of these ingredients should be carried in
direct proportion to the imagined length and
remoteness of said spiritual journey.”
“A good medical kit ,with bandages, that are
useful!, look at your first aid kit. don’t think
patching up a small scrape, think, the tools I
will need to save my life where there is no
one but me to help me.”
“Bring a well written first aid book, be
familiar with it. Dedicate a sharp knife to
your first aid kit.”
“Hear at Glass Buttes, the obsidian can be
formed in to cutting tools easily.”
“ Nature is full of tools, be aware of your
surroundings and what could be useful as a
resource when you need it.”
“A cell phone, a compass and a map of the
area you are going to spend your spiritual
journey within .”
“If I have a vehicle, I include a kitchen set
up with a sharp hatchet and a five gallon
bucket.”
“I like to carry a canvas tarp. A plastic tarp
will due, but they trap moisture, canvas tarps
also offer more padding and insulation than
plastic ones.”
“Both types of tarps can be used to create a
shelter.”
“A good sleeping bag, one that can keep you
warm in the changing environment you are
going into.”
“Know weather history and altitudes of the
area you will be spending time in.”
“ plenty of Bick lighters!’’
“A lighter in the wilderness is about as close
as you can get to magic.”
“ the alternative of rubbing two sticks
together to start a fire with friction is
daunting, even with experience.’’
The group had scooted in to listen to the
conversation Jasmine and I were having.
“ What did you mean by spiritual journey”,
Jasmine asked.
“My spiritual journey began as I was
planning my trip. As I was planning my trip,
I realized I was planning and packing for
me, and that the level of care and
thoughtfulness I put in to planning and
packing, Would reflect my love for my self.
The love and care for a future me.”
“On my drive up from California, a lot of
things from last summer where on my mind.
I left them in the desert some where between
hear and California.”
“When I filled up with gas in Riley Junction
a couple of days ago. I had started thinking
about what I might do at Glass Buttes.
I felt full of energy, I thought I might map
out a quest. A quest journey, a journey I
might find answers or new questions to
answer on.”
I paused. Thinking back, about the
moments I had spent sitting on the gravel
pile three nights before connected to what
felt like the source.
Sitting there then talking with Jasmine and
the group , I felt a confirming feeling, a
universal fit. My inhabitations fell away.
I looked clearly at Jasmine and the group, I
saw them as they where calm, interested,
happy, distracted, dreaming, thinking
smiling, skeptical, texting, they where all
human, they where all there.
“Three nights ago”, I started out, “I had a
event occur.”
I paused to ponder my story.
“I had a spiritual experience.”
“I have only had two other experiences of
this nature. I say nature, because spiritual
experience seams to confining of a
definition for the experience I had.
I do not fully comprehend the experience I
had three nights ago.
But, I am fairly certain that enlightenment,
Zen, knowing god, having a spiritual
experience, taping in to the source, are all
the same end experience.”
“The closest I can come to explaining my
experiences in full is, seeing the world
whole and inter connected.”
“My first spiritual experience happened after
a series of events occurred with in an hour
or so.’
“This is what happened;”
“First, I stopped by a grave yard to see if I
could find my friends grave. He had been
brutally murdered by his brother. I had been
to his funeral wake a week or so earlier. I
didn’t know where he was buried, but I
suspected it was there in that cemetery.
I looked at the two or three graves that
where fresh.
I couldn’t find him.”
“I got back in my truck and headed for the
coastal mountains and home.
I felt a little lost in wonder to where he
might be resting.”
“I was making my way down a mesmerizing
series of switch backs, zoning out on my
friends where bouts, stretching my mind to
all the possible final places he would be.”
“Then I heard, A local female radio host on
the radio;”
“Do I have this right?” She said. “It would
only take ten noble men one generation to
change the world.”
““Yes“. Her guest, a woman, said clearly
and soundly as if she knew with certainty.”
“The radio host went directly into
reintroducing her guest as having three
doctorates one in psychology, one in
mathematics and one in sociology, from two
different Ivy league schools.”
“She was twenty nine and considered a
genius and had been awarded as such.”
“My immediate thought was,
What dose noble mean?”
“At about the same moment I drove into a
saddle over looking the ocean. I pulled off
the road and parked facing the ocean.
A half sun was descending in to the ocean.
the view was massive and broad. I felt my
self pulled forward, then it happened.”
“I remember, knowledge swarming forth ,
as if volumes of knowledge had always
been stored in my mind, in my cells. Then a
feeling of order to it all, then a deep sense of
knowing, Followed by a great sense of awe
then a great feeling of responsibility.”
“As if my mind and being had momentarily
aliened itself to see the worlds full
potential.”
“There was Then a white flash that rippled
out from me, I saw no other visual imagery ,
just a vividness to the world around me.”
I looked around at the group and Jasmine.
They where silent and staring at me.
I went on.
“I tried to make sense of it all.”
“I thought about the whole experience.
I am not one who sees UFO’s or ghosts.
I am not superstitious.”
“The experience was very foreign to me.”
“I had been wondering about my friend,
broadly reaching with my mind.
Then the guest on the radio show, with her
profound information.
Then I had asked the question to my self
What dose noble mean?
No answer came.
Then the sun setting on a endless horizon.
Then the experience.”
“I believe the shift of mental states and of
emotional extremes, created a mental rift,
a bending or rather a straitening of reality.
A cleaning away of the fog in my reality.
A fog I had been trying to navigate through
my whole life.”
“A purpose, my purpose was to understand
what noble meant. More than just a worded
definition, but to experience it, to
understand it.
“My life journey started that day!”
“The weeks and months after the experience
are a blur. I sold every thing I owned, A
house, other property, machinery, tools,
beds, every thing. I feel into a depreshion.
I spent all most all the money. I found my
self in a mental hospital in Redding
California, about a year later.”
“I spent a month in the hospital, Learning
how to live again, learning how to care for
my self. In the year prior I had lost all the
\skills to live. In Elpida, the mental hospital,
I reoriented my self with my life as it was.
I had sixteen hundred dollars, a car with no
payments and insurance paid for a year.
During the last two weeks in Elpida I made
a plan to go on a spiritual journey, in
search of truth in what ever form it came.
I was open and receptive.”
“I was either going to the desert or I was
going to travel some big river. I chose the
Mississippi river.”
I invited others to come along with me, two
said they wanted to go. I talked the trip up.
When it was time to go they vanished.
I went alone. My dignity was on the line, I
had to make the journey.
I said I would, so there fore I did.”
I paused in thought and reflection of that
journey and those since.
I was still on that journey, I relised sitting in
front of that group, speaking of journeys,
just below Glass Buttes. I was at the right
time and place in life.
I spoke without thinking.
“Now I see noble as; the momentum of truth
within the depth of right choices practiced
every day in ones life.”
“What dose love mean?” Jasmine asked.
I smiled.
I had a spent a long time considering this
question myself. I felt hesitant to answer.
After all it was just my answer or rather
understanding at that moment. Why not?
“Love as I imagine and act it out, is the
multiplicity of thoughtfulness I put into
some thing I do for someone else or for my
self.”
It was getting late in to the afternoon.
I had not eaten sinse brekfast and was
feeling a craving for food.
I looked back over at the fire. Travis, the
fire tender, the guy I had brekfast with was
cooking some thing in a large cast-iron
Dutch oven.
I told the group I needed a break for dinner,
but would be happy to talk again later that
night.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 8
A large group had formed around the camp
Fire. The beans that Travis had been tending
over the fire where finished.
Travis ladled a scope out to each person who
put forward a bowl.
A quietness followed as folks ate.
I watched people come and go.
Vehicles had been arriving on and off all
day.
By dusk there was a steady flow of people
driving in off the twenty.
People where setting up tents,
building and lighting fires, unfolding chairs,
setting up camp and settling in for the nights
events.
I ate, staring in to the fire, wondering
if this gathering of people was a normal
thing that happened hear at Glass Buttes.
I finished my bowl of beans. Travis had
gotten the dishes routine figured out, A
large pot I used for canning was on the fire
with water steaming away. Using a coffee
cup, I dipped out some water and rinsed my
spoon and bowl. Towel dried, I returned the
cup, spoon and bowl to my kitchen box.
Walking over to my bedroll I straitened it
out and dusted it off. Sitting, then
stretching out, I lay on my back looking up
at the then revealing stars. I could feel the
warmth of the fire on the side of my face.
I peeled off my shoes with my toes. Then
stretched and spread my toes in the relief of
there freedom and the cooling air.
A moment later a SUV honked as it rolled
by slowly, It was Anna and her friends.
Behind them was a truck I recognized from
the night before. The truck pulled level with
camp and stopped, it was a four door and all
four doors opened, the people inside got out
and went to the back of the truck. The driver
opened the tailgate and started handing
things to the people who had come with
him.
A fifty pound sack of oats, a forty five
pound bag of beans, then another, then came
the fire wood. They where supper stocking
camp. It was neat.
This vibe started to happen.
This young guy maybe in his early
twenties showed up with his guitar. He just
sat down and dove in, he turned into the
vibe in the saddle. Another guy showed up
with a drum, more drums appeared.
Anna showed up, her and her friends had
set up camp on the eastern side of the
saddle, she laid down next to me resting her
head on my out stretched arm.
She rolled her head and faced me, her eyes
bright in the reflection of the fire light,
almost golden. She smiled, I felt
her relax and soften, she rolled her head to
take in the stars. I saw the out line of her
face in the flickering light of the fire,
her nose, her lips, her brow and chin.
I looked up at the stars, with more wonder
than I could ever remember feeling.
We watched the stars and listened to the
building rhythms from around the fire circle.
A meteor skidded across the sky, broke
apart, flashed, then vanished in pieces.
Some one stirred and added wood to the fire
sparks danced and vanished into the night
Sky above.
I wandered off in my mind
The gathering, the almost instant nature of
it, the phenomenon felt some thing like
lightening . Lightening followed by a
thunder clap announcing the change of one
reality to another. A reality in the desert,
a reality of humans mingling with stars and
sparks.
I had experienced the same feelings and
sense of the world when I was a child.
As a hippy child in northern California
during the early and mid seventies. my
parents brought me to a number of festivals.
We went to rainbow festivals, art festivals,
music festivals and community seasonal
party’s in the coastal mountains of southern
Humboldt county. (The harvest festival was
my favorite)
These events of my childhood had
imprinted upon me the potential harmony
that could be achieved by humans in groups
and communities.
I had long believed that there was a
combination of words that could cut through
all belief systems and dogmas and speak
strait to the every human. To activate them,
wake them up out of their slumber of
repetition, unite humans for humans.
That summer, I had been refining my
writing of a social theory and the tenants of
building and sustaining a healthy
community.
I had gone on this spiritual journey to find
the answers I needed to build that
community.
Writing, studying and thinking through the
dynamics and infrastructure of that
community, I hit a wall.
I couldn’t see how to get there from here.
I believed, that my approach, my skill, was
writing, thinking, reasoning and building
perceptions.
Building those perceptions by assembling
ancient knowledge’s, modern efficiencies
and technology, into a highly active human
learning culture.
Anna had rolled over and into my side, just
below my chin she rested her head on my
chest I could hear her breath, slow and easy.
She was asleep. I came down from the
clouds in my mind to enjoy the moment. I
smiled. At that moment I could not imagine
any where else I would rather be than
sharing warmth with Anna.
A few minutes later, Jasmine walked up and
laid a blanket over Anna and I.
I thanked her.
I started thinking about Anna.
Anna and I had spoken very little.
My mind was trying to sort out what it was
that was happening between her and I. Was
she a distraction from my spiritual journey I
was on? Was I blowing it?
Or was she on a similar path and our paths
had just blended?
What ever it was, it was extraordinary.
I wondered, what next? I stopped thinking
about what if, and enjoyed the moment.
In our warm embrace I fell asleep to the
building rhythm of drums around the fire
circle.
I woke up to Anna running her fingers
through my hair. Her head resting on my
shoulder. I turned to her, she was
smiling with a girlish joy about her.
Jasmine had woken Anna up minutes earlier.
Anna said that the metour shower was
starting.
We both got up and walked over to the now
almost vacant fire. Travis was there stoaking
the fire. We sat on five gallon buckets, now
full of supplies. We leaned into the warmth
and the dryness of the fire. Travis greeted
us, handing us both cups of coffee.
He had taken charge of the camp kitchen
and fire. I had seen him earlier organizing
the incoming food and fire wood. Several
more five gallon buckets where next to the
wood pile and kitchen box.
Travis smiled as I looked from the supplies
to where he was sitting across the fire.
I must have looked puzzled, I was.
“Travis what is it that you do?” I asked.
He said, “I am a gourmet chef from San
Francisco.”
“How did you end up cooking beans at my
fire?” I asked.
He smiled, almost laughing.
“Well” he started “ I came up to bend to
look for a house, I am tired of the city and
Bend feels like the place I want live.’’
“Do you have prospects for a job?’’ I asked.
“I am going to take a year off to travel
after I buy my house and settle in.”
He went on.
“ I just got to bend two days ago. My realtor
introduced me to some friends of hers at a
bar that we went to, to listen to music, the
first night I arrived in Bend.
Last night I got a text from a couple I had
met there, they said they where going out in
to the desert to Glass buttes to watch a
meteor shower and that there was this guy
on a spiritual journey. It all sounded
interesting so hear I am.”
“You got a text message about me out hear
on a spiritual journey, watching a meteor
Shower?” I asked, I was shocked.
I had grown use to living an outliers life,
always on the fringes of society, looking in
traveling through, observing, learning. I had
been living an anonymous existence I had
grown to enjoy.
I felt a hand slip into mine, I looked down,
at a smaller hand with long elegant fingers
entwined with my own. Anna sensed my
anxiety. I raised my eyes to meet hers. She
looked at me thoughtfully. I relaxed and
returned a warm shy smile.
“Most of the people out hear tonight,
received a text or message on face book
from a friend, about your journey and the
meteor shower.” Travis said.
“ Really?” I said stunned.
“Yes” he said.
“People have been talking about the ideas
you have written about on your blog.”
He went on.
“I like the Paper you wrote on using flash
mobs to install organic farms.”
“I think it has real potential to change the
food world.” he said.
I could feel my self bottling up nervous
energy.
Anna, still holding my hand, got up and slid
around to my back, her chin resting on my
shoulder, her hair brushing my neck, her lips
to my ear, “ lets walk up to the Butte and
watch the meteor shower” she whispered.
I kissed her hand.
Travis smiled and said “I think you should
do whatever she just said.”
I laughed, short and confirming.
Anna and I stood up.
“Lets walk over to my camp” Anna said as
she linked her arm in mine.
We walked up and into the east side of the
Saddle, passing vehicles parked next to
Camps, the camps covered the whole saddle.
I could hardly recognize the saddle,
fires burned at a few camps, but most were
dark and vacant of people or movement.
We reached her dark camp, she knelt down
and unzipped her tent. Reaching in she
pulled out a full size wool cloak, lifting it
up, over and onto her shoulders.
I was amazed by her movements,
she was graceful, in the dark,
she seamed to float over the ground.
She moved to me, with her arm settled into
mine, we turned, walking slowly across the
saddle to the road leading up to the Butte
summit.
I could hear faint drum rythems up on the
buttes.
The sky was clear, the stars bright and
defined, the milky way vividly flowing, no
wind, it was cooling sharply.
We started up the steepening road.
“Where are you from?” I asked Anna.
“I am originally from England,”
“My grandfather was a barrister in India and
migrated to England to study and practice
law. My father was born in England and
married me mum, she died from stomach
cancer the year before we left.”
“I am sorry” I said.
There was a brief silence as we walked on.
“My father and I came to the United States
when I was seventeen, He opened a business
law practice in San Francisco.”
“I traveled up from San Francisco to visit
some friends in Bend and now I am hear
with you.”
“You never know when lightning will
strike.” I said, as I smiled in to the dark.
She squeezed my arm.
We where getting closer to the top, I could
hear the drums growing louder as we
rounded a bend in the road. The bulk of the
summit came into view as an outline in the
nights sky.
In the dark we could hear people talking in
subdued tones. Still some distance from the
top, we could see blankets spred out on the
slopes of the summit, dark figures moved
slightly, occasionally a finger and arm out
stretched pointing to the sky. I looked up at
the havens. Meteors flickered, drawing
vanishing lines across our view of the
universe. A cluster of meteors salted the sky.
Anna squeezed my arm, she giggled quietly
with joy. I felt a surge of exilaration as we
neared the end of the road. A figure was
walking down the trail approaching us.
I heard a familiar voice.
“Anna, Seth, is that you”
it was Jasmine.
“yes” Anna replied.
We walked to meet her.
“We saved a space for both of you up at the
top of the summit.”
Jasmine said in whispered tones.
Anna gave my arm a squeeze and let go,
Anna and Jasmine locked arms, walking
ahead, up the trail. I stopped and looked
around, the outline of the mountains, sky,
dark valleys, people scattered on the slopes.
It reminded me of a paper I had written
when I was traveling down the Mississippi
river, a psalm of sorts to the traveler.
I had repeated it in my mind some many
times, it was a melody of thought that came
to me during extraordinary moments and
experiences.
I whispered the words as I walked up the
rising trail.
“The travelers soul.”
“The traveler comes, the traveler goes.
In the wisps of silence he moves.
His cloak worn long with anonymity.
He passes through veils of fear, into who he
has become.
The fragrance of life is his to savor.
Now!
A loneliness not so vague gnaws at ego,
bringing him to met himself, and there he is
a traveler.
His only footing is the fresh unknown.
His pool of reflection the world his home.”
I smiled and looked up.
The Ladies, I could faintly see in the dark,
had reached the top. Blankets some white in
the darkness others just defined black
squares, where spread in every open area I
could see. Some people lying on there backs
under blankets, sleeping bags, hands point,
whispers, a murmur under the drum beat.
A large open area, about ten feet across, was
covered with blankets at the top, I had
watched Anna and Jasmine sit in the center.
I looked around, the whole top of the
mountain was covered in blankets and
people. Down from the summit, on the
northwest side, was a bench. A fire burned,
large with licking flames. A large circle of
people, some feet back from the fire, sat and
stood. The drummers, most sitting, where
enraptured in some rythmatic human
cord. You could hear it, you could see
it in the surrounding crowd. A little old man
frail looking in flesh, wielding two
Tomahawks, beat this huge drum fiercely,
whaling on it with his heart.
Several people danced between the
drummers and the fire, around and around,
caught in the trance of the drums.
It was some thing to see.
I took my shoes off at the edge of the
blankets, straitened my wool socks and
walked just behind where the girls had sat
down. Standing Facing northwest, I looked
to my left at highway twenty pointing
towards Bend.
There was a line of cars as far as I could see,
coming east.
Looking down to the base of the Buttes on
the western side, all around Anna springs,
people where camped, fires burned, car
lights and flash lights bobbed about on the
desert floor.
“There must be thousands of people hear”
I thought.
That’s when I saw the red lights flashing
down on the highway below.
Some one out of the dark handed me
binoculars, I put them to my eyes and
focused them on the flashing lights below.
I saw The highway patrol was diverting
traffic off the highway down towards Anna’s
spring.
A flash of light came from behind me as a
vehicle rounded the ridge below, it was
coming up the summit road, It pulled up and
stopped, two people got out with bright flash
lights. The two flashlights swept over all the
people scattered around the summit slopes,
they stopped to talk to some one, near the
trail head leading up to the summit. The two
flashlights then turned and shined up the
trail, shifted, then started up the trail. As
they walked, occasionally they would shine
over the on looking people.
“Hum” I thought “curious“.
Minutes later, two game wardens showed
up.
Walking up to the edge of the blanket I
greeted them. “ Hi” I said.
“Do you have Identification” one of the
wardens asked.
“I do” I replied.
By this time Anna and Jasmine had gotten
up and moved towards my self and the
officers.
I reached down and pulled my wallet out of
my back pocket, opened it, and handed the
officer my license.
As the girls approached, the other officer
asked to see their identification as well.
They called my name in on their radios.
A few minutes latter he handed me back my
ID.
“Mister Galli can you tell us what is going
on hear?”
I laughed with a “Your asking me” kind of
roll.
“Well officer……..” I just told him the story
Of the past couple days.
He said he had been briefed earlier in the
evening when he came on the night shift in
Bend. He was told that a mass exodus of
people where headed out of
Bend and other surrounding towns
and converging hear at Glass Buttes.
The officer said it was on the evening news.
I looked at the officer, staring for close to a
minute, through him.
“Are you alright Mr. Galli” I heard a voice
say.
I felt a hand slip into mine, It was Anna.
“Yes.. yes I’m ok!” I heard my self say.
The Officer that had checked my ID started,
“This is what’s going on. There are about
fifteen thousand people hear now, we have
been directing traffic off the road towards
the east side of Glass Buttes.
Where are you camped?” he asked
“I am camped just below hear in the
Saddle.” I responded as I pointed.
I turned and looked to where I thought he
meant by the east side of Glass Buttes.
I saw the out line of a ridge past my camp,
to the east, I caught site of a few flash lights
moving around.
He said, “behind that ridge is a large bowl
with a pond in the center and some old
mining sites. There are lots of people
camped over there.” he went on
“What had us the most worried was all the
five gallon buckets people had with them.”
“Until some one told us that they where
getting texts of your conversation about
preparing for a spiritual journey.”
He went on to say
“Every one seams well prepared to camp for
the night. More officers are coming out from
Bend and Burns. We are directing the traffic
flow off twenty into every area we can find
for them to camp for the night. We will be
patrolling all camping areas until morning.”
“Ok” I said.
“Do you want me to do some thing?” I
Asked, With no idea what I could do.
He said “No.”
“We will be close by” he said.
They thanked us and walked down toward
the drum circle.
The drums stopped as they entered the
circle.
They told every one to enjoy the evening
and that Highway twenty was being closed
Down, coming in or out until morning. The
only traffic that was being allowed was
emergency traffic and that two ambulances
where standing by.
The same officer I talked to, pointed down
towards twenty near the turn off to Anna’s
spring and then he pointed down towards
the saddle and my camp, indicating the
ambulances locations.
They bid every one a good night at the fire
circle and walked around the side hill to the
east. They stopped and talked to people
along the way. The officer eventually made
it back to their truck at the end of the road
near the trail head to the summit. They got
in and shut the doors. I watched to see what
they where going to do. After fifteen
minutes or so, I figured they were ware they
were going to be for the night.
The drums had started up with some
renewed intensity. I looked to see Anna and
Jasmine sitting on the blankets watching the
sky.
I smiled thoughtfully.
I sat down next to Anna, Anna moved
behind me, leaned me back in to her lap and
ran her fingers through my hair. She looked
down at me and smiled. She looked back up
at the stars, watching, I watched her for
several minutes and then looked up at the
sky dome, watching, waiting.
I couldn’t think, I didn’t want to think, I fell
asleep under the enormous sky, to the touch
of Anna’s hands.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 9
I awoke to the air thumping sound of a
helicopter. It was still dark, I sat up and
looked to the east, I could see a faint
lighting of the horizon. A star, perhaps a
planet, shined brightly just above the waking
eastern sky.
The helicopters hack grew louder as it
turned, rounding the south west side of the
buttes. It flew over the valley floor near the
base of the buttes. It flew several hundred
feet lower than the peak where I was
standing. I could see several camp fires
burning below near Anna’s spring. The
helicopter, passing Anna springs and
traveling north, over twenty, then rounding
the northern side of Glass Buttes, on up the
drainage on the eastern side of the buttes, up
into the saddle.
The helicopter hovered for a moment over
the saddle. Flying up the drainage the
helicopter had gained altitude, it now flew
almost level with the summit and me.
The helicopters navigation light blinking
bright in the transitioning light. It turned,
facing the summit, gained altitude, flying up
and over the summit, slowing, then turning
over the western valley and Anna’s spring,
returning to level with the Butte summit.
The helicopter hovered five or six hundred
feet out from the summit, level and facing
me.
The helicopter hovered for what felt like
minutes, then it turned and headed toward
Bend following twenty.
I could see highway twenty below, tail
lights, a line of cars returning toward Bend.
Anna grabbed my hand, puling up close next
to me. Shifting to face her, I pulled her in to
my chest, her nose cold, nuzzled my neck.
She was shivering. I shifted, we shifted, I
looked down at the drum circle fire. Some
one was stoking it. I could see people
standing, sitting up, shaking out blankets.
The sound of voices started to rise.
I could see cell phones lighting up, a few
people near us started talking on their
phones, People were texting.
“Lets go down to the fire and warm up“,
Anna said, between shivers and a set jaw.
We walked down the slope to the fire,
passing now aroused star gazers, some slept.
All where wrapped in blankets or tilted up in
sleeping bags.
We walked between people sitting and
standing near their nights sleeping spots, on
something like a path to a cleared area
around the fire circle. Several people now
stood around the fire, warming their hands
and rubbing the cold out of their clothes,
turning warming, a building conversation, a
gargling of the morning activities, the cold,
the fire. We walked up to a opening around
the fire. Looking around, I spied Travis
squatting down over a large steaming coffee
pot, adding rich brown grounds. I heard
some heavy breathing, I turned to see a guy
carrying two five gallon buckets, he walked
up to the fire next to Travis. Travis reached
in and removed several bottled waters and a
hand full of cups. Moving around the fire,
reaching, he handed me two cups. Travis
looked me in the eyes with clarity. He was
activated. He had taken in the morning
activities, I could see that he was hyper-
aware. Standing next to Travis, the person
who carried the buckets in to camp, was the
same guy that was playing the guitar last
night at my camp, below, in the saddle.
He reached across the fire and introduced
himself, “Hi, my name is Aaron” shaking
my hand, “Nice to meet you Seth!”
I shook his hand authentically, looking at
him I could see he to was activated to.
“Pleasure to meet you Aaron.” I said.
“What do you think about the helicopter“,
Travis said. Smiling, with a wow look on his
face, his hair ruffled and sticking up.
“A cop stopped by your camp last night
Looking for you, did he find you?”
Travis asked.
“No, but we talked to two game wardens last
night up on the summit .” I said.
“What did they want?” Travis asked.
“They asked for my ID and told me what
was going on, and where they had
ambulances parked.” I paused, thinking.
“I think they are parked just over hill by the
trail head?” I added.
The coffee pot boiled over, steaming the
fire.
Travis leaned down and pulled the pot to the
edge of the fire, lifting it, he set it on a flat
rock at the fires edge. Grabbing a water
bottle Travis sprinkled cold water over the
calming, steaming, mixture of coffee
grounds and water.
The cold water helping to settle the grounds
to the bottom of the pot. Collecting
up and handing out a half dozen cups. Travis
began pouring cups full, grateful voices
returned their thanks.
More cups came forward out of the crowd
Travis filled them until the pot was empty.
Jasmine was there, She had walked up and
been talking to Anna while I was talking to
Travis and Aaron.
I looked at Anna and Jasmine they both
returned perky smiles as they clutched their
cups of coffee. Jasmine had, wool gloves, a
scarf and a pea coat with jeans.
Anna was wrapped in her dark blue cloak.
With her hood up, black hair flowing out
and down the front of her cloak. Hands
forward holding her cup of coffee up to her
lips. She was activated, I watched her look
around the now growing group of people, as
she blew on her hot cup of coffee,
with a twinkle of curiosity in her eyes.
She was slowly moving her gaze across
conversations. I followed her inquisitiveness
as she scanned the now forming crowd.
“They are awake, alive.”
She said, as if she was about to break in
to excited laughter, Anna was getty.
I looked from her around the growing group.
She was right, People where animated,
excited, people where talking on their cell
phones, laughing, eyes bright, reliving the
helicopters flight, retelling the activities of
the morning. There was lots of cell phone
activity.
Up on the buttes was the only place
I had seen anyone use their phone. I had left
mine in my pickup.
It was growing lighter, I could see people on
the slopes above the fire circle, moving
around.
Anna turned to me and said “ I was up most
of the night talking to friends and family in
San Francisco and England.”
She continued.
“We where on CNN last night and this
mornings as a developing story.”
She went on.
“A CNN reporter stood in front of a road
block outside of Bend on highway twenty.”
I was lost in thought, trying to take in the
scope of what was happening and what
Anna was telling me.
I was staring in to the fire, thinking.
I looked up and around at the people
gathered, I fixated on the cell phones being
used, they where magnifying the
phenomenon of the now happening event.
“I wanted this to happen, but why hear and
now, in this way?” I thought.
I saw it all in my mind.
“like digital dominoes Falling,” I thought.
I repressed my growing excitement.
It was out of control though, every one
seamed calm, but there was no real way to
communicate with all these people, no
safety plan.
I must have looked concerned, I was.
I looked over at Travis and Aaron,
They looked back.
“I am going back up to the summit to have a
look around,” I said.
Travis turned talking to the guy next to him
and pointing at the coffee pot. The guy
nodded his head.
Travis turned to me and said, “I am going
with you.”
Aaron followed, “ me to.”
Anna grabbed my hand, I turned, she looked
at me, she was ready to go, Jasmine was
right behind her.
We shuffled around the edge of the fire, the
crowd opened to let us pass. We climbed up
the hill to the summit Anna’s phone was on
vibrate, I could hear its bug like buzz, going
off every couple of minutes, Then it just
didn’t stop. She pulled her cell phone out
and shut it off.
It was getting lighter.
At the summit, I took in the scope of the
landscape covered with camps.
smoke columns rose from camp fires on the
valley floor. Jasmine took pictures of the
butte summit area and the western valley
below. Anna followed with her camera
capturing moments.
Camps were especially dense around
Anna’s Spring, spreading out from there on
the desert floor, camped close to the root
like ridges of the buttes that held the
mountain to the desert floor.
Below and north, the highway patrol was
directing a line of traffic back on to the
highway, back to Bend, where Anna’s
spring road met twenty.
I looked to the east, camp fires burned on
the opposite ridge. People sat in folding
chairs watching the traffic streaming out of
the saddle north to the twenty.
I caught site of twenty, pointing east, a line
of cars pushed on and vanished into the
distance towards Burns.
I could hear it before I could see it,
a helicopter.
A moment latter I saw it traveling east over
highway twenty from Bend.
The sun was starting to break the horizon.
The helicopter approached the buttes, flying
to the north and around the surrounding
area, circling the buttes, then returning
towards Bend along twenty.
Travis taped my elbow. I looked, he pointed
down the trail to the summit road.
The two game wardens were walking up the
trail. We all turned to face them as they
approached.
“Good morning,” “Quite a seen, amazing
isn’t it”
I said, as they walked up.
They both gave me a wry smile.
“Well, what’s going on?” I asked with a low
curious tone.
The two game wardens were local guys, I
could tell, they where as uncomfortable as I
was around so many people.
The game warden I had talked to the night
before had a name tag on his jacket, it read,
“Martin”.
“Can we speak with you for a minute mister
Galli”?…. “ in private!”
Myself and the two officers walked a few
feet away from the group I was with.
I looked back at Anna, and smiled,
confident, I winked at her, she smiled.
I could see concern on her face under her
smile.
I turned to the officers.
Martin put his hand forward to shake, I
reached forward and shook his hand.
The other officer, Scott, I read the name tag
affixed to his jacket, offered his hand, we
shook.
Scott, blond, he wore a white vaquero’s hat,
late twenties, clean faced, respectful nature.
Martin, older, graying brown hair, maybe in
hi early fifties, a silk scarf, a large sweeping
mustache covering his mouth, up to cool
blue eyes. He wore a cowboy hat, white and
caked / stained with age, a short brimmed
ranchers hat. A western man of character, a
man of the desert.
Both wore green pants and jackets with
kaki collard shirts.
Scott stood by, Martin began,
“We have a situation building.”
He said, flat and strait.
“We would like to take you in to Bend,
for your own safety, of your own fee will”
“Why? What’s going on?” I asked, feeling
nervous.
Martin started,
“People are pouring into Bend.”
He paused, he looked at me with a serious
even gaze, as if he was sizing me up.
“ The highway patrol has a road block
on twenty east of Bend.”
“There are ten thousand or better people
bottle neck in Bend, trying to get hear.
People are worried that you might make a
inflammatory comment that might create a
incident.”
He paused, looking out at the surrounding
desert below and the camps scattered on the
desert floor. His eyes came back to me.
He gave me a stressed smile.
“I read your blog last night and I don’t think
that’s what you want.”
“Not at all,’’ I said, with a subdued, stressed,
voice.
I started imagining the potential things that
could go wrong, the people that could get
hurt.
My mind steadied and calmed, my
surroundings became vivid.
I heard behind me, Travis, Anna, Jasmine
and Aaron talking, there voices were
strained.
In my mind, a voice, deep and reverberating
echoed, “Be calm…”
I listened to my breath, I felt my lungs fill, I
breathed out clearing stagnant air from my
chest.
I breathed in, fresh cool air, the smells of the
desert, the sun rising, the shadows stretched
out, a morning wind rattled between sage
brush and juniper.
It was a moment captured by all my senses,
then released with the next exhaling
breath.
I looked back at my group, they where
talking on their cell phones.
I turned back to Martin, with a question in
my mind, my Eyes, he followed.
“These are your friends?”
“Ya..” I said, then paused.
“We have room for them” Martin said.
My mind was examining the elements of the
now progressing events and my part in it, as
innocuous as it was.
I was distracted by multiple lines of thought,
I was staring down in to the valley below at
Anna’s spring.
I looked up at Martin,
“I am going to need to communicate with
these folks.”
I paused, he paused, I started breaking down
what was going on. These people on the
desert floor and on the surrounding lower
ridges couldn’t get cell service.
The people up on the rounded summit area.
I paused.
I had been so wrapped up in the
conversation and complex thoughts that I
had looked right past all the people on the
summit. The people on and around the
summit where all looking up at us, many
talking on their phones, watching, texting,
communicating with each other.
I turned and looked at my group they looked
at me, they hung up their phones.
I turned back to Martin, he nodded
confirming my thoughts, my group moved
over and gathered around, every one
relaxed.
“Martin,” I said directly. He stiffened up.
“They wouldn’t shut all these peoples
phones off, would they?
He looked around, “that wouldn’t be a good
idea, would it?” he said, following my
thoughts.
“There is suppose to be a communications
van on its way from Bend, it is a mobile cell
phone tower,”
Scott volunteered.
Martin turned and walked a few steps from
the group. He was talking on his two way
radio, then his cell phone, Martin came back
and joined the group.
Martin spoke quickly.
“The van is on its way, it just turned off
highway twenty and is headed up the road to
the saddle, it will be at the trail head
shortly.” he paused.
“We should go down and meet it”
Martin tuned and started down the trail,
Scott followed.
It was still early, eight thirty or nine.
It was warming up.
We started down the trail to the end of the
road and the trail head, behind Martin and
Scott.
Anna grabbed my hand, “what are you going
to tell all these people” she said Anxiously,
looking around at the people on the slopes
of the butte summit area.
I stopped, “Officer Martin” I called down
the trail.
Martin turned, “I need to talk to these folks
up here.” I called down to him.
He trotted up the trail, in a moment he was
next to me. “What are you going to say?”
Martin said between breaths.
“I am going to give them my blog address
and tell them that I will communicate with
them through it…. As soon as I get access to
a laptop and internet.”
I paused, I thought, I was making it up as I
went along.
“I also want to tell them every thing is ok,
that the event was unplanned and it had
grown to large to be safe. So, I was
cooperating with local law enforcement in
dispersing the crowd safely.”
Martin, looked at me for a moment, “Ok,”
he said, nodding.
He walked to the side of the trail, opened
and dialed a number on his phone.
I turned and climbed the twenty or so feet
back up to the summit.
“Hi folks, if you could gather a little
closer,”….
The people on the summit knob collected
around.
“First every thing is , ok.
Second, This was not a planed event.
The number of people who
have gathered hear has become unsafe.
I am cooperating with local law enforcement
to disperse the gathering safely.”
“My blog is sethgezzsoupscoop on blogger,
Or Google me, Seth Galli.”
“I will post any news or changes as I
become aware of them on my blog.”
“Please wait at your camp or car until local
law enforcement can direct you safely.”
“Please tell your friends what’s going on, so
they don’t try to travel out hear.”
“this has been a amazing experience to share
with all of you, thank you.”
“namaste”
Martin stood by nervous.
“We got to go” Martin said.
I started down the hill, I looked off to my
right there were thousands of tents on the
valley floor below.
I felt really tired, all of a sudden, it
happened almost instantly, I stopped,
turning to the side of the trail, I leaned
down, hands on my knees, back bowed and I
puked.
I straitened up, Travis was there, he handed
me a bottle of water. A rinse, then a deep
pull draining the bottle.
My sensory system, my mind, couldn’t take
in the scale of what was happening ,the
people present, the now of it all. I had long
been a shadow, a chameleon in and on the
edges of society, an observer out side the
experiment, I had enjoyed the anonymity of
it. That was all gone now.
I felt a clearing, a sense of direction, clarity.
Anna was there, Jasmine handed her a
napkin she had produced from her pea coat,
Anna handed me the napkin and another
bottle of water. I poured some water in my
hand, rinsed my face, clearing my nose and
sinuses, I slicked off the excess water from
my face with my hand, I felt much better.
I smiled at Anna and Jasmine, and nodded.
Martin was down the trail some, he had
turned to see what was going on, he gave me
a “that will do pig!” look with a wry smile.
I had passed some test in his mind, I saw it
just under and in his eyes.
I turned and started down the trail, our group
now strung out walked ahead. Anna a few
feet in front of me, slowed, reaching for my
hand.
We walked down to the trail head and road.
The van was there, behind it was a large
generator. Some technicians where raising a
antenna out of the top of the van.
The game wardens suburban was there, just
down the road.
Martin and Scott walked to the van and
talked to one of the technicians.
Martin, shaking the guys hand, then turned
and walked towards the suburban. Our
group trailed behind, Anna and I walked up
to Martin on the drivers side of the
suburban, he started,
“They are setting up a mobile cell phone
tower,”
The generator started.
“We need to get going,” Martin said.
The rest of the group was already piling in
as Scott held open the rear passenger side
door.
Travis and Aaron sat in the far back jump
seat, Anna, Jasmine and I took the center
bench seat.
Martin and Scott got in and closed their
doors.
“I need to stop at my truck and get my cell
phone, or should I drive my truck in to
Bend?” I said towards the front of the
suburban.
Every one in the group chimed in, needing
this or that from their camps.
I could see martin stiffen, “Are you all
camped in the saddle?” he asked.
“Yes”, we all said in unison.
We drove down and around the butte,
through several switch backs and out on to
the saddle. Martin stopped by a pound in the
lower part of the saddle where the drainage
came together. We all piled out going our
separate directions.
I walked to my truck. The camp fire off to
the left of my truck had a collection of
people standing around it. Coffee cups in
hands, boiling water, some one stirred a pot
of oatmeal, people where talking, waking
up. The fire crackled as wood was added.
In the back of my truck, my bed roll was
folded up. I unlocked my truck and opened
the door. I grabbed my backpack, unzipping
it, I stuffed some clean town clothes down
next to my laptop. I checked the pockets to
locate my charging cords for my laptop and
phone. Located my phone, a Verizon droid.
Pulled the car charger out, stuffing it in to a
backpack pocket. Found my min-video
recorder, wrapped in a T-shirt, with charger
and extra battery. I fished under the seat, for
a hundred dollar bill I had stashed up under
one of the seat rib springs, found it.
I always new where I was at, when I pulled
the emergency money out. It was time to
find work.
I looked around my truck.
Grabbed the bedroll out of the back of my
truck, putting it in the passenger seat.
I paused and drifted off in thought.
This was not the future I had imagined when
I came up from California.
The summer of two thousand and twelve,
was a mixed experience.
I learned a lot on my journey that summer,
it had many twists and turns.
I had learned a bunch about soils, I
redefined my definition of friend, I had a
inspired month of writing and then, a week
ago I had sold everything I owned. I spent
all but three hundred dollars on supplies for
the trip and set out on a spiritual journey.
In that month of writing, I had been
searching, yet again, for that combination
of words that would speak directly to each
human, to wake them up, to activate them.
Activate, a word I had come to understand
the year before from a friend, Paprika.
Activate, to turn on the human, wake up
their brain, a person of presence , a attitude,
a strong human light.
This is what drives me forward.
Please consider;
The humans spinning through the Milky
way Galaxy.
Where are humans going with their future?
As in a maturing being on a planet called
earth spinning through space, with a view of
the Milky Way Galaxy.
We have the tools but we are slow to mature,
although slow we are learning how to learn,
increasing our efficiency, thus increasing our
momentum, maturing.
Navigate wisely.
When traveling at the speed of light, one
shouldn’t be twitchy, steady the hand and
think through it, then do it.
Now!
Activate, illuminate, cooperate, participate,
produce, reduce, increase, chose, and protect
aaaaalllll human freedoms with fierce
passion.
A sense of rightness,
With in the heart of truth following a line of
self evident thought, a eventuality exists of,
a universal human sense of,
a peaceful enriching coexistence.
In man, first find the truth of character,
then uncover the man, maintain a balanced
view, consider and verify all truth.
Choose wisely.
Consider possibility.
All else is carelessness.
Languish as you may, rolling in your
dogmas.
Still no joy?
Shun rude behavior!
The truth twisted is not the truth at all.
Create a new story, if the one you are living
in is not working.
Noble is, what noble dose.
You have a choice and now you know.
In and with respect I bow to you.
Namaste.
Thank you for reading my writings.
Seth Galli
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 10
Time to shake things up a little!
Giddy up!!
Note to reader;
This is where the story gets interesting, we switch from fiction to reality. I am nervous as all get out and making it up as I go along, right now.
Hears the scoop!
I am going to take a ride across America,
visiting communes, intentional
communities, and organic cultures. Writing
and videoing peoples stories across the
country and sharing them on the web.
The complete story.
On my blog I will have a
“almost daily journal.”
My online journal will report all of my
activities and discoveries, from the handlers
I recruit, to the fire sale of every thing I own
with a special event to kick the trip off, “The
internet search for a intimate female
companion to share the journey with”.
There is a story behind the search for a
woman companion;
About four years ago I went to the Tonasket
Washington Barter fair with my mom.
Barter fair, was a wholesome group of
alternative lifestyle people, fifteen thousand
attended.
My mom had a booth for jewelry she had
collected over the years and was selling. I
decided to write up a “Woman Wanted Add”
as a social experiment and post it at my
mothers booth. The add basically said that I
was living in the back country in Idaho. I
listed the projects and my interests;
Gardening, canning, philosophy, nature,
wine making, rock wall building,
homesteading ect. And that I was looking
for a good soul to share my life with in that
kind of environment. Included was a
warning about being snowed in for several if
not more months.
I put the add up on the front of my moms
booth. It got a lot of attention and was a
topic of passing conversation.
It was funny how it all turned out. I did meet
a lady… wasn’t a good fit. She didn’t want
to live in the backcountry. My mistake was I
took the first offer that came along.
I had met the gal and talked to her at her
tent, I then went back to my moms tent and
wrote on my add, “position filled,”.
Latter, I learned, the guy at the booth next
to my moms, said several gals had been
interested and saw that the position had been
filled and where upset about it.
Hum,
next time I will do interviews, or rather,
women I know will do the interviewing for
me then I can talk to the remaining five or
ten gals my friends pick.
Ok, this is where I am at;
I have been writing this book while I have
been out of work. While writing about a
spiritual journey, I have experienced a
spiritual awakening, I have a quest in mind
and as you can see the planning is underway.
I am ultimately going to sell everything I
own and buy a Goldwing motorcycle,
Something road worthy for the long haul,
but affordable. A good horse!
I am then going to outfit the Goldwing with
a camping system for two, then equipped
myself to travel with the available space.
Then I am going to make some kind of “to
do” out of a search for a female companion,
applications, interviews, the whole nine
yards.
People could probably vote on the woman
they think is a match on the internet…..
Hello, Facebook!
Its all an experiment and I am going to give
it all I got, then, turn all I learn over to you
the reader.
How it could go down.
Purpose of the trip;
The purpose of this trip is to record stories
of people across the land and share them
with my readers on the internet in the form
of a “almost daily Journal” on my blog, I
will also be doing research on the book you
have been reading
“ See you in a future past life.”
To share with folks I met, my experiences
and the journey I am on.
I am going to visit communes , intentional
communities, farmers markets, yoga studios
( for health of mind), Buddhist temples. I am
looking for the vibe and other organic cross
roads.
I want to interview these folks, ask them
about the pivotal moments of their life that
led to their spiritual experiences, their
revolution of mind, those experiences that
led to the turning of life chapters, to the
chapter of life they are now living.
And as a reader, if your town has the organic
vibe, chime in and let me know where, I will
find my way there in words or in person.
(The Proclaimers, I would walk five hundred miles.)
More notes;
To do’s
-Recruit handlers to pledge two hours a
week to sharing/ social networking my blog,
book, and live journal.
-Recruit handlers to find and arrange
appointments with; communes, intentional
communities, Buddhist monasteries, yoga
studios, farmers markets, flee markets, and
any organic cross roads they locate and wish
me to interview as we progress on the trip.
- Recruit handlers to produce interview
questions for the people and communities I
visit.
- Recruit handlers to interview women
interested in being my companion for the
journey. These handlers will select a few
women from those that apply. There will be
three rounds of interviewing until the final
five, then I interview and choose my
companion from the final five with the
assistance of my selection committee.
All women who apply to accompany me
should be come familiar with my blog and
writings, my writings reflect who I am.
Are you her?
To the woman of my journey dreams;
There is no doubt that this trip will have its
miserable moments, perhaps days and
weeks.
We will be riding a motorcycle in the
open elements of winter in the southern
states, as spring breaks we will turn north up
along the east coast.
We will have very limited space.
We will be camping regularly.
We will attempt to find lodging with those
we interview along the way.
Our handlers will try to find us lodging as
they can, living room floors (air mattress),
guest rooms, hostels and random
wholesome folks.
It will be an adventure.
I imagine this lady of choice to be a organic
soul with a strong persevering personality,
warm touch and heart, open, well read, a
intimate companion, a organized team
player, ready to participate in projects the
people we meet need help with, ready to
make it work with a good attitude, and a
passion for the project and the people.
A friend of mine told me;
“Ask the universe for what you need and the
universe will conspire with you to make it
happen.”
So hear I am.
So now I ask the universe for the resources I
need to accomplish the task above.
This is a list of what I need;
-A Goldwing motorcycle in good shape,
affordable or free.
- A wonderful woman to walk the full length
of the trail with me, a intimate relationship,
souls entwined on all levels, lightning.
-Wonderful people from across the country,
lots and lots of them, with stories.
- The wisdom to ask the right questions, and
to listen, to take in humanity.
- The finances to continue the trip, and the
skills and work to bridge any gaps that may
occur.
- Health and safety for both of us.
- The right words to communicate with my
readers, and that my readers may be
changed by reading and sharing my
experiences online.
- That my book is considered by a publisher,
And that those funds will help finance the
journey and the completion of the book,
some where along the way.
- That people, the good folks out there on
the web, participate by producing feed back
and questions, interacting with us on our
journey and sharing our stories with friends.
- Handlers, the right people to help make
this happen as smooth as possible, and that
they live the adventure with me in a way.
-I pray that people will be able to live
through my experiences online and feel
liberation, as I feel it.
Thank you, Universe!!!
Note to the reader.
If you are interested in participating in any
way please use the comment section on the
blog to express your ideas or interests.I will responed in a timely manner.
Timing ?
I may leave on the journey as soon as
November or as late as February . It all
depends on how every thing comes together.
And finally, I would like to thank my
readers.
Thank you, you good folks.
Seth Galli
Some last words.
Live life, while you are alive!
Ps. I fixed my blog, you can now make comments, cool, it was turned off ?
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 11
Almost daily journal
Friday September the 14th
I am dragging all my stuff out of my garage
today.
Time to start taking pictures of all my
stuff.
I am going to list all the big items on
Craigslist this weekend.
Humm.
-Two motorized bicycles.
- Ten plus worm frames full of worms
(stackable worm farms.)
- Four, new, five frame worm towers, 1.5 by
1.5 feet.
- One, new, large worm tower,2 by 3 feet.
- Stihl chainsaw
- One, new, chain link fence roll, six by fifty
Feet.
- 30 steel fence posts and wire.
- A tea brewer, 55 gallon, for actively
aerated compost tea.
- Several ladders.
- A aluminum movie set camera tripod with
wheals and movement dampening devices
built in.
- a Howell lighting kit for filming sets.
- A collapsible bike stand, for working on
bicycles.
- large live catch trap, in good shape.
- A forty two inch Vizio flat screen TV with
Vizio DVD player.
- A bunch of movies.
---------------------------------------
Changing to a new chapter in my life at 42,
is intimidating to say the least.
I am low on cash and have no work.
So I am going to sell off my stuff until I
have work.
I need to sell my 93’, T-100 Toyota truck to.
Might be able to get fifteen hundred to two
thousand dollars for my truck. That money
will go towards the Honda Goldwing
motorcycle, I will use for my / our cross
country trip.
- I have a Janet Rayner nude pencil sketch,
very graceful, very beautiful, I hate to sell it,
but the play must go on.
--------------------------------------------------
I got a handler to pledge a hour a day to help
organize my trip along the way. Way cool!
She is also excited about thinking up
questions for me to ask people along the
way.
I had a great idea.
Not this weekend but next, I will list all the
items on Craigslist. I will call it a flash mob
yard sale. Only open for four hours 7-11am.
I have a lot of ideas for flash mobs.
I believe a flash mob can build anything.
If the thing to be built or done was designed
to be built or done with mass cooperation,
things could be erected, planted, harvested
and cleaned, as a form of entertainment for
the common man, flash mob style!
I would like to do a flash mob at a organic
farm on my trip across the country, planting
or harvesting a entire crop, almost instantly.
Creating a tourist attraction for the
farm, plus a new base of customers for that
farm.
---------------------------------------------
A discussion.
I am talking to you the reader as I imagine
you across the table from me.
As a singular reader of “see you in a future
past life.”
Dose this material interest you?
Do you feel compelling feelings from “see
you in a future past life”.
Do you feel compelled to travel after
reading?
Would you like to become a part of the
story?
Would you become involved?
---------------------------
This afternoon I emailed the Dandelion
commune In Rutledge, Missouri;
The email;
Hi dandelion
I am writing a book about a spiritual
journey. The book starts out fiction and then
on chapter 10 it becomes a nonfiction
journal of a motorcycle trip across America,
interviewing and participating with the
people I meet along the way.
I would like to start a conversation with you.
Seth
----------------------------------------------
Please comment and share.
Thank you.
Seth Galli
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 12
A almost daily journey/ journal.
Fiction and reality.
What a side track nation.
I am down the road, on my way, some one I
know catches up to me. Says to me;
“you cant do this thing.”
and names all the reasons they believe it
can not be done, They believe it, I can see it
in their eyes.
As they walk along with me. I wonder, how
much further down the road we will walk
before they join me.
Hum, we stop, I smile into their eyes,
“Come with me, let us see it with own eyes,
absorb it with our own minds. Meet the
people, the wonderful people and bring them
the news of what we know, so they may
enlighten us, that we might bring that light
forward, to a new friend, a new community,
evolving the conversation.”
Reality.
I originally had the idea of traveling alone or
with a woman companion.
All things evolve….
Best journey invitation ever….ha-ha.
Would you like to go?
As a member of a group of “Traveling
Writer Riders.” Pollinating the nation with
ideas of cooperation, participation, and
wholesome production. Evolving our
strategy as we move through the story.
Recording our story from multiple
perspectives. Always seeking wisdom we
can practice and writing about it all.
Riding, canvassing America, and blogging
it.
Writer Riders, saddle up.
Send me a message.
I am now organizing.
“I love this country, yes I do, and all the folks to, a haiku.”
You are where I am at now.
I thank my readers gratefully.
Seth Galli
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 13
A almost daily journal/journey.
You, the author.
You are the author, of the story you are
writing, the story you are living, life.
Are you aware?
How is it producing good effects?
What is it adding to you?
????
The story you create every day!
How are you adding life to you?
How dose it increase your efficiency, of life?
How dose it add to your momentum?
What techniques have you employed?
How many layers of observation do you
maintain of it, life?
How do you coexist with in it.
What part do you play?
How much emotion do you have invested in
it?
How much do you respect it?
How much do you believe in it?
How are you enriching it?
Are you writing a good story?
Do you see your self as creating the story?
Are you aware you can change your story,
your life?
Are you learning?
Are you creating?
If you don’t like the story you are living,
start telling a new story, then you will start
living it.
Your story will follow the momentum of
your thoughts and words. Believe in your
self, you are real and hear now. Write a good
story, a story you love, a love story of one
type or another.
Write your fiction into reality.
I am writing a new story, A story of reason,
of logic, of the fractural geometry of value
and emotion. A story of communication, of
cooperation, of freedom and of wholesome
production. A story of awakenings. This
story is open to include you.
This is the stage in my story where I appeal
to the readers of my blog and the friends I
know to participate in this journey/ social
adventure, in what ever capacity they can.
The more involved you become, the more
you live part of the adventure, until you
have joined it…
Namaste.
Seth Galli
Some things are best said in other languages.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 14
A almost daily journey/ journal.
Reality, now.
Things are coming together. Friends and
acquaintances are indicating a strong
interest in participating. They have offered
ideas that I will integrate in to our trip.
One of my friends has already put in five
hours. It is amazing what can be done in
such a short period of time. In a few
chapters I will start introducing the people
that are helping me, as timing and comfort
allows. I respect their privacy and want
them to want to become part of the written
story.
A friend of mine has been helping me with
editing, social networking (on and off the
web), trip planning, ideas, and book
development. She is a incredibly busy
person and I am very grateful for the time
she has spent on the project and her
dedication to it.
Another friend of mine, I will call the
Director (film), has been a fountain of great
ideas. (In this chapter I will cover some of
these ideas and how they may be included in
our journey across America.)
My friend the director, also said the trip
needs to be filmed and film projects need to
be integrated into our traveling activities.
He also indicated that he would be interested
in editing and promoting the films.
Update;
I met a guy that is very knowledgeable
about motor cycles, he said I could call him
if I had problems on the trip and he would
help me trouble shoot them and find the
parts that I need. He is very knowledgeable
about trip planning relative to a motorcycle,
such as, methods for riding, gas efficiency,
tire ware, fuel grades, oil viscosities and on
and on, great resource .
All of these people that are helping me are
activated, they are passionate about the
journey and the idea of it. Most of my
friends want to go themselves. They just
might join me for a leg of the journey, who
knows.
Some of the ideas we have been working on;
One idea.
-A new haiku for you. Every day we have a
writing challenge, each member of the
traveling group, writes a haiku and gives it
to some one they meet that day along the
way.
Idea two.
On our journey we carry a three foot by six
foot, maybe longer, piece of painters canvas
rolled up in a tube. In each new town we go
to that has a art culture we find an artist to
add to the traveling patchwork painting .
Documenting its journey on film as it is
created.
Idea three.
We interview people on the road on camera.
Asking them to tell us a story true or fiction.
At the end of each week a story is picked
for; the tallest tail.
Idea four.
We do a series called garage sale stories. We
interview some one having a garage sale,
asking them to tell us a story about some
item they are selling.
Idea five.
Each area we pass through we find or are
given a small object to affix to our trophy,
perhaps a motorcycle trailer that we choose
to ornament.
Idea six.
We stop and ask some one, in any town
USA, on the street on camera if they would
like us to hand deliver a message to some
one in the united states.
After we deliver the message we ask the
person receiving the message if they would
like us to deliver a message to some one for
them.
Idea seven.
Each time we pass a state line and there is a
town on the boarder, we interview people in
that boarder town and ask them what they
think of the state we just left. All filmed.
Idea eight.
To plan and break the trip into legs. The idea
behind this is to make the trip available in
small sections to people who might not be
able to participate in the whole trip. Also
making it possible for more people to
participate in the experience of the journey.
I imagine these legs could conclude in some
kind of event like a flash crowd community
renewal project. Which brings me to idea
nine.
Idea nine
Say twenty or more of us are traveling
across the nation. We are reaching the end of
a leg of the journey. Our plan is to meet at a
river, at some large camp ground. Knowing
ahead of time the destination, we plan a
community renewal project and promote it
as we approach the end of the leg.
The community renewal project could be as
simple as promoting a flash mob river clean
up, or a flash mob organic farm installation/
planting.
Ideally our goal is to use mass participation
to enrich communities along our journey.
This idea will need further work and
exploration of uses of flash crowds for good.
Stone soup.
The plan is developing nicely.
The attraction to this story is growing.
As you can see we will be looking for a few
new members for this traveling creation.
We now need a few film makers to join the
journey, to capture these stories and events.
(I have some film making equipment.)
I think we need a guitar player and maybe a
singer or two, some drums…. Musicians
wanted!
We are open to any traveling and socially
interacting ideas you the reader might have
for us the travelers to do.
We will always be looking for good random
writing assignments and challenges.
More to come.
Tank you for reading.
Namaste
Seth Galli
I my self believe some of the best true
stories start out by being inspired by fiction. SJGalli
Chapter 1
October 15 2012
This is what happened.
I was driving like a fiend out into the
northeastern Oregon desert night.
Dreaming out into the night.
It was early morning, I stopped my truck in
the middle of the vastness and stepped out
on to the solidness of the two lane highway,
it was cold and crisp. The universe filled the
sky. I in awe, felt like an antenna picking up
the vibrations of the great expanse.
What lay beyond? I thought
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, screen
lit, one thirty, morning, no bars. I attempted
to take a picture of the heavens with my
phone, no dice, and the milky way right
there, as if I could run my fingers through it.
I got back in my rig and the warmth of the
cab. I rolled down the window and started
the truck, lights on, brights on, I rolled
forward into night.
“I needed to find some higher ground to get
a cell signal“, I thought.
I was between Wagon tire and Riley
junction headed north on three ninety five.
The highway cut over ridge after ridge, dark,
but I could still see the buckled tectonic
plates that made up the land scrape. A rabbit
darted out of the sage brush on to the road,
crumpled and bumped as it passed under my
truck. I slowed as I reached the top of a
short steep grade. On the right hand side of
the road I could see the out line of a gravel
pile, I turned off the highway, drove up to
and parked in front of the mountain of
gravel.
I got out and hustled to the top of the
Pile. Sitting down on a wool blanket I had
grabbed from my truck, I crossed my legs.
Facing north west, I took off my hat to take
in the fullness of the milky way galaxy.
I looked around at the vivid broken horizon
that separated the earth from space.
It was quiet with a light breeze.
There was magic happening out in
the desert, In a strange dark kind of light.
As if the deserts only purpose was to
enhance the night sky.
Then like little raindrops a ribbon of meteors
showered and filled the northern sky.
I felt an exhilaration.
The shower faded in the same moment.
Full moments passed.
I sensed the universe was moving, but
rather, I thought, “it was us on this planet of
mal- and discontent entwined with awe and
epic beauty, screaming through space,
vibrating the void as we pass, then the
emptiness returning to silence and calm,
as we hurdle on in to a future of predictable
repetitiveness, spinning on through the
cosmos.
The universe looked calm from a distance.
The desert and wind had fallen silent.
The air crisped, the moment became vivid.
I plugged in to the source, down loading
knowledge, knowledge, etched in to my
Mind with vivid imagery and the emotion
of awe. Taking in the epic universe, every
grain.
A car hissed by, traveling north,
disappearing into a swale, then lighting the
apposing ridge, summiting and vanishing
into a distant glow beyond my view.
The link was broken, I sat dazed for a
moment. The vision was in tacked .
I felt very calm.
My phone pinged, I pulled it out of my
pocket and turned it on, almost five am,
I had been up on the gravel pile for three
and a half hours, it felt like thirty or forty
minutes, “wild” I thought.
I could see a faint glow and a bluing of the
eastern horizon.
I had been up all night.
I decided to cruzz up north and find some
mountain shade to sleep off the morning.
I checked my phone again it was five thirty
I had a few bars, at least enough to send out
a text message, I thought.
Thirty minutes later I had a text ready that
recounted the night and early morning
events. I sent it to a friend of mine in
California and another friend in Iowa.
I got in my truck and out on to the road
headed north. Two hours later, the sun just
breaking the horizon, the hot light scorching
my dry eyes, I drove in to the shadow of a
canyon, the canyon bottom narrowing as I
drove up the gentle grade. A creek flanked
with willows wound back and forth along
the canyon bottom occasionally skirting the
road.
I pulled off In to a turn out some one had
once used as a camp site with a fire circle in
tacked.
I got out, took a leak, then walked a couple
hundred feet over to the creek.
Reaching in to the chilled gurgling liquid, I
splashed water on my face and head,
working the coolness in to my scalp
and rubbing the stiffness out of my eyes.
I walked back to my pickup and pulled the
wool blanket out from behind my seat, threw
it across my windshield closing both doors
on it to hold it in place, filtering out the
light.
I took my shoes off and settled into the front
seat of my truck for a nap.
See you in a future past life.
[What is this that dances before my eyes, but that which perplexes and accelerates the human demise. Yes, meaning making, my friend, meaning making.]
Chapter 2
A traveling day.
I woke up to the sound of a approaching
vehicle. I sat up, opened the door of the
pickup and slipped on my shoes. The vehicle
slowed then stopped. I ran my fingers
through my hair smoothing it, then dawned
my hat. I stepped out and Looked across the
back of my truck. Two game wardens
walked over from a rig they had left parked
on the road. They said hi and asked if I was
doing any hunting or fishing.
I said no and that I had just found this place
to nap earlier that morning.
I told them about the meteor shower and the
amazing scenes from last night and this
morning. They both had stories
of night in the desert. We talked for a while.
They told me about springs, mountains and
old trails in the local area. I told them I was
headed to bend that afternoon for supplies,
and that I was going to go back out in to the
desert and camp to watch another night of
sky and landscape. They bid me fare well,
got back in their truck and eased up the
road.
I unwrapped the windshield and folded up
the wool blanket. I grabbed a shovel and
toilet paper from the truck. I walked up the
creek and found a place to cross.
Behind the screen of willows and away from
the creek I dug a hole, squatted and took in
the view. Finished, I covered up my relief.
Shovel in hand, I crossed back over the
creek to my truck. Stashing the shovel in the
bed of the pick up, I hefted my wooden
kitchen box out and set it next to the fire
ring. I retrieved a bagged bar of soap from
the box and headed over to the creek to
wash up. At the creek I lathered up and
rinsed off with numbingly cold water.
There was a smell close to the water, a sweet
green smell with a waft of juniper spice. At
the creek I collected a arm load of dead
willow stalks and branches. I returned to my
truck and the fire pit, started a fire and made
a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. After
washing the breakfast dishes, I loaded up the
kitchen box. I checked the camp site for
trash, picked up a few bits, got in my truck
and headed down the canyon in to the wide
valley below.
Rim rocked ridge lines dotted with junipers,
wide valleys of sage and grass, lone
mountains with hillocks leveling out on to
valley floors, gorges cut through the black
volcanic rock between valleys, with plateaus
above and beyond ending at the foot of real
mountains. This is central and eastern
Oregon.
I fueled up at Riley junction, then headed
west on highway twenty towards Bend.
Window rolled down I took in the desert air.
I had no idea what time it was, I wasn’t in a
hurry and had no schedule to keep. I reached
for my phone, battery dead, I plugged it in to
charge. I looked at my watch, one thirty,
funny, twelve hours ago I was communing
with stars, dreaming along the milky way.
I traveled the highway, inside the southern
rim of a long wide basin. The southern rim
of the basin was defined by a continuous
volcanic ridge with the occasional conical
shaped volcanic mountain and some times
chains of them.
At what looked like about half way up the
basin twenty turned hard to the left and crosscut a series of broken and lifted
tectonic plates. Rising above the valley
floor, the views became epic in almost every
direction. Junipers became more common,
the broken plates and ridges softened into
decaying rock drainages and the
surroundings became more that of a
plateau.
I slowed for a rest area, it looked nice, I
pulled in.
I kind of felt like and idiot peeing in a urea
fumed bathroom in the middle of the desert.
Finished, I washed my hands and walked
out in to the landscape. Then I just
wandered off.
[Note;
It was no place for meaning, only feeling
and being. The landscape drew out from me
some poison, as if I had been long since
snake bit and just now freed from its
sickness. Praise the planet, landscapes heal.]
I was wandering around slowly weaving
between sage brush clumps and junipers,
eyes scanning the ground at my feet for the
unusual, in a land of consistently tiny stones
and grains.
I stepped to the edge of a little clearing in
the sage brush and junipers, an ant hill was
at its center. The ground meticulously clean
except an ant scree field of ant size boulders.
Each pebble seamed polished, I noticed,
” perhaps it was, by the thousands little legs
it took to get it there“, I thought.
I watched the ants work. “What order and
organization”, “amazing” I thought. “What a
fantastic level of cooperation!” I beamed.
“There doing it, why cant we?” (The mental
rift went on, far beyond what needs to be
written hear.)
I imagined the ant hill in its depths, layer
after layer of food, larva, eggs, molds,
microbes, grains of sand and what do they
use the desert dust for…? Humm.. A virtual
city, thousands upon thousands of ants,
farming in the desert, right hear.
I wandered off in a cloud of imaginings.
Finding a little patch of rocks strewn around
and under the sage brush and bunch grass.
Kneeling down, I examined a few, some
kind of soft tan shale.
I noticed the shadows were getting longer. I
headed back to my truck and the rest area.
About an hour later at dusk, I walked in to
the rest area. I got a drink from the fountain
and filled up some water jugs I had and
returned them to my truck. I was about to
get in when I spotted the rest area map. I
looked at the map along twenty towards Bend. On the map I found Glass Buttes.
Years before I had met my mom there, she
was participating in a primitive technology
rendevou. I didn’t feel like driving to bend,
it would make a great place to camp for the
night.
I got back in my truck and took off west to
Glass buttes.
About forty minutes later I pulled up next to
a large dry man made pond, in the saddle on
the back side of the main butte.
Tired, I started a fire in an old fire circle and
heated up some dehydrated beans. I opened
up a can of diced clams and found some
corn tortes’ in my kitchen box, some garlic
and sea salt. It was flavor full and I ate
well.
I took a large canvas tarp from my truck
along with a couple of wool blankets, folded
them together into a bed roll. Climbed in
and fell asleep.
Note ;
To, the reader first and foremost, thank you!
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 3
I was where I was going to return to.
I woke up around five thirty. The morning
light was just starting to reveal the details
of the landscape. It was chilly with a light
morning breeze.
An occasional bird flittered between sage
and junipers with what seamed to me
anxious chirps, probably just warning their
world of my presence.
I felt rested and calm..
I had just spent the last five months working
in Redding California, roasting through the
summer. The temperatures were record
breaking. The heat had an angering affect on
the population. Like a hive full of bees
flapping there wings trying to cool the hive,
an angry hum, as if they were just waiting
for some thing to offend them, wanting to
strike.
I savored the cool air and thought back on
the summer events.
____________________
Earlier this spring, a gal I know was telling
me about compost tea and the huge harvests
she was getting from her vegetable garden.
I had been thinking about growing a bunch
of hot peppers.
I also was interested in worms and
producing worm castings. I looked on the
internet for worms locally. I found an add
directing me to the farmers market and Ken,
the worm guy.
Ken expanded my view of the world through
soil. He gave me an entirely new world to
dream in.
I met Ken early one Saturday in late spring
at the Redding farmers market . He had an
old ford pickup with a blue tarp canopy he
had rigged up on his lumber rack off the
back, shading beyond the tailgate. he had a
little table, couple of books on soil and
worms. A batch of actively aerated compost
tea bubbling away in a milk jug colored
tank on a stand in the back of his truck .
I could see the dark brown liquid agitated by
a air pump.
A white haired man was sitting on a
cushion on the tailgate of the old ford. He
wore a shorter brimmed straw hat and stood
five foot ten or so in height, medium build
short sleeve shirt with a collar and shorts
down to flip-flops. I walked up and
introduced my self. He had a very open
nature and personality, we quickly fell into a
conversation about worms, teas, soils,
microbes, bugs, shredders, mineralization,
plants, and all of their inter connected
relationships.
People occasionally dropped
by to chat, buy worms, worm castings,
inoculate their plants with worm tea
(Actively aerated compost tea). It was an
inspiring atmosphere. He told me to get a
book called ;Teaming with microbes. I
bought and read the book the fallowing
week.
The next Saturday and many after, I
would meet Ken at the farmers market,
early, we talked about soils and worms. We
talked about methods of application and
products that might be able to fund a large
scale soil building program.
Ken is passionate about building healthy
soil. I now share his passion. There is a
certain kind of rightness about building
healthy soils, It dose the mind well. That
was a period of magnificent learning.
[ I am now “Pan”, the Greek God of nature,
In my dreams now, I paint landscapes with
fertile soils and lush grasses:]
_________________
The top of Glass Buttes was just catching
the early morning sun rays, starting out gold
then transitioning to a clean white light, all
the while the activity of the birds rising in
sound.
I started a fire and made coffee.
Drinking a cup of cowboy coffee, grounds
and all, I took in the surrounding area. I was
in the shadow of a ridge line, in a saddle. I
watched the shadows move as the sun rose
over the landscape. After I had finished
several cups of coffee, I packed up camp.
I drove up the road toward the
summit.
Close to the summit, I parked and
walked the remaining distance to the peak.
I took in the stunning view.
There were numerous huge valleys that
stretched out beyond site.
(Glass Buttes sit on a ridge back between
multiple converging valleys/ basins.)
I looked out towards the city of Bend,
it lay beyond site.
I thought, “I wonder if I can get
service on my phone up hear?”.
Heck, I hadn’t looked at my phone since I
had plugged it in the day before to charge.
I walked back down to my truck, found my
phone and unplugged it. I turned my phone
on and watched as it reoriented its self.
I returned to the summit. My phone pinged a
couple of times. Reaching the summit, I
unlocked the screen, I had a bunch of emails
three texts and five voice mails. Nothing to
out of the ordinary
I read the texts, they were from two
different friends of mine in California.
The first text was from George. He told me
he was headed up to Idaho to visit family
and had received the text I had sent him the
day before. He asked me where I was and if
I wanted to meet up, camp and watch a
three day meteor shower that was coming
up. I had good signal, so I called George.
He answered, turns out he had got a late
start and was just passing through Klamath
falls. I told him I was standing on top of
Glass Buttes summit. He said he wanted to
meet me there and that there was a three day
meteor shower starting to night. I told him I
had received his texts about it.
I said I was going to head in to Bend
and get some supplies and more water, then,
I would be back.
Plans set, we hung up. I took some pictures
of the surrounding valleys, ridges and
mountain ranges. I sent a couple pictures to
Georges’ phone and then down loaded all of
the pictures I had taken of the area on to my
face book page.
With a short note; “Camping at Glass
Buttes, Oregon, meeting George there
Tonight, to camp and watch a three day
meteor shower.”
I got back in my pick up, turned around and
headed down and around the Buttes to
highway twenty. I turned on to the hard
smooth surface and headed west to bend.
After bumping around on desert roads,
I enjoyed the asphalt and the speed at which
I could travel, A few stops to look around
and an hour and a half later I was in Bend.
I found the health food store. I bought
several pounds of a granola berry mix. I
picked out some fruit, bananas, oranges and
apples, five pounds of oats, two pounds
of a nut beery mix.
At a gas station I filled up my truck and
topped off my water supply.
Even though Bend was busy, I hardly
noticed any thing out side of getting
supplies, my mind was in the desert.
Before I knew it, I was east of Bend on
highway twenty, headed for Glass Buttes
and camp.
I rolled into the camp I had stayed at the
night before. I was stoked that George was
coming to camp for a few days, I was stoked
that there was going to be a meteor shower
and I that I would get to watch it here in this
place. I thought George would probably
show up around dark.
It was around four in the afternoon.
I set up camp. I put together my bedroll, the
kitchen box and a pile of sticks I had
collected earlier and staged them all around
the fire pit.
I had eaten my fill of granola, drank
some water and was satisfied. I decided to
take a nap before George showed up.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 4
Light and wonder.
I woke and sat up. It was dark. Finding my
phone, I turned it on, it was just past nine.
I got up an straitened my bedroll, folding the
flap at the head of the roll to keep out the
wild life.
I had camped in a saddle, but not at the top
, the air was calm and cooling.
I started a fire.
George hadn’t showed up yet.
Figuring he probably visited friends along
the way, I was not surprised.
I put some water on to boil for coffee.
Staring into the fire, I watched its forbidden
landscapes of molten change and then
dissolve.
The water boiling, I add some coffee
grounds to the pot.
A few more minutes in a cooler spot on the
fire and the coffee would be ready.
I added a couple of sticks to the fire.
Hearing a road gravel noise from down the
draw, I looked to see a dome of light moving
through the juniper, a mile or so away.
Probably George, I thought.
Moments later George showed up with his
usual beaming grin.
We sat by the fire and talked.
He talked about his days drive and some of
the sites he had stopped to check out.
He then showed me some pictures of rivers
he had scouted out over the past summer.
I could tell things were going well with him.
We quieted and stared in to the fire,
enjoying a cup of coffee.
Georges car was squat, loaded down with
adventure gear as usual.
Bike on its carrier hanging dangerously low
to the ground off the back bumper. Back
windows obscured by ropes, bags, climbing
shoes, a milk crate full of food odds and
ends, paddles and a tent. I am sure there was
a boat deep in the gear in the back of his car,
some where.
The car dusted brown.
A adventure travelers car.
I was staring at his car in the fire light,
smiling wryly.
George looked at his car and then back at
me and smiled.
He had been having fun in some un traveled
region, seeing and climbing and traveling
through.
George likes to walk.
We put the fire out, gathered up water,
snacks and other essentials and started
walking up the road to the peak.
We left the road a couple of times, short
cutting across switch backs.
With out using our lights, our eyes had
adjusted to the darkness, we made our
way up the mountain.
Almost at the top, the rounded peak stood
out, black and backed by the milky way.
Summiting, we stood quiet.
A shooting star, then two, streaked and
vanished mid sky.
Silence.
[I knew I was at the right time and place in the universe, doing what I was suppose to be doing.]
I saw a vehicle turn off highway twenty and
start making its way up to the saddle and our
camp site.
George said, out of the silence,
“I invited some friends from bend’’
I looked further up twenty towards bend,
Three sets of headlights each miles apart
were headed towards us, one fading red
glow bound for Burns vanished in the
distant dark.
I asked George if he thought we should
return to camp to meet his friends, he
seamed to think that every thing would be
alright and that his friends would find there
way up to the peak.
We went back to watching the sky.
It was about eleven.
I heard their breathing, then their foot falls
as they approached, lots of feet and some
mild gasping for air.
Every body whispered,
It was great,
like we where at a theater,
And we were!
They where five, two bucks and three does.
Some of Georges friends
We where now a party of seven.
We settled in and watched the sky.
The meteor shower had just begun.
It came on strong, many meteors a minute.
The group was taken by uncontrollable fits
of exclamation.
Out of the ruckus someone said “there is
somebody coming up the road”.
Sure enough, there it was, a truck, rounding
the hill.
One of the gals from our group walked to
meet them as they parked below.
A greeting of familiarity resonated, from
the party now piling out of the truck.
There must have been eight or ten people.
They where friends of Georges friends.
Another rig came, more friends of friends.
Our group met their groups, after we all met
and mixed, I couldn’t figure out who was
who any more.
A hole bunch of names of faces and voices
in the dark.
Turns out, several people sent texts to there
friends to let them know where they where
going incase they went missing.
[A good adventuring policy, when going to the remote, let someone know where you are going. ]
And their friends followed them.
People kept showing up.
We stayed seated as a group and watched the
shower of rocks from space paint the canvas
of the Milky way.
And the cars kept coming.
Every one was surprised at the number of
people that showed up, there may have
been as many as a hundred and fifty people
there.
It was freaking me out a little, as I don’t
prefer crowds.
That night was all about watching light in all
its forms.
It was rad, awe and wonder was in the air.
I fell asleep on my blanket on top of
Glass butte.
See you in a future past life
Chapter 5
Morning October 17th
Anna’s spring.
Morning, October seventeenth.
The morning breeze child me awake.
It was dawn, I could see from the peak,
the eastern horizon waking.
Looking around from my fetal position and
from under what turned out to be a pile of
coats.
I could see other piles of coats,
blanketed fetal lumps, that could only be
human.
I sat up and stood up all in one motion.
Wearing my jacket, still, I was cold.
I hadn’t completely bathed in several days.
Coated in a funky and greasy cold,
I simply had to get bathed and warm.
I was hungry, I could feel the lack of
nourishment in my body.
Spreading out my wool blanket, I stacked all
the coats in the center with the remains of
my provisions, grasping all four corners, I
hefted it over my shoulder.
fetching my hat,
I stuffed it down on to a head of dusty,
brittle, lengthening hair and a sore scalp.
It took a few moments to feel balanced and
focus my swollen eyes.
Still not quite light, I could see the ghost
white of the road below.
I loosely walked on week knees down to
the road.
I was thinking about food, the few handfuls
of granola I had snatched while gathering
things up, left a dry film in my mouth.
I was out of water, I was hungry.
I walked and dreamed about eggs, bacon
and toasted bread slathered with butter.
Humm.. My mouth began to water.
It was starting to get light, I walked across
the saddle and down the road towards camp.
Twenty or more cars where parked just off
and along the road, windows fogged.
I walked up to my truck and camp.
Someone was asleep on top of my bedroll,
covered with a blanket.
I looked around camp.
George was buried in the bottom of his
sleeping bag, not moving.
I set the bundle of coats I was carrying in
the back of my truck.
Someone had add to the pile of wood that I
had collected the day before.
I walked over and collected a hand full of
twigs and some smaller branches from the
pile.
Crunching up the twigs into a wadd of
tinder, I broke and stacked the smaller
branches over the tinder.
Getting up, I walked to the edge of camp
and collected some dry grass.
I waded the grass up into a ball, walking
over and leaning down to the fire pit,
I tucked the ball up under the tinder.
I pulled my lighter out, reached down and lit
the grass.
The fire jumped to life.
Adding more and larger sticks, I built a good
breakfast fire.
I filled the coffee pot with water and
balanced it over the fire between three
rocks, to boil.
Grabbing a cast-iron skillet from my kitchen
box, I wiped the dust out of it with a
kitchen towel and placed it on the fire to
warm.
I retrieved a loaf of bread, olive oil, eggs
and some bacon, from a box on the
passenger side floor board of my truck.
(Supplies I had brought from Redding.)
Returning to the fire, I dug through the
kitchen box, found salt, pepper and some
garlic salt.
A splash of olive oil in the hot frying pan, a
glove and a swirling motion, the pan was
ready.
I put two pieces of bred in the skillet.
Taking a coffee cup, I cut a mug sized hole
in each slice of bread, removing the center.
I filled each hole with an egg.
Its what my family calls a one eyed jack, an
egg fried in a hole in the middle of a piece
of toast.
I examined the bacon and gave it a sniff.
Ever since my navy days and a bout with
food poisoning, I have been weary of foods
that parish and examine them closely.
I flipped the jacks, a crackle and hiss came
from the pan, garlic, salt, pepper added.
The coffee water started to boil, I added
some grounds and set the pot to the side of
the fire to bubble and steep.
I looked up to see an orange glow on the
buttes, the sun was rising.
I heard people stirring.
I looked up the road towards the saddle, a
blanket wrapped straggler from the butte
was making his way down the road.
Minutes later he walked into camp and sat
down on a rock at the edge of the fire across
from me.
He stared at the items cooking on the
breakfast fire.
I collected two plates from my kitchen box,
Forking a jack out of the skillet on to each
plate.
I handed him a fork and one of the plates.
He said “thanks“.
Coffee ready, I Poured two cups of coffee
from the steaming pot and handed the
unnamed visitor a cup.
He smiled and nodded in appreciation as he
ate the jack.
I filled the cast iron skillet with the whole
packet of bacon and pulled all the slices
apart with a fork.
Bacon frying, I picked up my plate to eat.
We ate and drank coffee in silence.
People where waking up, getting up.
A car started.
The bacon started to steam, hiss and pop.
I stirred the bacon with a fork, it hissed and
popped excitedly.
A thick smell rose from the pan.
A car rolled by, a sleep faced driver waved
and smiled through a fog wiped window.
The person on my bedroll stirred.
Sitting on my kitchen box, I turned to see a
woman with black hair lifting herself up
to a sitting position.
She brushed back her hair with a hand
revealing a shy but impish smile, naturally.
She got up and asked “ what do you guys
got cooking.”
I stood up and pulled the last two coffee
cups from the kitchen box.
Filing a cup, she got up, walked over and I
handed her the cup of coffee
She returned to my bedroll and sat down.
Sipping her coffee, she asked our names.
The guy across the fire from me said his
name was “Travis“, I introduced myself , “I
am Seth, what’s your name.”
“Anna“, she said, with a European accent.
“Nice to meet you Anna“, I replied.
I turned to the fire and stirred the bacon.
I was feeling a little uncomfortable, I was
stunned by Anna.
I stood up and walked to my truck.
Reaching in to the bed of my truck, I
grabbed a five gallon bucket containing dry
goods I had purchased in bend the day
before.
I set the bucket near the fire for Anna to sit
on.
I retrieved several more buckets and placed
them around the fire.
Anna came and sat on a bucket and warmed
herself by the fire.
The sun was shining on the buttes.
Glass Butte was half shadow and half sunlit
slope.
More people wandered in to camp.
Several more coffee cups were produced
from the group.
The coffee pot empty, I rinsed the grounds
out, filled the pot with water and set it on the
fire to boil.
Travis, sitting nearest to the wood pile, had
been keeping the fire stoked.
Bacon finished, I drained the fat into a
coffee can and placed the wadded and curled
strips on a plate, with a paper towel
underneath to soak up the excess grease.
Anna asked me if I was Georges friend from
California. I said “yes“.
She said she had gotten a text from a friend
the night before about some guy from
California and that he was on a spiritual
journey in the desert and was at glass buttes
to watch the three day meteor shower.
________________________________
I had texted George the first night up from
California and told him I was in
the eastern Oregon desert for a spiritual
journey, to clear my mind and reorient my
life path.
I wanted George to know where I was and
what I was doing ,incase any thing
happened.
___________________________________
“Yes“, I said, “some thing like that.”
I told her I hadn’t known about the meteor
shower, until George told me about it.
She asked me what I was searching for.
I told her I was searching for answers and
questions.
Also that I was practicing just being and
seeing.
I told her I found it easy to be calm in the
desert and that the desert had very little
movement with great spaces to contemplate
in.
Every one was looking into the fire, minds
entwined with the licking flames and radiant
coals.
I was feeling self conscious and crusty.
I remembered back, yesterday, from the
peak of the buttes, I had seen a splash of
green on the desert floor, water.
I excused my self and walked to my truck.
I grabbed a jug of water, a towel, a
wash cloth, my bagged bar of soap and put it
all in a bucket.
Anna asked me where the showers where,
ribbing me, with a smile.
I told her about the water I had seen on the
western side of the buttes from the top of the
Glass butte, the day before.
Surprised, she asked if she could join me.
I told her I was walking there.
She stood up and walked over to me.
I turned the camp activities over to Travis,
showing him where all the food was and
giving him free rain.
Anna and I walked up the road and through
the saddle.
We found a game trail that cut across the
lower slopes of Glass Buttes, rounding to
the west. We followed the trail around and
through its forking nature, always following
the most well worn path. Until we came to a
saddle between the two main buttes. In the
saddle, the grass short cropped. At its
center a large depression where animals had
licked away all the soil in search of salt that
had leached out in to the ground, possibly
years ago. Animals laid in that saddle at
night, mostly deer and elk, from the signs.
We sat down at the cusp of the saddle, right
before the ground fell off in to a south
eastern facing drainage, to
take in the view. We took in the fresh
morning air of the desert. We drank deeply
from my jug of water, we got up and started
walking around the side of the adjoining
butte. We walked around the butte to the
southwest and on around to a west pointed
ridge, pointing right to the green splash on
the desert floor. We walked in silence.
We made our way down the ridge to the
desert floor. On the desert floor the trail
widened and pointed strait to the greenery,
almost a half mile from the buttes base.
We arrived at a rock tank, a little while later.
The tank was twenty or so feet across and
four feet hi, it had been built of local rock
and cement.
The rock walled tank was cracked and
empty.
A few hundred feet away, across a used
gravel road, was a water trough, and the
green grass that had drawn us there.
Anna hung her long wool coat on a steel
fence post driven next to the trough.
I bent down, untied my shoes and slipped
them off, leaning on a fence post I removed
my socks and stuffed them in my shoes.
Looking up, to see Anna removing her dress
with care, up over and just clearing her hair.
She hung her dress up and over her jacket
already draped on the post.
She was nude, she turned back facing me,
she smiled as only a shy heart dose.
She was perky, it was everything about her,
Anna, the corners of her eyes, her lips, the
way her ears swept back her hair, her brown
body.
I looked in to her light brown eyes,
and felt peaceful and rejuvenated.
She picked up the bucket ,walked over to the
water trough and scooped water up. She
raised the partially full bucket of water in to
the air and over on to her self.
I heard a controlled smooth gasp.
I was shocked, I had felt the water moments
before, it was cold.
Standing there dripping, I could see mischief
in her eyes, her head lifting in to
challenging adolescent laughter.
Anna was in her mid thirties.
She had challenged me!
I took off my coat, hat, shirt, T-shirt,
unbuckled my belt and stepped out of my
shorts and pants. Nude, I walk over to the
water trough , grabbing the handle on the
partially submerged bucket, I lifted and
dumped the water over my head. A shock
wave passed over my body.
After I caught my breath, I looked to see her
wrenching with laughter, water dripping
from her body.
I reached for the soap and lathered up my
hair, it was cold.
In no hurry, she continued her playfulness
splashing me as I scrubbed up.
She walked over to me and said “turn
around” we had spoken very little, so I
turned around. She started scrubbing my
back with what I imagined was my wash
cloth, she told me to lean forward, grabbing
the bucket from the trough she walked to
my side and pored water over my head and
back.
Gasping for air, I stood up.
I dried off, as she soaped up.
She handed me the soapy wash cloth and
turned around.
I washed her neck, smooth, cleaning her
shoulders and shoulder blades, I ran the
cloth down her spine and out along her ribs,
washing her back with focused care.
She thanked me with a soft voice.
I grabbed the bucket from the trough and
walked to her side dumping the water over
her head, back and butt.
She took a deep breath and breathed out
slowly. She stood up. I handed her a towel.
The rising sun had chassed the shadows of
the buttes back, the sun broke on us and
brought warmth. I looked at Anna, sun lit
drops dripped from her body as she dried
her hair. I was in awe.
We put on our clothes, in a pleasant silence,
collected our stuff and walked by the old
rock walled tank.
The morning sun warmed the desert into
smells of sage brush and juniper.
I heard gravel popping under a tire.
I looked north and to our left, A car was
coming, coming down the gravel road we
crossed. We walked back to the rock tank
and waited.
Several minutes later, a light SUV drove up,
it was Anna’s friends, they had come to
check on her and give us a ride back to
camp.
Though I would have preferred to
walk, the ride was a relief. We arrived in
camp clean, no sweaty walk back, no dust.
Anna and her friends, Travis being one,
where returning to Bend. I felt shocked by
the reality of it. Anna smiled at me, she said
we are going in to town to get supplies for
the next two days and replacing the food we
ate of yours, we are coming back to camp to
watch the meteor shower tonight with you
and all these people.
I felt anxious as they drove away.
There where twenty or thirty people milling
around and at the edge of camp.
I was baffled.
I walked over to George at the fire, said “hi”
He gave me a rye smile, said “cheers” and
told me
“They where all staying another night and
more were coming.”
See you in a future past life
Chapter 6
Inside information.
Glass Buttes gets their name from the multi
colored obsidians that are generously
scattered on their slopes.
From what I understand, in days gone by,
Indians use to come to Glass Buttes and
collect obsidian for tool making.
The brittleness and the grain of the
glass like rock makes great spear tips,
arrow heads, and knives.
Glass Buttes has been a destination for many
humans for thousands of years.
The wind swept crown of Glass Buttes is
skirted by junipers shaped by wind, snow,
and time.
These junipers stunted, swept, and gnarled
give the area a deep spiritual feeling. I could
easily imagine these junipers as elders.
To settle in to an area, one must take in the
view, study it in detail. Watch the clouds,
watch cloud shadows lull, and race. Watch
the sun shadows pivot. Smell the air, hunt
sent. Bathe in the wind, find, and feel
textures with your eyes and fingertips.
Scan the ground and horizon for
movement, For change. Identify sounds.
Make your landscape make you curious,
learn.
Challenge your self with a foreign
environment often, relax and move into it
with your mind. “Things that seam foreign,
make common.” you might be surprised
of how it changes you.
____________________________________
I had started on a spiritual journey seven
years ago in two thousand five.
I left California in my car for Iowa.
I built a twenty seven foot trimaran
sailboat out of pallets, plywood, and lumber
retrieved from the logjams, and shorelines of
the Mississippi river.
I ran out of money.
I picked up aluminum cans and did odd jobs
to pay for the screws, and glue I needed to
finish my boat. Humility.
I ate peanut butter and honey.
I washed my clothes and bathed in the
river.
I drank loads of coffee.
I read Gondi’s book, “My experiments with
truth” and listened to Eckhart Tolle’s CD
Series. Vulnerable, I was humbled.
In the course of motoring, and sailing 200
miles to Hannibal, Missouri.
I saved my self many times on that journey.
It was a journey of fears, of capability, of
emergency, of incompetence, of openness,
of restlessness, of long moments of stabbing
fear, of reflection, of solitude, of lengths of
awe, it pealed away many layers of what I
thought was me but didn’t need.
In Hannibal, I was taken in by
the population, I cooperated and
participated, I was cared for and given work.
It was an amazing time in my life.
I traveled all over Missouri, with a potter,
and as a machinery operator for several
rock cories.
This section of the journey, to and from
Iowa, and all over Missouri, lasted about a
year.
I continued my journey to winter in
California,
then Texas where I lived on a sailboat for
the last months of winter.
Realizing I needed a place of solitude to
write, sort things out, and come up with a
plan, and a life coarse.
I went to see my mom in Hells Canyon for
the summer.
On the Idaho side of Hells Canyon, in a
north west facing drainage.
My mom has a homestead, fifty miles to the
nearest serviceable town, no power, no
phone, no TV, running water from a spring,
flower gardens, vegetable gardens,
outhouse, wild fruit trees, blackberries, mint,
a creek with fish, an old wood cook stove,
canning jars full and empty, spices, and
Herbs. An eclectic front porch.
In the bottom of a canyon of black dirt and
red walls.
Another cabin on the property was vacant.
I contacted the owner over the summer
through neighbors and was fortunate enough
to care for the cabin for two years.
I spent most of two winters snowed in, in
the back country.
Desolate winters, with no movement but
storm clouds and shadows on canyon walls.
In the winter, a jet boat delivered mail to
the mouth of the drainage I lived in, where it
flowed into the Snake river, five miles
below my cabin.
With my XM radio (a gift from my Dad),
BBC news, stacks of books, stacks of note
books, oats, beans, canned goods, olive oil,
hours of silent, cold solitude, several
thousand pages of writing, madness of the
mind, a twisting in the human.
I searched my mind for social solutions and
whittled them out on paper, in ink with
words.
I lived in a landscape, of epic proportion.
Hells Canyon and its drainages,
massive, intricate and forbidding.
I traveled back to California, to work in the
fall fields, with a fist full of idealism.
I worked created and built, engaging in
idealism, continually adjusting my ideas to
adapt to the evolving new normal and the
evolving core vocabulary.
I eventually found a house in the Redding
area, where I raised worms, grew peppers,
built worm bins for sale, studied soil
building, revisited and reworked old
writings and plans and had worked to keep
me in loot to pursue my ideas.
Manny of the ideas I worked on are on the
blog the story you are reading now was
originally published on.
All along the way I met amazing people and
formed what will be life long relationships.
____________________________________
Days before, when I left Redding, I was
traveling up to the central Oregon desert and
Glass Buttes to under take another spiritual
journey.
And now, hear I was in a crowd of
people, in the desert, with vivid experiences,
of Anna in my mind.
See you in a future past life
Chapter 7
When multiple foreign perceptions converge
within ones mind, at one time, it easy to lose
the now of the moment.
Out of that haze of mind, I remembered my
purpose of being hear and now, on a
spiritual journey.
Looking around I saw ghost like images of a
crowd of people, my kitchen box came in
focus. I sat down and faced the fire. I was
reeling. I brought my head up out of the
dizziness and focused my eyes on the fire.
Staring in to the fire, I felt this rolling return
of stability to my mind, things cleared to a
vividness.
I regained my mental balance.
I looked up to see George grinning.
Realizing my mental paralysis had been
brought on by an overdose of now.
When I had got out of Anna’s friends rig,
I had looked up and across the group of
people standing on the far side of the fire
ring. Most of them where looking at me and
murmuring. I heard some one say “its him,
its Seth.” it happened right then, a mental
stroke, a panic attack,
Now I was looking at George across the fire,
calm, smiling.
He recognized that I was having
A mental reaction to something.
I swung my head to the left and looked at
the people looking back at me smiling.
I returned a nervous over-smile frozen for
what seamed to be moments. I turned my
head back to George and unlocked my smile
relaxing the muscles in my jaws and cheeks,
(I call it painfully shy).
I looked down in to the fire, George Said,
“these people want to ask you some
questions“.
My heart raced, I felt the adrenalin sear my
veins. I breathed deeply, steadied my
breathing, focused on slowing my heart. I
relaxed, one large clearing breath. I was
relaxed.
I looked back at the group of people and
smiled a relaxed comfortable smile.
My stomach feeling a warm pain of mixing
acids and a ulcer.
Pain has always brought clarity to my mind.
The pain was just enough of a distraction to
bring clarity and focus in to the moment for
me.
Now relaxed and grounded. I asked the
attentive group what they wanted to ask me.
A couple of hands went up, I pointed to a
gal, She lowered her hand.
“Why are you on a spiritual journey?”
I responded with out thinking, “I ran out of
answers.”
She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment,
then thanked me.
Hands went up,
I thought about the exchange between her
and I, the change in expression that crossed
her face, a confirming look echoed in her
eyes, then her mind, in her posture.
I picked another hand, a dusty, blond haired
guy asked, “how do you prepare for a
spiritual journey?”
I smiled, the irony of the question and the
asker, The group laughed lightheartedly.
I paused, I thought, composed I said.
“It starts with, what I bring with me, what I
use as transportation and then what I am
going to do when I get there, to start the
spiritual journey.”
I paused. Then said.
“Planning is important,
unless you need to learn about competency
and preparedness.”
I smiled.
I felt tense, sick.
I needed to get up and walk around. I stood
up and excused my self.
I said to the group and George
“ I just need to go for a walk, clear my mind
for a moment.”
I reached down and grabbed my water bottle
sitting next to the kitchen box.
I looked up the road, there was quite a few
vehicles, I looked down the road, more rigs
parked along side the road. I walked across
the road and up the cut bank, east.
I just needed some desert to think in, Take in
the smells, walk.
I had wanted what was happening to
happen.
But I didn’t imagine it happening hear, or in
this way.
I had to pace my heart, slow my mind, stay
focused and open. I had no answers, but
knew, All the answers I would need would
arrive when the question presented its self.
“If a question is asked at the peak of ones
curiosity, the answer is remembered.” I
thought.
Humm.
“I will answer questions and watch how
things progress.” I though and nodded.
I watched some ants toting loads and
chatting with on coming traffic about the
source of their bounty.
A gust of cool wind, stirred the sage brush,
then a warm current of air settled in its
wake, with desert scents.
I stood up from my crouching study of ants
and smiled.
I walked back to camp refreshed and calm.
I set the tone of my voice at calm and
peaceful, I felt it.
I greeted George “Hi bud”
He said “How is it going man?”
I said “good”
I smiled comfortably and open.
I looked, the group of people where sitting
now, a few less than before, spread out and
talking amongst them selves.
I opened my kitchen box. All of my dishes
where washed and stacked in the box. I
picked a mug out, turned to the fire, and the
warmed pot of coffee, poured myself a cup
and sat down.
He smiled again, saying, “ they have more
questions.”
I got up and walked over to the group.
The area they where sitting had a short
cropped grass and taller tufts of bunch grass.
It looked like wild game and cattle had
nipped the grasses short during the summer.
Clear of sage brush the area looked like a
natural place to gather. Perhaps we were
gathering in the middle of an old Indian
camping spot, it had the feel.
I sat down. The woman who had asked me
why I was on a spiritual journey came and
sat down ten or so feet away facing me, she
raised her hand and waved it back and forth
in a humorous way.
I smiled. I pointed at her and said “do you
have a question mama ?” playing along
with her.
She said “yes”
Then asked “ what did you do to prepare for
your spiritual journey?”
I hesitated. Thinking back, I re-traveled in
my mind the steps I took, gathering up
supplies in Redding and how the plan had
slowly come together.
I asked her, her name.
She said; “I am Jasmine”
I started; “Jasmine’’
“This is what I learned from my experiences
so far.”
“All of my spiritual journeys have had a
jumping off kind of beginning .’’
“I had very little adventure experience in the
beginning.”
“ I have been ill prepared for most of these trips.”
“ On these journeys, I brought to much of
things I didn’t need, and not enough of what
I did need.”
“ Since then I have narrowed the list of
things one must bring down to a essentials
list.”
“First, is always food, you can never go
wrong buy buying non perishable, basic,
easy to prepare or ready to eat foods.”
“This makes the spiritual journey free of
raw survival, unless you are challenging
your capability to survive.”
“Suggestions of essentials to include; “
-“oatmeal.”
-A variety of fruit, oranges, apples, bananas
etcetera.”
-“several different trail mixes, mixed nuts
and mixed dry fruits“.
- “two different mixes of granola. I like to
have some variety even when it comes to
simple survival foods, helps the attitude“.
-“Good water containers with plenty of water.”
“A way to filter or treat water you come
across.”
“All of these ingredients should be carried in
direct proportion to the imagined length and
remoteness of said spiritual journey.”
“A good medical kit ,with bandages, that are
useful!, look at your first aid kit. don’t think
patching up a small scrape, think, the tools I
will need to save my life where there is no
one but me to help me.”
“Bring a well written first aid book, be
familiar with it. Dedicate a sharp knife to
your first aid kit.”
“Hear at Glass Buttes, the obsidian can be
formed in to cutting tools easily.”
“ Nature is full of tools, be aware of your
surroundings and what could be useful as a
resource when you need it.”
“A cell phone, a compass and a map of the
area you are going to spend your spiritual
journey within .”
“If I have a vehicle, I include a kitchen set
up with a sharp hatchet and a five gallon
bucket.”
“I like to carry a canvas tarp. A plastic tarp
will due, but they trap moisture, canvas tarps
also offer more padding and insulation than
plastic ones.”
“Both types of tarps can be used to create a
shelter.”
“A good sleeping bag, one that can keep you
warm in the changing environment you are
going into.”
“Know weather history and altitudes of the
area you will be spending time in.”
“ plenty of Bick lighters!’’
“A lighter in the wilderness is about as close
as you can get to magic.”
“ the alternative of rubbing two sticks
together to start a fire with friction is
daunting, even with experience.’’
The group had scooted in to listen to the
conversation Jasmine and I were having.
“ What did you mean by spiritual journey”,
Jasmine asked.
“My spiritual journey began as I was
planning my trip. As I was planning my trip,
I realized I was planning and packing for
me, and that the level of care and
thoughtfulness I put in to planning and
packing, Would reflect my love for my self.
The love and care for a future me.”
“On my drive up from California, a lot of
things from last summer where on my mind.
I left them in the desert some where between
hear and California.”
“When I filled up with gas in Riley Junction
a couple of days ago. I had started thinking
about what I might do at Glass Buttes.
I felt full of energy, I thought I might map
out a quest. A quest journey, a journey I
might find answers or new questions to
answer on.”
I paused. Thinking back, about the
moments I had spent sitting on the gravel
pile three nights before connected to what
felt like the source.
Sitting there then talking with Jasmine and
the group , I felt a confirming feeling, a
universal fit. My inhabitations fell away.
I looked clearly at Jasmine and the group, I
saw them as they where calm, interested,
happy, distracted, dreaming, thinking
smiling, skeptical, texting, they where all
human, they where all there.
“Three nights ago”, I started out, “I had a
event occur.”
I paused to ponder my story.
“I had a spiritual experience.”
“I have only had two other experiences of
this nature. I say nature, because spiritual
experience seams to confining of a
definition for the experience I had.
I do not fully comprehend the experience I
had three nights ago.
But, I am fairly certain that enlightenment,
Zen, knowing god, having a spiritual
experience, taping in to the source, are all
the same end experience.”
“The closest I can come to explaining my
experiences in full is, seeing the world
whole and inter connected.”
“My first spiritual experience happened after
a series of events occurred with in an hour
or so.’
“This is what happened;”
“First, I stopped by a grave yard to see if I
could find my friends grave. He had been
brutally murdered by his brother. I had been
to his funeral wake a week or so earlier. I
didn’t know where he was buried, but I
suspected it was there in that cemetery.
I looked at the two or three graves that
where fresh.
I couldn’t find him.”
“I got back in my truck and headed for the
coastal mountains and home.
I felt a little lost in wonder to where he
might be resting.”
“I was making my way down a mesmerizing
series of switch backs, zoning out on my
friends where bouts, stretching my mind to
all the possible final places he would be.”
“Then I heard, A local female radio host on
the radio;”
“Do I have this right?” She said. “It would
only take ten noble men one generation to
change the world.”
““Yes“. Her guest, a woman, said clearly
and soundly as if she knew with certainty.”
“The radio host went directly into
reintroducing her guest as having three
doctorates one in psychology, one in
mathematics and one in sociology, from two
different Ivy league schools.”
“She was twenty nine and considered a
genius and had been awarded as such.”
“My immediate thought was,
What dose noble mean?”
“At about the same moment I drove into a
saddle over looking the ocean. I pulled off
the road and parked facing the ocean.
A half sun was descending in to the ocean.
the view was massive and broad. I felt my
self pulled forward, then it happened.”
“I remember, knowledge swarming forth ,
as if volumes of knowledge had always
been stored in my mind, in my cells. Then a
feeling of order to it all, then a deep sense of
knowing, Followed by a great sense of awe
then a great feeling of responsibility.”
“As if my mind and being had momentarily
aliened itself to see the worlds full
potential.”
“There was Then a white flash that rippled
out from me, I saw no other visual imagery ,
just a vividness to the world around me.”
I looked around at the group and Jasmine.
They where silent and staring at me.
I went on.
“I tried to make sense of it all.”
“I thought about the whole experience.
I am not one who sees UFO’s or ghosts.
I am not superstitious.”
“The experience was very foreign to me.”
“I had been wondering about my friend,
broadly reaching with my mind.
Then the guest on the radio show, with her
profound information.
Then I had asked the question to my self
What dose noble mean?
No answer came.
Then the sun setting on a endless horizon.
Then the experience.”
“I believe the shift of mental states and of
emotional extremes, created a mental rift,
a bending or rather a straitening of reality.
A cleaning away of the fog in my reality.
A fog I had been trying to navigate through
my whole life.”
“A purpose, my purpose was to understand
what noble meant. More than just a worded
definition, but to experience it, to
understand it.
“My life journey started that day!”
“The weeks and months after the experience
are a blur. I sold every thing I owned, A
house, other property, machinery, tools,
beds, every thing. I feel into a depreshion.
I spent all most all the money. I found my
self in a mental hospital in Redding
California, about a year later.”
“I spent a month in the hospital, Learning
how to live again, learning how to care for
my self. In the year prior I had lost all the
\skills to live. In Elpida, the mental hospital,
I reoriented my self with my life as it was.
I had sixteen hundred dollars, a car with no
payments and insurance paid for a year.
During the last two weeks in Elpida I made
a plan to go on a spiritual journey, in
search of truth in what ever form it came.
I was open and receptive.”
“I was either going to the desert or I was
going to travel some big river. I chose the
Mississippi river.”
I invited others to come along with me, two
said they wanted to go. I talked the trip up.
When it was time to go they vanished.
I went alone. My dignity was on the line, I
had to make the journey.
I said I would, so there fore I did.”
I paused in thought and reflection of that
journey and those since.
I was still on that journey, I relised sitting in
front of that group, speaking of journeys,
just below Glass Buttes. I was at the right
time and place in life.
I spoke without thinking.
“Now I see noble as; the momentum of truth
within the depth of right choices practiced
every day in ones life.”
“What dose love mean?” Jasmine asked.
I smiled.
I had a spent a long time considering this
question myself. I felt hesitant to answer.
After all it was just my answer or rather
understanding at that moment. Why not?
“Love as I imagine and act it out, is the
multiplicity of thoughtfulness I put into
some thing I do for someone else or for my
self.”
It was getting late in to the afternoon.
I had not eaten sinse brekfast and was
feeling a craving for food.
I looked back over at the fire. Travis, the
fire tender, the guy I had brekfast with was
cooking some thing in a large cast-iron
Dutch oven.
I told the group I needed a break for dinner,
but would be happy to talk again later that
night.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 8
A large group had formed around the camp
Fire. The beans that Travis had been tending
over the fire where finished.
Travis ladled a scope out to each person who
put forward a bowl.
A quietness followed as folks ate.
I watched people come and go.
Vehicles had been arriving on and off all
day.
By dusk there was a steady flow of people
driving in off the twenty.
People where setting up tents,
building and lighting fires, unfolding chairs,
setting up camp and settling in for the nights
events.
I ate, staring in to the fire, wondering
if this gathering of people was a normal
thing that happened hear at Glass Buttes.
I finished my bowl of beans. Travis had
gotten the dishes routine figured out, A
large pot I used for canning was on the fire
with water steaming away. Using a coffee
cup, I dipped out some water and rinsed my
spoon and bowl. Towel dried, I returned the
cup, spoon and bowl to my kitchen box.
Walking over to my bedroll I straitened it
out and dusted it off. Sitting, then
stretching out, I lay on my back looking up
at the then revealing stars. I could feel the
warmth of the fire on the side of my face.
I peeled off my shoes with my toes. Then
stretched and spread my toes in the relief of
there freedom and the cooling air.
A moment later a SUV honked as it rolled
by slowly, It was Anna and her friends.
Behind them was a truck I recognized from
the night before. The truck pulled level with
camp and stopped, it was a four door and all
four doors opened, the people inside got out
and went to the back of the truck. The driver
opened the tailgate and started handing
things to the people who had come with
him.
A fifty pound sack of oats, a forty five
pound bag of beans, then another, then came
the fire wood. They where supper stocking
camp. It was neat.
This vibe started to happen.
This young guy maybe in his early
twenties showed up with his guitar. He just
sat down and dove in, he turned into the
vibe in the saddle. Another guy showed up
with a drum, more drums appeared.
Anna showed up, her and her friends had
set up camp on the eastern side of the
saddle, she laid down next to me resting her
head on my out stretched arm.
She rolled her head and faced me, her eyes
bright in the reflection of the fire light,
almost golden. She smiled, I felt
her relax and soften, she rolled her head to
take in the stars. I saw the out line of her
face in the flickering light of the fire,
her nose, her lips, her brow and chin.
I looked up at the stars, with more wonder
than I could ever remember feeling.
We watched the stars and listened to the
building rhythms from around the fire circle.
A meteor skidded across the sky, broke
apart, flashed, then vanished in pieces.
Some one stirred and added wood to the fire
sparks danced and vanished into the night
Sky above.
I wandered off in my mind
The gathering, the almost instant nature of
it, the phenomenon felt some thing like
lightening . Lightening followed by a
thunder clap announcing the change of one
reality to another. A reality in the desert,
a reality of humans mingling with stars and
sparks.
I had experienced the same feelings and
sense of the world when I was a child.
As a hippy child in northern California
during the early and mid seventies. my
parents brought me to a number of festivals.
We went to rainbow festivals, art festivals,
music festivals and community seasonal
party’s in the coastal mountains of southern
Humboldt county. (The harvest festival was
my favorite)
These events of my childhood had
imprinted upon me the potential harmony
that could be achieved by humans in groups
and communities.
I had long believed that there was a
combination of words that could cut through
all belief systems and dogmas and speak
strait to the every human. To activate them,
wake them up out of their slumber of
repetition, unite humans for humans.
That summer, I had been refining my
writing of a social theory and the tenants of
building and sustaining a healthy
community.
I had gone on this spiritual journey to find
the answers I needed to build that
community.
Writing, studying and thinking through the
dynamics and infrastructure of that
community, I hit a wall.
I couldn’t see how to get there from here.
I believed, that my approach, my skill, was
writing, thinking, reasoning and building
perceptions.
Building those perceptions by assembling
ancient knowledge’s, modern efficiencies
and technology, into a highly active human
learning culture.
Anna had rolled over and into my side, just
below my chin she rested her head on my
chest I could hear her breath, slow and easy.
She was asleep. I came down from the
clouds in my mind to enjoy the moment. I
smiled. At that moment I could not imagine
any where else I would rather be than
sharing warmth with Anna.
A few minutes later, Jasmine walked up and
laid a blanket over Anna and I.
I thanked her.
I started thinking about Anna.
Anna and I had spoken very little.
My mind was trying to sort out what it was
that was happening between her and I. Was
she a distraction from my spiritual journey I
was on? Was I blowing it?
Or was she on a similar path and our paths
had just blended?
What ever it was, it was extraordinary.
I wondered, what next? I stopped thinking
about what if, and enjoyed the moment.
In our warm embrace I fell asleep to the
building rhythm of drums around the fire
circle.
I woke up to Anna running her fingers
through my hair. Her head resting on my
shoulder. I turned to her, she was
smiling with a girlish joy about her.
Jasmine had woken Anna up minutes earlier.
Anna said that the metour shower was
starting.
We both got up and walked over to the now
almost vacant fire. Travis was there stoaking
the fire. We sat on five gallon buckets, now
full of supplies. We leaned into the warmth
and the dryness of the fire. Travis greeted
us, handing us both cups of coffee.
He had taken charge of the camp kitchen
and fire. I had seen him earlier organizing
the incoming food and fire wood. Several
more five gallon buckets where next to the
wood pile and kitchen box.
Travis smiled as I looked from the supplies
to where he was sitting across the fire.
I must have looked puzzled, I was.
“Travis what is it that you do?” I asked.
He said, “I am a gourmet chef from San
Francisco.”
“How did you end up cooking beans at my
fire?” I asked.
He smiled, almost laughing.
“Well” he started “ I came up to bend to
look for a house, I am tired of the city and
Bend feels like the place I want live.’’
“Do you have prospects for a job?’’ I asked.
“I am going to take a year off to travel
after I buy my house and settle in.”
He went on.
“ I just got to bend two days ago. My realtor
introduced me to some friends of hers at a
bar that we went to, to listen to music, the
first night I arrived in Bend.
Last night I got a text from a couple I had
met there, they said they where going out in
to the desert to Glass buttes to watch a
meteor shower and that there was this guy
on a spiritual journey. It all sounded
interesting so hear I am.”
“You got a text message about me out hear
on a spiritual journey, watching a meteor
Shower?” I asked, I was shocked.
I had grown use to living an outliers life,
always on the fringes of society, looking in
traveling through, observing, learning. I had
been living an anonymous existence I had
grown to enjoy.
I felt a hand slip into mine, I looked down,
at a smaller hand with long elegant fingers
entwined with my own. Anna sensed my
anxiety. I raised my eyes to meet hers. She
looked at me thoughtfully. I relaxed and
returned a warm shy smile.
“Most of the people out hear tonight,
received a text or message on face book
from a friend, about your journey and the
meteor shower.” Travis said.
“ Really?” I said stunned.
“Yes” he said.
“People have been talking about the ideas
you have written about on your blog.”
He went on.
“I like the Paper you wrote on using flash
mobs to install organic farms.”
“I think it has real potential to change the
food world.” he said.
I could feel my self bottling up nervous
energy.
Anna, still holding my hand, got up and slid
around to my back, her chin resting on my
shoulder, her hair brushing my neck, her lips
to my ear, “ lets walk up to the Butte and
watch the meteor shower” she whispered.
I kissed her hand.
Travis smiled and said “I think you should
do whatever she just said.”
I laughed, short and confirming.
Anna and I stood up.
“Lets walk over to my camp” Anna said as
she linked her arm in mine.
We walked up and into the east side of the
Saddle, passing vehicles parked next to
Camps, the camps covered the whole saddle.
I could hardly recognize the saddle,
fires burned at a few camps, but most were
dark and vacant of people or movement.
We reached her dark camp, she knelt down
and unzipped her tent. Reaching in she
pulled out a full size wool cloak, lifting it
up, over and onto her shoulders.
I was amazed by her movements,
she was graceful, in the dark,
she seamed to float over the ground.
She moved to me, with her arm settled into
mine, we turned, walking slowly across the
saddle to the road leading up to the Butte
summit.
I could hear faint drum rythems up on the
buttes.
The sky was clear, the stars bright and
defined, the milky way vividly flowing, no
wind, it was cooling sharply.
We started up the steepening road.
“Where are you from?” I asked Anna.
“I am originally from England,”
“My grandfather was a barrister in India and
migrated to England to study and practice
law. My father was born in England and
married me mum, she died from stomach
cancer the year before we left.”
“I am sorry” I said.
There was a brief silence as we walked on.
“My father and I came to the United States
when I was seventeen, He opened a business
law practice in San Francisco.”
“I traveled up from San Francisco to visit
some friends in Bend and now I am hear
with you.”
“You never know when lightning will
strike.” I said, as I smiled in to the dark.
She squeezed my arm.
We where getting closer to the top, I could
hear the drums growing louder as we
rounded a bend in the road. The bulk of the
summit came into view as an outline in the
nights sky.
In the dark we could hear people talking in
subdued tones. Still some distance from the
top, we could see blankets spred out on the
slopes of the summit, dark figures moved
slightly, occasionally a finger and arm out
stretched pointing to the sky. I looked up at
the havens. Meteors flickered, drawing
vanishing lines across our view of the
universe. A cluster of meteors salted the sky.
Anna squeezed my arm, she giggled quietly
with joy. I felt a surge of exilaration as we
neared the end of the road. A figure was
walking down the trail approaching us.
I heard a familiar voice.
“Anna, Seth, is that you”
it was Jasmine.
“yes” Anna replied.
We walked to meet her.
“We saved a space for both of you up at the
top of the summit.”
Jasmine said in whispered tones.
Anna gave my arm a squeeze and let go,
Anna and Jasmine locked arms, walking
ahead, up the trail. I stopped and looked
around, the outline of the mountains, sky,
dark valleys, people scattered on the slopes.
It reminded me of a paper I had written
when I was traveling down the Mississippi
river, a psalm of sorts to the traveler.
I had repeated it in my mind some many
times, it was a melody of thought that came
to me during extraordinary moments and
experiences.
I whispered the words as I walked up the
rising trail.
“The travelers soul.”
“The traveler comes, the traveler goes.
In the wisps of silence he moves.
His cloak worn long with anonymity.
He passes through veils of fear, into who he
has become.
The fragrance of life is his to savor.
Now!
A loneliness not so vague gnaws at ego,
bringing him to met himself, and there he is
a traveler.
His only footing is the fresh unknown.
His pool of reflection the world his home.”
I smiled and looked up.
The Ladies, I could faintly see in the dark,
had reached the top. Blankets some white in
the darkness others just defined black
squares, where spread in every open area I
could see. Some people lying on there backs
under blankets, sleeping bags, hands point,
whispers, a murmur under the drum beat.
A large open area, about ten feet across, was
covered with blankets at the top, I had
watched Anna and Jasmine sit in the center.
I looked around, the whole top of the
mountain was covered in blankets and
people. Down from the summit, on the
northwest side, was a bench. A fire burned,
large with licking flames. A large circle of
people, some feet back from the fire, sat and
stood. The drummers, most sitting, where
enraptured in some rythmatic human
cord. You could hear it, you could see
it in the surrounding crowd. A little old man
frail looking in flesh, wielding two
Tomahawks, beat this huge drum fiercely,
whaling on it with his heart.
Several people danced between the
drummers and the fire, around and around,
caught in the trance of the drums.
It was some thing to see.
I took my shoes off at the edge of the
blankets, straitened my wool socks and
walked just behind where the girls had sat
down. Standing Facing northwest, I looked
to my left at highway twenty pointing
towards Bend.
There was a line of cars as far as I could see,
coming east.
Looking down to the base of the Buttes on
the western side, all around Anna springs,
people where camped, fires burned, car
lights and flash lights bobbed about on the
desert floor.
“There must be thousands of people hear”
I thought.
That’s when I saw the red lights flashing
down on the highway below.
Some one out of the dark handed me
binoculars, I put them to my eyes and
focused them on the flashing lights below.
I saw The highway patrol was diverting
traffic off the highway down towards Anna’s
spring.
A flash of light came from behind me as a
vehicle rounded the ridge below, it was
coming up the summit road, It pulled up and
stopped, two people got out with bright flash
lights. The two flashlights swept over all the
people scattered around the summit slopes,
they stopped to talk to some one, near the
trail head leading up to the summit. The two
flashlights then turned and shined up the
trail, shifted, then started up the trail. As
they walked, occasionally they would shine
over the on looking people.
“Hum” I thought “curious“.
Minutes later, two game wardens showed
up.
Walking up to the edge of the blanket I
greeted them. “ Hi” I said.
“Do you have Identification” one of the
wardens asked.
“I do” I replied.
By this time Anna and Jasmine had gotten
up and moved towards my self and the
officers.
I reached down and pulled my wallet out of
my back pocket, opened it, and handed the
officer my license.
As the girls approached, the other officer
asked to see their identification as well.
They called my name in on their radios.
A few minutes latter he handed me back my
ID.
“Mister Galli can you tell us what is going
on hear?”
I laughed with a “Your asking me” kind of
roll.
“Well officer……..” I just told him the story
Of the past couple days.
He said he had been briefed earlier in the
evening when he came on the night shift in
Bend. He was told that a mass exodus of
people where headed out of
Bend and other surrounding towns
and converging hear at Glass Buttes.
The officer said it was on the evening news.
I looked at the officer, staring for close to a
minute, through him.
“Are you alright Mr. Galli” I heard a voice
say.
I felt a hand slip into mine, It was Anna.
“Yes.. yes I’m ok!” I heard my self say.
The Officer that had checked my ID started,
“This is what’s going on. There are about
fifteen thousand people hear now, we have
been directing traffic off the road towards
the east side of Glass Buttes.
Where are you camped?” he asked
“I am camped just below hear in the
Saddle.” I responded as I pointed.
I turned and looked to where I thought he
meant by the east side of Glass Buttes.
I saw the out line of a ridge past my camp,
to the east, I caught site of a few flash lights
moving around.
He said, “behind that ridge is a large bowl
with a pond in the center and some old
mining sites. There are lots of people
camped over there.” he went on
“What had us the most worried was all the
five gallon buckets people had with them.”
“Until some one told us that they where
getting texts of your conversation about
preparing for a spiritual journey.”
He went on to say
“Every one seams well prepared to camp for
the night. More officers are coming out from
Bend and Burns. We are directing the traffic
flow off twenty into every area we can find
for them to camp for the night. We will be
patrolling all camping areas until morning.”
“Ok” I said.
“Do you want me to do some thing?” I
Asked, With no idea what I could do.
He said “No.”
“We will be close by” he said.
They thanked us and walked down toward
the drum circle.
The drums stopped as they entered the
circle.
They told every one to enjoy the evening
and that Highway twenty was being closed
Down, coming in or out until morning. The
only traffic that was being allowed was
emergency traffic and that two ambulances
where standing by.
The same officer I talked to, pointed down
towards twenty near the turn off to Anna’s
spring and then he pointed down towards
the saddle and my camp, indicating the
ambulances locations.
They bid every one a good night at the fire
circle and walked around the side hill to the
east. They stopped and talked to people
along the way. The officer eventually made
it back to their truck at the end of the road
near the trail head to the summit. They got
in and shut the doors. I watched to see what
they where going to do. After fifteen
minutes or so, I figured they were ware they
were going to be for the night.
The drums had started up with some
renewed intensity. I looked to see Anna and
Jasmine sitting on the blankets watching the
sky.
I smiled thoughtfully.
I sat down next to Anna, Anna moved
behind me, leaned me back in to her lap and
ran her fingers through my hair. She looked
down at me and smiled. She looked back up
at the stars, watching, I watched her for
several minutes and then looked up at the
sky dome, watching, waiting.
I couldn’t think, I didn’t want to think, I fell
asleep under the enormous sky, to the touch
of Anna’s hands.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 9
I awoke to the air thumping sound of a
helicopter. It was still dark, I sat up and
looked to the east, I could see a faint
lighting of the horizon. A star, perhaps a
planet, shined brightly just above the waking
eastern sky.
The helicopters hack grew louder as it
turned, rounding the south west side of the
buttes. It flew over the valley floor near the
base of the buttes. It flew several hundred
feet lower than the peak where I was
standing. I could see several camp fires
burning below near Anna’s spring. The
helicopter, passing Anna springs and
traveling north, over twenty, then rounding
the northern side of Glass Buttes, on up the
drainage on the eastern side of the buttes, up
into the saddle.
The helicopter hovered for a moment over
the saddle. Flying up the drainage the
helicopter had gained altitude, it now flew
almost level with the summit and me.
The helicopters navigation light blinking
bright in the transitioning light. It turned,
facing the summit, gained altitude, flying up
and over the summit, slowing, then turning
over the western valley and Anna’s spring,
returning to level with the Butte summit.
The helicopter hovered five or six hundred
feet out from the summit, level and facing
me.
The helicopter hovered for what felt like
minutes, then it turned and headed toward
Bend following twenty.
I could see highway twenty below, tail
lights, a line of cars returning toward Bend.
Anna grabbed my hand, puling up close next
to me. Shifting to face her, I pulled her in to
my chest, her nose cold, nuzzled my neck.
She was shivering. I shifted, we shifted, I
looked down at the drum circle fire. Some
one was stoking it. I could see people
standing, sitting up, shaking out blankets.
The sound of voices started to rise.
I could see cell phones lighting up, a few
people near us started talking on their
phones, People were texting.
“Lets go down to the fire and warm up“,
Anna said, between shivers and a set jaw.
We walked down the slope to the fire,
passing now aroused star gazers, some slept.
All where wrapped in blankets or tilted up in
sleeping bags.
We walked between people sitting and
standing near their nights sleeping spots, on
something like a path to a cleared area
around the fire circle. Several people now
stood around the fire, warming their hands
and rubbing the cold out of their clothes,
turning warming, a building conversation, a
gargling of the morning activities, the cold,
the fire. We walked up to a opening around
the fire. Looking around, I spied Travis
squatting down over a large steaming coffee
pot, adding rich brown grounds. I heard
some heavy breathing, I turned to see a guy
carrying two five gallon buckets, he walked
up to the fire next to Travis. Travis reached
in and removed several bottled waters and a
hand full of cups. Moving around the fire,
reaching, he handed me two cups. Travis
looked me in the eyes with clarity. He was
activated. He had taken in the morning
activities, I could see that he was hyper-
aware. Standing next to Travis, the person
who carried the buckets in to camp, was the
same guy that was playing the guitar last
night at my camp, below, in the saddle.
He reached across the fire and introduced
himself, “Hi, my name is Aaron” shaking
my hand, “Nice to meet you Seth!”
I shook his hand authentically, looking at
him I could see he to was activated to.
“Pleasure to meet you Aaron.” I said.
“What do you think about the helicopter“,
Travis said. Smiling, with a wow look on his
face, his hair ruffled and sticking up.
“A cop stopped by your camp last night
Looking for you, did he find you?”
Travis asked.
“No, but we talked to two game wardens last
night up on the summit .” I said.
“What did they want?” Travis asked.
“They asked for my ID and told me what
was going on, and where they had
ambulances parked.” I paused, thinking.
“I think they are parked just over hill by the
trail head?” I added.
The coffee pot boiled over, steaming the
fire.
Travis leaned down and pulled the pot to the
edge of the fire, lifting it, he set it on a flat
rock at the fires edge. Grabbing a water
bottle Travis sprinkled cold water over the
calming, steaming, mixture of coffee
grounds and water.
The cold water helping to settle the grounds
to the bottom of the pot. Collecting
up and handing out a half dozen cups. Travis
began pouring cups full, grateful voices
returned their thanks.
More cups came forward out of the crowd
Travis filled them until the pot was empty.
Jasmine was there, She had walked up and
been talking to Anna while I was talking to
Travis and Aaron.
I looked at Anna and Jasmine they both
returned perky smiles as they clutched their
cups of coffee. Jasmine had, wool gloves, a
scarf and a pea coat with jeans.
Anna was wrapped in her dark blue cloak.
With her hood up, black hair flowing out
and down the front of her cloak. Hands
forward holding her cup of coffee up to her
lips. She was activated, I watched her look
around the now growing group of people, as
she blew on her hot cup of coffee,
with a twinkle of curiosity in her eyes.
She was slowly moving her gaze across
conversations. I followed her inquisitiveness
as she scanned the now forming crowd.
“They are awake, alive.”
She said, as if she was about to break in
to excited laughter, Anna was getty.
I looked from her around the growing group.
She was right, People where animated,
excited, people where talking on their cell
phones, laughing, eyes bright, reliving the
helicopters flight, retelling the activities of
the morning. There was lots of cell phone
activity.
Up on the buttes was the only place
I had seen anyone use their phone. I had left
mine in my pickup.
It was growing lighter, I could see people on
the slopes above the fire circle, moving
around.
Anna turned to me and said “ I was up most
of the night talking to friends and family in
San Francisco and England.”
She continued.
“We where on CNN last night and this
mornings as a developing story.”
She went on.
“A CNN reporter stood in front of a road
block outside of Bend on highway twenty.”
I was lost in thought, trying to take in the
scope of what was happening and what
Anna was telling me.
I was staring in to the fire, thinking.
I looked up and around at the people
gathered, I fixated on the cell phones being
used, they where magnifying the
phenomenon of the now happening event.
“I wanted this to happen, but why hear and
now, in this way?” I thought.
I saw it all in my mind.
“like digital dominoes Falling,” I thought.
I repressed my growing excitement.
It was out of control though, every one
seamed calm, but there was no real way to
communicate with all these people, no
safety plan.
I must have looked concerned, I was.
I looked over at Travis and Aaron,
They looked back.
“I am going back up to the summit to have a
look around,” I said.
Travis turned talking to the guy next to him
and pointing at the coffee pot. The guy
nodded his head.
Travis turned to me and said, “I am going
with you.”
Aaron followed, “ me to.”
Anna grabbed my hand, I turned, she looked
at me, she was ready to go, Jasmine was
right behind her.
We shuffled around the edge of the fire, the
crowd opened to let us pass. We climbed up
the hill to the summit Anna’s phone was on
vibrate, I could hear its bug like buzz, going
off every couple of minutes, Then it just
didn’t stop. She pulled her cell phone out
and shut it off.
It was getting lighter.
At the summit, I took in the scope of the
landscape covered with camps.
smoke columns rose from camp fires on the
valley floor. Jasmine took pictures of the
butte summit area and the western valley
below. Anna followed with her camera
capturing moments.
Camps were especially dense around
Anna’s Spring, spreading out from there on
the desert floor, camped close to the root
like ridges of the buttes that held the
mountain to the desert floor.
Below and north, the highway patrol was
directing a line of traffic back on to the
highway, back to Bend, where Anna’s
spring road met twenty.
I looked to the east, camp fires burned on
the opposite ridge. People sat in folding
chairs watching the traffic streaming out of
the saddle north to the twenty.
I caught site of twenty, pointing east, a line
of cars pushed on and vanished into the
distance towards Burns.
I could hear it before I could see it,
a helicopter.
A moment latter I saw it traveling east over
highway twenty from Bend.
The sun was starting to break the horizon.
The helicopter approached the buttes, flying
to the north and around the surrounding
area, circling the buttes, then returning
towards Bend along twenty.
Travis taped my elbow. I looked, he pointed
down the trail to the summit road.
The two game wardens were walking up the
trail. We all turned to face them as they
approached.
“Good morning,” “Quite a seen, amazing
isn’t it”
I said, as they walked up.
They both gave me a wry smile.
“Well, what’s going on?” I asked with a low
curious tone.
The two game wardens were local guys, I
could tell, they where as uncomfortable as I
was around so many people.
The game warden I had talked to the night
before had a name tag on his jacket, it read,
“Martin”.
“Can we speak with you for a minute mister
Galli”?…. “ in private!”
Myself and the two officers walked a few
feet away from the group I was with.
I looked back at Anna, and smiled,
confident, I winked at her, she smiled.
I could see concern on her face under her
smile.
I turned to the officers.
Martin put his hand forward to shake, I
reached forward and shook his hand.
The other officer, Scott, I read the name tag
affixed to his jacket, offered his hand, we
shook.
Scott, blond, he wore a white vaquero’s hat,
late twenties, clean faced, respectful nature.
Martin, older, graying brown hair, maybe in
hi early fifties, a silk scarf, a large sweeping
mustache covering his mouth, up to cool
blue eyes. He wore a cowboy hat, white and
caked / stained with age, a short brimmed
ranchers hat. A western man of character, a
man of the desert.
Both wore green pants and jackets with
kaki collard shirts.
Scott stood by, Martin began,
“We have a situation building.”
He said, flat and strait.
“We would like to take you in to Bend,
for your own safety, of your own fee will”
“Why? What’s going on?” I asked, feeling
nervous.
Martin started,
“People are pouring into Bend.”
He paused, he looked at me with a serious
even gaze, as if he was sizing me up.
“ The highway patrol has a road block
on twenty east of Bend.”
“There are ten thousand or better people
bottle neck in Bend, trying to get hear.
People are worried that you might make a
inflammatory comment that might create a
incident.”
He paused, looking out at the surrounding
desert below and the camps scattered on the
desert floor. His eyes came back to me.
He gave me a stressed smile.
“I read your blog last night and I don’t think
that’s what you want.”
“Not at all,’’ I said, with a subdued, stressed,
voice.
I started imagining the potential things that
could go wrong, the people that could get
hurt.
My mind steadied and calmed, my
surroundings became vivid.
I heard behind me, Travis, Anna, Jasmine
and Aaron talking, there voices were
strained.
In my mind, a voice, deep and reverberating
echoed, “Be calm…”
I listened to my breath, I felt my lungs fill, I
breathed out clearing stagnant air from my
chest.
I breathed in, fresh cool air, the smells of the
desert, the sun rising, the shadows stretched
out, a morning wind rattled between sage
brush and juniper.
It was a moment captured by all my senses,
then released with the next exhaling
breath.
I looked back at my group, they where
talking on their cell phones.
I turned back to Martin, with a question in
my mind, my Eyes, he followed.
“These are your friends?”
“Ya..” I said, then paused.
“We have room for them” Martin said.
My mind was examining the elements of the
now progressing events and my part in it, as
innocuous as it was.
I was distracted by multiple lines of thought,
I was staring down in to the valley below at
Anna’s spring.
I looked up at Martin,
“I am going to need to communicate with
these folks.”
I paused, he paused, I started breaking down
what was going on. These people on the
desert floor and on the surrounding lower
ridges couldn’t get cell service.
The people up on the rounded summit area.
I paused.
I had been so wrapped up in the
conversation and complex thoughts that I
had looked right past all the people on the
summit. The people on and around the
summit where all looking up at us, many
talking on their phones, watching, texting,
communicating with each other.
I turned and looked at my group they looked
at me, they hung up their phones.
I turned back to Martin, he nodded
confirming my thoughts, my group moved
over and gathered around, every one
relaxed.
“Martin,” I said directly. He stiffened up.
“They wouldn’t shut all these peoples
phones off, would they?
He looked around, “that wouldn’t be a good
idea, would it?” he said, following my
thoughts.
“There is suppose to be a communications
van on its way from Bend, it is a mobile cell
phone tower,”
Scott volunteered.
Martin turned and walked a few steps from
the group. He was talking on his two way
radio, then his cell phone, Martin came back
and joined the group.
Martin spoke quickly.
“The van is on its way, it just turned off
highway twenty and is headed up the road to
the saddle, it will be at the trail head
shortly.” he paused.
“We should go down and meet it”
Martin tuned and started down the trail,
Scott followed.
It was still early, eight thirty or nine.
It was warming up.
We started down the trail to the end of the
road and the trail head, behind Martin and
Scott.
Anna grabbed my hand, “what are you going
to tell all these people” she said Anxiously,
looking around at the people on the slopes
of the butte summit area.
I stopped, “Officer Martin” I called down
the trail.
Martin turned, “I need to talk to these folks
up here.” I called down to him.
He trotted up the trail, in a moment he was
next to me. “What are you going to say?”
Martin said between breaths.
“I am going to give them my blog address
and tell them that I will communicate with
them through it…. As soon as I get access to
a laptop and internet.”
I paused, I thought, I was making it up as I
went along.
“I also want to tell them every thing is ok,
that the event was unplanned and it had
grown to large to be safe. So, I was
cooperating with local law enforcement in
dispersing the crowd safely.”
Martin, looked at me for a moment, “Ok,”
he said, nodding.
He walked to the side of the trail, opened
and dialed a number on his phone.
I turned and climbed the twenty or so feet
back up to the summit.
“Hi folks, if you could gather a little
closer,”….
The people on the summit knob collected
around.
“First every thing is , ok.
Second, This was not a planed event.
The number of people who
have gathered hear has become unsafe.
I am cooperating with local law enforcement
to disperse the gathering safely.”
“My blog is sethgezzsoupscoop on blogger,
Or Google me, Seth Galli.”
“I will post any news or changes as I
become aware of them on my blog.”
“Please wait at your camp or car until local
law enforcement can direct you safely.”
“Please tell your friends what’s going on, so
they don’t try to travel out hear.”
“this has been a amazing experience to share
with all of you, thank you.”
“namaste”
Martin stood by nervous.
“We got to go” Martin said.
I started down the hill, I looked off to my
right there were thousands of tents on the
valley floor below.
I felt really tired, all of a sudden, it
happened almost instantly, I stopped,
turning to the side of the trail, I leaned
down, hands on my knees, back bowed and I
puked.
I straitened up, Travis was there, he handed
me a bottle of water. A rinse, then a deep
pull draining the bottle.
My sensory system, my mind, couldn’t take
in the scale of what was happening ,the
people present, the now of it all. I had long
been a shadow, a chameleon in and on the
edges of society, an observer out side the
experiment, I had enjoyed the anonymity of
it. That was all gone now.
I felt a clearing, a sense of direction, clarity.
Anna was there, Jasmine handed her a
napkin she had produced from her pea coat,
Anna handed me the napkin and another
bottle of water. I poured some water in my
hand, rinsed my face, clearing my nose and
sinuses, I slicked off the excess water from
my face with my hand, I felt much better.
I smiled at Anna and Jasmine, and nodded.
Martin was down the trail some, he had
turned to see what was going on, he gave me
a “that will do pig!” look with a wry smile.
I had passed some test in his mind, I saw it
just under and in his eyes.
I turned and started down the trail, our group
now strung out walked ahead. Anna a few
feet in front of me, slowed, reaching for my
hand.
We walked down to the trail head and road.
The van was there, behind it was a large
generator. Some technicians where raising a
antenna out of the top of the van.
The game wardens suburban was there, just
down the road.
Martin and Scott walked to the van and
talked to one of the technicians.
Martin, shaking the guys hand, then turned
and walked towards the suburban. Our
group trailed behind, Anna and I walked up
to Martin on the drivers side of the
suburban, he started,
“They are setting up a mobile cell phone
tower,”
The generator started.
“We need to get going,” Martin said.
The rest of the group was already piling in
as Scott held open the rear passenger side
door.
Travis and Aaron sat in the far back jump
seat, Anna, Jasmine and I took the center
bench seat.
Martin and Scott got in and closed their
doors.
“I need to stop at my truck and get my cell
phone, or should I drive my truck in to
Bend?” I said towards the front of the
suburban.
Every one in the group chimed in, needing
this or that from their camps.
I could see martin stiffen, “Are you all
camped in the saddle?” he asked.
“Yes”, we all said in unison.
We drove down and around the butte,
through several switch backs and out on to
the saddle. Martin stopped by a pound in the
lower part of the saddle where the drainage
came together. We all piled out going our
separate directions.
I walked to my truck. The camp fire off to
the left of my truck had a collection of
people standing around it. Coffee cups in
hands, boiling water, some one stirred a pot
of oatmeal, people where talking, waking
up. The fire crackled as wood was added.
In the back of my truck, my bed roll was
folded up. I unlocked my truck and opened
the door. I grabbed my backpack, unzipping
it, I stuffed some clean town clothes down
next to my laptop. I checked the pockets to
locate my charging cords for my laptop and
phone. Located my phone, a Verizon droid.
Pulled the car charger out, stuffing it in to a
backpack pocket. Found my min-video
recorder, wrapped in a T-shirt, with charger
and extra battery. I fished under the seat, for
a hundred dollar bill I had stashed up under
one of the seat rib springs, found it.
I always new where I was at, when I pulled
the emergency money out. It was time to
find work.
I looked around my truck.
Grabbed the bedroll out of the back of my
truck, putting it in the passenger seat.
I paused and drifted off in thought.
This was not the future I had imagined when
I came up from California.
The summer of two thousand and twelve,
was a mixed experience.
I learned a lot on my journey that summer,
it had many twists and turns.
I had learned a bunch about soils, I
redefined my definition of friend, I had a
inspired month of writing and then, a week
ago I had sold everything I owned. I spent
all but three hundred dollars on supplies for
the trip and set out on a spiritual journey.
In that month of writing, I had been
searching, yet again, for that combination
of words that would speak directly to each
human, to wake them up, to activate them.
Activate, a word I had come to understand
the year before from a friend, Paprika.
Activate, to turn on the human, wake up
their brain, a person of presence , a attitude,
a strong human light.
This is what drives me forward.
Please consider;
The humans spinning through the Milky
way Galaxy.
Where are humans going with their future?
As in a maturing being on a planet called
earth spinning through space, with a view of
the Milky Way Galaxy.
We have the tools but we are slow to mature,
although slow we are learning how to learn,
increasing our efficiency, thus increasing our
momentum, maturing.
Navigate wisely.
When traveling at the speed of light, one
shouldn’t be twitchy, steady the hand and
think through it, then do it.
Now!
Activate, illuminate, cooperate, participate,
produce, reduce, increase, chose, and protect
aaaaalllll human freedoms with fierce
passion.
A sense of rightness,
With in the heart of truth following a line of
self evident thought, a eventuality exists of,
a universal human sense of,
a peaceful enriching coexistence.
In man, first find the truth of character,
then uncover the man, maintain a balanced
view, consider and verify all truth.
Choose wisely.
Consider possibility.
All else is carelessness.
Languish as you may, rolling in your
dogmas.
Still no joy?
Shun rude behavior!
The truth twisted is not the truth at all.
Create a new story, if the one you are living
in is not working.
Noble is, what noble dose.
You have a choice and now you know.
In and with respect I bow to you.
Namaste.
Thank you for reading my writings.
Seth Galli
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 10
Time to shake things up a little!
Giddy up!!
Note to reader;
This is where the story gets interesting, we switch from fiction to reality. I am nervous as all get out and making it up as I go along, right now.
Hears the scoop!
I am going to take a ride across America,
visiting communes, intentional
communities, and organic cultures. Writing
and videoing peoples stories across the
country and sharing them on the web.
The complete story.
On my blog I will have a
“almost daily journal.”
My online journal will report all of my
activities and discoveries, from the handlers
I recruit, to the fire sale of every thing I own
with a special event to kick the trip off, “The
internet search for a intimate female
companion to share the journey with”.
There is a story behind the search for a
woman companion;
About four years ago I went to the Tonasket
Washington Barter fair with my mom.
Barter fair, was a wholesome group of
alternative lifestyle people, fifteen thousand
attended.
My mom had a booth for jewelry she had
collected over the years and was selling. I
decided to write up a “Woman Wanted Add”
as a social experiment and post it at my
mothers booth. The add basically said that I
was living in the back country in Idaho. I
listed the projects and my interests;
Gardening, canning, philosophy, nature,
wine making, rock wall building,
homesteading ect. And that I was looking
for a good soul to share my life with in that
kind of environment. Included was a
warning about being snowed in for several if
not more months.
I put the add up on the front of my moms
booth. It got a lot of attention and was a
topic of passing conversation.
It was funny how it all turned out. I did meet
a lady… wasn’t a good fit. She didn’t want
to live in the backcountry. My mistake was I
took the first offer that came along.
I had met the gal and talked to her at her
tent, I then went back to my moms tent and
wrote on my add, “position filled,”.
Latter, I learned, the guy at the booth next
to my moms, said several gals had been
interested and saw that the position had been
filled and where upset about it.
Hum,
next time I will do interviews, or rather,
women I know will do the interviewing for
me then I can talk to the remaining five or
ten gals my friends pick.
Ok, this is where I am at;
I have been writing this book while I have
been out of work. While writing about a
spiritual journey, I have experienced a
spiritual awakening, I have a quest in mind
and as you can see the planning is underway.
I am ultimately going to sell everything I
own and buy a Goldwing motorcycle,
Something road worthy for the long haul,
but affordable. A good horse!
I am then going to outfit the Goldwing with
a camping system for two, then equipped
myself to travel with the available space.
Then I am going to make some kind of “to
do” out of a search for a female companion,
applications, interviews, the whole nine
yards.
People could probably vote on the woman
they think is a match on the internet…..
Hello, Facebook!
Its all an experiment and I am going to give
it all I got, then, turn all I learn over to you
the reader.
How it could go down.
Purpose of the trip;
The purpose of this trip is to record stories
of people across the land and share them
with my readers on the internet in the form
of a “almost daily Journal” on my blog, I
will also be doing research on the book you
have been reading
“ See you in a future past life.”
To share with folks I met, my experiences
and the journey I am on.
I am going to visit communes , intentional
communities, farmers markets, yoga studios
( for health of mind), Buddhist temples. I am
looking for the vibe and other organic cross
roads.
I want to interview these folks, ask them
about the pivotal moments of their life that
led to their spiritual experiences, their
revolution of mind, those experiences that
led to the turning of life chapters, to the
chapter of life they are now living.
And as a reader, if your town has the organic
vibe, chime in and let me know where, I will
find my way there in words or in person.
(The Proclaimers, I would walk five hundred miles.)
More notes;
To do’s
-Recruit handlers to pledge two hours a
week to sharing/ social networking my blog,
book, and live journal.
-Recruit handlers to find and arrange
appointments with; communes, intentional
communities, Buddhist monasteries, yoga
studios, farmers markets, flee markets, and
any organic cross roads they locate and wish
me to interview as we progress on the trip.
- Recruit handlers to produce interview
questions for the people and communities I
visit.
- Recruit handlers to interview women
interested in being my companion for the
journey. These handlers will select a few
women from those that apply. There will be
three rounds of interviewing until the final
five, then I interview and choose my
companion from the final five with the
assistance of my selection committee.
All women who apply to accompany me
should be come familiar with my blog and
writings, my writings reflect who I am.
Are you her?
To the woman of my journey dreams;
There is no doubt that this trip will have its
miserable moments, perhaps days and
weeks.
We will be riding a motorcycle in the
open elements of winter in the southern
states, as spring breaks we will turn north up
along the east coast.
We will have very limited space.
We will be camping regularly.
We will attempt to find lodging with those
we interview along the way.
Our handlers will try to find us lodging as
they can, living room floors (air mattress),
guest rooms, hostels and random
wholesome folks.
It will be an adventure.
I imagine this lady of choice to be a organic
soul with a strong persevering personality,
warm touch and heart, open, well read, a
intimate companion, a organized team
player, ready to participate in projects the
people we meet need help with, ready to
make it work with a good attitude, and a
passion for the project and the people.
A friend of mine told me;
“Ask the universe for what you need and the
universe will conspire with you to make it
happen.”
So hear I am.
So now I ask the universe for the resources I
need to accomplish the task above.
This is a list of what I need;
-A Goldwing motorcycle in good shape,
affordable or free.
- A wonderful woman to walk the full length
of the trail with me, a intimate relationship,
souls entwined on all levels, lightning.
-Wonderful people from across the country,
lots and lots of them, with stories.
- The wisdom to ask the right questions, and
to listen, to take in humanity.
- The finances to continue the trip, and the
skills and work to bridge any gaps that may
occur.
- Health and safety for both of us.
- The right words to communicate with my
readers, and that my readers may be
changed by reading and sharing my
experiences online.
- That my book is considered by a publisher,
And that those funds will help finance the
journey and the completion of the book,
some where along the way.
- That people, the good folks out there on
the web, participate by producing feed back
and questions, interacting with us on our
journey and sharing our stories with friends.
- Handlers, the right people to help make
this happen as smooth as possible, and that
they live the adventure with me in a way.
-I pray that people will be able to live
through my experiences online and feel
liberation, as I feel it.
Thank you, Universe!!!
Note to the reader.
If you are interested in participating in any
way please use the comment section on the
blog to express your ideas or interests.I will responed in a timely manner.
Timing ?
I may leave on the journey as soon as
November or as late as February . It all
depends on how every thing comes together.
And finally, I would like to thank my
readers.
Thank you, you good folks.
Seth Galli
Some last words.
Live life, while you are alive!
Ps. I fixed my blog, you can now make comments, cool, it was turned off ?
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 11
Almost daily journal
Friday September the 14th
I am dragging all my stuff out of my garage
today.
Time to start taking pictures of all my
stuff.
I am going to list all the big items on
Craigslist this weekend.
Humm.
-Two motorized bicycles.
- Ten plus worm frames full of worms
(stackable worm farms.)
- Four, new, five frame worm towers, 1.5 by
1.5 feet.
- One, new, large worm tower,2 by 3 feet.
- Stihl chainsaw
- One, new, chain link fence roll, six by fifty
Feet.
- 30 steel fence posts and wire.
- A tea brewer, 55 gallon, for actively
aerated compost tea.
- Several ladders.
- A aluminum movie set camera tripod with
wheals and movement dampening devices
built in.
- a Howell lighting kit for filming sets.
- A collapsible bike stand, for working on
bicycles.
- large live catch trap, in good shape.
- A forty two inch Vizio flat screen TV with
Vizio DVD player.
- A bunch of movies.
---------------------------------------
Changing to a new chapter in my life at 42,
is intimidating to say the least.
I am low on cash and have no work.
So I am going to sell off my stuff until I
have work.
I need to sell my 93’, T-100 Toyota truck to.
Might be able to get fifteen hundred to two
thousand dollars for my truck. That money
will go towards the Honda Goldwing
motorcycle, I will use for my / our cross
country trip.
- I have a Janet Rayner nude pencil sketch,
very graceful, very beautiful, I hate to sell it,
but the play must go on.
--------------------------------------------------
I got a handler to pledge a hour a day to help
organize my trip along the way. Way cool!
She is also excited about thinking up
questions for me to ask people along the
way.
I had a great idea.
Not this weekend but next, I will list all the
items on Craigslist. I will call it a flash mob
yard sale. Only open for four hours 7-11am.
I have a lot of ideas for flash mobs.
I believe a flash mob can build anything.
If the thing to be built or done was designed
to be built or done with mass cooperation,
things could be erected, planted, harvested
and cleaned, as a form of entertainment for
the common man, flash mob style!
I would like to do a flash mob at a organic
farm on my trip across the country, planting
or harvesting a entire crop, almost instantly.
Creating a tourist attraction for the
farm, plus a new base of customers for that
farm.
---------------------------------------------
A discussion.
I am talking to you the reader as I imagine
you across the table from me.
As a singular reader of “see you in a future
past life.”
Dose this material interest you?
Do you feel compelling feelings from “see
you in a future past life”.
Do you feel compelled to travel after
reading?
Would you like to become a part of the
story?
Would you become involved?
---------------------------
This afternoon I emailed the Dandelion
commune In Rutledge, Missouri;
The email;
Hi dandelion
I am writing a book about a spiritual
journey. The book starts out fiction and then
on chapter 10 it becomes a nonfiction
journal of a motorcycle trip across America,
interviewing and participating with the
people I meet along the way.
I would like to start a conversation with you.
Seth
----------------------------------------------
Please comment and share.
Thank you.
Seth Galli
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 12
A almost daily journey/ journal.
Fiction and reality.
What a side track nation.
I am down the road, on my way, some one I
know catches up to me. Says to me;
“you cant do this thing.”
and names all the reasons they believe it
can not be done, They believe it, I can see it
in their eyes.
As they walk along with me. I wonder, how
much further down the road we will walk
before they join me.
Hum, we stop, I smile into their eyes,
“Come with me, let us see it with own eyes,
absorb it with our own minds. Meet the
people, the wonderful people and bring them
the news of what we know, so they may
enlighten us, that we might bring that light
forward, to a new friend, a new community,
evolving the conversation.”
Reality.
I originally had the idea of traveling alone or
with a woman companion.
All things evolve….
Best journey invitation ever….ha-ha.
Would you like to go?
As a member of a group of “Traveling
Writer Riders.” Pollinating the nation with
ideas of cooperation, participation, and
wholesome production. Evolving our
strategy as we move through the story.
Recording our story from multiple
perspectives. Always seeking wisdom we
can practice and writing about it all.
Riding, canvassing America, and blogging
it.
Writer Riders, saddle up.
Send me a message.
I am now organizing.
“I love this country, yes I do, and all the folks to, a haiku.”
You are where I am at now.
I thank my readers gratefully.
Seth Galli
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 13
A almost daily journal/journey.
You, the author.
You are the author, of the story you are
writing, the story you are living, life.
Are you aware?
How is it producing good effects?
What is it adding to you?
????
The story you create every day!
How are you adding life to you?
How dose it increase your efficiency, of life?
How dose it add to your momentum?
What techniques have you employed?
How many layers of observation do you
maintain of it, life?
How do you coexist with in it.
What part do you play?
How much emotion do you have invested in
it?
How much do you respect it?
How much do you believe in it?
How are you enriching it?
Are you writing a good story?
Do you see your self as creating the story?
Are you aware you can change your story,
your life?
Are you learning?
Are you creating?
If you don’t like the story you are living,
start telling a new story, then you will start
living it.
Your story will follow the momentum of
your thoughts and words. Believe in your
self, you are real and hear now. Write a good
story, a story you love, a love story of one
type or another.
Write your fiction into reality.
I am writing a new story, A story of reason,
of logic, of the fractural geometry of value
and emotion. A story of communication, of
cooperation, of freedom and of wholesome
production. A story of awakenings. This
story is open to include you.
This is the stage in my story where I appeal
to the readers of my blog and the friends I
know to participate in this journey/ social
adventure, in what ever capacity they can.
The more involved you become, the more
you live part of the adventure, until you
have joined it…
Namaste.
Seth Galli
Some things are best said in other languages.
See you in a future past life.
Chapter 14
A almost daily journey/ journal.
Reality, now.
Things are coming together. Friends and
acquaintances are indicating a strong
interest in participating. They have offered
ideas that I will integrate in to our trip.
One of my friends has already put in five
hours. It is amazing what can be done in
such a short period of time. In a few
chapters I will start introducing the people
that are helping me, as timing and comfort
allows. I respect their privacy and want
them to want to become part of the written
story.
A friend of mine has been helping me with
editing, social networking (on and off the
web), trip planning, ideas, and book
development. She is a incredibly busy
person and I am very grateful for the time
she has spent on the project and her
dedication to it.
Another friend of mine, I will call the
Director (film), has been a fountain of great
ideas. (In this chapter I will cover some of
these ideas and how they may be included in
our journey across America.)
My friend the director, also said the trip
needs to be filmed and film projects need to
be integrated into our traveling activities.
He also indicated that he would be interested
in editing and promoting the films.
Update;
I met a guy that is very knowledgeable
about motor cycles, he said I could call him
if I had problems on the trip and he would
help me trouble shoot them and find the
parts that I need. He is very knowledgeable
about trip planning relative to a motorcycle,
such as, methods for riding, gas efficiency,
tire ware, fuel grades, oil viscosities and on
and on, great resource .
All of these people that are helping me are
activated, they are passionate about the
journey and the idea of it. Most of my
friends want to go themselves. They just
might join me for a leg of the journey, who
knows.
Some of the ideas we have been working on;
One idea.
-A new haiku for you. Every day we have a
writing challenge, each member of the
traveling group, writes a haiku and gives it
to some one they meet that day along the
way.
Idea two.
On our journey we carry a three foot by six
foot, maybe longer, piece of painters canvas
rolled up in a tube. In each new town we go
to that has a art culture we find an artist to
add to the traveling patchwork painting .
Documenting its journey on film as it is
created.
Idea three.
We interview people on the road on camera.
Asking them to tell us a story true or fiction.
At the end of each week a story is picked
for; the tallest tail.
Idea four.
We do a series called garage sale stories. We
interview some one having a garage sale,
asking them to tell us a story about some
item they are selling.
Idea five.
Each area we pass through we find or are
given a small object to affix to our trophy,
perhaps a motorcycle trailer that we choose
to ornament.
Idea six.
We stop and ask some one, in any town
USA, on the street on camera if they would
like us to hand deliver a message to some
one in the united states.
After we deliver the message we ask the
person receiving the message if they would
like us to deliver a message to some one for
them.
Idea seven.
Each time we pass a state line and there is a
town on the boarder, we interview people in
that boarder town and ask them what they
think of the state we just left. All filmed.
Idea eight.
To plan and break the trip into legs. The idea
behind this is to make the trip available in
small sections to people who might not be
able to participate in the whole trip. Also
making it possible for more people to
participate in the experience of the journey.
I imagine these legs could conclude in some
kind of event like a flash crowd community
renewal project. Which brings me to idea
nine.
Idea nine
Say twenty or more of us are traveling
across the nation. We are reaching the end of
a leg of the journey. Our plan is to meet at a
river, at some large camp ground. Knowing
ahead of time the destination, we plan a
community renewal project and promote it
as we approach the end of the leg.
The community renewal project could be as
simple as promoting a flash mob river clean
up, or a flash mob organic farm installation/
planting.
Ideally our goal is to use mass participation
to enrich communities along our journey.
This idea will need further work and
exploration of uses of flash crowds for good.
Stone soup.
The plan is developing nicely.
The attraction to this story is growing.
As you can see we will be looking for a few
new members for this traveling creation.
We now need a few film makers to join the
journey, to capture these stories and events.
(I have some film making equipment.)
I think we need a guitar player and maybe a
singer or two, some drums…. Musicians
wanted!
We are open to any traveling and socially
interacting ideas you the reader might have
for us the travelers to do.
We will always be looking for good random
writing assignments and challenges.
More to come.
Tank you for reading.
Namaste
Seth Galli
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