Espanola - reflections and celebrations

We arrived at Esponola on July 10 and reflected on the journey with old Pittsburgh friends Jeff and Joan who live and teach in New Mexico now. A ceremony was held in honor of the final stage of the Peace and Dignity Journey and to celebrate Joan's pregnancy.

Patty and me in our Hollywood car. After ceremony we drove for hours through the powerful landscape around Los Alamos. Breathtaking the hills were singing to us.

A final farewell to the journey - on July 13 we walked into Taos and presented the staff to another couple who would be carrying it further towards Panama.

Deepening Journey - New Mexico

The journey gained profound depth as we crossed the great plains. The wind blew strong and hot at first but a storm was swelling up on the horizon in deep blue. At a roadside table we contemplated the dry barren land for the better part of an hour, silently sitting and observing beetles crawl throughout the dry sand and dying grasses. This land had been experiencing drought but we watched lighting striking down in the distance. A pickup truck pulled up next to us at this lonely rest stop and within 5 min. there was action. 5 or 6 Mexicans were jumping into the back of the truck and situating themselves low in the bed and we were rushing to our own car to get out of there. We waved and passed a jug of water to those thankful people in the pickup and both vehicles took off. It was fascinating how they remained hidden from our sight as we gazed out over that barren field. And the timing of this event was vivid, as the storm was coming and our mission purpose and intention: to unite the people of the Americas as one people - borderless across the whole land - came echoing back.From this time forward the medicines began to speak more clearly. We stayed at Clayton Lake State Park and experienced a feeling of sanctuary. The natural rock garden was aromatic with cedars and pines and sage woody herbs. The land had been drenched by the storm running rivers in the streets of Clayton. We prayed with chanupa (tobacco pipe) in the park and Patricia sang with her drum. We saw Hawk medicine on the road and Coyotes pawed and sniffed around our tent through the night I practice yoga in the early dawn and we left Clayton. A new coffee shop that was being established in an old feed store was one of the friendlier faces we found in Clayton - "Crossroads Coffee". Patty on the road and those indispensable windmills that allowed these bad lands to be farmed.
We struggled some to find this out of the way park called Mills Canyon and Antelope medicine was speaking, running along side our car as it bumped along long dirt roads which cut through vast oceanic fields. Antelope spoke of gentle perseverance, its delicate step participating in the great mystery, and the hawk medicine appeared again. I missed the opportunity for a photo of Antelope. Mills Canyon in the Kiowa National Grassland had more aromatic rock gardens to offer with remarkable rock formations. The flat desert land of New Mexico led into mountains and we climbed to the Eagle's Nest State Park, a high altitude calm and pristine grassy lake, ringed by blue mountains of volcanic deposition.

Evansville to Little Rock, AK and Oklahoma

We will be driving today and moving toward the runners who are in Talequah, Oklahoma. We spent the night of July 4 at the home of some new friends in Little Rock, AK. A friend of Patricia had a sister here who generously shared a meal and her home with us, and we shared the inspirations of our journey with them. Patty worked in her way for the healing of this good family.

Everything is Meditation

At Talequah, OK we walked with some staff carriers to a native heritage center and picked up a staff they carried to continue following the Trail of Tears out west on our way to Taos.

From there on it was just the two of us. We stopped at various towns like Cushing, Guthrie, Mooreland, Woodward, Slapout, Guymon, Clayton, Springer and Cimarron to pray and offer Tobacco. This route was the same one Patricia's uncle took 40 years ago. Nowadays each town has Wallmart.

$$$ The Price of Gas $$$

Peace and Dignity - on the Road

Leaving for Evansville, Indiana.


I met up with Patricia and we stayed with some of her friends as we prepared to set out on a road trip to Taos New Mexico. This is called the Peace and Dignity Journey to unite the people of the American continents as one people. We were walking as one of 3 arrows coming from New York, Alaska, and Argentina. From these extremities of the lands the arrows would finally be converging in Panama. Our part was to carry sacred staffs part of this way and to deliver them to other runners who would take them further on their way to Panama.

Preparing to leave

Today is the last day before I leave on a trip that will lead from Evansville, Indiana, through Oklahoma City, out to near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The morning is peaceful, my feeling transformed by the morning yoga practice. When I first got up I felt cloudy - nebulous, unsteady and groggy. Only a few of my eyes were open.
Now there are waves of eyes open - multitudes - generations - vast processions - countless nations of eyes - civilizations.
And the morning breeze feels cool and comfortable on my skin, exceedingly gentle, alert and hopeful.

I listen with my eyes because sometimes I look but do not see.
And I watch with my nose because on the wind are many pictures.

I want to come to the new day like a classroom.
and learn the lessons of shapes and colors
partaking of patterns, knowing numbers
Although you get knocked around a lot
the lunches are good
and the sweetness of tears expands the heart
like an accordion and the drinking straw paper dropped on water.

Lilah with a piece of pie

Several years ago I found some old school chalkboards at a junkyard and had the idea to remodel my kitchen using this special slate. Finally, it is getting its first significant chalking by my house guest of the past week Miss Lilah.