Catalysts for change

It’s almost 22 years since my mother was killed. Thinking back to where my life was when that happened, I was underwater financially, exhausted by work, stressed out from a bad relationship, I had a roommate who was a perfectly fine person, but I don’t like having a roommate, I was thinking I was going to have to sell my house because couldn’t afford to keep it. Things were tough. And then my mother was murdered, and my life exploded. It became clear that everything had to change and so I sold my house and closed my practice and went traveling. And in the 22 years since then a lot has happened. I have traveled the world, met all kinds of amazing people, lived in a variety of interesting and unusual places, been very engaged politically, and to make a long story short now I find myself on Vancouver Island moving into a little trailer house in the country. Mother’s murder was a catalyst in my life. I’m not glad that happened to her, but I am glad for the changes that were catalyzed through that experience. So even the most horrific things that happen in our lives can sometimes be catalysts for positive meaningful change.

A very cool bird experience

 I was just out walking down by the water and I heard a honking sound in the distance as I approached this area where there’s a wooden bridge that goes over the creek as the creek is entering the estuary. And if I turn left there, I walk down alongside the creek as it’s entering the estuary, so I make that turn, and the tide is out so the estuary water is way away in the distance, hundreds of feet, and I’m walking and I see there are two crows feeding in the creek. I stopped and they didn’t seem to notice me, and then it sort of dawned to me that I was wearing my Raven T-shirt and as soon as I realize that they both looked at me and got up and started flying around me and making a ton of noise, and they did that for about 10 minutes. Then a heron flew down from the woods right by me right past me, maybe 50 feet away in the air, and kept going and landed a few hundred feet away in the water. If you look at their bodies, as they fly, it looks like a trombone or some horn and it sounds like a horn. Anyway, the heron landed, and I kept walking. I was walking towards the water and after I got a little closer to the heron took off and circled around and flew back to the woods from whence it came. The crows at that point are still flying around me and making a ton of noise, and then they flew off and the heron came back and flew down to the water again as I turned around to go back up towards the woods. Anyway, a very cool bird experience. 

Paradigms reviewed by Tal Gur of Elevate Society

Paradigms just received a very kind review from Tal Gur of Elevate Society.  Here it is:

Paradigms: Podcast Review

What's next?

It's the day after my 66th birthday. I'm at a point in my life where there's really nothing I am looking forward to. It's not depression, I just have no big aspirations left. I do what I do, and that's fine. If I were going to have a big project it would be to find a piece of land and build a house, or find an existing house and Homestead, but I don't know if I'm really up for it. I don't have the money, and it looks like a dauntingly large project if I were to undertake it. So, I don't know. What comes next?

Something has changed in the way I view the world and geopolitics. I am no less disgusted or saddened, but I'm tired of making myself sick over it all. There's really only so much I can do. It's not enough, it can never be enough, that's why there's so many of us because all of our concerted efforts, together, hopefully can be enough to make things better. In the meantime, I'm living this life and making choices, and just doing what I can.

I took a week off from work for my birthday, and came over to the west side of Vancouver Island, and rented a cabin for a few days. I've been walking on the beach, soaking in the hot tub, taking sauna, sleeping in; it's been mostly overcast and today is raining so I built a fire in the fireplace. I spend so little time just being these days. I'm always doing, whether it's clients or radio show or just going for walks or whatever, I'm always doing. I used to know how to relax and just sit and be, so I'm going to go sit and be in front of the fire for a while.