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July 20 , 2015 Raising my sights, raising myself to manifest the Ecuador project. These have been times of crisis and I acknowledge that I have, for a while at least, made myself their victim. Sure, it is possible for me to talk myself into it because that day in the sheeting rain in Costa Rica when I was feeling physically plain lousy and could not see clearly the road ahead of me, it was needed at the moment to respond to overwhelming circumstances. And I did: when the cop showed up, I talked myself and, a stranger, my landowner benefactor to allow an old lady to sleep it off in the driveway. It allowed me to go on later with the rest of the tank of gas to the next destination. It showed me where and how to get on my computer to communicate my plight to the world where there was assistance to be found. All the while I was safe and never in any kind of danger. That’s always always how it works. There is always a way. I can thank myself for all the work I have be…

Day to Day on the Road Willy Nelson has a famous song. It was a wonderful liberation to be on the road again. And then it was Mexico for more than 3000 miles; onward through Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and now Panama on the Pan-American Highway another over 1000 miles: December to the end of May. Apart from all that driving: think that I am always at home in the great Red Bear, the name I have given to this 1 ton Ford Club Wagon. What on earth am I doing and how am I able to sustain myself? What has it really taken me personally to make it so far? Many of you cannot imagine life without something from the medicine cabinet but I am using only my two hands and a comprehensive system of meridian therapy I have practiced as a kind of yoga since 1971. When I awaken, I often also perform Health Regenerations Exercises which came from a book about healing sports injuries by a young martial artist. When I move my energies aro…

July 15, 2015 Watch and listen for the synchronicity Those who believe only in the material world call it coincidence: things that happen together: co – together and incidents – happenings, events, etc. It’s also been called serendipity, a word coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 after reading an Arabic fairy tale about the Three Princes of Serendip, fortunate fellows, indeed, who were told to have made discoveries of wonderful things by ‘accident,’ and who subsequently jumped up and down in their princely attire joyfully celebrating their good fortune. Our understanding has grown over the past 40 years or so concerning the implications of the quantum worlds but because our brains race along at 10 – 28 Hz, we cannot see beyond what we are looking at and it all looks quite solid. So we have come to learn that ‘coincidence’ and ‘serendipity’ are events that were already in motion only to come unexpectedly for us into the material world. Now some call it blind luck …

July 15, 2015 Unremarkable persons in quite ordinary lives What does it take for unremarkable persons in quite ordinary lives to find our true calling, to join with our soul companions and to meet our destiny? In days past, I attended goddess ceremonials originally sponsored by Starhawk in the San Francisco Bay area of northern California. During the later parts of the evening’s festivities, a whole room, maybe 100 of us, decorated and costumed women were led through a spiral dance. It goes like this: our priestess takes the hand of one woman in the room and all of us join hands behind her as she continues around the room dancing into smaller and smaller circles until at the smaller point she turns outward in the opposite direction leading the line now formed dancing behind her until the whole of it unrolls once again. When we arrive again to our places, we shout, cheer joyfully and dance in our places then make merry together feasting on the exotic meals we each…

On my birthday Actually I have had only one birth-day. That was July 5, 1939 in Wells, British Columbia, a tiny gold mining town in the north central mountains of the province. It was a tiny hospital as well with 2 beds and, I’ve been told, an old German woman who was the only nurse. Whoever she was that woman saved my life. Every other July 5th that has come around has been technically a  ‘re-birthday’, an anniversary of that first advent day. I have now come upon the 76th re-birthday which means that today begins my 77th walk around the sun. I think it is interesting that we get to hitch a ride on a planet to make the trip in only 365 rotations of the earth on her axis. Neat trick! The neatest trick is what we do with all that walking. “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” – James Allen “Let us dream a new dream together b…

June 22, 2015 An Observation of Latin Culture One of the purposes of the drive through Mexico and now in Central America on my way to South America is to immerse myself in the Latin culture. By this I really mean that it was not about taking the drive to visit the piles of rocks called cathedrals or Mayan pyramids, rather to closely watch and observe the people just doing what people are doing as they live, in the cities, in the truck stops, in the mercado, along the beaches and in their villages along the highways and byways of the countries I have driven a little over 5000 miles through. First thing I really noticed is that many of these people are very strong physically without the benefit of a local gym or any kind of attention to superfoods or good nutrition: just working their lives makes them really strong. The older ones that look like me with my wrinkled face and loose muscles are in fact easily 10 to 20 years younger than I am: they weather as much as they ma…

May 16, 2015 Crossroads on the Road Less Traveled The main highways everywhere I have ever been have, all of them, green signs with white lettering and numbers proclaiming the directions and the next landmark on the way. In cities and towns across North America, there are, signs at the corners of the streets as well. Even in Mexico and Central America the green and white theme persists. I notice these things, well, you know that now! Over all these traveling years I have seen many Main Streets, Front Streets, Avenues A, B and C; there are Washington Boulevards in large cities and small bergs. Some places have highway numbers extending from, through and onward. The phenomenon is pervasive and interestingly, there is a quite small collection of names of first choice, maybe no more than 20 altogether. Largest cities have the most different names always added to the small collection of favorites which are presidents, the famous, the local heroes and heroines, the famili…

May 12, 2015 The dichotomy: Main Street evening parade, lively and solemn First thing I noticed was the Policia in their black and white car, blinking red on the top, leading a parade of many people, some carrying luminaria, handmade paper lanterns on tall sticks extended above their heads. The drums were in the distance with a unique, and it seems, a distinct Panamanian beat. All together the parade excitement lasted about an hour as it made its way past where I am parked in front of the hostel. There were easily 300 people of the village families young, older, women and men all quiet, behaved somehow and unmistakenly celebratory. Soon, the first contingent of drummers, the same high school boys I saw coming the other way before dark, over took us, the deeper and louder drummers were still further down the street. Along with them were the lines of brass, long straight, probably traditional horns sounding their repeating call by the changes in the mouths and tongues…

May 1, 2015 Memory Foam Have we all heard about memory foam? I bought a piece for my bed in the van and I am not so sure with all the lumpy stuff that I have underneath that it does much good. Well, maybe this piece will do something a little better. On my travels, it was obvious to choose what to write about so this is about some of those things that made life especially sweet. Ice. The tropics are hot and humid day and often at night except if I am parked at some sort of altitude, then it cools by around midnight. Ice becomes a sought after relief for the lukewarm water bottle. But the very best is: iced coffee! In Guaymas, Mexico I found an especially charming coffee franchise called: Caffenio. It was a quite charming drive through with a patio set up in front with wrought iron tables and chairs, tall posts with lights for the early nights before closing time about 9 pm and a well cared for agave and small palm garden. People were sitting around when I drove thro…

April  30, 2015 Daring and resourceful camo-drest driver of a van! I have a general ploy that I have used many times to simply save my ass. “Even this must be funny,” is where I am most likely to go. It’s a personal tribute to a master comedian, Jules White, who used to say,  ”It’s all non-stop comedy.” He was, of course, talking first about himself. So here I sit in El Valle, Panama, in the big old red van right on the highway in front of the Bodhi hostel. The valley is quite interesting and may even be unique in the world: a village built in the valley crater of a sleeping volcano that once was full of water, draining some thousands of years ago, attracting indigenous Panamanian Indians to the spot equal perhaps in the thousands of years when they first settled. And I have arrived on their scene, unsung, unseen and thankfully just ignored especially as I am a large Ford van in the Japanese driving town right up front on their big road. I am in deep trouble. Oh, th…

June 5, 2015 BLOG: Etrusca Ecuador Permaculture Plantation and Healing Temple Dear Friends, It’s time to get serious. Near the beginning of my Journey, I wrote a piece: This is not a Travelogue. I came away in December from the United States driving my red Ford van carrying my household with me, carrying what I would need to re-locate and live in a new country and to build a new life not only for myself but for a village of many people participating in a growing and healing community (come unity) open to the world, serving to remediate the land and restore the forests everywhere. It is the vision that has inspired my research for nearly 5 years and it is what drives me now, even though it has been necessary to stop here in Panama partly to wait for the ferry to Cartagena, Colombia to resume sometime in the fall and partly because I have mostly used all my funding. The van was also an inspired choice because as I am here in this small, quite unique town in the old…

April 28, 2015 BLOG: Tropical prêt a porter In our Euro-American world of fashion, we look at the top which might be the Italians, then the French and we look at the bottom, K-Mart, Marshals and T.J.Max. There are some few who regularly attend the Paris atelier to buy their clothes. The New York houses boast thriving businesses: Dona Karan comes to mind and Bill Blass for a few of the big labels. And America does jeans of many sripes. When I lived in Washington DC, I knew a couple of those lovely ladies that regularly attended all the best parties. We joked together to unload their disdain about my clothes. I said, Well darlings, I have clothes to wear while you have wardrobe!” We laughed at the difference as we were both ‘properly’ dressed. All depends on the image, does it not? Most of us are not concerned about our image except perhaps the corporate  and business ladies. But I know a small number of even those ladies who regularly shop in upscale recycle shops an…

April 28, 2015 Raven’s Medicine: Making a Successful Life There are many ways to have what may be called a successful life. The materialist says: money is the measure. I just saw a list of 50 people who possess 50% of the world’s wealth. The usual question asked is, “but, are they happy?”  For some of us having the rest covered keeps us happy. Some few I suspect are seeking a cave in the mountains, a sparse existence physically filled with meditation, chanting and spiritual practice. Somewhere in between these extremes live the majority of human beings all of us making our way through life in a body. I’m certain most never think of it this way. There are some, though, that  are thinking, contemplating and considering their lives. Some are even reading RavensMedicine.com! Welcome! Let us work together for a short while on what it might be to live a successful life. When asked for his message, The Dalai Lama said something like this: do good through you…

April 25, 2015 BLOG: Life in the Bodhi Hostel, El Valle, Panama El Valle is a small town. From what I hear from Diana the real estate agent whose office is next door, the town is mostly native Panamanian peoples, some with old time, quite large homes here and a smaller group of white folk many of whom come here only for the weekends. I can understand the appeal of a trip up to about 2000 ft., because just at dusk, a sweet cool breeze comes up and lowers the sweat factor very nicely for everyone making the evening hours conducive to conversation and assorted kinds of hanging out, including the late dinners favored in tropical climes It is the same at the hostel. Our population, of course, changes often. Some of our traveling brothers and sisters are intent on their travel and many do come here because the geology and geography are rather unique: living on top of a volcano even if inactive for 200,000 years, does have something quite interesting to offer the traveler.…