On My Birthday

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…
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An Observation of Latin Culture

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…
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Crossroads on the Road Less Traveled

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…
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The dichotomy: Main Street evening parade, lively and solemn

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…
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Memory Foam

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…
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Daring and resourceful camo-drest driver of a van!

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…
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Etrusca Ecuador Permaculture Plantation and Healing Temple

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…
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Tropical pret a porter

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…
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Raven’s Medicine: Making a Successful Life

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…
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Life in the Bodhi Hostel, El Valle, Panama

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.…
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Kids on Parade for Peace and Justice

April 25, 2015 BLOG: Kids on Parade for Peace and Justice Since I found a parking place to actually stop the van for more than 24 hours, I have been cleaning up and drying it all out. With that in mind, I had Brad here at the hostel take down the spare tire and loosen the hitch out of its place and open the back doors. Not a pretty site. Everything was wet and moldy and so for the next three days it has been necessary to take everything that is wet out of the back and get it dry and clean once again with nearly endless laundry! I have been ‘at home’ on the parking lot in front of the hostel. Friday afternoon, I was astonished to witness what looked like an entire school of kids marching en masse along the main street here carrying their own hand made art work placards proclaiming their stand for peace and justice in the world. Here I was sitting in the front seat facing the street with a damp cloth in my hand working on some of the few dishes that I brought…
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Moving on from crisis

April 19, 2015 BLOG: moving on from crisis There are moments in every life that it becomes necessary to simply end the story, end the circumstances, leave behind the mess and move on. After three and a half weeks in Paso Canoas doing okay thank you in a safe place to park in a bus nest next to a hotel, using time to get more fit, making it but still waiting for a packet to be mailed from the United States with money in it that did not come, I woke up on tax day in the US with the idea that it was time to shift gears and move on. It takes something because the resources in the packet were important but even without them, I was not again in a stall. I was motivated even more because my ally, friend and a definite Princely person, Danny Thomas, showed up early in the morning to take me to breakfast. Some people just have a way with mornings and I am beginning to get a little tropical before 6 am. Seems Daniel was intent on making sure that the old lady found a place…
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What is Lotus?

April 13, 2015 What is Lotus? When you were doodling around with an ordinary compass as a kid, you probably drew a circle with it and then, shortening the radius of the compass a little, you set the point on the circumference of the circle and drew an arc from the 2 other points on the circumference. You were able to do this 5 times to make a five pointed flower-like form within the boundary of the original circle. It looked pretty. Remember? This is the Lotus. It repeats forever within an enormous fractal code which turns up as our world, our physical universe as far as it goes and it is the entire unknown, hidden, inner universes, as I have noted, side by side and piled one on top of the other within you now. The Lotus is a symbol of Life and a symbol of each of us created Spirits now inhabiting physical form. I have said to many people: Without you/me the Universe would not be what it IS. Each of us is unique. There is only one me; there is only one you. Yo…
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Making Your Own Medicine: a new definition and a new way

April 11, 2015 Making Your Own Medicine: a new definition and a new way The First Nations, Native American peoples lived on Turtle Island (their name for North America) many millennia before any of the White Lodge peoples came. Theirs is a very mature society. Understand that what we think we know about any of them is an observation coming from the White Lodge perspective, often prejudiced by religious considerations and the result of our making much deadly mayhem for them to which they responded in kind. Custer had no idea who or what he was dealing with and largely we still do not. The idea of medicine is not about a pill, a drug or the doctor. Remember their life was what we can call a ‘natural life.’ Their day to day existence depended on their land, their relationships with the flora and fauna all about them and on the cooperation among them founded on a Sacred Circle of Power to which every mature person belonged. They were very knowledgeable about plants: …
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