1980 (1) – Finding the Right Way
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.…
Dontoon
Growing older but not up
Dontoon
Growing older but not up
Blog
Seed Interlude
“A seed’s a star; a star’s a seed.” — Stevie Wonder Consider the seed. Nature’s full potential resting in perfect form: a self-contained miracle of creation. A seed contains all of the genetic programming necessary to direct its development towards…
1978 (4) – The Mistakes That Don’t Kill Us
“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” — John Wooden As the late afternoon put a gray lid on the Little Bear Lake basin, we were contemplating the unappetizing contents of our…
1978 (3) – Defending Our Territory
“True freedom comes from helping yourself and others to improve their lives; not from rivalry or jealous conquest.” — Landis The next morning, we were ready to explore Little Bear Lake properly, to make up for our late arrival…
1978 (2) – A Dubious Conquest
“If we surrendered to the earth’s intelligence, we could rise up rooted, like trees.” — Rainer Maria Rilke When I first laid eyes on Little Bear Lake, it was a bird’s eye view from heaven. It was about a…
1978 (1) – Keep On Truckin’
“In the mountains, you are sometimes invited, sometimes tolerated, and sometimes told to go home.” — Fred Beckey Going back to Big Bear Lake was never really on my mind again until I reached High School. My parents had gone…
Human Interlude
(Image Above) Map Showing the Distribution of the Indian Tribes of California (detail, annotated), U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1877 “All life is sacred. We come into Life as sacred beings.When we abuse the sacredness of Life we affect all…
1973 (3) – An Everlasting Impression
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust “There has to be a lake up here somewhere,” I squeaked to Judy between short gasps on the trail, trying unsuccessfully…
1973 (2) – By the Will of G.O.D.
“If we could but see the miracleof a single flower clearly,our whole life would change.” — Buddha The trailhead began off the Bear Creek Loop a few miles north of our campground, where Bear Creek flows into the Trinity River. …
1973 (1) – A Seed Falls On Good Ground
“Every act of suffering, no matter how small or agonizingly great, is a test of love in some way.” — Gregory David Roberts The first time I saw Big Bear Lake, I was not quite 12 years old, and angry…
Introduction – The Touchstone of All That Is
How can the outside be inside? I have found my center of the Universe. My touchstone for all that is eternally real. For you, there may be a different place, or a memory, or a feeling. For me, the…
28.4 – The Long Way Home
Annie decided to keep her baby, and continued living with her parents so her mom could help with the birth at the end of the year. Mike came back from his fishing trip with a masculine notion he’d rather fight…
28.3 – Reaching for the Light
Marty didn’t see Michelle the entire graduation, and it was just as well. The next day was his first day of freedom in 13 years from the compulsory education imposed on him by the State of California, and he didn’t…
28.2 – New Beginnings
Annie, with her abnormal extra-sensory intuition, understood Marty the best of all. She went out shopping with him while Mike was taking evening classes to gain his final credits so he could graduate. She graciously walked arm in arm with…
28.1 – A Different Heaven
Surprised, Marty woke up. It was morning, and the afterlife looked strangely like the interior of a truck. The sleeping pills didn’t work… or rather, they didn’t do what he wanted them to do. Now what? Obviously, 30 sleeping pills…
27.4 – My Only Friend
On the way to Fairfax to get his sleeping pills, Marty wondered what the people who were going to the Senior Ball tonight were doing. He thought mostly of Mike & Annie, because reflecting on Michelle getting ready to go…