Settled in Ashland

We found our home in Ashland, Oregon. It didn’t take long since we moved here 10/19 to settle in to the great vibe here – one of creativity, manifesting, inspiration, and oneness.

I have a home with the Goddess Temple of Ashland. In the last two weeks of their season I led a sound healing circle and co-led a Day of the Little Angels ceremony, during Day of the Dead ceremonies, to honor all children who have died. Last week for 11-11-11 I started the Priestess Training with Graell at the Goddess Festival in beautiful Mendocino, CA. I’ve bonded with my sisters, found a spiritual mother in Grandmother White Deer, and joined a sacred music band with the harp goddess Indeara. It’s been truly magical. The Goddess brought me here, and is giving me many gifts.

Grandmother White Deer adopted me at the start of the Goddess festival, before she led the opening ceremony, focused on all of us being of One Tribe. We immediately resonated and discovered her connection with Jason is also very strong. She lives on Medicine Creek in Laytonville, CA, and we will be visiting each other. She loved the viola and asked me to play during the Water Blessings ceremony at the closing of the festival. It was long and very special, and I was honored to serve. My viola is happy to be playing again, making others happy! This week my viola is getting a special treat, getting spruced up and bow rehaired, and getting miked for electronic amplification!

I’m blessed with such beautiful nature here – the mountains surrounding the valley, the rivers, beautiful downtown Lithia Park, the hot springs. Hiking on the mountain paths is magical. The snow up the mountains looks so beautiful and close, but doesn’t accumulate where we live and drive, what a blessing. The fall colors have been so beautiful, I didn’t have to miss New England! Visiting the mystical ocean in Mendocino was such a gift; I know the ocean is not too far when I want to visit. I had a special connection with the cliffs, the crashing turquoise waves, the Dr. Seussian kelp, sounds of seals, grazing mother and baby deer, and the sunrise mist on the beach where I collected pieces for my altar for the new era.

I feel a shift since 11-11-11, since the end of the Mayan calendar. There is almost no resistance left on my path, following my truth as a Spiritual Guide, helping others connect with their Spirit Guides. I am working side by side with Jason, who is doing major clearings and activations on everyone who makes an appointment.

Our small studio apartment has amazing energy; the woman we are renting from (from the Ecstatic Dance community) went away 2 months to lead a spiritual journey to Peru for 11-11. I am also renting a healing space in a farmhouse (also from someone in the Dance community!) that is special, and gives me the private quiet space I need to do my work on the phone and in person. We will rent the house starting in March after our Jan-Feb trip to Costa Rica; finding our home has been effortless!

The Ecstatic Dance Community also hooked me into coming to Ashland over the summer. I am reminded of how special the dance community was for us in Massachusetts. Sunday morning Dance is my church. I go to commune with Spirit, with Love, with One-ness, inspiration, passion, and bliss. We warm up, we circle up and connect with community, we hug, we massage, we dance, we drum, we do sound healing with our voices and crystal bowls, we share announcements and celebrations. There is a dance event almost every night, including Thursday night with Graell, my priestess teacher.

There is an abundance of spiritual groups and events in Ashland. The Zen center is two doors down from us (we had our meditation training, it’s a beautiful space), and Dances of Universal Peace is a couple of miles up the road (nothing is far in Ashland!). Kule discovered the Deeksha blessing and a special Satsang teacher (Bob Nickle). We haven’t even gone to the bigger guys, James Twyman and Neale Donald Walsh, yet. There’s so much here.

I immersed myself in sound healing as soon as we arrived, attending a special event by a didj wizard (Scott Miller), sharing sound healing with the Goddess Temple and the Dance community, jamming with a percussion sound healer in his studio with his friends, and finding amazing sacred musicians everywhere here. The Tuvan throat singers from Russia (Mongolia) were an amazing performance, and perfect for 10/28, last day of the Mayan calendar. Indeara and I will be performing and recording improvised sacred music. Skya Indigo, a beautiful Japanese drummer from LA that played with me at the Goddess Festival and was one of the men who held a great space for the festival, invited me to record sacred music with him. There will be many opportunities for me here.

There is an abundance of creative people and events in Ashland, especially with the Shakespeare Festival that runs March-November. We attended some world-class performances, and enjoy the financial wealth (a result of the Shakespeare festival) of the small town, with its wonderful restaurants and stores. I discovered a great hemp clothes store, and I also have benefited from great finds at the Goodwill store down our street.

Ashland bike path

Ashland is sustainability and health-conscious. The bike path through town along the railroad tracks is amazing, and there are buses every 20 minutes! We have the best, cheapest whole foods store Shop ‘n Kart a walk from our house. We buy our shampoo, olive oil, teas, and almost anything in bulk. It’s totally awesome! There is yoga, zumba, massage, healing, etc galore. We just finished a massage-for-couples class and are enjoying each others’ massages even more now!

Kule is making some good connections with green builders and university folks interested in solar energy, and he is inspired to launch his growth facilitation work here. We are both inspired to do the work we love, making the money we need, following a simple healthy lifestyle here in Ashland. It’s more expensive to live here than up north, but there are more opportunities here, and the weather is much more sunny and beautiful here!

We done good moving here. I am so grateful. Come visit us! Best time is after March when the weather gets good, the snow melts, and the Shakespeare festival comes alive with free outdoor concerts.

Reflections of Lost Valley

Lost Valley Educational Center has given us a great experience of living in community with awesome people who care for each other and the earth. Being on this beautiful land in the ideal Oregon summer climate has been magical. The sunny flowery meadow will be with me always, and when I close my eyes I will feel the warmth on my body and the soft earth under my feet. When I take a shower, I will visualize being in the solar shower, bathed by the creek warmed by our dear sun, and walking out into the meadow to air dry. When I miss our community here, I will close my eyes and feel the hugs and the smiles, and come into the lodge for hangout time. I will meditate in the sacred yurt with Kule and Justin and others, sending good energy to our dear earth, and I will eat the food with that energy. I will even miss the rains, when the lushness takes over my senses and lulls me into dreamland.

The magical camas meadow

Music with Chris and Melanie

The deer check out Kule's solar cooker site



Our Network for New Culture dome at night

 We enjoyed our tiny Cabin 6 with a kitchen, a hammock on the porch, and the community lodge next door, so we could socialize easily whenever we wanted to, and retreat to ourselves when that felt right. We were so fortunate to have one of our favorite community events (Network for New Culture) come to us at Lost Valley, and we gladly worked hard in August to help make that a success. Being on the Zegg Forum facilitation team was an incredible experience for me and Kule, the workshops were rich, and we enjoyed being co-hosts at our home community.

I am so grateful to Lost Valley for what I have learned here about permaculture, organic gardening, and living in community. I greatly respect what everyone here have done to create a community that works well together, where people take responsibility and there is effective group process for transparency, conflict resolution and making sociocratic decisions. I am grateful to have shared dance, hikes, healthy food, fun, massage, movies, music, meditation, spiritual guide sessions, and sound healing with my friends in Lost Valley and Eugene. I am grateful to have felt support during some challenging times of evolving personally and in relationship with my partner, which has been a beautiful process.

Lost Valley seems to accelerate evolution, so be prepared if you decide to live here! It’s all good!!

There are always challenges living in community, but Lost Valley has taught me that it is a way of life that greatly appeals to me. We have been guided to move to Ashland for many personal and business reasons, and our hearts will always be with Lost Valley. We’ll be back for visits, and we welcome visits in Ashland as well!

Massage fun in the sacred yurt

Hanging with Ava

Mountains!

One of the things we love most about the west coast are the mountains and open vistas, in addition to expansive stretches of wilderness in the valleys.

Mt. Rainier, Washington

We finally got to see Mt. Rainier (above) on a sunny day! Kule has been waiting for this for years, after several trips to see his brother Joel’s family in Seattle. The mountain has a beautiful majestic yet peaceful energy. If my knees could handle it, I would love to climb to the top, a doable climb for many. We spent some special time in an old-growth grove of giant trees.

Mt. St. Helens. Washington

We couldn’t go back to Eugene without stopping out of our way to see Mt. St. Helens. The visitor centers’ movies are so worth seeing, to get an appreciation for the incredible geological shift this mountain and its valley underwent in the minutes after the 1980-something eruption. Trees were ripped out with the atom-bomb-like explosion, lakes were displaced, and the molten bolders and ash raced down the river, flooding the valley and creating vastly underestimated destruction. There’s a stark eeriness about the mountain; my son Jason would have gone wild photographing this!

Three Sisters, Oregon

I had the opportunity to hike with our Eugene friend Cedar to a stunning and diverse trail up to South and Middle Sisters near Bend, Oregon. From the peaceful colorful meadows to the lifeless lava beds to the glistening obsidian decorating the cliffs, ledges, and scree,  the Obsidian trail is on of my all-time favorite trails. The ten miles and 1400 ft change in elevation were gentle on my knees, affording me the kind of hiking experience I have been missing when I can’t do steeper hikes with my knees. I love the west!

Tahoe National Forest, California

It’s always a treat to visit my brother Alex’s family in Truckee, CA to be in the Tahoe mountains. We camped out in a remote campsite that his massive sportsmobile could reach on its huge 4WD tires, climbing over boulders on something that looked like a dirt path in the pines.

 

Our peninsula site hosted beautiful scenery with snow in nearby peaks, mountain-clear swimmable water (I wasn’t numb), a cozy hammock, and great campfires and cookouts.

My morning ritual was a kayak around the lake exploring waterfalls and receiving visits from the river otters that are making a comeback in the area.

I got to sleep in my sister-in-law Nancy’s bivouac, with some space for my head, arms, and a few belongings, and the rest of my body in a snug cocoon.

Nancy and I took a hike up the mountain to step on some snow in July!

Oregon/California Coast

We’ve gotten to know the Pacific Ocean in our past trips to San Diego, San Francisco, and Costa Rica. Since moving to the west coast, we’ve been itching to see more of this magical coast, from the California redwoods to the rock outcroppings and seal habitats, to the powerful Columbia River and Olympic peninsula and islands up north.



Redwood National Forest coast, northern CA



The water is cold, but the ocean is beautiful to behold. It’s not easy to capture a sunny day on the northwest coast, but we got a few!



Last summer we spent time on the Olympic Peninsula, Orcas Island and a ferry tour of other San Juan islands and orca whales, and Point Reyes in Marin County (see 9-10/10). This summer we got to see more of the west coast in three different trips:

Arcata, CA and the Redwood National Forest area near the border of Oregon:

I can’t get enough of those mystical giants!

Lady Anne Victorian B&B in Arcata, CA with palm tree and roses

Magical Fern Gully in Redwood National Forest

Elk on the Beach!

Redwood National Forest, border of CA and Oregon

Of course Kule had to climb this natural bridge - beautiful

Heceta Head near Florence, Oregon:

This is the closest beach to Eugene, Oregon, about 1 ¼ hrs away. The lighthouse and sea lion caves are worth a trip!

Looks like Cranes Beach, Ipswich, MA in the winter!

Sea lion caves

Astoria, Oregon:

This Victorian city on the Columbia River, bordering Washington state, has a rich history of fur trade, salmon canning, and international trade. The maritime museum is a must-see, with stories of shipwrecks and movies of passages through “the Bar”, the treacherous area of cross-currents created with the power of the Columbia River meeting the mighty Pacific. I would love to see it during a winter storm, but I’m choosing not to make the passage!

Our Victorian B&B was a treat, with an awesome view of the river and passing freighters.

We stepped back in time to this small town on the way to visit Kule’s brother Joel in Seattle, with hopes to get a sunny day at Mt Rainier!

View of the Columbia River from our GrandView VictoriaN B&B in Astoria, OR

Freigher crossing the bar on the Columbia River with pelican display

Wow - check out http://www.pedouins.org/  about this family of 5 who biked 7000 miles with 2, 4, and 6 yr olds

Ashland, Oregon - our future home

We are moving to Ashland, Oregon 10/20/11, home of spiritual healers, community-orientation, beautiful mountains and rivers, and more sun than northern parts of Oregon (I’ve discovered sun is very important to me!).

So, you may ask, what happened to Costa Rica?

Well, we are going there, too. This is called being in the flow, being clueless about the future and living in the present. I’m learning how to do it more and more…. I’m giving up certainty; I miss other opportunities when I am looking in one place for one thing…..

The current plan is to be in Ashland 10/20-12/25 (we paid rent, so that is a commitment!), back to New England for the holidays, then Costa Rica for 1-2 months, then probably back to Ashland to find a longer-term rental we can settle into, if that’s what feels right at the time. It feels good right now!

Ashland caught my attention in our first pass-through last October, but I fell in love with it end of August this year. It has the culture we are looking for – a magnet for healers, a very active dance community (contact improv, ecstatic dance, or trance dance almost every night of the week!), a city of artists and renown for it’s Shakespeare festival, a nature area with hiking, skiing, and river rafting, a hot springs center committed to sacred earth ceremonies and a goddess temple, a city commitment to sustainability, with an awesome food co-op and fertile Applegate valley up the road providing local produce, and it’s a small enough town easily accessible by bicycle and bus. Land and homes are more expensive than Eugene, and significantly less expensive than CA or MA, so it is doable for us.



Lithia Park, downtown Ashland



With proximity to California and Mt. Shasta (1 hr away over the border), it has the new age California influence and money to support the town. It’s 3 hrs from Eugene, 5 hrs to the Bay area, and 6 hrs to my brother’s family in Tahoe, so we are close to friends and family. With 100 more days of sun a year than Eugene or Portland, it has opportunities for Kule to do solar engineering work and other permaculture projects. With so many community-oriented healers, I feel the support to do my own healing work, the work I’ve been called to do since Jason passed 2 years ago.

The land in and around Ashland calls me. The forests, mountains, and seasons remind me of New England, the drier rock-ledged areas remind me of the southwest, and the mountain creeks, rivers, lakes and hot springs remind me of so many sacred places I love. The vista is characteristically Western and more open than in the northern rain forest, and with more sun I feel the vibrancy of all the elements.



Medicine Lodge at the Wells hot springs, my home for a few nights in Ashland



I hear the winters are cold but short (Dec-Feb), and the summers can get up to 100, but dry. It doesn’t snow much in the valley, but within 20 minutes I can be up the mountain skiing downhill or cross-country. Sounds like a pretty good balance for me. It’s convenient that Costa Rica’s best weather is in Jan-Feb, when winter gets old in Ashland. The growing season may not be as long as Eugene’s because of its colder winter, but I’m guessing with more spring sun the gardens may produce as much in a year. I’m excited about learning about winter hoop house gardening, and gardening in general, to produce our own food, perhaps in a community garden where we share the labor and the wealth.



We welcome our friends to come visit us in Ashland, Costa Rica, or wherever we are. We look forward to seeing our New England friends and fami

Jackson Wells Springs Goddess Temple

Ashland mountainside

Costa Rica Reflections

Our 3-week trip to Costa Rica ended up being 4 months! We are back in Oregon, staying in a sweet little cabin with a kitchen at Lost Valley Education center near Eugene. With better internet connection I am now posting photos some fav photos from our Costa Rica exploration. Enjoy, and come visit us when we are there in the winter!

Chirripo mountain waterfall

Hiking at the Cloud Forest Reserve, Chirripo

The best way to move bananas

Women's group in Chirripo - chumming with Suzanne of Finca Amrta

Our neighbor Noe's baby bunnies

Our deck facing the sacred Ceiba tree with toucans in ocean-breezy Platanillo

Our hammock at Glori and Gi's in Platanillo, with Sheya's prayer flags

Our community at Glori and Gi's, with Dennis and Enza

Newborn calf in Bijagua, northern Costa Rica

Fun with snakes in Arenal, northern Costa Rica - at the Serpentarium

HOME - Heaven on Mother Earth top-of-waterfall swim in Diamante Valley

Fun visit with Kyther and Tara in our Uvita rental house near the beach

With Sheya and Owl, our co-community buddies, in Pedrogoso

With NH friends Kyther and Tara in Dominical beach



Venemous coral snake in a bottle - transporting it to the Serpentarium in Arenal