“When you are seasoned with the salt of Truth, your own body of knowledge suddenly reveals a new dimension. The principle of relativity is mad practical in a new concept of unitivity. You will come to see that even as the subatomic particle has no existence outside of the electromagnetic field that holds the atom together, but is the field expressing as a particle, so man has no existence outside of God, but is the activity of God expressing as man. All your scientific facts suddenly come alive, they become dynamic potencies. And with this keener insight, you become a seasoning influence in the world. You become a peacemaker.” —Eric Butterworth, Discover the Power Within You, 1989.
31 days of camping, juicing, of cooking nutritious meals. What did I cook today – salmon in tomato broth, oregano, basil, and olive bread with garlic and sautéed mushrooms in butter – all tasted good but weariness is all I could taste. Even the bees sensed my restlessness, they hovered around me, buzzing, teasing me as if to bite me, yet, I managed to calm myself down.
I do not sleep like a log – I move about and when there’s skimpy space to move inside the van, I wake up and I wake up my husband as well. Then, it is about falling asleep again, which as one ages, grows more gray hair, is not as easy to do.
But as difficult and taxing it is to my physical body, the rewards are priceless – seeing the sunset – a blue line, a gold line, intersecting with white clouds, and then receding golden sun’s rays; a deep blue lake from a mountain that blew its top – a metaphor for blowing one’s top off, releasing all one’s toxic energies accumulated from past hurts/trauma to reveal a magnificent purity within, where good energies can be channeled back and forth and not stopped.
I call it an open heart, allowing others to influence you, to persuade you, to see it from their perspective, not just my own. My husband calls it a deeply rooted tree without rocks to stop the inflow of nutrients from the soil, after watering.
And just when I am about to give up camping, my husband hurries us both to see Watchman lookout at sunset. How gorgeous it is – blue, gray, gold, white bands, and then a blue backdrop – and my weariness evaporates with the howling music of the winds. Howling, haunting, but also soothing, and liberating for one’s spirit to join with the winds.
Seeing my husband so happy, so relaxed, so comfortable is enough to know he found his bliss. As to me, rustling of the winds, leaves of trees and violin music with a good sleep and hot showers at the camp store energize me, a new being no longer remembering the 31 days with only 4 days of hotel nights to break the routine, or to politely say, to restore my civilized ways of using the bathroom.
How do we exactly use the bathroom, as any other campers do. Ask them the next time you meet them, we all have devised our ways of dealing outdoor life. Ask middle school girls and they are more upfront, “After three days, you start not caring anymore. You start enjoying nature and what it can offer. Then, you just look around.” They have more uncommon sense than this writer.
As we walked up the Watchman trail, this uphill climb is for strenuous serious climbers, whose calves have been pre-conditioned to take the wear and tear of climbing and walking. As we climbed, I was huffing and puffing, catching my breath. I wish I were home. But not quite, as it is described as “the Watchman Peak Trail in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon is a moderately steep 1.6 mile out and back climb to a 360 degree view on the west side above Crater Lake from a historic fire lookout. This key vantage point offers spectacular views of the lake and Wizard Island, especially in the afternoon. Also night hikes with a ranger are available for some awesome star gazing,”AllTrails.com wrote.
But as the sunset glow disappeared, a canopy of twinkling stars appeared. With a roaring fire, a glass of red wine, the crackling sounds coupled with fragrant smell of cedar logs gave a balm to my tired spirit, my weariness became contentment and happiness that we, seniors, are still able to do this.
The canopy shrouded the trees as if Christmas lights, which instantly brought me joy: Jupiter, Mars, Procyon, Rigel.
I reflected on the lessons I learned:
1. Convenience is not the easy route. Taking a short cut on the trails can prolong your walk and can take you to the mountains that you must climb to get you back. Nature is meant to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace, to be still, to absorb what it brings, and not to hurry to reach the end of the trail.
2. Struggle through your inner demons. In doing so, you find your characteristic strength and somehow you realize you have acquired endurance.
3. Gourmet cooking of nutritious meals is so doable, so is juicing. Planning is key and when unplanned, creativity makes you develop new recipes. Like I did not have meat to go with my okra, eggplant and bittermelon, so I made my soul dish, pinakbet using mushrooms, as if meat. Husband raved about the dish as he likes to eat mostly vegetables.
4. Essential sanitizing and personal grooming can be sustained by creative means – the essential tabo, a makeshift shower stall, and taking your shower at 2pm, the peak of the afternoon, allowing your water basin to heat the water the natural solar way. The key is to respect your present capacity to endure nature’s burdens and rewards. The rewards are to be appreciated and the burdens are to be endured without complaints, but with creativity.
5. Remember to pray, start your day with prayers, keep praying all the time, as in prayers, you are connected with the Divine, and surprise miracles come your way. Like meeting good folks, fellow campers, who live in Washington and share their secrets of going to Mount Rainier, bypassing the 2 mile long traffic and getting the last camping space. That is when you know God is reserving that spot for you, a miracle for that season.
6. Listen to your instincts. Road guides are good, but smarts and instincts are much better than google maps. My husband has saved us being lost by following his radar about direction. On the other hand, google maps located repair shops and hotels for us.
7. Connect with praying to the spirits of the place for eternal protection and guidance, it is always there for the asking, whatever country you find yourself in. It protects you and it guides you to meet positive adventurous folks.
8. Cultivate your friendship circles, they are your safety net, ones you text to while on the road, they provide you easy routes known only to locals, they steer you away from long waits that tourists go through, and they give you local tidbit of news that you could not get from newsletters, books or newspapers.
9. Trust your common sense, your uncommon wisdom that you have derived all these decades.
10.Teamwork is essential. We got tested in our patience with one another only once. I quickly behaved as I wanted my showers, he behaved too as he wanted his hot meals. Camping in the outdoors can make you rely on one another.
11.Strange, spontaneous norms of locals is okay – honey bucket for toilets, road names, beach numbers and forest service roads. Learn the culture of the place and you will be accommodated well.
12.Accept kindness and be kind to others as well. Karma is a full circle. Plant honesty and later, you harvest honesty. I received a book of poetry written by a woman survivor of cancer and I excerpted a quote from her book and sent the essay to her by email. I also took a picture of soldiers climbing Mount Rainier, summitting it as antidote to suicides. I learned that soldiers after duty service in war zones suffer post traumatic distress. Without their soldier buddies, recovering is difficult and they resort to suicide. Now, psychological services are available to them and folks stay connected and do summit trails together.
You can be the tree that shoots upward, breaking a wedge on the limestone, growing upright to the sky. All you need is patience to receive God’s miracles, resilience, openness to the challenges and accepting them as lessons to be learned and guidance from divine teachers you meet, in the form of strangers.
Thanks be to the core
For you helped me
Be in touch with my inner core
And to hear my husband say
Prosy, you found your rhyme within
To get a big hug from my 20yo
Daughter
Mom, you entered our world
To have the space to write
To have the space to be
Thanks be to the core
You helped me grow myself once more!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all! My profound gratitude to Asian Journal’s readers for your letters and dialogues on facebook and reading Rhizomes. A profound thanks to Christina (my editor) who inspires me, and to Roger and Cora for trusting me with this column space, now on its 10th year. My profound thanks to my husband, Enrique who drove us one summer, from LA to British Columbia, for 31 days, August to Sept. 2013.