Einstein was a cool cat!

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." -- Albert Einstein

On the road again

As I'm writing this first entry on this blog, I hear the cry of an eagle in the sky above me. In the campground next door, men have been working all day cutting down what must be a 300 foot tall redwood tree. The tree was already stripped naked of its branches when I arrived here at the RV park a couple weeks ago. I asked the manager about the naked tree with ropes running up its length that was so tall it looked like it could be used as a cell phone tower. She said the Forest Service had stopped the workers mid-task from cutting down the tree, and that before stripping the branches it had been the home of an eagle.

The sound of the eagle reminds me why I'm on the road living in my RV and moving about the country. But I'll give you the why's another time.

What I've learned about cutting down a giant redwood tree, is that when a 30-50 foot section of a tree falls 300 feet to the earth, it makes a really loud sound. The first section to hit the ground this morning sounded like a cache of dynamite exploding, and the whole area around me shook from the violence. Everyone came out from what they were doing to see what was going on. They've since dropped five or six more sections of the tree.

Let me get you up-to-date on what I'm doing. Since retiring from my job at Pepperdine in the Fall of 2005:

• I travelled to Barcelona, Spain to take Spanish lessons and to scope out the city to see if I might want to live there longer term. The idea was it would be a less expensive place to live in retirement. Turns out it wasn't all that inexpensive and I found it much colder than I would like it to be. Although the city had its old-world, European charm, it came with the nuisances of a "big" city (sewer smells, noise, crowds, and lots of concrete), and I was having problems learning the language. Making new friends and communicating fluently was going to take longer than I wanted, and so I went to plan B.
• In January of 2006 I moved to San Francisco, where I found a surprisingly affordable studio apartment in a great part of town. Apparently I was in San Francisco to learn. I studied and learned intuitive Tarot, got trained and certified as a Reiki Master (a form of energy healing), and even took classical guitar. I studied a bit of astrology, numerology, and took private yoga lessons. I made some new friends and gained some lifelong teachers. I met Cosmo, a soul-retrieval Shaman/healer and had several life-altering sessions with him. I met Patricia White-Buffalo, an American Indian Shaman and teacher, and subsequently attended a five day Shamanic workshop with her and 11 other beautiful beings in the New Mexico desert. And I did a lot of reading. I left the apartment at the end of June (officially July 31).

And now, as my Shaman teacher put it, I'm going on my modern day "walkabout" in my RV. Albeit a very comfortable walkabout!

I'm currently in Forestville near Guerneville, CA on the Russian River at the River Bend RV park for a month. I decided to have my first stay be a month so I could get used to the RV and work out any quirks it may have and from here make my plans as to where I go next. And they give a substantial discount for staying a month, vs. the daily rate. I have full hookups, meaning electricity, water, sewage, and cable television.

My RV is a brand new 2008 Coach House Platinum 232 XL which has two slide-outs, one for the dinette, and one for the permanent double sized bed. It has everything you could want: an entertainment center with surround sound; a well-equipped kitchen including built-in coffee maker, microwave, gas stove; bathroom including a walk-in shower with a glass door; air conditioner; furnace; hot water heater; solar power panel, generator and Internet service.

I bought a new Yamaha 125 cc scooter to get around in and tow it on the back of the RV.

Kitty is with me and he loves it.

The photo is from a canoe trip I took with my friend Tim on the Russian River yesterday. Tim was visiting from San Francisco and we had a wonderful 11 mile ride down the river together.

I leave here on the 27th and head up the California coast and will hit some of the state parks in the redwood forests. It will be fun to give the RV a try without hookups to see how comfortable it will be without them. It will also be nice to be in the redwoods and near trail heads for hiking in nature.

I am the eagle who has lost his home. And now, soaring high above the earth, I search for the next place to land. Where will I go next?

Come with me and see!