In my introduction to this blog about 15 years ago, I said I was looking for clarity. looking for signs of courage…of strength of conviction rooted in heart…in an authentic identity, in myself as well as in others. Courage comes from the Latin word Coeur, which means heart. Courage means to tell the story of who […]

After a weird dinner at a remote roadside Vietnamese/Thai/Chinese restaurant a few miles outside Oaxaca City the other day, I received a black (black?) fortune cookie with the fortune written in Spanish. “You always know your heart through your words.” Well, I’ll see what writing my words here reveal to me about my heart. I […]

My son Josh is watching the demonstrations in Hong Kong right now. Back to containment againl No doubt given a push by the U.S. The neocon foreign policy…I mean by people like Kristol, Kissinger, Wolfowitz, Perle, Brzezinski, Cheney and a lot of those people who have been on the Defense Board for a long time…was a […]

Exquisite. Clearest expression of an experience in meditation I’ve ever heard. In…and out again in the space between the “Nameless and the Named.” The inner silence and love sticks to you more and more each time. Ultimate freedom is on the inside…not the outside. But everyone, if they want it, has to figure that out […]

Trust is a double edged sword. It may slay us on the outside. But too much caution may slay us on the inside. Keeping our lens clear is how we know the difference between the two at any one moment. I think. For me, meditation is what clears my lens. One of my favorite former […]

I took a test on FB to see how Mexican I was. 100% Mexican? I guessed at half of them. Most of these questions have to do with northern Mexico or Mexicans who haven’t been in the country for a generation or more. Not southern Mexico which I think is an entirely different country! You […]

I love to follow former couchsurfers on Facebook. Paul is one of them. Everyone is complaining about the same thing and it’s not Facebook. Facebook is not the problem he says. You are. Paul stayed with me a week in Oaxaca when he was on his way from Utah to Venezuela on his bicycle…his sax […]

I have been living in Oaxaca for the last 8 years. I now have a permanent resident card. I still have a home in Oregon that is rented out to excellent renters for just enough money to cover the mortgage and taxes. I wanted to give it to them cheaply so they couldn’t afford to […]

He was “just” a friend…an eccentric friend…but a good friend with heart. For years he spent $70 a month living here. He sat at the same table in the same coffee shop in the Zocalo every single day with one cup of coffee…then moving in front of the cathedral to play chess with the best […]

For nearly 15 years Frank sat at the same table every day in front of a coffee shop in the zocalo…often making friends with passersby, vendors…and especially the children. He had a Ph.d in French Lit but lived the life he wanted…poorly and close to the people. At 5pm he played chess in front of […]

You see what is in you if you look for it. Traveling the world for the last 12 years I have felt it. Each day is the best day these days…at the age of 70.

A recent discussion in a group on Couchsurfing went like this: A guy: What’s lost in all this talk of “open intentions” is: girls do not usually get into situations saying “I’m looking to bang!” There needs to be… plausible deniability. And many guys prefer girls who wouldn’t say a thing like that. A woman: […]

Well, it seems Facebook and Couchsurfing groups have taken over my posting as of late. Some recent posts on FB: Folk/Rock band playing in Friday Market in Llano park this morning. An elderly lady walks by and turns toward them and blesses herself, as they sing …I wanna feel good…, honoring the saints in the church behind […]

Well, my friend Jayson Heckler who drove down to Oaxaca from the States to Oaxaca with me in 2010 was the next one. Fell and injured his leg and hip. Doc said to go home and stay down. He did. And died. Barely over the fatigue of traveling…Earl, my friend and escort (he says I […]

While temps are in the 90’s here in Oaxaca, my oldest son is buried in powder near Calgary…a 4 hour bus journey followed by a 15 minute heli flight into the lodge in the Selkirk and the Purcell mountains.

Ahhhh! No more alarms. No more packing and unpacking! No more late and cancelled flights.  And after four months on the road, I’ve got my own coffee pot and old friends in Oaxaca! Life is good! But I don’t want to do ANYTHING for awhile…or go ANYWHERE! I just want to crash! In my own […]

The flight back to the States from Thailand included a transit through Tokyo, Japan. But it snowed in Tokyo and the Narita airport closed. Waited in Bangkok airport 12 hours for an alternate flight to Hanada airport. With her Thai accent, I kept hearing the agent say “Canada Airport.” What??? Well finally got that straightened […]