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Becoming Mikayal – Part 2
If you haven’t read part 1 of this story, you can check it out here. It takes about 9 months for a human infant to emerge from the safety and warmth of the womb. Nine months of rapid growth and development, culminating in a massive shock to the system as it emerges from the dark, […]
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Becoming Mikayal
I never thought I would change my name. Where I come from, it’s just not something you “do.” Sure, in California, where I live now, lots of people change their names to things like, Tree or Mountain or Moonflower Sunbeam! But in the suburbs of Boston, where I grew up, changing your name is definitely […]
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The Bucket Or The Bliss
“Why?” That’s about the best I could do at that moment. Why am I here? Why am I doing this? What was I thinking? Can I go to sleep? Can I go home now? It was early in the morning of the second night of Ceremony… 2:00am, 3:00am… Time no longer had meaning for me. Hours, […]
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Did I Do the Right Thing?
As a child, my father often said, “Do the right thing, Edward.” From turning out the lights when I left a room to sending thank you cards after receiving gifts, he would speak those words. Back then I did my best to avoid doing the right thing… or at least doing HIS right thing. Certainly, […]
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Vision Quest Journal #6
This morning I was thinking how strange it was that I had not seen, or heard, any raptors since being here. Just now, I saw my first hawk. A small one, slightly smaller than a Cooper’s Hawk with thicker wings. Almost all white or light gray underneath. Slight darker above. No other distinctive markings that […]
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Vision Quest Journal #5
Sunday, September 20th. DREAM: Ben Stiller starred in my dream. It was a movie. He was returning home to his family for the first time in many years. His grandfather was dying. He was a military specialist. Like special forces, or something. And he got into an argument with his brother. He wanted to see […]
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Vision Quest Journal #4
The wind here is alive. It can be completely quiet and calm here, then, I’ll hear the wind awakening the trees in the valley and I can follow its journey up the valley and up the mountain until it arrives here…. Hello my friend! It’s as if you knew I was writing about you. You […]
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Vision Quest Journal #3
You can read all of the posts in the Vision Quest Journal Series here. The first round of tears has come and gone. The sorrow came over me instantly, from out of nowhere that I could determine. From that sorrow came the start of this conversation. God, why have we created a world with so […]
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Vision Quest Journal #2
Saturday, September 19th. Last night, I dreamt of exclusion and alienation. All dreams of how I live my life… on the fringe.. touching the circle, viewing the circle but not stepping into it, not becoming part of it, not claiming my right to belong. That is what I seek here, my sense of belonging, the […]
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Vision Quest Journal #1
Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting excerpts from the journal I kept during and after my recent Vision Quest. I initially had not planned to take anything to write with. On a traditional Vision Quest you would not have any writing materials to minimize distrations. But at the last minute I decided to […]