The photo above was taken in August, but I walked the Willamette River Trail from Skinner Butte to this spot and beyond again today in 60 degree weather and full sun.   The message is as clear as ever.  [Photo Max Vollmer, Click on image to enlarge]

The open road and the desert Southwest, especially Utah, are never out of my thoughts.  [Photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]

The young adventurer and lover of wild places, Everett Ruess, disappeared seemingly without a trace in 1934.  He was last seen in Davis Gulch, southeast of Escalante, UT, but his body was finally found in 2008 still further south on Comb Ridge, a few miles west of Bluff, UT.  Comb Ridge, is a steep ridge running due north from the San Juan River.  Reading Ruess’s letters to friends and family found in Everett Ruess, A Vagabond For Beauty, by W. L. Rusho, I can relate to his  efforts to reconcile himself with the civilized world when he was alone in the wild one.  Camped on the side of Navajo Mountain in San Juan Co., UT, on June 7, 1934, he wrote this:  “I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it.  Always I want to live more intensely and richly.  Why muck and conceal one’s true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover one’s self.  It is true that in the world such lack of reserve usually meets with hostility, misunderstanding, and scorn.  Here in isolation I need not fear on that score, though the strangers I do encounter usually judge me wrongly.  But I was never one to be content with less than the most from life, and shall go on reaching, and leaving my soul defenseless to attacks.”

For more on his disappearance, murder, and discovery of Ruess’s remains 84 years later, see https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-may-02-sci-ruess2-story.html

[Photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]

I spent this past Sunday with my daughter Yukyo at the Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, OR.  Yukyo (her given name was Emily)  is a resident at Dharma Rain and a student of Soto Zen Buddhism.  The monestary was co-founded by Kyogen (Gary) Carlson with his wife Gyokuko Carlson in 1986.  Kyogen had this to say about his Buddhist practice: “There is so much to learn and so much to know.  It’s good to keep moving forward.  And yet, whatever we have is, in a very profound way, absolutely complete and always enough.”

Most Sunday mornings at the Zen Center, following meditation, a Dharma Talk (a lesson or teaching) is given by an experienced member of the community.  On this particular day the topic was Seeking Refuge.  It began with a parable known as the Gift Fulfilling Jewel.

In this parable, two old friends, one wealthy and one poor, are eating and drinking wine together. The poor man drinks himself into a stupor and falls asleep. Early the next morning, the wealthy one must leave on business. Before he leaves, the wealthy friend sews a priceless jewel inside of the robe of his poor friend, who is still asleep. Later, the wealthy man comes across his friend, who is still living in poverty. He points out to his poor friend that all this time there has been a priceless gem hidden inside his robe and that he did not have to be living in poverty.

This parable shows, in simple terms, the principle that every human is endowed with infinite potential and inestimable worth. It teaches us that the key to overcoming the constraints of our present reality, whatever they may be, lies within ourselves.

[Photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk rejection.

To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.  The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.  He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love.  . . .  Only a person who takes risks is free.

–  Anonymous

[Photo Max Vollmer, Click on image to enlarge]

The saying “the truth hurts” is familiar to almost everyone. Yet how many understand that we should welcome having our eyes opened.  Pain can open the body and mind to what is before us that we have been unable or unwilling to see. Prejudices die, knowledge grows, wounds are healed, dangers are averted. Facing the reality of things deepens our understanding of ourselves and others.  [Photo Max Vollmer, Click on image to enlarge]