I have to say it, what a day . . . what a day! I rode my usual route on the bike path. The air was crisp . . . temperature in the upper 40’s . . . it felt so good on my bare legs, arms and face. I wasn’t cold, I was alive . . . on a sunny afternoon in December in Eugene, Oregon, my adopted home. I know the pavement by heart, the bumps, the inclines where I have to pump a little harder, the walkers in their warm coats and hats . . . “On your left!” . . . the kaleidoscopic light effect of sunlight flashing on and off through the many tree trunks on the north bank . . . the river rapids by the bridges and by Skinner’s log cabin.
The Traveling Wilburys – George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Roy orbison, and Tom Petty. [Click on Full Screen icon in the lower right corner to best appreciate the video]
This article [see link below] in my Scientific American newsletter is, like others, not fully within my grasp because I am not a mathematician. But I can sense the implications. I also believe, for good cause, that very complex phenomena accessed theoretically and/or mathematically can also be recognized/perceived by simple observation aided by intuition . . . another illustration of the fact that everything is connected; nothing exists in isolation. “The whole is necessary to an understanding or the parts, and the parts are necessary to an understanding of the whole.” [Quote from Synchronicity, The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski]
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]
EveningChanging colors over Comb Ridge, looking southFading light to the west.
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
I love this! El Cascabel – The Bell. I was pleased to see that Springfield High School has a class in Mariachi music and I was able to hear their band play a set in matching outfits at Yapoah Terrace for the December Birthday Party. [Click on Full Screen icon in the lower right corner to best appreciate the video]
[Photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]
By The Campbell Senior CenterDefazio Bridge Over To Alton Baker ParkAlton Baker Park Lagoon And SpillwayNorth Bank Of The Willamette River Under The Ferry St. BridgeUnder Ferry Street BridgeNorth Bank Trail by McMenaminsAlong I-205Under I-205 BridgeAlong Valley River InnWillamette RiverTrail Alongside Valley River Shopping CenterGreenway BridgeSweetgum Tree Along South Bank TrailMorning WalkTrail Near Eugene Parks Outdoor CenterCedar GroveSouth Bank Trail Toward Skinner Butte
I pitched the idea of a play centered on life at YaPoAh at the monthly Residents Association Meeting, December 8. The idea was well received by residents in attendance. Next step, probably in January, will be to pull together a circle of residents in one room to tell their stories and have them lead us, naturally. to the stories/themes that have the most resonance. Two residents, plus myself, are now the core group working on the idea..
ORIGINAL JOURNAL ENTRY
It’s early days, but I floated the idea for a play to be written, directed, acted, and staged in-house about life at YaPoAh Terrace. A play to feature residents’ personal stories, with humor and heart, like “What brought me to YaPoAh” and “What have I experienced here,” recounted on stage by resident actors. My vision is to have this foster a greater sense of community within a building with 220 apartments for low income seniors. An extension of my idea, brought to the fore by fellow resident Savanah Forster, is to eventually have something that could be shared with the larger Eugene-Springfield community to show what seniors can do. I posted a First Call in the December newsletter, News With A View, for people who are interested in the project to contact me. I’m interviewing the first person to step forward tomorrow, a woman who is a singer-songwriter and pianist. It won’t stop there. Stay tuned.
For you rugby fans. Canada lost to England in the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup Finals. The Canadians will be back next year. That’s Sophie’s husband at the 1:00 minute mark in the video. [Click on Full Screen icon in the lower right corner to best appreciate the video]
The following is a video Sophie posted on YouTube in 2017, eight years ago. These two videos are really like a THEN and NOW. This is a woman, a person, who believed in herself and realized a dream. I’ve had this video bookmarked since 2018. Way to Go, Sophie!!
Having forgotten the Sunday before, I returned to Dharma Rain yesterday with the coast redwood tree, Sequoia sempervirens, given to me as gift and which I promised Yukyo we would plant on the monastery grounds. Yukyo and I chose a spot that we felt would provide adequate soil moisture year-round, as well as summer shade in the early years. This is our gift to Dharma Rain and the future. [Photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]
Hole dug on a narrow bench on the east side of the monastery grounds.Yukyo and me.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly… this is my way. (Anonymous)
