Secret

To dare.
To know.
To will.
To keep silent.

Game, Set, Match

It's not how you begin.
It's how you finish.

For The Love of the World

For the love of a tree, she went out on a limb.
For the love of the sea, she rocked the boat.
For the love of the earth, she dug deeper.
For the love of community, she mended fences.
For the love of the stars, she let her light shine.
For the love of spirit, she nurtured her soul.
For the love of a good time, she sowed seeds of happiness.
For the love of the goddess, she drew down the moon.
For the love nature, she made compost.
For the love of a good meal, she gave thanks.
For the love of family, she reconciled differences.
For the love of creativity, she entertained new possibilities.
For the love of her enemies, she suspended judgment.
For the love of herself, she acknowledged her worth.
And the world was richer for her.
Charlotte Tall Mountain

Coal Creek Boxcars

The Coal Creek boxcars scuttled along the tracks with their black horde. She counted everyone of them from the pickup truck pulled up by the railroad crossing, the first and only vehicle in line on a Colorado mountain back road. 136, 137, 138. On the way to the Pinecliffe. On the way to Rollinsville and the Moffat Tunnel up high. She turned to the mystery man and pronounced the final count. "138, that's what you owe me". He gave her a wry enigmatic look. "138, what, babe?" His eyes brightened from the inner machinations of his mind. "138 kisses", she flatly declared. "Oh, I thought you meant something else. And, hey, I thought that was only if they were empty?" She slowly moved closer to him. "I'll take my chances."

Neijing:Lingshu/Inner Classics:Spiritual Pivot

What responds to environment is called xin (heart-mind).
What xin brings out is called yi (imagery).
What yi stores is called zhi (memory).
Because of zhi, knowledge is reorganized.
This is called si (thinking, reflection).
Because of si, one thinks for the future.
This is call lu (strategy, plan).
Because of lu, one makes decisions and takes actions.
This is called zhi (wisdom).

Pao Pereira and Rauwolfia for Cancer

"Pao pereira is a tree native to Brazil. It was Doctor Mirko Beljanski, a former researcher at the Pasteur Institute (France), who first discovered the therapeutic action of pao pereira. His in vitro laboratory tests demonstrated that pao pereira extract effectively suppressed the proliferation of HIV, herpes viruses, cancer, and leukemia cells. From these encouraging results, Doctor Beljanski concluded that pao pereira could be useful in the fight against Aids, herpes, and cancer."

The study reveals that the two plant extracts Pao pereira and Rauwolfia vomitoria prevent and inhibit the growth of aberrant cells in vitro and in vivo. The combination of the two extracts have been encouraging by reducing prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in men and improving symptoms of benign prosthetic hyperplasia (BPH). Molecular biologist Mirko Beljanski found out that the two extracts binds to the double helix and prevent the process of carcinogenesis.

Fireworks

"the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"
-----Kerouac.

Azoth

Azoth (áz-oth): the supreme secret of transformation that contains all things within itself (the "alpha-omega" or "A-Z"). Known in alchemy as the Mercury of the Wise or the Universal Cure, the Azoth is also the Universal Life Force. Come join us in the Great Work of personal and global transformation and discover your Azoth!

Yu Ching

Master Lu Tzu said: Yu Ching has left behind him a magic spell for the Far Journey:

Words crystallize the spirit in the place of power.

The sixth month the white snow is suddenly seen to fly.

The third watch the disk of the sun sends out shining rays.

The water blows the wind of gentleness.

Wandering in Heaven, one eats the spirit-power of the receptive.

The deeper secret within the secret:

land that is nowhere, that is the true home.

Kiss

There is some kiss we want
with our whole lives.
The kiss of Spirit on the body.

Seawater begs the pearl
to break its shell.

and the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling!

At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.

Close the language-door,
and open the love-window.
The moon won't use the door,
only the window.

Rumi

Arabian Wisdom

She who has health has hope;
she who has hope has everything.

Arabian Proverb

Congratulations to HCGers

Hands in namaste I salute you.
On the average you brave HCGers have averaged a loss of over 8 pounds a week.
You are so beautiful!

GREAT THINGS

Great things are happening to you and everyone around you.
Lacey

Bear Mountain Transmutation

I was turning into an animal. The worst of it was that everyone had sensed it but me. I was no longer civilized, polite, or on time. Everyone I knew avoided me, afraid of contracting some new insanity that would ruffle their stifled conditioned habitual patterns and lifestyle. A nearly extinct mountain species was taking turns with my body and shapeshifting in and out of it. I slept in animal skin by night and felt the long white ear tufts, the sharp, lethal claws and the low guttural growl. Grrrrrr. The whole concept turned a corner and got out of hand. The remote control autotuned in by default to only one channel preprogrammed to the Wild. Lynx energy transferred in somewhere between Grizzly Peak and Brittle Silver Mountain, a vortex, a star gate for pristine purity and naturally aware liberation. Ever since the mystery mechanic mapped out the whereabouts of a lair by the Bear bowls I was obsessed with a complete return to the other way that worked better. And what good was this body anyway? You know, the one that got me into trouble with men, pregnant or married off to some thankless captor with a regard for only dinner on the table by 6 and great lovin’ by 9? And who could really blame them? I had a set of January Sports Illustrated headlights and a perfect rest to match that didn’t need the latest trend in miracle or wonder lingerie to visually deceive men. I was a miracle without a mate. I was too wild to tame. If I could have a human mind and a lynx body, an all-good solution would result. So I didn’t cry anymore, I howled. I wanted to pee, discretely in the snow, out of range of mankind and clearly mark my territory. The good lynx then lay down in the snow and watched the town below turn on its lights as the sun retreated westward. She watched in the silence of the snow curled up warm in the den of delightful distance.

I caterwauled miserably upon awakening like a wounded beast. To be in full fur, warming up on a rock on a winter thaw afternoon was my heart’s desire. I would come down in the early morning hours before sunrise for meat scraps put out by the mystery mechanic, the man who would never hurt me because I wouldn’t get close enough, the man who didn’t know enough about me to get a thrill from the capture. The animal angst wished that he, too, could feel the complete exultation of metamorphosis, to be freed from the work-a-day world. I licked my paws and smiled a big cat smile with fangs and tongue. I envisioned a running mate to nip, chase, and roll with in a Deer Creek clearing by Delbert’s deserted mine shaft. But I knew potential mates were nearly extinct and I was the last female of this kind up here in a cut off animal corridor. The elk and mountain sheep were coming down from the snowfields to feed. Rabbit tracks were freshly imprinted in the snow. Straight fox tracks followed. It was a fitting moment to consider the possibly of enough marrow and bone to gnaw on all week.

Four Hour Work Week

fourhourworkweek.com
Timothy Ferriss

Liberation through Piracy

You do what you want to do because you want to.
Jack Sparrow

Tonight with No Moon Yet

I am sitting here tonight because it's dark outside.
I am sitting here cleaning out the desk and throwing away unworthy items with abandon.
I am sitting here looking at a photo taken near Hans Gulch on the west side of Arches in Utah.
We were way way in to the limit of no water left unless we dug deep and added iodine, a flavor I've gotten most used to and actually enjoy, associating it with feeling well on the trail.
There was the petroglyph 30 feet high up on the towering cliff hidden by a mature cottonwood in an obscure dead end canyon. I wondered how bad the blisters were getting when I saw it. There were fresh cougar prints so I had lunch next to them. In time I might even post the image here for you to see. It's a spaceship with 5 little oval windows and a tractor beam with a horned figure appearing beneath the ship. The ranger said it was carbon dated when I showed it to him. It's my one and only Class IV Glyph. It's almost time to share it. Maybe that's on the equinox if I'm so inclined although spring skiing might seduce me again. Just thinking about it I have to go out to the deck on the moonless night to admire Sirius above the snowy peaks. Bet it looks just as fine in that remote Moab canyon. I have spring fever in January.

I did save the bronze wind resistant lighter, the triband radio and Bhutanese coin collection.
I didn't save the scorpion remains nor the mouse nest made of green and red raffia and remnants of a sheepskin rug.

Where I Am Now

I have relocated to another dimension.
You can reach me telepathically.

Seal

Seal of treasure.
Seal of concealment.
Seal of entrustment.
It is simply that.
Is it nothing?
Is it something?
In that stillness?

Earth dissolves in water.
Water dissolves in fire.
Fire dissolves in wind.
Wind dissolves in consciousness.
All dissolves.

Into that luminous emptiness.
Samaya.
Seal.
Seal.
Seal.

Song of the Stars

Ayahuasca sings in the refrigerator.
She changes your blood, replacing it with the blood of the stars.
You are everyone, anyone, no one, some one.
The inner ghost dance lasts through the night.
In the morning you awake and look into the mirror.
No one is there.
And life is filled with new hope.

Eightfold Method of the Sacred Tortoise

Today is Stem 1 Branch 1, Jia Zi, the first day in the 60 day cycle Chinese calendar. A new acupuncture point based upon the 8 Extra Meridians opens every 2 hours on each Stem and Branch day. This one and sometimes, two, point (s) is capable of curing everything according to Taoist acupuncture theory. Recently at Chengdu College of Chinese Medicine, an experiment was conducted with animals to assess effectiveness of Stem and Branch point selection. Group A animals were treated with Stem points. Group B animals were treated with branch points. Group C animals were treated with conventional points. Over 20 objective indices such as pain threahold and histamine release were used. Results showed that treatment effects of Groups A and B were statistically much better than those of the last group but that there was no significant difference between the first two groups. Come on in and get your Stem and Branch treatment. The stars have spoken.

Obliquity, What's That?

Is it earth's obliquity or eccentricity cycles that are predominant causes of global warming? Obliquity, another anomaly of the earth's axis, ranges from 22.1 to 24.5 degrees. Right now we're at about 23.5 degrees. Our elliptical orbit changes from more circular to oval. With an oval configuration, temperature difference between the two positions of perihelion and aphelion can be 20-30 percent. The concern is what happens when these two cycles coincide, with the most perihelion and the most extreme tilt. Extremes of hot and cold, right? Now add crossing the galactic equator, which happens only every 30 million years. We're passing the outer edge right now. The part I like best is the eclipse of the galactic center by the solstice sun in 2012. The Mayans had over 20 different calendars, all synchronized. They knew all this about 3000 years before we did.

THE NEW YOU

OK I'm tired of hearing about how fat you are, how unhappy you are, how unhealthy you are and most of all, how things will be different if only you were thin again.

And this is THE TIME to change all of the above.
You've heard my litany.

DO IT.
DO IT RIGHT.
DO IT RIGHT NOW.

So unless you get on this program RIGHT NOW, I don't want to hear your un-success stories and the excuses anymore. Although you'll find me most compassionate and understanding while you're ON the program, there is no room for reasons anymore, sweeties. You have my unlimited support while you're creating personal weight loss success. While you are on the HCG weight loss program you will see how easily the pounds dissolve, how well you feel again, how motivated and clear you are and how you'll want to tell the world about how easy this is. I even wrote to Oprah about this. So listen up.

Just DO IT RIGHT NOW.

Dolphin Language

Deciphering Dolphin Language with Picture Words

KurzweilAI.net, Dec. 31, 2008

Researchers in Great Britain and the United States have imaged the first high definition imprints that dolphin sounds make in water.

The resulting "CymaGlyphs" are reproducible patterns that are expected to form the basis of a lexicon of dolphin language, each pattern representing a dolphin "picture word."

The CymaScope captures actual sound vibrations imprinted in the dolphin's natural environment -- water, revealing the intricate visual details of dolphin sounds for the first time.

"There is strong evidence that dolphins are able to 'see' with sound, much like humans use ultrasound to see an unborn child in the mother's womb," said Florida-based dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz. "The CymaScope provides our first glimpse into what the dolphins might be 'seeing' with their sounds."

The team has recognized that sound does not travel in waves, as is popularly believed, but in expanding holographic bubbles and beams. The holographic aspect stems from the physics theory that even a single molecule of air or water carries all the information that describes the qualities and intensity of a given sound. At frequencies audible to humans (20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz) the sound-bubble form dominates; above 20,000 Hertz the shape of sound becomes increasingly beam shaped, similar to a lighthouse beam in appearance.

The CymaScope will be used to image the sounds so that each CymaGlyph will represent a dolphin "picture word." The ultimate aim is to speak to dolphins with a basic vocabulary of dolphin sounds and to understand their responses."

There is growing evidence that dolphins can take a sonic "snapshot" of an object and send it to other dolphins, using sound as the transmission medium, so the dolphin's primary method of communication may be picture-based.

STOP

Note on Water

Have you ever had a drink of structured water with the addition of the white powder of gold? It looks so clear and feels so satisfying as you drink it. Imagine as you drink, with each sip, that more of what you've always wanted easily comes into your life. A happy home, abundance, great relationships, perfect health and balance on all levels. Kind of like enlightenment isn't it? You can find all the information on a web search. And watch out, it may become your new favorite thing. I make it in the kitchen and add prill beads to the pottery base of the water jug. If you were here we'd have a glass of it right now.

TAKE ME AWAY

Away.
Far away.
En vacance without leaving home.
The detox magnesium bath is the ticket to the High Tatvas. Add linden blossoms, light candles and say bon voyage to the year.
I've already returned and everything looks completely different. The best part was avoiding the airports and the crowds.

SHERPA TEA FOR ENERGEE

SHERPA TEA is an exclusive adaptogenic formula developed by Lacey Story, Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM) for increasing athletic performance and adjusting to high altitudes. Adaptogens are non-toxic and harmless plants that increase the body’s natural resistance to environmental stresses. Sherpa Tea is primarily composed of rhodiola, an herb used by the Russian and Chinese military, cosmonauts, and olympians for immediate altitude adjustment and high energy performance under stress. Sherpa Tea gives us a welcome edge and takes us to the next level.

Gynostemma, Siberian ginseng, schizandra, dendrobium orchid, sea buckthorn, ganoderma and cordyceps heighten results and work as ministers to rhodiola, the king. These herbs rehydrate the body, build immunity, strengthen lung capacity and generally make one stronger, faster and clearer without the buzz of caffeine or red ginseng.

The following results are scientifically documented:

Increased energy

Decreased level of exertion under physical stress

Decreased altitude sickness symptoms

Increased muscle ATP and creatine phosphate levels

Decreased recovery time

Reduced depression

Increased mental performance

Improved cardiovascular function

Accelerated healing

There are no counterindications to Sherpa Tea.

For every cup of boiling water add 1 gram/1/8 tsp Sherpa Tea.

Simmer 10 minutes.Cool & pour into a water bottle.

Drink before 2 PM.

RHODIOLA-The Queen

Rhodiola rosea looks a lot like its Rocky Mtn relative, Queens Crown, sometimes called Roseroot, found at high altitude. In addition to its successful use as a sports tonic, it's also used as a major antidepressant thereby overiding any need for Prozac and its kin. Remember this: depression is often a consequence of deficient serotonin levels. Rhodiola contains rosavin and salidroside which enhance transport of tryptophan and 5-HTP, serotonin precursors. Rhodiola can increase serotonin levels by 30%. So there. Slowly wean yrself off the evil pharmaceuticals.

Wild Mitochondria

For decades, doctors and epidemiologists have recognized the undeniable fact that permanent residents of high altitudes have decreased occurrences of many very common chronic diseases. Most of the longest living civilizations in the world live at elevations of greater than 10,000ft/3050m. This relationship between altitude and health is not a coincidence, and researchers have begun to uncover the science behind the mystery.

The primary cause of aging and virtually all chronic and degenerative diseases associated with age is oxidative stress from Free Radicals or Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). ROS are highly reactive byproducts formed in the body as a result of everyday processes such as aerobic and glucose metabolism as well as various forms of stress. They attack cellular and mitochondrial DNA to create mutations, which often destroy very important cellular functions, resulting in disease and aging.

Mitochondria are the body’s primary defense against oxidative stress as they produce most of our anti-oxidative enzymes to break down ROS. However, ROS can render mitochondria unable to produce these enzymes, thus weakening the body’s tolerance to oxidative stress further. It is a vicious cycle.

Hypoxic training can disrupt this cycle. Through exposure to high altitude, one can create a selective pressure on the mitochondria, destroying old, damaged mitochondria and promoting the proliferation of new, healthy, “wild type” mitochondria. This leads to reduced production of ROS and increased production of anti-oxidative enzymes, thus minimizing oxidative stress.

Wild type mitochondria mediate improved production of cellular energy and Human Growth Hormone (hGH). They also promote biochemical transformation of cholesterol into DHEA, the precursor to all steroid hormones which becomes increasingly scarce with age.

The combination of all these positive physiological reactions allows hypoxic training to provide both mind and body with a feeling of intense rejuvenation. Each session will revitalize you, leaving you feeling energetic and contented for the rest of the day.
Individuals can expect the following benefits from a hypoxic wellness program:

• decreased overall stress and fatigue
• improved sexual performance and libido
• reduced blood pressure and hypertension
• enhanced metabolism and increased weight-loss
• superior physical fitness
• boosted allergy resistance
• lower cholesterol levels
• strengthened immune system function

Primo

Enter any 11 digit prime number to continue....

E Ma Ho

All my relations.
A scalar blessing to you who have gone before me.
Be in the Beauty way.

Rumi

Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

X Eve

The animals talk tonite. Listen and hear what they have to say. Our familiars speak of loyalty, unconditional love and the greatest companionship. This is for you, Echo, Dr. Dog, stalwart friend and irreplaceable black lab that has given the truest of gifts in my life. He keeps me going up the trail, then around the alpine lakes to the waterfall hidden over there. He barks when the mountain lion comes around the cabin. And most of all, comforts in times of travail. With thanks, this is Echo's night amidst the nights of all beasts who time is pending this evening.

DEER CREEK-The One Taste Cafe

She clicked her shaped ruby slipper backcountry skis together three times and glided off to home, to no place like home, no place like home, into the dazzling Akanistha domain of perfect peace and plenty. The rising sun activated the bright gems on the skis sparkly finish, creating a garnet light show that contrasted with an infinity of diamond white-faceted crystals all over the blanketed ground. The laser beams triggered some sleeping DNA that awoke from its state of eclipse into mirth infused with meaning. Red and white, action and purity, were the signatures of the day. She skated uphill feeling the easy glide, the easy rhythm of leaving everything behind that was no longer of any use. She renounced all the complications in her life if only to have a glimpse of enlightenment. A cleansing, a purification of body, mind and spirit was born. The perception of barriers between this, that, those and these quickly broke down. The unified field of instantaneous interconnection said hello again with a sultry archangelic whisper. She was Rose Red in a holly berry down vest on the way to everywhere all at once. Shhhh, the skis sang psalms on snow. Shhhh, the sanctuary of serenity. Shhhhh, the swooossssh and cadence. Shhhh, the switch to sanguine sanity. Shhhh, the stillness of snowy space.

She skied into a familiar hangout. A swirling snow squall arose near enough to suddenly seek shelter under the arms of protective Engelmann elders, the medicinemen of the forest. They gathered in tall eminent groves as if in reunion at a winter warriors’ solstice sundance. The great masters were many up here and existed in the form of five elemental energies that together manifested a rainbow body of wholeness viewed as plentifully painted innumerable pixels. She found a large rock and placed a foam pad upon its cold stony outcropping, conveniently next to a blue spruce backrest. Upon the new snow she drew Tibetan symbols in dakini language in gratitude for the rare and precious existence here, the opportunity to sit and appreciate the wonders of the high altitude alpine world. Carefully drafting them with curves that matched her own, they invoked a sacred presence, as if it wasn’t already there and you hadn’t noticed. An Ah for transcendence, a Tram for equanimity, an Om for comprehension of three vast expanses, A Hum for mirror-like clarity, a Hrih for discriminating wisdom. She breathed the corresponding colors into them, swallowed them whole into her heart then breathed them out. Green, yellow, white, blue, and red. An exhalation of frosty mantras froze in mid-air and dropped as whole syllables upon the snow, forming a transcendent bas-relief. She took refuge in the possibility of release from everyday tedium and in her mind’s eye visualized obeisance to an ineffable, liberated, open life. She conceived an offering of every good thing that ever was caused by some unknown boundless source. Another different perception was spontaneously catalyzed by simply being in radiant luminosity. A drop of blood from a small cut on the thumb feel upon the snow and set the calligraphy into motion. The action of living red began its work. Hot, active, red, redder, and reddest yang balanced the cold inactive white, whiter and whitest yin of winter.

After a few minutes of adapting to the closed-in hideout, she hunkered down out of the wind and bided time ‘til the blustering passed. There are all sorts of activities at hand in the wilderness while you wait it out. Make tormas out of snow as offerings to the wild mountain deities. Carefully sculpt circular mandalas and come back in a week to your personal award-winning ice masterpiece. Make snow hearts with your name and his etched in the center. Write “true love” under it. Kiss it a few times to make it so. Go for the total yabyum visualization with you sitting in union on his lap, at one with indescribable juicy essence. Finally fix the irritating ski hardware that occasionally causes cable release. Adjust the safety straps more carefully. Decide whether to carry on up to the cabin nestled in the trees, considering the time it might take to shovel out more than just a few feet of snow to open the door, makes steps to walk down and prepare kindling for a bit of warmth in the oil drum stove, that is, if there’s fire starter there at all and the flue is in place.

She remembered to bring a fire kit with lint from the dryer, paraffin coated matches that lit on her zipper, a magnesium block, and a knife with a thick, strong tang to make large shavings that would ignite with just a few sparks formed by deliberate downward strokes on the slab. She could make Sherpa Tea with Shih Chu Heaven Grade 16 red ginseng root and time the boil at this altitude. Make a round snow table in the grove to return to later next week. Decorate the site with an irregularly toothed spruce cone arrangement. Use proper feng shui. Wonder about the Fibonacci series of the scales. Substitute spruce needles for daisy petals and pluck off white-green 4- angled spruce slivers from a hairy twig while saying, loves me, loves me not, loves me. She braided a haphazard loves-me spruce needle keepsake to put into a golden locket for the remembrance of being here now. After long gone moments into the distraction of love she considered the probability of accepting the proposal by the wilderness for marriage in this lifetime and next few. The wilderness was her match. There was no other acceptable possibility that she could think of at that moment, or even any other. She imagined peace like pure white snow. She sat silent for as long as it takes for time to go away.

Digging into the pack she removed the smallest stove in its compact triangular red plastic case, just right for a daytrip up to high altitude. White gas was chosen to prevent any flickering. She primed it well and lit it while protecting the fragile flame by positioning her back towards the wind. A little fire in the spruce grove was not completely out of the wind, but provided enough warmth. A heat exchanger surrounding the cookstove helped shorten the time to bring water to boil. Add one minute for every thousand feet above 6000’? Taking into account the decrease in atmospheric pressure water comes to a cool boil at about 194 degrees at 10,000 feet. She stirred powdered herbs from Uzbekistan, Siberia, Mongolia, and China into one Asian concoction, then added the remaining loves-me needles for local alchemical power. She added a little of this and a little of that. The rhodiola foamed up and she stirred it again with a slender stick to prevent its bubbling over. She added more Siberian ginseng, more gymnostemma, and more Reishi mushrooms to thicken it into a rich aromatic broth. It was a hardy drink, tasty, and satisfying. It would oxygenate the tissues and increase endurance as the trek moved into higher, more challenging terrain. The additional warmth was welcome.

There was no room for anything more but the precious present. The XTC of being took over like a favorite South American psychotropic vine without the nausea. Trees transferred their words aloud with whispering boughs. Transmissions were freely given in the pine language of immortal Taoist chiens and in the spruce language of ancient omniscience. They were neither spoken nor written but something you pick up intuitively by just being there and listening. The trees say, “Be still and watch with awareness.” They sway with the zephyrs like wings of awakening to nirvana. Their breath conceals hidden jewels of wonderment, a treatise on the nature of reality. Their scent is the remedy for despair. The cure is instantaneous.

She inhaled as much oxygen and resiny evergreen aromatics as possible at this great height. It induced a state of heady joy. Colors were more vivid and there were more of them than she recollected, possibly in the ultraviolet range. Our heroine reeled with love abiding in her heart, with a conjugal connectedness for all her relations in the wild, with streams, rocky ledges, and exalted peaks. She swooned from the magic of this sanctuary with it mystical messages that mesmerized the mind.

In a mere few minutes the sun flirtatiously broke through and lit up the snowy hexagonal microcrystals like prisms in a chandelier. Into the top of the pack went the outer shell, mitts, and hat. She skinned up, carefully laying the gluey strips down the centerline. She crossed the creek at The Flashes, avoiding wet snow. The little rivulet ran into the confluence of the Snake River and Peru Creek. Six years it would take one drop of this creek to make its way to the great ocean. Six years. And that was only if the water wasn’t frozen off and on for 8 months like it is up Deer Creek. Up, up, up to the steeper climbs, steadily gaining elevation, pacing with slower steps, increasing the pulse rate to maximum target zone. The breathing becomes labored and the stride more deliberate. On the right side of the trial down the creek bed the slope was iced up.

She sampled what seemed to be the first day of creation, fresh and new with falling flakes in wonderland. She remembered a first unforgettable never-ending circular kiss here and knew that if she never experienced a kiss again, the memory of this one would overpower any future kisses and probably linger beyond that. He said, “ I think this is the right place for a first kiss.” It was an eternal kiss beyond the beauty of anything one could imagine. This kiss, in the winter here above The Flashes, in their cozy snow cave, warmed her from the inside out. With that kind of memory one is never cold again. There was hope for unconditional love in this world as the gift they gave to each other was letting go again and again. It was a high-altitude attitude to give up attachment, expectations and and anticipation and dwell in kindness and compassion towards each other more and more. And with that thought, she stripped off another layer from the heat of passion blazing up from within. The thought of a harmonious relationship bore its fruit. It dissolved the biting arctic chill of the afternoon air as the sun sank behind the trees in the west. Cool, grayish blue shadows made their debut, prompting one’s attention to get down soon.

Breaking trail up a wind swept ridge with exposed rock was not the thing to do today. The snow depth increased, and when it reached just above the knee, the going grew harder. The telltale quad burn told her to descend. It was still early in the season. There was enough time tomorrow or even next week to make a longer day of it. There was no hurry, no gotta-get-it-all-in echoing around the brain. Peace was totally present. The powder trail down from the top was a silken ribbon of simple turns and she sped up as the depth decreased and turned to a packed surface. The S-shaped oscillating patterns linked moments of surrender and spacious rapture into near soaring freefall flight.

In due time, as the sun went down, her antenna picked up an earlier conversation with the mystery mechanic at the One Taste Café. Pink peaks murmured a gentle yet firm farewell. The rosy sunset kissed her peachy cheeks goodbye. She would be late, at the least. The lascivious attraction to the Wild was no match for even the company of a delicious man today, not that is wasn’t desirable in a distant sort of way she barely remembered anymore. She was tanned, blond, and disheveled and even more appetizing now, having descended from the heights with an attitude expansion in unavailability and independence. The silent sojourn was good despite the flurry of thoughts that came and went like clouds. They were non-existent now. She had become emptier and emptier and the more empty she became the better she felt, released from the world of cyclic suffering and ongoing chatter. The firmament of the mind was clear, a pure sapphire blue of galactic limitlessness. Snow. Big ocean. Wide sky. When dark set in, she would reluctantly come down. Down to town, as large as the smallest town should ever be. Down to the red pickup truck awaiting her with a good heater and dry socks. She was resurrected, renewed and ready. A sweet song wrapped itself around her like a long lost lover never known. They danced and held each other tight through the singing night.