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"Just
finished the Escort to the Beloved chapter. I have
cried for the first time since December 8, 2000—the
night of the car accident that nearly took my life.
I didn't cry then. I think I became an observer of
my life. I can't begin to thank you for writing this
book.” |
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Trebbe Johnson's Newsletter
July 2007
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 Dear
Questers, Friends, and Seekers of the
Beloved,
This summertime newsletter contains a
story, a reflection, and even a contest
inspired by the vision quest that Louden
Kiracofe and I just led in the canyons
of eastern Utah (our tenth annual vision
quest together). I look forward to your
responses: suggestions, ideas,
questions, stories, and comments. All
are welcome, and it is wonderful to
connect with you personally. Soon I hope
to find some way to feature your
comments in each issue or through some
other format.
To those who are receiving the
newsletter for the first time...
welcome! Here you'll find news of
upcoming Vision Arrow events,
reflections, profiles of extraordinary
people, and stories of transformation
that occur when we accept, in small,
bold, startling ways the invitations
that the world is always sending us. |
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IN
PURSUIT OF THE SHADOW
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 My
vision quest co-guide, Louden Kiracofe,
was just completing a closing ceremony
in our base camp at the rim above two
beautiful intersecting desert canyons
when we had an unexpected encounter.
The cars, which we had driven over
rutted dirt tracks to the edge of our
camp, were packed. We would complete the
ceremony, have lunch, then start the
two-and-a-half hour drive back to Moab
and our final night together as a group.
Two days earlier the questers had
returned from their three-day solos in
the wilderness with many deep, rich,
penetrating experiences. Not
surprisingly, they had some trepidation
about returning to electricity and
electronics, noise, traffic, and work
routines.
As we were preparing lunch, one of the
men told me quietly that he was sure he
had heard a dog howling in pain not far
from our camp. Knowing that this man had
an extreme fear of animals, I did as any
guide would and suggested that he go and
investigate. A few minutes later he
returned. There were several dogs, he
reported. None was hurt, but they were
making their way through the brush along
the bench about sixty feet below the
rim.
We were eating lunch when we saw them:
four hound dogs wearing radio collars,
sniffing and baying, hot on the trail of
wild quarry, probably the bear that one
of our questers had seen during his solo
and with whom he had had a powerful
encounter that related directly to his
purpose for embarking on the quest.
As we watched this urgent, focused hunt,
we discussed our reactions:
"When I heard the dogs howling, I
thought about my dog at home and hoped
he was okay." "The dogs are tracking the
Beloved, just like we are. They are
pursuing the only thing in the world
that matters to them." "Run, bear, run!"
"I like to think that the dogs belong to
a family who needs to hunt in order to
survive." "How amazing that it was me,
the one person here who's really afraid
of animals, who heard those dogs and
went to see what was going on! I think
this whole thing happened to teach me
courage!"
What struck me at the time was that
there was no judgment in these varied
responses, no sense (as sometimes
happens) that our group, having spent
eight days in the wilderness, three of
them, for the questers, in fasting and
paying attention to Nature for clues
about how to change their entire life,
was somehow special and elite, while the
dogs and their invisible, radio-linked
owners represented something
other...something intrusive and
unenlightened.
The dogs went on their way, hunting,
intent. Before long, the barking
stopped, and just as we were taking
final group photos on the rim of the
canyon, two of them showed up at base
camp. The dogs were shy, but curious. We
greeted them, gave them some water, and
then piled into the cars.
And went nowhere. The battery in
Louden's truck was dead.
To our horror neither car had jumper
cables. That meant Louden and our
apprentice Tom Rubens would have to
drive in Tom's car to the nearest
convenience store, a gas station at an
exceedingly lonely desert intersection
at least an hour away.
The rest of us prepared for a long wait.
But just fifteen or twenty minutes
later, we heard two cars bumping over
the ruts. Or rather, one car and one
large, mud-spattered ATV plastered with
bumper stickers that read I LIVE TO HUNT
and GUNS R US. Four young men piled out.
They all wore camouflage shirts and
pants. The oldest could not have been
more than seventeen years old. The
youngest looked about fourteen. They had
been driving around on the ridge looking
for two of their dogs and had traced
them via the collars to our base camp.
They were actually on their way to us
when Louden and Tom encountered them.
And they had jumper cables. Quickly they
loaded the dogs into the car, hooked up
the cables, and in moments the truck was
purring.
The young men took off, rebuffing our
attempts at grateful small talk, except
to tell us that the bear the dogs had
been tracking had gotten away.
That night, over dinner in a Moab
restaurant, we toasted the young
hunters, who had come to our rescue. You
never know where your lessons will be
coming from, where you will get a clue
about how to follow the Beloved, and who
your allies will be. (Still we were all
relieved that the bear got away.) |
BREAKFAST CONTEST!
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 Vision
Arrow needs a new and
improved breakfast recipe
and you can help!
For several years I have
been serving a spicy tofu
scramble to vision questers
on the morning of the day
their fast begins. Never
having heard rave comments
about this meal, I dared to
take a public opinion poll
last week. The result: a
change would be gratefully
received.
Can you come to our culinary
rescue? If you submit the
winning Last Pre-Fast
Breakfast recipe, we will
name it after you! Some
criteria:
-
Natural ingredients
please
-
Nothing breakable
(i.e. eggs) or needing
refrigeration
-
Must be healthy.
It's the last meal
people will eat for four
days.
Send in your recipe by
September 15, 2007. I will
announce the results in that
month's newsletter, and we
will begin serving it next
year. |
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WHERE
IS THE MAGINAL WORLD?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Maginal World is the
borderland where magic,
imagination, and the margins
meet. You find it:
- between the world you
know (or think you know) and
the universe within
- between human and Nature
- between vision and
action
- between seeking yourself
and discovering the world
- between seeking the
world and discovering
yourself
- between fascination and
fear
- between venturing out
into the unknown and coming
home to your core
- between accepting that
you can never solve the
mystery that drives you and
knowing that you must plumb
it as deeply as possible
- between coming upon the
treasure you've always
sought and recognizing it
instantly as your own
- between being a Hawk and
a Mouse in the Field of your
own life
- between play and destiny
- between self and other
Explore the
Maginal World
October 28-November 5 at
beautiful, enchanting
Aravaipa
Ranch, located about midway
between Phoenix and Tucson.
$1,650 for eight days, including
lodging, gourmet meals,
relaxation, play, solitude, 400
acres of exquisite nature, and a
treasure hunt for the soul.
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IN
THE ASPENS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 How
are we to respond to the
dying of favorite places,
favorite species? We can't
just ignore what's
happening, yet that is
precisely what we are
tempted to do, simply
because facing the demise of
wood thrushes, ash trees and
aspens, rivers, foxes,
old-growth forests, even
entire mountaintops is just
too painful.
High above the Utah canyons
last week, I visited a grove
of
dying aspens. These
lovely, white-barked trees,
each part of a single large
organism that reproduces
through underground shoots,
have been in decline for at
least two years. As is true
for many threatened species,
scientists don't know the
cause and speculate that it
could be fungus, insects, or
problems related to drought.
The aspen has the enchanting
Latin name Populus
tremuloides, for when the
wind blows, the leaves
flutter like an orchestra of
delicate rattles. And now,
on this Utah hillside,
thousands of bare branches
were silent.
"What can we do?" I asked in
desperation as I sat among
them. The Lithuanian
philosopher Emmanuel Levinas
has said that when we relate
to the Other, whether
person, dog, or tree, as
"something I speak to,"
rather than merely as
"something I see," we
instantly recognize it as a
being with needs of its own.
We are then more open to
experiencing its wholeness
on many levels.
And so, in the asking of
that question and in the
ensuing waiting, it came to
me that one thing we can do
is simply not walk on by. We
can dare to take a few
minutes or, if that feels
too frightening or
overwhelming, just one
minute, to stop and fully
take in the circumstances of
the Other. (It's what that
quester did when he took a
chance to go, despite his
fear, and look for a crying
dog.) Taking in what is
before us, we take in the
Other's needs and also our
own response to them.
Chances are we will go on
our way not diminished but
strengthened, emboldened for
the next encounter, and
filled with joy at the
possibilities of connection.
What ways do you have of
using emotion, ceremony, or
creativity to cope with the
looming ecological crisis?
Send your stories and
reflections, and I will
include some in future
issues of the newsletter. |
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BOOK
AND WORKSHOP NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Very
often we become aware of the
call of the archetypal, inner
Beloved of ourselves by falling
in love with a real-life man or
woman... someone who seems to
penetrate our very core and who,
for one reason or another, we
simply cannot be with. That's
what happened to me and launched
the journey that resulted in my
book, The World Is a Waiting
Lover, and my workshops.
Utne
Reader featured a short excerpt
of the story.
You can meet your own inner
Beloved, personification of the
energy that has been seducing
you into all your life into what
you love at
Diana's Grove,
Salem, MO, September 21-23. The
book is available at bookstores
everywhere and at
Amazon.com. |
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Contact Information
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phone: 570/727-4272
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