September 24th:
The night went fast again in spite of the constant roar of fully loaded
trucks. Loaded with timber for the
mills.
Upon leaving in the morning, after taking a photo of Roger our host for the
evening, I went for a further exchange with Roger. I offered him a gift.
A conditional gift albeit, not the highest form of giving, but I offered a
conditional gift. " The Video the Last One." My condition was this.
Review the video. If you feel it is appropriate for your family, then
share it with them. If you feel it is inappropriate, then you have to send
it back to me. Roger agreed to the condition and I said my farewell. As I
hit the door, and in my true Columbo fashion I asked Roger if his wife
worked as a teacher. He said no - but she did work for the School Board.
I then went on to say that the school Board should see the video. And our
website : that is if they might be interested in the idea of world
citizenship. He looked at my gift, smiled and said he would explore this
further. I think that this is good. What an amazing way to get the
conversation going. And its fun!.
Much of to-day was spent driving. Countryside most engaging. One wanted
to stop almost every three minutes to take in a spectacular view. We did
however manage to stop for about an hour where we engaged in the creation
of a "gateway " symbol.
The ritual was as follows:
We first selected a location. This was done using intuition and a general
sense that this might be a good spot to build a "gateway" We then set
about to gather rocks, with no real sense of what size or shape we would
need. We gathered about 25 rocks and
set them in approximate "pairs".
While Barbara was still gathering her rocks, I set about to prepare myself
for the experience. I sat down in the vicinity of where the gateway was to
be and did some breathing exercises and focused on the intention of the
work we were about to do. I then asked the Great Spirit for guidance. I
was led to receive energy from the passing cars. As I waved to them, they
waved back and empowered the creative process. When I sensed Barbara was
ready, we both stood in front of the rocks and announced our intention to
each other and to the rocks hoping that our lack of understanding of the
true ritual would not impede us from coming out with a positive result. We
stated that the form that we created would not only have a shape that would
be the symbol that we wanted, but also the shadow itself would also have
significance.
We then selected a spot that felt right. It was on a slight angle and was
a little behind a previously built symbol that had fallen into disrepair.
Barbara selected the first stone. We placed each stone carefully, always
asking the other for compliance with the decision from whatever points of
view each felt at the time. After eleven such selections the "gateway" was
finished. It was a well balanced structure. Each of us said a prayer
acknowledging the intention of the gateway: in general terms that this
gateway is a symbol for all humanity to empower all who see it to seek
their own true self. This symbol on the Trains-Canada Highway # 17 is set
to bring awareness to all who traverse this wonder full country. We also
challenge any and all to create on their highways similar symbols using
whatever size and shape one chooses to convey similar empowering thoughts.
We invite all who care to do this to send us their story, their picture
and their rituals in order that we may share it's beginning, its image and
its power with the rest of humankind.
So be it .
At the end of the ritual we hugged and went on our way. The experience of
writing down the experience was an experience itself, and I will not
elaborate on it other than to say it was a personal exploration into the
personalities of Mitchell and Barbara, with both learning more about
themselves.
As we drove on we noticed how many of these symbols actually were along
the highway. In fact there were many beautiful structures varying from one
rock on top of another to full blown 18- 24 inch structures similar to the
pictures I have seen in the offices
of Nadine Lucki.
We arrived around six thirty in Kenora and located a quaint Lodge run by
"Doc" Smith and his wife Margaret. There are about six cabins each self
contained efficiencies that when fully booked have about thirty people
there. The main cabin sleeps about four and has a full size pool table,
fire place and a very comfortable rug. The Doc allowed me to use the
telephone system and we tried to get my messages on the Internet. - no
luck. His daughter Sherry also got into our game, but she also did not
have the experience we needed to make
the connection.
I have one last thing to try and then I will have to wait until I get with
someone who knows how to make it happen.
(the Telnet experience).