Category Archives: Assistance

The Road to Diamond, Day 278: Tying Loose Strands

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Hiking and Nature, Historical, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

September 2, 2025- Coming up to a ledge, on the trail between White Spar Mountain and Goldwater Lake, Hiking Buddy and I spotted nineteen American flags-the sign of a memorial to the 19 Wildland Firefighters, who died in 2013, at Yarnell Hill.

Other forms of death showed themselves nearby.

Beyond, though, are the many signs of life, for which these sacrifices have been made.

We made this short hike, as part of a run-up to my own seven-week absence from Home Base I, and from Arizona. I have had a good summer here, and now it is time to tie up loose ends. Connecting HB with an aficionado of her type of product was another result of today’s efforts. Finally getting through to a critic of local organic farming, earlier this morning, was another.

The rest of the week will see me on a worldwide prayer call, then up at Hopi for a brief visit with new arrivals in the Health Provider community and a Red Cross meeting here, on Thursday. Friday, I will continue my dry run of packing, as the weekend is full of special events, on which more, in a few days.

I have also carefully spoke my peace about other issues, and so far had little push back. Towards that end, I will not elaborate on my thoughts in this forum. We are all entitled to our own opinions, though not to our own facts.

No matter where I go, the sacrifices of those brave men commemorated above, and of others like them, will still figure large in my consciousness. They tied the loose strands of community, by giving their very lives.

The Road to Diamond, Day 276: “Peace One Day”

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 31, 2025- A young man set out to break the cycle of gratuitous and retributive violence, especially between nations. His idea was to establish an international day of ceasefire/commitment to peace, on September 21 of each year. The equinox, signifying harvest in the northern hemisphere and planting in the south, was seen as a fine date for getting nations to focus on the well-being of the masses.

It turned out to be a hard sell. One country, whose prior leaders had initiated a proclamation calling for A United Nations Day of Peace, decided to back away from the commitment. The young man continued his mission, visiting dislocated and suffering people in Somalia, Palestine and Burundi. He used his leverage as a British citizen to persuade the government of the United Kingdom to become primary sponsor of the International Day of Ceasefire and Peace. The other nation, which had backed away, agreed to join the U.K. as a co-sponsor of the resolution.

We see that the forces of discord and nationalism can act against this movement. Indeed, minutes before then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to ring a Peace Bell, at UN Headquarters, al-Qaeda terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, on September 11, 2001. Several documents, and testimony from terrorist sympathizers, indicate that the timing was not coincidental.

The arc of history, however, is aimed towards an eventual peace and unity. Even the most nationalistic of governments are beginning to see that the way of warfare is a dead end. The actual course of resolving conflict is a lingering source of disagreement. As with any matter that seems intractable, however, the secret to resolution lies in not ever giving up. This was the real message of “Peace One Day”.

The Road to Diamond, Day 273: Jump Starts

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

August 28,2025- A call came at mid-morning: Sportage will get her new oil pan tomorrow, bright and early. Energized to move on other fronts, I went to a cloth wholesaler and picked out new material to cover my badly worn sofa. This is more of an investment in keeping the furniture out of the landfill, when it comes time for me to divest my furnishings, come late December. Of course, when a friend does the re-upholstering, at the end of October, I will be able to enjoy it in the interim. A section of the sofa is my prayer corner.

I have added a few more items to the Fall itinerary, which is looking more like the series of homages to which I am drawn, in between and after visits with friends. There is much to which I feel drawn in humility-more so than out of curiosity. Out of prudence, though, my whereabouts will be posted as they occur.

I am now three months away from #75. I celebrated the 74.9 marker with a case of alkaline water. Finally, the market has caught on here, and I’m finding this may well be a big deterrent to the dehydration that has been setting in this summer. Besides, I could use more alkalinity in my life.

Life is ever a series of jump starts and pauses. It seems, though, that a delay or block in one area opens the way for another thing to happen. I was unable to attend the funeral of a co-worker, in another city, due to the situation with the auto part. That paved the way for assistance to be given to another ailing friend here in town. This has been more the rule than the exception, over the past twenty five years. I have been exactly where I was supposed to be, at the given time-yet not necessarily by my own design.

The Road to Diamond, Day 272: Sacred Space

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, Community, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 27, 2025- A House of Worship should be a sacred space; so should a school. For that matter, a family home should be sacrosanct, as should any place where the occupants are engaged in service to the community-whether paid or unpaid.

It is a tradition, in several faiths, that the human body is the throne to the temple of the spirit. This, alone, is reason enough for each of us to hold self-respect and respect every other person with whom we come in contact. Mild humour aside, casting aspersions on anyone for physical attributes or harmless personality traits, is hardly a mark of respect. Besides, a joke is a joke only if the butt of the punchline is secure enough to laugh along. (I went through a few rough patches, being somewhat humourless at some stages of my youth and young adulthood. Gaining self-confidence erased that dourness.) Intentional physical and psycho-social assaults on another person will eventually boomerang on society-at-large.

These two aspects of life, the sacredness of so much in this world and the fact that many are cast aside or subjected to ridicule or marginalization, often lead to tragedies, mass casualty events, such as today’s horrific assault on a Roman Catholic congregation, in the middle of a worship service. There is never an excuse for wanton murder. There is likewise, no excuse for bullying someone because of personality features or social status.

Sacred is sacred.

The Road to Diamond, Day 271: On Hold

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, impediments, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 26, 2025- The morning after a slam-bang lightning show with matching cloudbursts, that made up for July Dry/Fry, was quiet. The air was still, and the action on a car part that I need for Sportage was even stiller. This will impact my honouring of a departed former co-worker, in another part of the state and likely delay my visit to Hopi, which I would like to make before departing for Europe. Whoever is slow-walking the delivery of the part (now in the last day of a 3-5 day delivery window), probably has their reasons. So, things are on hold.

I was able to cull cassette tapes and CDs that I will no longer use, and the last non-digital camera I had kept from the 90s. Other items are being separated, and still others will be recycled, tomorrow or Thursday. A lot of memories are being rekindled, with this process. All my loose old photos of married life and clippings of the major events of the 2000s and 2010s are consolidated in one box.

Then, there were the messages. One resulted in my reiterating my view of good and evil. This took about four repetitions, all calm but direct, and perhaps my points finally got across. This is one area where some have very deep-seated opinions and will insist on their views. I go more with common sense. The second was inquiring about the wisdom of moving to this country for the purpose of basic employment. In another time, that is something I would have encouraged and tried to abet. Nowadays, I steer the inquirer towards other countries. People with advanced, marketable skills still have a chance; labourers, not so much.

Experience shows that a day spent calmly on hold is followed by a day in which everything, everywhere, happens all at once. I will take progress on the car front and an uptick in control of four or five remaining fires in the back country. Every day brings treasure of a sort.

The Road to Diamond, Day 270: Two-Way Street

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 25, 2025- As we made our rounds at a gathering, this morning, a newcomer to the group asked each of us how we came to our present spiritual path. Each of the members briefly did so, with me being last. As I mentioned my story, one of the other members launched into a loud sidebar. I stopped speaking until she was finished, then explained to the new member that this happens a fair amount of the time. If a member is not interested in what another member is saying, then there is interruption. She wondered whether it is due to so many being hard of hearing. Perhaps. I still adhere to Mother’s Rule # 1: Never interrupt!

I used to shrink in the face of louder, more forceful people. Now, I have learned that, without descending to that level, it is okay to gently, but firmly, speak my truth. There is no need to be boorish, but generally what I share with others is fairly well thought out. I have the right to operate on a two-way street of communication.

I pondered this further, this evening, after watching a woman explain in a TED Talk about her experience with three good friends, in which she was steamrolled by the the three, who got carried away with their own experiences and left her out of the conversation. She at first processed her annoyance with them, while alone in her car afterward. Then, the light bulb went on and she realized that the two-way street applied to her also. She could have asserted herself-and they probably would have given her their attention.

I think about nature, and vacuums, and personal responsibility. In a different vein, from the time I woke this morning, there were messages, questions and calls to duty. I put my social group slightly first, with the Red Cross call and my job interspersed with the time spent in the group. You guessed it: The phone rang, twice, and I took the calls, getting back to the group with a brief description of the situation, so they knew it was somewhat urgent.

In the end, the emergency fizzled, the crew I had assembled went home and I was able to answer the unrelated texted question very simply and concisely, which made the questioner happy. Most times, life is a two-way street. Other times, it can seem like a three-branched artery.

The Road to Diamond, Day 269: Nomenclature

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, distraction issues, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 24, 2025- Someone has alternately pronounced me “mentor” and a short time later, announced that they were MY “mentor’. The situation is that we have bounced ideas back and forth, period. I do not consider anyone currently alive as a mentor. My father, father-in-law and a long ago athletic coach filled that role for me, in earlier times. My mother taught me a lot, also. I still hold all the lessons those fine people sometimes pulled their hair out, trying to impart to me. The rest of us just support one another the best we can, back and forth.

Other words tend to get overgeneralized, and over used. “Vacation” is one such. There are people here in Home Base I, who insist that any time spent not working and/or away from Prescott is vacation. They want to know why I am going to be out of the country, for an extended period of time, when I could be working here. I can say this: There will not be a whole lot of resting, relaxing and idling. I can do all those things right here. The tasks ahead of me are labours of love, in which I also engage here-but there are friends in the countries to which I will be heading. I have the opportunities to connect with them in real time.

“Girlfriend” (and its male counterpart) is tossed around well beyond adolescence. The woman I care for deeply is my dearest friend, and that is where it stands. She stopped being a girl, many years ago-probably maturing well before I did, though she is a decade younger than I. Maybe the oblique reference to childhood is a wish by those who use such terms, for their own continuous adolescence. As for me, I rather like being an older adult, albeit one who is in good health.

Finally, “omnipotent” is being tossed around these days, by those on various ends of the spectrum who see their personal heroes emerging and gathering power. Be careful: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”-Proverbs 16:18 I am willing to bet that each of the adulated ones is well aware of the above verse, and has many moments when wishing that admirers would calm down.

The Road to Diamond, Day 268: Empathy

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 23, 2025- I spent several minutes today, reading messages from someone who has an alternate view of the world. There are some points that were made with which I can agree, but the conclusions offered are rather far from what I have drawn. I will defend the right to come to those conclusions, but I also reserve my right to see the world through my own lens.
Some conservatives have recently called for a review of how empathy is processed. They say, correctly in my view, that empathy should not be a blanket endorsement of wrongful or injurious behaviour. I see this caveat as necessary, if our mission in the world is to elevate human behaviour and the level of choices made by those around us. Indeed, ‘Abdu’l-Baha cautions to “not show kindness to a liar, a thief or a selfish person”, lest those ill qualities be encouraged and strengthened. I have had to cut off contact with three people as well as advising a friend to do the same, for that reason.

There are plenty of opportunities to show empathy to those who are truly victimized, or are vulnerable and in need of support. I have been, and will continue to be, engaged in the betterment of life for all around me. Like our nation’s Vice President, I see my empathy as going first to my family (who are not, at present, in high need, but will be at the end of this year and into next), then to my community, and to the wider world. My sense of that progression is not, though, compartmentalized, as the needs of Home Base I right now are not so high as to take my attention away from, say, Dineh people who need help transporting water, or a friend in another state who is facing a serious medical procedure-or the World Central Kitchen’s efforts to feed people in traumatized regions across the globe-including right here in the United States.

There is room enough, in our consciousness and in our time frames, to care for both those closest to us and those a world away.

The Road to Diamond, Day 265: Telescoped

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Family, Matters of Faith, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

August 20, 2025- The Med Team at the VA Hospital called, in mid-morning, with “the bad news” that my appointment for next Monday would have to change, as Doc would be out of town. I informed them of my travel date, to which I got “We have a 2 p.m. slot today. Would that work?” Certainly! So, I went on over at that time, making the cancellation of a prior meeting that much more fortuitous.

I got a positive review of my health, at present. Doc, however, was telescoping into the future. Saying that I was only 74, he addressed a matter that could become an issue, when I am in my mid-80s, and offered a path to setting the stage for me to be a healthy octoperson, starting now. Being the proactive sort, I am going to follow his regimen, which will actually be less expensive than what I am doing now and seems to follow what I can see in the more rigourous research on the matter.

I have to do some telescoping of my own, vis-a-vis being more flexible on my upcoming sojourn than in previous journeys. I came to the understanding, in the various trips organized around Mother’s final years, that there was no sticking to a prior set schedule. It all worked out as it was supposed to. I want to keep that ethic, being more concerned with what is best for those I will visit, than just full speed ahead-my long time drawback. There is always room for a Plan B, which I also discovered last year.

The Road to Diamond, Day 264: A Primavera Day in Mid-Summer

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Hiking and Nature, Personal Values, service, Slow Food Prescott, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 19, 2025- There is no shortage of schools in Prescott that are in salubrious settings. One of these is Primavera School, located on the southwest side of town. It is, being in a forest community, geared towards a holistic education in an ecologically-oriented setting. The basics are well-taught, in small groups, and with room made for serendipitous moments. If a “book” lesson is underway, and one of the kindergartners, or third graders, happens to focus on a hummingbird feeding nearby, the class takes time to observe the animal and later discuss the scene-What was in the liquid that the hummingbird was drinking? Are there times of day that the birds prefer to feed? What other foods do hummingbirds take? There is realization that a book lesson is not sacrificed by a 30-minute observational activity.

“Primavera”, of course, is Spanish for “Spring”. Here were a group of us, at this school, in mid-Summer, helping to focus a new year for school gardens. The school’s name hints at an orientation towards every day being a new beginning, in some sense. With the daily awakening and enkindling of knowledge, children-any of us, actually- feel this new beginning. This afternoon, we did a poetic exercise, called “I Am From”, which looks at some of the many factors, past and present, which shape who each of us is.
Like anyone else, I could fill in the blanks in a number of ways, and shared one set of answers in the session. I will share a similar, and equally genuine, rendition of this poem below:

I am from

I am from corn on the cob

From 6 a.m. and cool, crisp air

I am from the cabin, cozy, warm, sweet-scented

I am from oak and bear,

tall and stout, strong and gentle

I am from family reunions and walks in the woods

from the beach and caves

From Kauai and wind-swept, craggy coastal bluffs

I am from Granite Mountain and holding my grandchild

and from “The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens”.

This poem is taken and slightly adapted from the website: http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html

It is used at Primavera, in teaching middle school students. Its efficacy with adults is equally apparent.