Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm couchsurfing to travel with a focus on culture and how people live their lives in other countries. I enjoy people, so find it much more interesting to visit a country through the eyes of a native.

Interests

• wildlife
• theater
• cooking
• farmers' market
• pottery
• ecology
• urban exploration
• community living
• farming
• organic gardening
• foreign cultures
• community building
• community
• foraging
• natural medicine
• nature walks
• urban farming
• nature conservation
• mushroom hunting
• animal sanctuaries
• food annd farming

Music, Movies, and Books

My taste in music is eclectic. I like World Music, 70's Rock, Old Timey, Blues. I don't much follow any particular artists and am always up for a new experience. I enjoy movies and film, but again, can't really name anything in particular. I prefer more of a focus on character development than plot -- people fascinate me. I enjoy fiction writing along those same lines, and I also read books on spirituality and nature. I read a lot of articles online about food and farming, resilience and sustainability, community, spirituality, foraging -- lots of good stuff to be found on the web these days.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My sister and I journeyed to Sedona, Arizona, USA in 2005 for a training on Neuro-Emotional Technique, me to support her work in that field as I had been dabbling in energy work myself and found it to be a phenomenal discovery. We drove out separately, and I consciously had in mind that my journey was a sort of vision quest, a time to put together some pieces of a transition I was in materially, emotionally and spiritually. I adopted a vegan diet the month before my trip and while I was on it, and as I drove west from Asheville through Arkansas, found that a fascination with gemstones was rekindled. I spent evenings camped in my car plugged into the internet researching the stones I collected. I had discovered that certain stones warmed my hands, and those were the ones I picked to keep.

I arrived in Sedona a day before my sister and happened upon a workshop being given by Dr. Masaru Emoto. Learning that water can read and that we can change the nature of its composition with our thoughts was a gift I will never forget. I was beginning to understand that everything is energy!

In our free time around the training, my sister went off on a jeep tour and came back with news of a place where electricity could be felt in the air. It wasn’t a “vortex” listed on the tourist maps, just the side of a road leading to a place called Cow Pies. Jeepers could feel the electricity when they stuck their hands out the windows. I was amazed by the notion, and we headed back on our own immediately.

Sure enough, the air near a small nondescript cliff on the side of road – more a bank really -- was filled with electricity, stronger as you got closer to the bank from which it was emanating. It made our hands tingle. I had my gemstones with me, and we decided that reverence was a good idea. So we honored the spot by setting the stones in holes and so forth along the bank to make an alter. I’d never done anything like that before; just sort of came to me.
We then sat down to meditate, I with a favorite amethyst crystal. I don’t much practice meditation, so I was really just thinking about whatever came into my head, often thinking about nothing at all. At some point, I decided to put my hands up to the cliff face, and I just stood there for awhile. What I had on my mind then was the carpal tunnel that had been so painful on the drive out...my hands, wrists, forearms were really hurting. I stood there for awhile, then just got kind of bored with it and quit. When I sat down to wait for my sister to finish meditating, I noticed that my hands seemed to be green. I kept looking at them, trying to see the truth of that, because my mind couldn’t get around the idea of green hands -- Emerald City green like in the Wizard of Oz. I thought maybe I'd gotten into some green clay, but the red clay of the area was all around us. Then my sister stepped up and exclaimed, "Oh my God, you're hands are green!" So it was true, that I was green from my fingertips to my elbows! What on earth?! And beyond?!

We returned to our workshop and shared the experience with a friend. By that time, the color was nearly gone, but she told us that green was the color of healing. It was then that I noticed the lack of pain from the carpal tunnel -- completely gone! I also started to feel pretty queasy and decided to head to the hotel for a nap. I slept for three hours!

The carpal tunnel symptoms began to return in about six months. During that time, I had more energy and felt more creative than I had in many, many years. I was into everything and ideas came to me faster than I could track. I’ve been involved with energy work off and on since that time, and have learned that it works, but doesn’t last, that it’s something we need to make a practice of. Two teachers I took a Quantum Touch workshop with, where you heal others with touch, are now teaching people to heal themselves. It’s the medicine of our future, and we need to be able to do it for ourselves to make it financially viable and a regular part of our lives. Think of the possibilities!

I think of this experience often but find I've not made the time to explore energy work much further. I connect very strongly to nature, and put more time into that relationship than anything else.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Canada, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, South Africa

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States