Blogs from Ashland, Oregon, United States, North America

Another traveling day, headed to Ashland. We are staying in Ashland for just one night, planning to catch one of the plays in town. Ashland is known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. https://www.osfashland.org/ We enjoyed a drive thru yet another kind of landscape, enjoying the grassy hillsides, when we saw a para-sailor. We stopped the car and notice another, then another, then another....20-30 and looked like one jumping of the mountain top every minute or so. Beautiful to watch. When we passed thru Jacksonville a banner over the mainstreet explained it was the para-sailor's national championship competition. It was pretty hot so we grabbed some ice cream at a shop we had noticed when we had dinner when staying in Gold Hill. We got to Ashland mid-day and thought it best to go down and buy ... read more

Geo: 42.1947, -122.708We got up at 7am, and I think I slept maybe 4 hours. This is only an issue for us because we were working night shift at the time. So, we went into this experience exhausted. We got up early for the breakfast buffet (which actually really nice!) that the hotel offered. We carbed up for the impending workout. Then we drove up the mountain to the ski area. It was cloudy as heck down in the town, but clear blue skies high up above where the snow was. Chris was convinced he'd be a damn pro at snowboarding. I'd already been three other times in previous years and was quite content to never do it again. But I did it for Chris. Because he was sure he'd love it and would take to ... read more

One of the best couchsurfing experiences I've ever had, if not The Best. Staying with the Machala family has been a busy, loving, and fun filled experience. From homemade meals, to kiddy and kitty love, to tons of sunshine, I have been having full 12+ hr days. One day in the life of the Machala's feels like a week chalked full of enjoyable activities. I also feel I've been in boot camp just trying to keep up with them all. It's been an adventure filled with ladies nights, hot springs, live shows, early morning runs, snowboarding, mushrooming, lots of cooking and family dinners, crafts, snuggling, lake swims, canoeing, dancing, and getting to soak up the beauty and laughter of family life. Such great memories here it's hard to say goodbye... Until I see them again... because ... read more

Rafting the Upper Klamath Today, I rafted the Klamath. This river has very unusual geology. The source is a large swampy area in southern Oregon. Most of the swamps have been turned into fields; the remainder is crucial bird habitat. From there, it flows into a narrow and steep canyon through the Cascade Mountains, before emptying into the Pacific. The Klamath has a wide and flat source and a very narrow mouth, reversing the usual pattern. Those swamps make river travel more hazardous; all the organic matter in the river turns the water brown and hides rocks. The Klamath is one of only two rivers that pass completely through the Cascades, along with the Columbia. The Columbia carved its gorge th... read more

It comes up so quickly in this work for me, being completely aware in a very young state. I have questions around how to best serve this when it comes out. Here, I am very alive, but often very afraid. In Hakomi, we practice safety and techniques to work with child states, to know when they are emerging and how to roll with them, be with them. The method in full session form is a precise, elegent, non-violent channel to “evoke” and work with these states. What we are doing is re-accessing, and re-wiring neural circuits by moving through patterns that were perhaps not wired to their best use early on. Changing brain patterning is no easy ride and yet if it is necessary for a person, there is no other way. My infant circuits are ... read more