Month: June 2025

6/17/25

Hello all, and a happy almost-solstice, Fathers’ Day, Pride Month, Juneteenth, and No Kings Day to you all!

I’m back in Portland these days, but there is still more I’m excited to share from my wonderful recent rail journey into California’s central valley.

When I left off telling about my travels, I had been enjoying Fresno and Sequoia National Park. The one part of Fresno I left out—because there was so much else to share in that post—was the lovely Japanese garden, Shinzen, that I visited there. This garden, part of the much larger Woodward Park, even has resident peacocks (which I heard before I saw!) Please enjoy these few photos of the highlights. If you ever find yourself in Fresno, don’t miss this garden.

The last part of my Fresno experience was when my Servas host Carole and her friend Lisa took me out to Sequoia National Park on the morning of my last day. That was a majestic experience. Immediately afterward, they dropped me off at the train station in Fresno, where I caught the train to the end of the Amtrak San Joaquins line, Bakersfield.

Bakersfield was mostly hot and dry during my stay, but that weather showcased the sere beauty of its landscape. (I was glad to not be there during the summer, though, when temps can hit 115F/46C.)

I attended an OsteoStrong session while in Bakersfield, and found the staff at the local franchise to be among the friendliest, and most knowledgeable and supportive, of any of the nine OsteoStrong locations I have visited so far. One never knows what hidden gems—natural and human—may be found in out-of-the-way places…

Speaking of which, the highlight of my Bakersfield time was my stay at a magical place, run by wonderful people, called The Shimmering Void. Julie and Rafael, the couple who own and reside there, have been building this beautiful and heartful impromptu intentional community for the past twenty years. I had some great conversations with each of them, and I also got to meet several other residents and supporters. (One of these was feline. Sadly I have forgotten his name, but this photo of him near my bed in their “outdoor bedroom” gives a feel for his energy.)

The Shimmering Void is built around a weekly meditation practice, open to the local community, complete with vegan organic food offerings. (If you find yourself in Bakersfield, they welcome you to attend at 8:30 on Sunday mornings.) But the property also includes abundant flower and fruit trees—I happened to arrive exactly during the peak week of loquat season, and enjoyed many of these fruits straight from the tree—as well as a geodesic dome with hammocks, several shaded sitting areas, and the aforementioned outdoor bedroom.

The first morning I awakened in this bedroom felt truly enchanting. The sun slowly rose, filtering its light through the tapestries artfully draped as walls. Many different birds sang. The breeze fluttered the walls, as the kitty meandered in and sniffed my feet. The entire experience felt otherworldy, while also perfectly “earthbound.”

If you ever make your way to Bakersfield, definitely make the effort to connect with Julie and Rafael and their magical space.

While in Bakersfield I also had an in-person magical meeting with a really cool woman named Crystal, whom I had met through the local vegan Facebook group. She and I had three friends in common, and it was cool to go to a beautiful local park and have a long conversation with her.

After Bakersfield, I reboarded the train to spend two days in one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country: Davis, California. But on the way, I spent a day in neighboring Sacramento.

One of my favorite meals from my entire year of travels in 2021-2022 was at a vegan Mexican restaurant in Monterey, called El Cantaro. A year or two later, the family who owns the restaurant branched out and opened another location in Sacramento. I had been waiting for an opportunity to visit again, and here it was! I thought it would be cool to meet up with a local vegan or two, so I posted my intentions in the Sacramento Vegans Facebook group.

And magic happened again! A joyful and vivacious woman named Nancy, and her husband Kirk, took me up on the offer to meet at the restaurant. And it turns out that they love walking the Caminos in Europe—Nancy has done multiple Caminos already! They are planning to do one in Italy this fall… and were very interested to have me sit for their five(!) cats in a suburb of Sacramento. This would be a month-long sit, in early fall.

We have not totally worked out whether it will work this time, but we are all holding the vision that it will come together somehow. I love the idea of heading south to California in early fall, following the sun and warmth once again. And after the time and expense of taking the train there, I would love to dream up some possible further places to travel. (New England in the fall? I’ve got several Amtrak rail segments in that area to check off my list. Visiting family in the mid-Atlantic around my birthday in November? Or alternatively, just heading farther south into California and/or Arizona, to follow the weather? Maybe I could make that Culdesac Tempe cat sit happen!)

In order for any of these options to work, I will need to manifest another income stream(s), and I intend that any such income source be fully aligned with my vision for my work in the world, fleshing out and strengthening the rainbow network. I’m very open to fairy godfunding—including Amtrak train miles if I can find anyone who has extra—but also open to various life and travel coaching opportunities, and/or any other income opportunities I may not have dreamed up yet, as long as they align with my vision for my contributions to the collective.

Meanwhile, one of my regular local Portland-area sits may be able to dovetail nicely with the Sacramento sit… the woman contacted me recently about dates that just require a bit of massaging to work out well for all involved. We are all holding a vision that all unfolds beautifully for everyone. (If you’d like to help me hold that vision, I would welcome that!)

After that inspiring (and delicious) meal of El Cantaro fare, I bicycled along a beautiful wooded path back to the Sacramento train station, where I caught a very short train to Davis. There I met up with my wonderful Servas hosts Bill and Vicki. As it turns out, Bill had also walked the Camino, and had also done RAGBRAI, the zany, hardcore hot-weather bike ride in Iowa which Nancy had also done! I enjoyed putting them in touch with each other; I love connecting local like-minded people with each other when I meet them in my travels.

I had visited Davis once before, extremely briefly, back in November of 2019 when my Brompton was brand new. (My first-ever trip to Sacramento—with a two-hour early-morning micro-tour of Davis on the front end—was its maiden voyage on Amtrak.) This time, I could see even more why bicyclists love it. The small city is full of greenways and bike baths, which were a delight to both cycle and walk.

Bill took me on a long bike ride as well as a walk, and one day he and Vicki also took me to a nearby small agricultural town where his sister owns an amazing property full of fruit trees and rescue animals. I got to see—and taste—local olallieberries for the first time!

Finally, late at night Bill and Vicki accompanied me to the Davis Amtrak station to see me off. I had a very pleasant overnight return voyage on the train, thoroughly filled from all the magic of this California rail adventure. I know I’ll be back before long!

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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!

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Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)

6/3/25

Wow. Wow, wow, wow.

Disclaimer: From the outside, yes, the world still appears to be heading to Hell in a handbasket, at a breakneck pace. I continue contacting my elected representatives regularly (are y’all also using Resistbot?) and attending in-person protest events; I hope you are too.

That said… below the surface, so much magic is bubbling. And I continue sinking more and more into what I believe is my role in this life: to practice radical self-care to strengthen myself; then, to give from that strength and abundance by strengthening others who care deeply about the larger world; and to facilitate connections amongst those folks. I continue playing my role, to the best of my ability, to strengthen the rainbow network.

My California trip was a big part of this, and after returning to Oregon, it has continued. I’ll share some highlights here, and then illustrate the post with some photos from my time in Sequoia National Park, with my wonderful new friend Carole, a Servas member who hosted me in her home overnight and then took me, along with her other friend, to Sequoia, on my way out of town to Bakersfield. Dream come true to visit this national park! (The General Sherman tree, pictured below, is the largest tree in the world, by volume.)

First, Carole and I had a wonderful in-person magical meeting over dinner at her home in Fresno. One of the highlights of our talk was when she told me about a new friend of hers, a woman in her 70s in San Antonio named Caterina Arends. When Carole showed me the website of the organization this woman founded, The Vision Holders, my jaw nearly hit the floor—the graphic is so similar to my vision of the rainbow network from back in 2019. Geodesic domes have also been on my mind for years, in relation to such—and I was soon to see another of them at The Shimmering Void in Bakersfield. (More on that magical place in an upcoming post.) And so much of the wording on her site mirrored the wording that has been coming to me these past few years. There is a lot on the site—I haven’t explored it all yet—but this one video of hers really resonated with me, although I hadn’t been aware of any of the books she references in it.

I plan to write more about the rest of my California trip in upcoming posts, but the theme that is up for me right now feels like magical connections, so I’ll skip ahead to just a few of the ones I’ve had since returning to Oregon.

The other day, I got a text out of the blue the other day from my friend Rose, the force of nature who—along with her husband and young son and the cat they had just brought home from the shelter hours before my arrival—hosted me for a night in Palo Alto during my year of travels. You may recall that Rose had interviewed me for her podcast, Rose Pedals, at that time—take a listen if you’d like to hear what we discussed about bicycling, traveling, and living car-free.

She texted me the other day to ask if I’d be interested in cat sitting for them in Palo Alto for the month of June. Doh! That would have been so cool if the timing had lined up. But, I’m back in the Northwest for the summer, so I had to decline for now. But out of curiosity, I asked her where they would be traveling.

The answer floored me: Rose had just discovered Culdesac Tempe, and was entirely enamored of the concept. (Me too!) Her family would be spending the month of June down there, living in the complex! I told her about my time meeting with Culdesac staff during my year of travels, and the fact that one of my goals is to do a cat sit in that complex someday! (She said we might be able to work something out, in the cooler months. How cool would that be??)

Since Rose is a fellow Bromptoneer, I asked if she had been in touch with Ryan Guzy, an extreme Brompton enthusiast (he has founded at least two Brompton-related groups, including the Brompton Mafia, and he and his family own at least a half-dozen Bromptons among them.) They had hosted me when I first arrived in Tempe. She said she wasn’t aware of him, so I introduced them! I’m excited for them to connect this month; I’m sure they will dream up cool things. I also connected Rose with my friend RoniSue, who had also hosted me in Tempe, and is very connected with Culdesac, her local neighborhood association, and her local Buy Nothing group. Rose’s enthusiasm about Culdesac and Tempe was inspiring and infectious. I hope she finds exactly what she is hoping for during their stay.

Meanwhile, closer to home, I reconnected with my new friend Johnnie, with whom I have now had several powerful magical meetings. She is a former prison volunteer, a writing teacher and coach who has even led writing workshops on Amtrak trains(!!) and now, for the first time after decades of writing, an author of a novel. I want to amplify her work by sharing the Kickstarter here; take a look if you feel inspired. I also have had several magical meetings with another new local friend, and felt called to introduce those two to each other. It sounds like they had a wonderful magical meeting, too, which inspires me so deeply to continue connecting people if I have an inkling that they would resonate with each other.

These particular magical meetings have had many sparkly ripples in various other directions, too numerous to list here. I am feeling so vibrant in the thick of it all!

Finally, my British friend Steev—who is taking ten years of his life to travel all around the world, also car free—recently reached out to ask my permission to link to my blog on his blog! Of course I happily accepted, and now I’d like to link to his blog as well, if you’d like to follow the travels of someone who is going much farther afield than I am at the moment!

So, so many amazing and inspiring people in my life right now. (If you happen to be reading this and I’ve had a recent magical meeting with you and haven’t mentioned it here, please don’t take it personally! I appreciate you all so much!)

The only downside in my personal life these days is that cat sits have been few and far between since last fall, so my finances are even closer to the wire than usual, and I often don’t know where I’ll be sleeping a few days out. I admit that I find both of these circumstances stressful at times, but I also embrace them as part of the amazing adventure that is my life these days. Having said that, though, if you know of anyone who could use a caring and experienced cat sitter, please feel free to send my link their way! I would like to be in the Northwest (ideally the Portland area) in the summer. In the fall I will be open to warmer and drier locales. (More details on some upcoming possibilities/travel dreams in a future post!)

Sending you all love, joy, inspiration, and transformation during these surreal times! Thank you, as always, for following along on my journey.

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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!

Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!

Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)