BEGIN 05/28/09 #3cccJournal2TwittBook MUST READ FIRST: http://intro.3circles.net #book #tcot #teaparty #sgp #fb #twurch Pages: 0594-0660

#3cccJournal2TwittBook When we got within a half mile of a small border crossing I got out and began making my way through the woods… 0594

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..in the middle of the night! They were to drive up and down the road on the other side till they saw me, then 0595

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..take me to one of Steve’s friends who lived just across the border. Well, somehow it all worked out but 0596

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..believe me, I was freaked out about getting caught with no ID. I stayed holed up in this couple’s attic for 0597

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..days, wondering what I would do. They had a copy of the Georgia Strait, a counter-culture newspaper, so I 0598

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..began to look for work. I noticed this natural foods store, called Shum Organic Foods and figured I’d have a 0599

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..good chance of being able to work under the table if they needed help. I called and asked to speak to the 0600

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..owner. I never identified myself at anytime. The person I was speaking to said he was the owner and then 0601

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..paused. Out of the blue he says,  “Is this Leroy Grey from Dundalk Scout Troop 356? This is Al Baker”. I could 0602

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..hardly believe my luck. Here I was 4,000 miles from Dundalk, Maryland, and on my first call to find work I 0603

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..meet an old scout buddy that instantly recognizes my voice! I hadn’t seen Al in years but we used to horse 0604

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..around at scouts and sometimes skip meetings together. When I asked him how he knew it was me, he said, “You 0605

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..have a very distinctive voice”. Al hired me and offered me a room in his house. Al, his wife Rebecca and their 0606

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..infant, along with two other women who worked at the store, shared rent on the house. I had gotten into 0607

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..natural foods a year and a half earlier, when I was living in a trailer in the Sierra foothills in California, 0608

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..so it was a job for which I already had a lot of knowledge. I enjoyed the work immensely. After working there 0609

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..about 4 months I met this gypsy guy from Poland. He was a bona fide gypsy with an old pick up on which he 0610

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..built an ornate ginger bread “house”. It was awesome looking. He lived in the pick up with two women, making 0611

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..beads which they sold and traded. Every time he came into the store I bugged him to take me with him the next 0612

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..time he began touring. I wanted to get out of the city bad, so I could see the country and feel the freedom of 0613

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..traveling again. One day he came in and told me to grab my backpack cause they were leaving the city. Once on 0614

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..the road it was a great feeling.  I enjoy traveling immensely, especially since Canada has some spectacular 0615

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..scenery.  They were teaching me how to make beads, using wire bending techniques and glass beads, and each 0616

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..evening we would take a dirt road to find a remote camping spot where we could avoid any hassles with cops. 0617

#3cccJournal2TwittBook One evening we followed a dirt road until it dead ended at a large lake with an Island in the middle. There was 0618

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..an abandoned house that was near to falling down but nothing else and no one. We decided to stay there for a 0619

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..few days. The next morning we all went skinny dipping in the lake. As I was wading out to swim I looked up at 0620

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..this cliff on the other side and had an epiphany. It was like being caught up in Tornado, a spiritual vortex 0621

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..of energy. It wasn’t like the tornadoes we know, where everything is sucked up into the storm. This tornado 0622

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..was directing spiritual energy down, into me. It was then that I knew, I mean I really KNEW what I was to do. 0623

#3cccJournal2TwittBook I was to draw people together and start a community on the other side of the lake. This sense of knowing was 0624

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..overwhelming. It was accompanied with a great peace and certainty. I felt that nothing could stop this from 0625

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..happening because it was God’s will and I was God’s instrument. I immediately left my gypsy friends and began 0626

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..hitchhiking back to Vancouver. I knew it was risky to hitchhike, given that I was a fugitive, but I no longer 0627

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..felt any fear. When I arrived in Vancouver I looked up a friend who I knew had lots of maps. When he spread 0628

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..out the map that had the large lake on it, my eye fixated upon this small lake called Pat Lake, just above the 0629

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..large one. I put my finger on Pat Lake and said, “This is where we’ll establish our commune”. Of course, it 0630

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..would have been foolish to go there without hiking in to see the terrain first hand. So we made plans for the 0631

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..three of us to canoe to the other side and hike up to Pat Lake. Our scouting party discovered a virgin forest 0632

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..of huge 300 foot Douglas firs and giant cedars surrounding two thirds of the lake on our left. At the start of 0633

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..the lake there was a large clearing, probably a staging area for the loggers who had logged the right side of 0634

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..the lake many years previous. We were ecstatic. When we returned to Vancouver someone informed me that an old 0635

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..homesteading law had been rescinded only a few years previous. If it was still in effect we could have simply 0636

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..claimed 160 acres and cleared the minimum required acres from the wilderness. I figured we’d have to find 0637

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..someway to be there legally so I began doing research. I came upon a mining law that stated anyone could file 0638

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..a mining claim for minerals, then dig out a specified size hole within a certain time period to maintain their 0639

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..claim. All this was exciting but how was I going to find the right people with a communal mindset? Having 0640

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..lived in communes before, most notably Lou Gottlieb’s Morning Star Ranch in Occidental, California, I knew it 0641

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..was a crap shoot at best. To assure success it would be wise to know the people with which I was forming an 0642

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..intentional community. However, having been into meditating for a few years already, I decided to meditate. 0643

#3cccJournal2TwittBook This is when I realized there was no formula for success and that sometimes its alright to do what seems 0644

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..unwise. My heart was telling me to put up signs and advertise for people to form this commune. To my utter 0645

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..amazement, I got a call right away, from this non-profit Gestalt Therapy group.  They had been considering 0646

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..starting a commune but didn’t have a place or the money to buy the land. My idea of staking a mining claim to 0647

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..provide legal cover for using Crown land appealed to them.  The meeting generated a lot of excitement and was 0648

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..followed by one of their Gestalt Therapy sessions. Unbeknownst to me, they were putting me on what they 0649

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..referred to as the “Hot Seat”. It was a test to see if I was the kind of leader who could be trusted. Their 0650

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..therapy session was uncomfortable at times. I was yelled at and provoked and in the end I must have passed 0651

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..because their group agreed to work with me to build a community. Two weeks from that day of decision we had 0652

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..assembled all the necessary tools. Because their group was a non-profit with an established corporate 0653

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..following, they had accumulated more than enough funds from corporate sponsors to make this happen. All of us 0654

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..agreed to use no power tools out of respect for the wilderness and for our own peace of mind. So instead of 0655

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..chain saws we bought two man saws and axes, including a broad axe, used by straddling logs to square them 0656

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..off. We eventually packed all our stuff and 22 people into a large van. On the day of departure, just as we 0657

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..were pulling out of the driveway one of the Gestalt people remaining in Vancouver came running out of the 0658

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..building and yelling for us to stop. I had a phone call from a guy named Alan Bibby. He wanted to speak to me 0659

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..about filming our expedition, our experiment in creating a new kind of family. 0660

END 05/28/09 #3cccJournal2TwittBook MEET AUTHOR: http://MeetTheAuthor.3circles.net #book #tcot #teaparty #sgp #fb #twurch Pages: 0594-0660