BAVI World Tour Images & Stories Sharing!

A reminder in case you want to come and forgot...

Please join us on Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 7 pm. 

We will share our favorite stories, photos & videos from our journey 

Our Home 

13320 108th Ave SW 

Vashon Island 

BAVI World Tour Photos & Stories Sharing

Please join us on Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 7 pm.

We will share our favorite stories, photos & videos from our journey

Our Home

13320 108th Ave SW

Vashon Island

Today We Fly Home!

Today, our six-month trip ends and our journey continues.
Thank you, readers, for following along with us on this amazing experience!

Maui Wowie!

It’s a quiet morning in Kipahulu. The tropical rainbursts come and go; looks like it will be a sunny day soon. Sitting in the hammock chair on the deck of our Bali House, feeling gratitude for the palm trees waving in the breeze, the clouds drifting by, and the many gifts I am receiving here and now.

Campfire in a lava tube at Venus Pools;

awesome day with DanceHer, Jasmine,

the Easleys and rock star Donny Pike

from The Lettermen

We are gently moving through the last weeks of our six-month journey around the earth. This last month on Maui is technically back in the United States, yet does not feel like or resemble the mainland much. Our dear friend Glenn is joining us this month and we were also blessed with the company of his wife and son, our beloveds Jenny and Hart. We are near the end of three wonderful weeks at Whispering Winds Bamboo farm in Kipahulu.

We are here as guests of our dear friend Niayh who so sweetly embodies his name, Now Is All You Have. Whispering Winds has 20 acres of bamboo farm that exists to support both the 5 permanent residents and the 160 acres that is an inspiring forest restoration project. Much of the unique native trees of Maui have been replaced by invasive non-native species such as guava. Here at Whispering Winds, the crew of seven apprentices and the permanent residents do strong work to restore the healthier native forest. Our primary work here as volunteer guests is with this project. The guava and other invasive trees and shrubs are cleared from slopes followed by the digging of many holes for planting. Yesterday, we enjoyed the climactic step of putting compost in the holes, planting trees, watering, scattering IMO (Indigenous MicroOrganisms) on the area around the sapling and covering it all with woodchip mulch. We are camped out in three tents and have a beautiful small house (Bali House) to hang out in and cook in. Up the hill is the Farmhouse where several apprentices live and where we often hang out and play Farkel (a rousing dice game). We have learned from and enjoyed so much from the permanent residents here, Rich and Virginia, Seth and Synda, and Ryan, along with the apprentices who are a very colorful and fun group.

Kipahulu is a peaceful, spectacularly beautiful, small and remote area of Maui. There are perhaps 300 residents in Kipahulu and a number of small farms and retreat centers. One place we love is Laulima Farm, which is a picture perfect, impeccable, permaculture-informed, organic farm with breathtaking ocean views from the gentle slope of Haleakalah volcano. Our friend Josh has created inspired treehouses there, designed to be eaten by the banyan trees with which they co-exist and evolve. Laulima has about 10 apprentices who spend a year working and learning on the farm.

A big favorite is Jean Angelheart’s place, Lokahi, where every week there are two awesome gatherings for the community. Wednesdays we go to Pizza Night where about thirty people bring and share toppings, create their own pizza, which is then baked in a righteous brick pizza oven. Every time we enjoy and learn from the free-thinking and free-living people hanging out and making music in the kitchen and outside under the pizza oven shelter. On Sunday nights at Café Attitude, we are blown away by the talent and spirit flowing from the open mic stage and from our host Jean. Lokahi has perhaps eight people who live, learn and work there.

The beautiful Red Sand Beach in Hana with Niayh and the Easleys

Kipahulu also has incomparable beaches with lava rock tidepools and cliffs to jump off of such as Venus Pools, Red Sand Beach in Hana and Black Sand Beach (Wai'anapanapa). Kipahulu is definitely somewhere we could spend part of our year happily, although there are too few teens here…

We are quickly approaching our re-entry to Home on April Fools Day (the meaning of that has yet to be revealed!).

How different will our life be? One big change: I won’t be returning to my old job at Country Doctor. I’m so looking forward to the freedom to pick and choose when I work!

How have we changed? For Isaac and Avi, I believe that their perceptual frame has grown; their paradigm of how our culture and world operate has shifted. I joked that Isaac should wear some foreign clothing when he shows up back at McMurray Middle School so they can tell he just returned from a big journey; he commented “they will see it in my eyes.” May it be so!

Navotu Village

In Fiji, life is slow-paced; no one is in a hurry. My family and I have been in Fiji for a few days, inching our way around. A cool experience was traveling on the Lomaiviti Princess, the biggest ship in Fiji. It had eight stories, including a café, a convenience store, a small kids area and a TV lounge. The crew lived on the boat so there is a story made for cabins and living area. Because it was a 9-hour overnight voyage many passengers rent cabins with beds and a bathroom facility, but we managed with some of our own blankets. The captain let us go to the control room and engine room; it was good fun discovering many buttons and panels, it’s hard to believe

that some people understand all of it.

            After waking up, an announcement sounded and my family got off the ship. We waited for our hosts to pick us up, and eventually a boat came for us. The village we stayed in was a small one of 170 called Navotu; it was on the water so there was an abundance of fish to go around.

            Being at this village was a great experience. The people were very friendly and always wanted to help. One day we walked along the beach, another day we snorkeled. Sometimes I would play with the locals and play rugby or wrestle. All the meals were eaten together in the main area where the men and women would hang out most of the day. The variety of food from the village was interesting; it consisted of mostly fish, cow and root vegetables. We stayed there for a week and it was hard to say goodbye to so many new friends.         

Happy Birthday to Me!

With a roar of “OH MY GAWD!” that would have impressed the Spartans of 300, I leaned forward and began plummeting 150 feet towards the water. It was five days before my birthday, and because we were travelling almost the entirety of my birthday, we decided to celebrate beforehand. Out of a handful of options I was given, I chose bungee-jumping. The next morning we drove to Taupō Bungee, and my dad and I walked to the office; I was weighed in at about 55 KG, or roughly 120 pounds. I was given a fancy card on a lanyard that had my name and weight on it. As we watched other people jump I tried my hardest to swallow the lump in my throat, calm my machine-gun nerves, and to overcome my fear. That didn’t work at all, so I decided to use the often-employed Plan B: throw myself into it, and hope to goodness I don’t get hurt.

I walked along the cantilevered platform, extending 30 feet out, 150 feet above the Waikato River. I took off my shirt, because the bungee was supposed to dunk you in the water. I handed the lanyard to a guy at a little hut at the end of the platform, then I walked in and sat down where I was directed to. A man put a harness on me and began to attach heavy-duty ankle straps. I noticed that this man was (for some unknown reason) shaking almost as badly as I was. This did not help me calm down. He double-checked the straps, and then an obviously more experienced person came, and checked them again. Then they attached a 2-inch thick bungee cord to the straps. Two more people checked my harness, counting off each stress point as they went. After all these safety measures, I was a little bit more confident, and I wasn’t so worried about ending up the like the British tourist that had, only a few months ago, made international headlines by almost dying while bungee jumping off of a bridge in Africa.

I was told to walk over to a part of this hut that didn’t have a railing, and so I waddled over (remember, my ankles were attached by a six-inch strap). The experienced guy told me he was going to say “Three! Two! One! Bungee!” and then I was supposed to jump. I knew at this point there was no going back, and so when he said “BUNGEE!” I screamed to the heavens, and as I plummeted down I let the whole valley know just how damn terrified I was. As I got closer to the water, I put my hands in a diving position, and got neatly dunked up to my neck in the water. Because the bungee cord was elastic, I bounced up about half as high as I had fallen. On the way up, and the inevitable way back down, I was laughing like a maniac. This was, by far, the most memorable, and exciting birthday present I had ever had, as well as an amazing exercise in releasing fear.

[late post, my birthday is January 30th]

Kiwi Konnections!

Boiling Mud at Geothermal Wonderland

Channel exit at Huka Falls

After months of traveling, we finally caught up with our tribe. Our month in New Zealand started with a tour of the northern and central part of the North Island, traveling in a Spaceship. Not the kind with rocket engines, but the kind that is a campervan with a nicely engineered swing out stove, hidden storage and two double beds including one that extends out the back with a cool canvas piece that connects the open hatch to the rear fender, and one that pops up on the roof. We saw various interesting and pretty places, a

Kerosene Creek

few of which were memorable. We went to Kerosene Creek that is one of the most awesome places on Earth. The entire creek is a completely undeveloped, natural hot spring with hot-tub temperature water including waterfalls with a picture-perfect swimming area below. We also went to the awe-inspiring Huka Falls several times, by car, hiking and mountain biking. A sizeable river is funneled through an improbably narrow and shallow 300 feet long, natural thermally-hardened rock channel that is only 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep where the water churns with the most intensity I’ve ever seen before plunging over a major waterfall. Another highlight

Avi in front of Mt. Doom (from Lord of the Rings) at Tongariro

was Spa Park where another hot spring stream beautifully runs into the impossibly clear, blue water of the Waikato River, creating a pick-your-temperature great place to soak. We had an amazing empowering day hiking the “best day hike in New Zealand”, the 12 mile long Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We went to Hobbiton and the boys took a tour of the beautiful Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movie set for the Shire (we’re not allowed to post photos until the Hobbit movie comes out).

The heart of our trip to New Zealand was on the north coast of the South Island. We spent a heart-

Avi climbing at Harwoods Hole near Luminate,
the deepest tomo in the Southern Hemisphere, over 1000 ft deep

warming 9 days at the exceptionally wonderful Luminate Festival at Canaan Downs (the location where they filmed the hilltop scene in which Aragorn reveals his identity to the hobbits). All of us felt relief and joy in the company of our Kiwi tribe (about 2000 on the weekend of the seven-day festival), people who looked and “felt” like us. The festival felt most like the Beloved Festival in Oregon. It had three main zones: a Live Zone which was basically the main stage with live music and beautiful fabric art very much like the Beloved stage, an Electronic Zone with electronic music, and a Tribal Zone with drumming and dancing. All three zones had fires with a big one at Tribal. The area had numerous tomos (craters due to collapse of the underlying limestone) including a huge tomo about 300 feet across and 50 feet deep. There was a powerful, ecstatic ritual in that tomo that started off the event in a glorious way! My

One of many cool gypsy campervans at Luminate

favorite musical experiences were Ganga Giri who really rocked the main stage with didj, drum and electronic music, and an intimate acoustic solo sampled-and-layered music set by Matiu, a sweet and very talented Maori man, in the comfy Chill Zone (chai Kitchen/cuddle zone). There was a central area with food and craft booths including an amazing ayurvedic kitchen where I enjoyed free yummy food in exchange for all my volunteer work. Luminate features a lot of great workshops in four different venues. Veronica and I were blessed to be able to present our Heart Opening Journey workshop there. We did it at the very beginning of the gathering (before the printed programs arrived) and close to the end so I wasn’t sure how many people would come. We were thrilled to have 55 people show up the first time and 45 the second. We received a lot of wonderful feedback and it was very gratifying to feel resonance and support for our work in far-away New Zealand. Looks like a Heart Opening workshop tour of New Zealand may be brewing for next year! On a side note, we finally launched a draft of our website (oneloveawakening.com). I also volunteered as the festival doctor, carrying a walkie-talkie for all 9 days and having a lot of fun helping out a number of sweet people. The only life-threatening situation worked out fine with emergency transport to the hospital. The family members came back from the hospital to pick up their 17 year old son and our Isaac! Coincidentally and karmically the family I helped included one of Isaac’s best new friends from Luminate who brought him home for two great teenaged days before we left the festival to pick him up. Luminate felt like the best of the festivals we have back home with people who were even more open, kind and gentle. These qualities was beautifully reflected in our camping neighbors Purna and Tamal. Their mature and grounded Krishna consciousness was inspiring and beautiful to us. There was not very much costuming, less colorful than home and less affectation. The gentle, non-egoic nature of the people was very compelling. Highly recommended to all who love tribal gatherings!

Seal Pups at Whaririki Beach

Tui Community Garden after Flood 

After Luminate, we spent five days exploring Golden Bay, Abel Tasman National Park and visiting friends from Luminate along with our empowered and remarkably mature 18-year-old friend Georgia. Wharariki Beach was incredibly beautiful and we were blessed with an hour in the close company of two seal pups! We got to visit my new friend Shruti, the talented and spiritual chef from the Luminate kitchen, for an excellent lunch at his “Space of Love” nestled in the organic community garden in Takaka, the only by-donation restaurant in New Zealand. We then spent a week woofing (Working On an Organic Farm) at the Tui Community incredibly perched on the water, right at the eastern margin of Abel Tasman National Park. Tui is one of very few successful, long-standing (27 years) intentional communities that we know. They have about 40 permanent residents, most of whom are full members in the community. The community owns the land; individuals own the home they build or buy. A few work for the community; about 12 work for Tui Balms on-site that makes wonderful skin products. The community had a large garden until two months before we arrived when a flood covered the garden with over a meter of sand! We had the satisfaction of helping them clear debris; Isaac and I worked together salvaging roofs and

Community Dinner at Tui Common House

lumber from a couple garden buildings that were buried deep in the sand. We spent a day running a new water line through the dense bush up a steep slope. Another day was spent in the large orchard, netting grapes, mulching avocado trees and harvesting plums. On our last workday we got to compost, mulch and plant a small interim garden as well as set up an irrigation system. Isaac and Avi were epic in using a pickaxe to help dig a trench across the road to run the irrigation line. Veronica and I are very proud of how hard and effectively the boys worked! We stayed in a bedroom in the wonderful community house there which features a large hangout/dining area, a big kitchen and even a billiards table. Amazingly, my dear friend Leora from Singing Alive was at Luminate Festival and at Tui with us.  She and I much enjoyed co-leading Heartsong Circles at both Luminate and at Tui. The Heartsong Circle at Tui, as well
as a Heart Opening Journey that Veronica and I led at Tui, were both at Tui T’ Mala, a beautiful circular room with wood floor and conical ceiling located at the top of a forested trail with a commanding view of the community and ocean. We made many new friends and were inspired by the gentle spirit and success of Tui Community. Golden Bay on the north coast of the South Island of New Zealand, including the great town of Takaka and the Tui Community, is a place to be noted by all who seek incredible natural beauty, intentional community, and open-minded, openhearted and gentle people.

Bali Blessings

Greetings readers!

This blog is a late posting; we have been without the Internet a lot (finally, gratefully without it…), and less focused on blogging as well.

Ubud Ridge Walk

We had an amazing two weeks in Bali the first half of January, our hearts warmed by the effusive smiles and open hearts of the Balinese people, the tropical sun and the incredible natural beauty.

Bali Elephant Cave Temple

Ubud is one of those rare towns, along with Luang Prabang in Laos, which hosts a large tourist and ex-pat community without loosing its native presence and vibe. In Ubud, we stayed in a “homestay” as do most backpacker tourists. These homestays are family compounds with several small buildings where the family and visitors live; all of them also have a sizeable Hindu temple. The women spend hours each morning creating a hundred or more beautiful offerings, artful flower arrangements with morsels of food on woven palm leaf bowls a few inches square. These are then placed everywhere! Such beauty, radiant smiles and open spirits. There is a large, spiritual ex-pat (foreigner) community in Ubud with a number of yoga studios and diverse spiritual offerings. We went to a great kirtan one evening and were delighted to run into our tribemate Ocean whom we know from Good Medicine and Beloved. Deepening our connection with him was an Ubud highlight. We enjoyed long walks up on a spectacular ridge high above and between two streams. On one walk, we ran into our old friend Newman, the masterful mask maker who has a big booth at Oregon Country Fair where we have hung out playing with his incredible creations for over twenty years. We spent a lovely afternoon with Newman and his Balinese wife, learning the methods behind his art. We rode motorbikes through breathtaking rolling green hills, Isaac expertly commanding one with the now much-smaller-than-him Veronica as his passenger. I was so proud!

Tirta Ayu at Tirta Gangga

From Ubud, we went to Tirta Gangga.  Tirta Gangga is the “Water Palace” created by the last Raj (King) of that region. It features acres of watery beauty with about six very large pools filled with grotesques sculpted by the incredible craftspeople of Bali, curving stepping stone paths through the water, artful bridges and spaces to swim in. Picturesque rice paddies surround Tirta Gangga. Looking over the water gardens is the beautiful edifice of Tirta Ayu, where the royal family lived. That’s where we stayed! Thanks to the very kind arrangements made by our dear friend and amazing photographer Kyer Wiltshire (“Tribal Revival” book) we had the royal residence as our home for an affordable price. It was full of amazing sculptures and featured a gorgeous dining pavilion surrounded by a waterway and regal dipping pool. We were served sumptuous private meals by the sweet and capable staff there. After staying in a lot of cheap hostels (many nice, some dingy and a few disgusting) it was awesome to live like royalty for a few days! We have enduring love, respect and gratitude for Emerald, the owner whom we had the pleasure of connecting with there.

Dipping Pool at Tirta Ayu

Breakfast at Tirta Ayu

Dining Pavillion at Tirta Ayu

Villa Pandan at Turtle Bay Hideaway

After lounging at Tirta Ayu, we traveled a short distance to Jasri on the wonderful east coast of Bali for a five-day stay at Turtle Bay Hideaway, Emerald’s sweet coastal home and luxury retreat. There we stayed at Villa Pandan, one of three Sulawesi-made villas rebuilt and remodeled at Turtle Bay Hideaway by Emerald. The villa was expansive with a soaring vaulted ceiling, beautifully appointed bedrooms, personal infinity swimming pool by the ocean, and Emerald’s excellent taste throughout with architectural details and evocative sculptures. We had meals provided for us on the large deck of the house overlooking the ocean. We took long beach walks and met a number of kind local folks including a wonderful Aussie man who provides a home, food and family for twenty youth who would otherwise be struggling. His only requirements are that they go to school and surf every day! We had the pleasure of getting to know Emerald better and remain in his and Kyer’s debt for making our stay there possible (i.e. affordable).

Bali is definitely on our short list of places in the world with a VERY livable combination of compelling culture, people and natural beauty!

Yoga Goddess at the Infinity Pool at Villa Pandan