The Spot in the Future

From Harbin Hot Springs Winter issue Quarterly article

This is a particular moment in our history together.  The moment when a tool of meaningful communication between two spiritual entities, the printed Harbin Hot Springs Quarterly and you, has run its course and completes its cycle of existence.  That needs to be marked as auspicious.  While it’s true that the past is here to be moved through and released, it’s also true that we must pause to give gratitude for all the steps that led us to this moment in the present.  Many thanks and acknowledgement to Ann Prehn for her faithful, capable and loving presence over these pages for so long.

I ventured onto these pages in the Quarterly 17 years ago when I first became a resident of Harbin Hot Springs.  I have grown in many directions over these years.  I became a business person, at first, opening The Blue Room espresso bar.  Then a mother of an indigenous Harbin son, born and raised in this large extended family.  I grew as a writer: on these pages I wrote a eulogy, poetry and pieces on my journey in founding the Lake County International Charter School, each piece marking my place on the path of this life shared in full view from your path.  I became a minister of Harbin Hot Springs integrating my truth as a spiritual being.  I continued my professional evolution from French chef to being fully versed in alternative cooking and the deeper value of nutrition in food, as medicine for the body and spirit.

And so this is the end of the printed Harbin Hot Springs Quarterly.  I am here to check in about the future.  I’m certain that as this form ends and we move towards electronic sharing of the life we live with Harbin, another communication form will emerge that continues to ask the implicit question, “What are you doing with your life?”

I’ve arrived in a future that, 17 years ago when I first became resident, I couldn’t have guessed would manifest.  I was a complete yuppie, back then, yearning instead for the deepest possible spiritual life.  I wanted my work to be evidence of a life firmly based in meditation, moving away from “What are you doing” and into “What are you aware of?”

17 years of personal growth later, I arrived at this point in the future.  I recently opened a new business in Middletown proper:  “The Spot” is an organic juice and wheat grass bar with an expanding repertoire of raw foods: salads, small plates, and desserts, with a dedication to healthy, fresh cuisine that focuses on gluten and dairy free fare.  We are sharing our location with Malcolm Gordon, another long time resident.  He handcrafts Healing Springs kombucha in eight flavors, jun (a sweeter kombucha) in two flavors and two flavors of apple cider vinegar refresher.

I’m aware of the need to provide an evolved business.  A food service that is sustainable, organic and most exciting of all, employee owned.  It feels right to offer the community members of this business the benefit of ownership.  We’re working together to provide service in the form of nourishing products that offer sustenance that is attractive to your soul.  I have been seventeen years cultivating a life’s work that is satisfying and deeply committed to what the Buddhists’ refer to as “right action.”  This business is a chapter in my life that serves my deepest desire to serve.  The gathering of knowledge accumulated over my life has led me to one thought regarding commerce:  There is plenty, in the benefits of any profitable business, to be shared among community members who work so very hard and with so much love to give back to the community that is served. 

I am committed to being as present and capably walking my professional path in service to your health and well being as I can be.  I am committed to showing up locally and making my contribution to the greater good of the planet.  Who knows what the future will bring?  All I know is to live in this moment touching into the pure positive energy of living a fully engaged and thriving human existence, feeling the deepest connection of spirit as your life touches mine.

That is what the Quarterly has done all these years of printed publication.  It has effectively rippled out from its particular point of time, space and knowledge to touch and affect you, where ever you have been in the past, up to touching you now in this moment of Presence.

Bless what came before.  Bless this moment now.  Bless what shall be.  A ho.

The Spot is located in Middletown at 21163 Calistoga Road, next to Mugshots Espresso Bar.