Rocky & Johnny under the palm trees

 

THE OPEN ROAD

peace, love, happiness & understanding

 

April 2, 2026

 

Time is money.

 

—Benjamin Franklin

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…time is not money. Time has much more value than money.

 

—Thich Nhat Hanh

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I’m excited that Rocky Hutchinson is getting out of prison on April 15th, after 17 years. He’s even more excited than I am! See for yourself:

 

Rocky’s final letters from prison

 

March 8, 2026

5:15 a.m.

Dear Johnny & Nancy

 

Well, it’s a start to another week & as I lay in my bunk last night I felt a memory come over me. It was no normal memory, but one of those that you can feel physically. It was like a wind, a change of season wind that I could feel blow over my soul. It reminded me of times to come & times that have passed. Time changes, but sometimes memories & emotions & a subtle wisp of Nature all mix together, bringing on a feeling so good, when we were so happy, that we can even remember how the wind felt and we can feel the atmosphere in our minds stirring our souls. It’s not any one memory, it’s many I think, or maybe a junction where our heart, mind & soul, our joy & our love all come together with the elements of the world around us giving us a gift.

 

I often of late have been getting those types of feelings, like something in me is waking up and the feeling is of joy and wonder. The thoughts & feelings are of such beauty that they’re hard to describe. The other morning I was meditating & somehow I was standing on a rocky riverbank & in the wind blew thousands of dandelion wishes. I think my soul is feeling the beauty that is to come soon. It is reaching out and lacing itself to it, my aura is reconnecting to the world.

 

I understand the gift that I have been able to rebuild within myself & I plan to cherish it & share it with all that I’m close to. It has been difficult…almost damaging to me to be looked upon like I’m weak or crazy when I’ve tried to talk about the deeper beauty of life with others recently.

 

At first, I felt that if I explained what I meant a little better, others would understand. So I used the example of how a fruit tree and the soil have a relationship, a love, so to speak. The tree cultivates the soil & provides life for all the creatures with which it is involved. The tree’s blood grows leaves & fruit & nuts for us, so we can then live & love.

 

All things connect in a circle of life, love & joy. Like this one relationship, all relationships are connected in one way, shape or form. It is beautiful to behold how all things work together. In my life before, I never really took the time to be in love—for no other reason than its rightness in the world.

 

So, getting to be around like-minded people here in the near future is really going to be something wonderful. Everything is going to work out so good. I’m sure that as time passes and I just stay kind & calm, diligent & positive, do the right things that are being asked of me, life will be good. I just need to keep things simple and transparent.

 

Getting to sit and have good conversations with you two & everyone else—Jude, Dick, Josh, Carla, Kristen—and all the rest of the gang is really going to increase the quality of all of our lives. Mine more than you all know! When I think about that and how soon that will happen I feel my chest swell up and my eyes start to get blurry! All the tears I’ve been holding back are going to finally fall…that will be so cleansing, tears of so many mixed emotions. I should save them in a little vial! Use them to water a bunch of seeds for flowers for everyone as a gift of love & devotion.

 

In the last few days I’ve lost all desire to participate in anything here but my release classes, writing resumes, letters, and in my journal—staying out of the way, in my cell, and relaxing. This is fine with me & since I’m 30 days to home I’m not required to do anything but finish school!

 

I’ve been thinking about when I find a place to rent and all of that starts coming together. The first two plants I want to get are: #1) a canna lily and #2) a monstera. Both get large & both are beautiful. An Irish ivy will be nice, too. I plan on having a very green apartment. I’m also planning on eating so healthy…fresh veggies! Different kinds of breads & fruits that have so many amazing tastes. No more crazy processed foods, or being forced to eat things I don’t want to eat, because I have to to live! That will be Amazing, and even more so…to eat with friends! Yes!

 

My day switched gears & I’m now sitting in class and vibe is good today in here. This is my last book and it was a big one. I finished the written part, so the book is done—now it’s just group work! My seat is right under the skylight and there are geese walking on the skylight!!! Very funny.

 

Sitting here thinking about what you, Johnny, and I were talking about concerning treatment! I am over that part of my life. I simply have zero want or urges to participate in anything that that life has to offer. I’m so far from it that it never really crosses my mind.

 

As I sit here & am going through my treatment support people, it’s always the same 6 people: Johnny, Nancy, Shawna, Autumn, Dick, Howard. Seems to be a pattern in my life, and with a few added loved ones like Josh & Jude, these are my loved ones. My dearest friends. The people who took this long 216 month journey with me!

 

March 10th

 

Well, I moved cells again—I hope for the last time. Once again it’s with someone I’ve known for years. He is a really mellow guy & a super good artist. Right about the time I release he will be going into the dog program. He will do very well at that.

 

The new cell I’m in is the coolest one so far! It has an art collage drawn all over in it, complete with a cityscape of Portland & Mt. Hood, along with many other things. It’s cool to have artwork on the walls in the house.

 

I don’t know what it was about today & our call, but it triggered something in me that put my mind into a whole state of home & this is all already in the past, really in the past. I’ve really been thinking about what it’s going to feel like to walk out this door! I might RUN! What I am going to do is pay close attention to my emotions. I want to feel & remember walking out that door & leaving this place behind. Later in life I want to be able to process at different times these emotions in many ways throughout my life.

 

March 19, 2026

Dear Johnny

 

It’s a beautiful morning here & I’m sure it is at your place too. It’s because the world we live in is amazing in every way, all of it.

 

One of the counselors or officers asked me last night if I was going to go back to a life of crime. The answer came so fast & so natural that it made me…I don’t know—feel normal! It was a big NO! I’m not even of that mind any longer, nor of that world. The thought of it put fear in me, a fear that most people have never felt themselves. A fear of losing “Everything in life” is a fear only those who have really gone through that truly know what horrors come from it. So, no. My life is truly a second chance gift and full of wonder & joy & love! I won’t even be caught J-walking!

 

I’ve not been writing very much for a little while now. But recently it has come back like a wave, the tide of it is rolling in & soothing me. It takes the moments of stress & restlessness away from me, preoccupying my mind, so that I’m not thinking only about releasing. It’s always been such a good friend to me, like a salve for the soul, bringing a much needed peace to me & to others. My writing is a gift and has gotten me through a lot in life. Having people to write to—like you, Johnny, and others—is a gift.

 

It is the end of the night now. My little bit of nightly work is finished & I’m settling into my bunk, which is a cozy little place. When my friend went to the Hole on 3-2-26 I got his old pillows! That’s how it goes in here, it’s a normal thing. He had very nice pillows! Now I have them & for my last 25 days I get to have the best pillows in the whole joint!!! One of them is a Sealy Posturepedic—never had one of them before now.

 

3-23-2026

 

Well, the weekend went by very fast, which is a good thing. I spent a lot of time with letters & journalling and trying to be…in my cell alone, away from all the needless drama—no distractions, and focusing on home.

 

I’m so excited about getting to spend time with you & everyone else. I’ve been noticing these…well, mental time jumps. I’ll be home so soon and I catch myself planning out my week-to-week life…then it hits me: *Home*! Where I can walk down the street & see all the cherry trees that are in bloom, smell a million flowers & draw them if I want to. This will happen soon…only a short time after you’ve read this letter, we will be drinking coffee together.

 

Healthy food has been on my mind, too—fresh food, clean, good food, well-prepared food. I’m so happy to get to share this with you and Nancy and everyone else.

 

I have gone through a few changes in the last few days…. Pressure from others is heavier than ever before. I’m trying to stay away from everyone and everything.

 

3-24-26

 

I’m sitting in class under the skylight. The rain is beating down on the skylight. I’m hoping that the rain does not take all the cherry blossoms from the face of Spring until I can see them this year. There’s so many other beautiful things to see & soon I will love feeling overwhelmed by all of it. I’m really looking forward to taking walks, running, and being in & of nature, and being with the ones I love. This is how I want to be with the opening of my heart in this new world—the beauty pouring into my blooming, opened heart.

 

I truly want to let all of the wonders of it all soak into me. Truly allow the wind that’s full of the smell of flowers & trees seep into my mind, feel the hugs of my loved ones imprint upon my soul. To feel the touch of another human…will be…strange & wonderful & a little scary! So destructive is the lack of human touch, simple contact, holding hands, a hug, a gentle hand upon the shoulder—these are so needed in life to feel human. How wonderfully overwhelming it all is going to be & amazing—the gift of it from those who truly love me. To have emotions like this fulfilled will be a once-in-a-lifetime gift. We all have the best love for each other…because it’s very real & unconditional. I’m so lucky…we are all so blessed to have this. What an amazing life we have to share with each other!

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about food! LOL Healthy, clean good food, homemade food, soups & salads, a large variety of veggies, breads, fruits…fish! Healthy foods…I’ll have to be careful at first, so I don’t get sick. I’ve heard that real food will make me sick at first. We will see!

 

     Sitting in a room full of men trying to find a way out, out of addictions of all sorts.

     Unpacking all the broken pieces & knowing you can not pick them up at all anymore.

     Knowing that to find the golden paths in life we have to leave it behind & walk out the door.

     I did not succeed in doing this alone with my life—my friends & family helped me to survive.

     So many times sitting in a small empty room, putting broken pieces together with no glue.

     Pieces of sadness, shame, sorrow & remorse, of a broken life that I tried to fix from guilt, haunted by ghosts.

     Having let it all go & gladly starting all things in life anew is easy knowing now what to do.

 

….It feels good to have the relationships I have in my life with all of you. They are deep & strong & real & powerful—full of love and goodness, joy and truth. I’m proud of the person I’ve become & know that I’m lucky to have the life I have. Most don’t come back from a level of damage like this. I hope others see it & know that they can overcome the pitfalls of life, too!

 

Love you & see you later for Coffee too!

 

—Rocky Hutchinson

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Elizabeth Domike shared this poem:

 

Nurture

 

From a documentary on marsupials I learn

that a pillowcase makes a fine

substitute pouch for an orphaned kangaroo.

 

I am drawn to such dramas of animal rescue.

They are warm in the throat. I suffer, the critic proclaims,

from an overabundance of maternal genes.

 

Bring me your fallen fledgling, your bummer lamb,

 

lead the abused, the starvelings, into my barn.

Advise the hunted deer to leap into my corn.

 

And had there been a wild child—

filthy and fierce as a ferret, he is called

in one nineteenth-century account—

 

a wild child to love, it is safe to assume,

given my fireside inked with paw prints,

there would have been room.

 

Think of the language we two, same and not-same,

might have constructed from sign,

scratch, grimace, grunt, vowel:

 

Laughter our first noun, and our long verb, howl.

 

—Maxine Kumin

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SHEEP 

 

So why would I write about sheep? What do sheep have to do with Peace, Love, Happiness and Understanding? Well, as it turns out—-everything! 

 

We have one hundred and fifty sheep about half a mile down the road from us. I either ride my bike or drive past them every day. Almost always I stop. “Hi sheep!” I call out. Without interrupting their grass munching, they lift their heads and eye me with a mild gaze. They’re used to me by now. I’ve been greeting them this way for as long as they’ve been in the pasture, five or six years? I’ve seen them at every stage: big and white and fluffy, ragged and molting, shorn and pink-skinned. 

 

When I see them my heart is filled with peace. And love. And sheer happiness. And deep understanding that this—-being in the moment with peace, love and happiness is what matters in my life.

 

—Jude Russell