BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Open Road:  a learning community - ECPv6.15.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://openroadpdx.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Open Road:  a learning community
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20250309T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20251102T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250605
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250703
DTSTAMP:20260424T120112
CREATED:20250606T002005Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250606T002112Z
UID:5630-1749081600-1751500799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  6/5/25
DESCRIPTION:art by Larry Yes \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nEvery time I breathe  \nI feel what it’s like  \nto Be just like you \n  \n—Larry Yes\, lyric to “Just Like You” \n  \nJune 5\, 2025 \n  \nHere are the lyrics to two songs from Larry Yes’s album EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET IS FAMILY: \n  \nLIVE IN HARMONY \n  \nThe day will come  \nwhen we all agree  \nthat we should live in harmony  \nand we will know and we will see  \nhow we’re all connected. We’re all family. \nAll the people\, the plants\, the animals\, the birds\, the seas \nYes\, we’re all connected We’re all family  \nthe day will come when we all agree  \nthat we should live in harmony  \nand on that day that beautiful day  \nWe will laugh we’ll cry we will dance we’ll sing we’ll play  \ncelebrating all of our differences our weaknesses and our strengths  \ncelebrating all of our weaknesses our differences and our strengths \n  \n  \nFREE: EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET IS FAMILY \n  \n Every day you wake up\, it’s a good day It’s a cause to celebrate  \nand every day you’re making a decision as simple as love or hate \nAnd I know it ain’t easy and I know how hard things can be  \nbut I know everyone on this planet is family and I know that we all got to believe \nThat we’re free be who we want to Free look how we came through Free \nlove who we want to love Free be who we want to be \nAnd every day we wake up\, it’s a new day it’s a cause to stand up straight  \nand every moment we’re making a decision simple as love or hate\,  \nand I know it’s never easy and I know so much has got to change \nBut I know there’s so much beauty and I know we all got to believe  \nthat we’re free be who we want to Free look how we came through Free  \nLove who you want to love Free be who you want to be \n  \n—Larry Peace-Love Yes \n* \n  \nHere is an excerpt from Nick Swift’s Book of Becoming: \n  \nThe Book of Becoming \n  \nThis is not scripture. This is not commandment. This is not prophecy. This is a reflection. A mirror\, cracked but deliberate\, held in trembling hands. Not to show you what you are\, but to remind you that you have always been becoming. \n  \nI. The Spark \nYou were born whole. Not clean\, not pure\, but complete. A seed with fire inside\, too bright for the world to witness all at once. \nSo you forgot. On purpose. Because to remember too soon is to burn without boundary. \nYou learned to survive\, and survival requires forgetting. The world taught you to compartmentalize: to trade your voice for safety\, your wonder for predictability\, your power for permission. \nBut the spark? It endured. Silent. Flickering. Waiting. \n  \nII. The Conduit \nThe path between the fire and the flesh is not paved. It must be carved. And you carve it with each act of honesty. Each time you say: \n“This is not what I want.” “This is who I am.” “This hurts\, but I will stay.” \nYou clear a channel. You let the current run through you. You become the wire\, the wick\, the bridge. \nThis is the work. Not to become divine\, but to remember you already are. \nThe conduit trembles. It hums. It breaks and is rebuilt. And in the rebuilding\, you find rhythm. You find resonance. You find truth that is not dogma—but tone. \n  \nIII. The Id \nThe body is not the burden. The instincts are not the enemy. You do not ascend by denial. You evolve through integration. \nThe wounds you carry are maps. Not scars to hide\, but terrain to understand. \nThe rage? It was never evil. It was your boundary before you had words. \nThe grief? It is love stretched across time. A tether. A thread. A hymn. \nYou do not conquer the Id. You sit with it. You listen. You feed it not with indulgence\, but with acknowledgment. \nThis is how the storm becomes sky. This is how chaos becomes color. This is how you become. \n  \nIV. The Praxis of Echo \nTo become is not to arrive. It is to resonate. \nWith earth. With silence. With others who hum the same strange frequency. \nYour becoming is not private. It ripples. It gives others permission. It interrupts the static. It sings. \nAnd in that singing\, the divine is not worshipped. It is witnessed. \n  \nV. Grace in Motion \nYou will falter. You will forget. You will fracture. \nThese are not failures. They are rhythms. The inhale and exhale of becoming. \nYou do not need to begin again. You are always beginning. Each breath a renewal. Each moment a pivot. \nGrace is not something you earn. It is how you move when you know you belong. \n  \nVI. Finality is a Lie \nThere is no end. No climax. No final lesson. \nThere is only the next chord\, the next truth\, the next shift. \nYou are not a destination. You are an instrument\, and your song is still being tuned. \nSo keep tuning. Keep vibrating. Keep becoming. \nAnd know— you were always enough to begin. \n  \n—Nick Swift \n* \n  \nI got a letter from Dustin Jamison: \n  \n4/24/25 \n  \nDear Johnny\, and all the rest of his children of all ages\, inside and out\, \n  \nI love and miss you all. For those who’ve gone home\, congrats. I hope you’re making the most of every moment. For those inside\, I love you\, you are not forgotten. I hope you’re making the most of every moment. I’ll be going home soon. It’s surreal just to say that. After almost 24 years I’m finally getting out March 13th\, 2026!! I’m so happy\, so scared\, but so happy. I laugh\, I cry\, I laugh some more—sometimes both at once. Not sure where “Home” is anymore\, so I’ll be redefining and remaking it. A new day\, a new beginning\, and all that. Mom is looking for an R.V. for me\, and either a small plot of land\, or maybe just rent a place to park it for now. We’re leaving “where” fairly open. I release to Lane County\, but transferring counties is not so hard I think these days\, so long as you’re not un-housed. Looking anywhere in Willamette Valley\, or I-5 corridor in Washington. I’ve been far too long in the high desert\, I crave green. Day one out\, I plan on hitting the ground running. My dream is to build a small\, localvore\, organic herb farm\, The Shire\, so I can spend the rest of my days where I feel the most bliss\, in my garden. I’m so happy I’m crying tears of joy right now just imagining it. I’ve taken some classes: Seeds to Supper\, Master Gardener\, and hopefully soon Greenhouse Management. I’m also reading up on running a small business\, writing business proposals\, and grant writing. I’m very hopeful\, and confident this is the right direction for me. I’m never happier than when I’m weeding\, turning my compost pile\, or eating an heirloom tomato straight off the vine…. \n  \nIf any of my old (or new) friends would like to write and reconnect\, please do. I love and miss you all. The time I spent in Group Dialogue and the plays were some of the most fulfilling and joyous moments of my life. It was the people involved\, mixed with Johnny’s magical kindness that made it so. He brought out the best in all of us—made it possible to “see” each other\, to empathize and love\, and be grateful for each other…. \n  \nThank you once again\, Johnny. Thanks to you I’ve learned (among other things) how important it is to live (in love and serenity) in this moment\, right here\, right now. All I gotta do is breathe. It’s gotten me through a lot of suffering (fairly) intact. \n  \nAll my love\, \nDustin \n  \nYou can write to Dustin at this address: \n  \nSteve Dustin Jamison  #13874200 \nEOCI \n2500 Westgate \nPendleton\, OR  97801 \n* \n  \n5-3-2025 \n  \nFor The Open Road \n  \nAll of the beautiful poems & stories that everyone adds to The Open Road are always filled with such wonderful intent. The beauty is a light to my heart\, mind & soul. It has helped me to reclaim the joy within my self & to see goodness in the world & in its people. In a way\, I feel that all of us who participate in this get to receive and to give the gifts of healing—for all that we add to The Open Road creates new avenues & streets & highways that stretch all across our hearts\, connecting us to each other. \n  \nI’m at EOCI\, a prison in the state of Oregon. When people think “prison\,” every type of negative emotion fills their senses. It’s true that “The human mind can make a hell out of a heaven\, or a heaven out of a hell.” I have lived that statement for 16+ years & have discovered how to make “a heaven out of hell.” \n  \nAs crazy as that may sound\, that is what I’ve done. What once was hell to me\, even the worst parts\, I’ve filled with joy. \n  \nIf any of you have ever read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas\, you will remember Edmond Dantes first day in the Chateau d’If\, when he was beaten & then on that day every year\, to remind him that his hell was real\, he would be beaten again. Then\, towards the end of his stay in prison\, the beatings no longer mattered at all\, he could not even feel them. While they beat him\, all he could think of was how many feet he had to dig till he was free—in my case\, days to freedom\, which is in about 300 days! \n  \nEvery part of me has become like the apple trees I planted all over the compound 3 years ago. Then they were just sticks about 4 feet tall\, no leaves or blossoms. Today…twice as tall\, green & covered in white blossoms\, healthy and beautiful despite the fences they’re behind. The whole time I was digging the holes & planting the six trees\, I talked to them—telling them they would be the best ones out of all the other trees and have the sweetest apples. I feel like that will be me when I get out of here. \n  \nI hope to share coffee and stories with you all next Spring. Till then\, remember to enjoy the apples that grow on the trees along the Golden Path. \n  \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n  \nKen Margolis is on the board of The Open Road\, and also on the board of the Sweetgrass Foundation\, based in Atlanta\, Georgia. He recently returned from a trip to Botswana\, where he and other Sweetgrass board trustees were visiting projects that support indigenous communities and a healthy environment. \n  \nHey Johnny\, \n  \nI am attaching some thoughts that I put down for the other Sweetgrass trustees\, who are all grandchildren or second generation nieces and nephews of Glenn Fuller who started the foundation 27 years ago. Glenn’s Buddha nature was strong\, and if you happen to be Catholic\, she was a Saint. \nI don’t know whether any of this has any broader application\, but feel to use any part of it for the newsletter. \n  \nGLENN AND AFRICA \n  \nThe first thing that struck me about Botswana is how ancient it is. Where we were born\, about 15\,000 years ago millions of tons of ice scraped everything off the landscape and carved new topography. New plants and animals started crowding onto the landscape when the ice melted\, about 12\,000 years ago. In southern Africa\, there has been no major disturbance for at least 130\,000 years.  \n  \nDuring this long period\, a rich ecosystem of plants and animals has developed\, undergirded by a hydraulic regime completely different from that we experience. For at least the last 60\,000 years human subsistence  societies have also developed. \n  \nBy subsistence lifestyle\, we mean societies whose life ways are shaped by accommodation to the natural world as they find it. Plant and animal resources are used\, combined\, and processed. Subsistence societies characteristically also practice some management of natural resources\, often in ways too subtle and complex to be immediately evident. These societies tend to be relatively static\, with little change occurring as generations progress. People see themselves not as above or separate from nature\, but as intimately related to all other living beings\, and to the landscape. \n  \nHuman beings love to explore and wander\, and during this 60 thousand years\, different groups migrated into different parts of the African continent at different times. During the same period\, other groups were moving out of Africa\, to eventually reach the ocean and all the other continents. Eventually\, some of these groups developed intensive/extensive agriculture\, which led to the establishment of larger\, more permanent human settlements. Surplus food was produced\, trade flourished and people started to need to record trade items and events\, which led to writing. \n  \nThis led to new attitudes about useful knowledge. Subsistence societies have always faithfully transmitted useful knowledge to the next generations. Now people began to understand that we could build on existing knowledge\, and keep learning new things in a self-generating cycle. Humans had invented social evolution\, a force as powerful as ecological evolution\, and a thousand times as fast. Continuous learning and technological advancement changed everything for our species\, and eventually for the planet. \n  \nSocial evolution produced technically powerful\, highly dynamic societies based not on accommodation with nature\, but on manipulation and transformation of natural resources. When subsistence and evolving societies confronted each other\, the static subsistence societies didn’t have a chance. Just two hundred years ago\, a large part of the human population lived in subsistence societies; today\, we have only remnants of that culture. \n  \nOur increasing mastery has also given us a new view of who we are. We no longer think of ourselves as siblings of other living beings\, but rather as the species for whose use nature was created. Today\, we live in a world largely created by social evolution and in many ways cut off from the natural world from which we sprung. \n  \nOne of Glenn’s insights was that the life ways of subsistence people were worthy\, and worthy of  protection\, and that through thousands of years of living in deep relationship with nature\, they probably know some things that we have forgotten. Glenn did not have the romantic belief that substance people had ultimate wisdom and could solve all our problems. She just believed that we could learn some deep and useful lessons from them\, and that we should work with them to protect their cultures and the intact ecosystems in which they lived. \n  \nThis leads to another major difference between Botswana and North America. The two areas were colonized at about the same time (mid/late 19th century).  In North America the unofficial (and sometimes official) policy was to exterminate the subsistence peoples who were there when we arrived\, and to settle the country thickly with immigrants from Europe. Consequently in North America\, the descendants of the original subsistence inhabitants are a politically negligible minority. In Botswana\, where the colonial model was different the descendants of subsistence cultures constitute the vast majority. \n  \nIn these ways\,  the work we are supporting in Botswana represents what Glenn wanted the Sweetgrass Foundation to be for. \n  \nBut in thinking about Glenn\, there is something deeper I want to say. Most of all\, Glenn saw this world could use a lot more kindness and love and compassion. She lived out those values in a way that inspired everybody who came in contact with her. Mostly\, she wanted Sweetgrass to propagate those values\, and to be a vehicle for you\, her beloved family members\, to live out and better express the compassion she felt so deeply. Being a small part of this has been one of the joys of my life. \n  \n—Ken Margolis \n* \n  \nWhat am I called to do? I know it’s not addressing envelopes for the cancer society\, and it’s not organizing galas for the American Pediatric Association. I am called to mine the areas where others won’t go\, either because of disgust\, or fear\, or discomfort of another kind.  \n  \nAfter the years with my beloved guys at Umatilla Correctional Institution abruptly ended\, I considered other possibilities and concluded that Hospice was one of those areas that others ‘feared to tread.’ After several months of training in all things involving imminent death\, I am assigned to a wonderful 90 year old woman. I have visited her six or seven times\, and each time our conversations have reached a little deeper into life–and death. \n  \nLast week she was talking about her three (grown) children. After a pause\, she offered\, ‘I had another daughter…”  A moment later I asked\, “And did something happen to her?”  \n  \n“Yes\, she died.” \n  \nI took her hands in mine and held her. \n  \n“I am so\, so sorry.” \n  \n“She was seven months old\, and a beautiful child\, beautiful baby. I loved her so much. I don’t talk about her much now\, but I still think of her every day. I know I shouldn’t still be thinking about her as much as I do\, but I can’t help it.” \n  \n“My dear\, there is no time limit to grief. The depth of your grief shows the depth of your love. People lose parents\, siblings\, spouses\, but I think losing a child is the very most heartbreaking loss there is. I can’t imagine ever ‘getting over’ something like that. I can tell that you still miss her and love her.” \n  \nIt was a deep and precious moment\, and I knew that I was in the exact right place being where I needed to be. \n  \n—Jude Russell
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-6-5-25/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LarryYes.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250614T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250614T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T120112
CREATED:20250430T181328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251012T175407Z
UID:5551-1749913200-1749920400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:¡PARADISE NOW!   6/14/25
DESCRIPTION:  \n¡PARADISE NOW! \n  \nA guided tour by Johnny Stallings \n  \nSaturday\, June 14th\, 3 pm \nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont\, in Portland \nthis Open Road event is free
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/paradise-now-6-14-25/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/masterpieces_04.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR