The Open Road: a learning community

ZEN: History & Essence 1/17/26
2026-01-17 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
ZEN:History & Essence

Johnny Stallings will give an overview of the history of Zen and host a conversation about the meaning of Zen on Saturday, January 17th, 2026, at 2 pm (PST).
Here’s the Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88465906598

An Sceal (The Story) with Will Hornyak
2026-01-22 - 2026-02-01
The Open Road Recommends:

An Sceal (The Story) Will Hornyak joins Portland’s brilliant Corrib Theatre folks to celebrate St. Brigit and Imbolc with dance, drama, singing & storytelling.
Thursday, January 22, 1 pm
Sunday, January 25, 8:30 pm
Thursday, January 29, 1 pm
Sunday, February 1, 8:30 pm
T.C. O’Leary’s Pub, 2926 NE Alberta, in Portland
Tickets & info: https://www.corribtheatre.org/tickets

peace, love, happiness & understanding 2/5/26
2026-02-05 - 2026-03-04
Bodhidharma

THE OPEN ROAD
peace, love, happiness & understanding

February 5, 2026

The Infinite a sudden Guest
Has been assumed to be—
But how can that stupendous come
Which never went away?

—Emily Dickinson
*

Beginning My Studies

Beginning my studies the first step pleas’d me so much,
The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the power of motion,
The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love,
The first step I say awed me and pleas’d me so much,
I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go any farther,
But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.

—Walt Whitman
*

Yes

It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.

It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out—no guarantees
in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.

—William Stafford
*

“…I believe there is a limit to the number of times a man can profitably inform his neighbor, or be informed by him, that the inexpressible cannot be expressed.”

—Owen Barfield, from the essay “Imagination and Inspiration” in The Rediscovery of Meaning and Other Essays, p. 180
*

A man who encountered the Buddha for the first time was impressed by his radiance.
He asked: “Are you a man or a god?”
Buddha replied: “I’m awake.”
*

some thoughts on Zen

According to legend, one day many people had gathered to hear the Buddha speak. Instead of speaking, he held up a flower. One man, Kasyapa, smiled, and realized enlightenment. Zen Buddhism traces it’s origin to this “Flower Sermon.”

That just about sums it up.

A thousand years later, Bodhidharma traveled from India to China, and sat for nine years facing the wall of a cave. Buddhism had been in China for many centuries by this time, but this emphasis on sitting in silence was what launched the Zen tradition of Buddhism. Bodhidharma is known as the “First Zen Patriarch.”

The Third Zen Patriarch, Seng Ts’an, produced the first Zen text—Hsin Hsin Ming. As an account of what the Zen way of experiencing the world, it is unsurpassed. Here are 28 of the 73 couplets:

the great way (Tao) is not difficult
it has no preferences

make the smallest distinction
and heaven and earth are far apart

conflict between liking and not liking
is the disease of the mind

if its deep meaning is not understood
we strive in vain to quiet the mind

it is perfect like vast space
nothing lacking, nothing left over

don’t get entangled in outer things
or abide in inner emptiness

when the mind is still
all views disappear

trying to quiet the mind
is just more activity

the more talking and thinking
the farther you go from what is

look within for just a moment
and go beyond appearance and emptiness

don’t seek truth
just let go of your views

when the mind is still
the ten thousand things do not offend

without an object of thought, there can be no thinking subject
without a thinker, there are no things

the great way is vast
to live in accord with it is neither easy nor hard

following our nature, we are in harmony with the way
wandering freely, without a care

fixed ideas can’t encompass what is true
they sink into darkness, become unhealthy

if you want to take the one vehicle
don’t reject mental or sensory experience

to accept everything
is to be enlightened

seeking the mind with the mind
isn’t that a big mistake?

profit and loss, right and wrong
get rid of them once and for all

understanding the mystery of one suchness
difficulties are forgotten

no descriptions or analogies are possible
of this state where relations have come to an end

empty, clear, your light shines
without mental effort

thought can’t reach this
beyond knowing, imagining, feeling

in the realm of things as they are
there is no self or other

no here, no there
the whole world right before our eyes

the tiny is as large as the vast
when boundaries are gone

beyond words
no past, no future, no now

Lao Tzu’s advice in the Tao Te Ching to do nothing (wu wei), and the Zen practice of sitting in silence had a big influence on Chinese and Japanese culture, and, more recently, on the lives of many people in the rest of the world.

The idea of sitting in silence seems to many people like a big waste of time. The practice goes back to before the time of the Buddha in India. The Japanese word “zen” is a translation of the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which means “meditation,” or sitting silently. Sometimes, in the quiet, thought and language fall away.

I came upon this idea of blissful silence in Paramahansa Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi when I was 19 years old. He called it samādhi. I wanted to get that!

The Zen texts which are dearest to my heart, and to which I’ve returned again and again are: the Hsin Hsin Ming of Seng Ts’an, Cold Mountain: 100 Poems of Han Shan, translated by Burton Watson, Unborn: The Life and Teachings of Zen Master Bankei, 1622-1693, translated by Norman Waddell, “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics by R.H. Blyth, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki & the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh.

Han Shan lived in China sometime during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He spent the last part of his life living the simple life of a hermit in the mountains, writing poems like these:

Among a thousand clouds and ten thousand streams,
Here lives an idle man,
In the daytime wandering over green mountains,
At night coming home to sleep by the cliff.
Swiftly the springs and autumns pass,
But my mind is at peace, free from dust or delusion.
How pleasant, to know I need nothing to lean on,
To be as still as the waters of the autumn river!

The clear water sparkles like crystal,
You can see through it easily, right to the bottom.
Mind free from every thought,
Nothing in the myriad realms can move it.
Since it can not be wantonly roused,
Forever and forever it will stay unchanged.
When you have learned to know in this way,
You will know there is no inside or out!

Bankei gave talks to large groups of people. He said we all have unborn Buddha-mind. He said: “Don’t exchange your unborn Buddha-mind for the mind of a hungry ghost!”

Many of the things Walt Whitman says in “Song of Myself” express what to me is the essence of Zen. Here are a few examples:

This minute that comes to me over the past decillions,
There is no better than it or now.

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

All truths wait in all things.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars…
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

…to glance with an eye, or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times…

Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics is one of my favorite books. I read it slowly. When I get to the end, I start at the beginning again. Blyth explores the Zen way of seeing and being in the world. We come to see beauty and perfection in ordinary things.

For many people of my generation, Shunryu Suzuki served as a contemporary exemplar of the Zen way. He taught us how to sit.

Thich Nhat Hanh is the most congenial Zen teacher to me. I love his friendliness, his gentleness, his sweetness, his joy. He seems to radiate deep peace and love. His book Your True Home has been for me the most useful guide for how to live my human life on Earth. I’ve given away dozens of copies to my friends.

peace & love
Johnny
*

If you want peace love happiness and understanding NOW, RIGHT NOW, all I can say, my friends, is watch (google, facebook, instagram, etc.) the 18 Buddhist monks as they walk for peace. They are walking 2300 (!) miles from their monastery in Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. They cover approximately 20 miles per day, and have walked between 1900-2000 miles from October 26th when they began.

Their leader is 44 yr old Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, and he began this journey in an attempt to foster and promote peace in his fellow man, in a troubled world. When they began there were a few curious onlookers—a very few. Most just curious to see these burnt-orange robed men walking, mostly barefoot, (but booted and bundled when heavy snow began to fall), along the roadways, first through Texas, then Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia… Soon, however, there were hundreds, and then thousands, tens of thousands followers, the monks now with multiple police escorts to manage the crowds. Men, women, children all lining the roads, bowing their heads offering prayers and heartfelt thank yous, shedding tears, tears of relief, and peace and joy to witness this moment of beauty, this moment of peace in a fractured world. This respite from pain.

The Venerable Bhikkhu says he has been overwhelmed at the response; he never expected this tremendous show of peace, love, happiness and understanding. Now millions are watching, witnessing their progress towards Washington, DC.

The peace which passeth all understanding. This is it.

—Jude Russell

Humanism 2/14/26
2026-02-14 14:00 - 16:00
HUMANISM

Johnny Stallings will host a dialogue on Humanism on Saturday, February 14th, 2026, at 2 pm (PST).
Here’s the Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82751789337

peace, love, happiness & understanding 3/5/26
2026-03-05 - 2026-04-01
Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

THE OPEN ROAD
peace, love, happiness & understanding

March 5, 2026

some thoughts on Humanism

All deities reside in the human breast….
God only Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.

—William Blake, from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
*

Numberless are the world’s wonders, but none more wonderful than man.

Sophocles, from “Antigone”
*

In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less…

–Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself”
*

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals…

–William Shakespeare, Hamlet speaking in “Hamlet,” Act Two, scene two
*

Inspired by Sarah Bakewell’s book Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry and Hope, I hosted a Zoom conversation about Humanism on February 14th. I enjoyed reading and thinking about Humanism in preparation for the Zoom event.

Humanism can mean a lot of different things. I think of it as related to the word “humane.” A humanistic attitude is one that considers human beings to be basically good. It tends to be optimistic about human potential, and about education, progress, reason and science. Humanists tend to be against war and against capital punishment. In one way, “humanism” must be as old as humanity.

As a historical movement, Humanism is associated with the Renaissance, and an interest that some writers and artists took in classical Greece and Rome. The poet Petrarch (1304-1374) is often cited as the father of Humanism. For a thousand years in Europe, it was dangerous to espouse “heretical” views. From the beginning until now, humanists have promoted freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We tend to take these things for granted, but in some countries atheism or homosexuality are punishable by death.

For many many people in the Middle Ages (and many people today) our life on Earth is a kind of prison house or purgatory, which serves only as a misery which we must endure in preparation for a glorious eternal afterlife in Heaven. Humanists are pretty unanimous in their belief that our human life on Earth is to be cherished—and some go as far as to believe that when we die we’re dead.

Modern Humanism includes Feminism and Human Rights. Perhaps the most important modern document which could not have been imagined without centuries of humanist influence is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here’s a link:

https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-2-21/

The Multnomah County Library is a temple of Humanism. Here’s a poem I wrote recently:

Ode to Humanists

Thank you
brave humanists
for making it possible
for us to read
whatever
we want to read
to think
our own thoughts
to imagine
to dream
to say
whatever
we feel like saying
to write and publish
our ideas and imaginings
to go
where we want
and do
whatever
we feel like doing.

If not for you
we would have
only one book
and the world
would be
flat.

Although some modern humanists are generally hostile to religion, since Humanism is fundamentally open to the free exchange of ideas and beliefs, that includes the right of people to think things and believe things that you don’t. A “Declaration of Modern Humanism” from a General Assembly in Glasgow, United Kingdom in 2022, agreed that “…we are committed to the unfettered expression and exchange of ideas, and seek to cooperate with people of different beliefs…” They also said, “We recognize that we are part of nature and accept our responsibility for the impact we have on the rest of the natural world.”

I’ll conclude these thoughts on Humanism with something that gives the essence of many humanist values. It’s from the Nineteenth Century agnostic who gave the eulogy at Walt Whitman’s grave—Robert G. Ingersoll. The full essay is called “The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.” Below is an abridged version of “The Liberty of the Child” along with an abridged version of his conclusion to the whole essay:

THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN

If women have been slaves, what shall I say of children?….

I tell you the children have the same rights that we have, and we ought to treat them as though they were human beings. They should be reared with love, with kindness, with tenderness, and not with brutality. That is my idea of children….

When your child commits a wrong, take it in your arms; let it feel your heart beat against its heart; let the child know that you really and truly and sincerely love it….

Do you know that I have seen some people who acted as though they thought that when the Savior said “Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven,” he had a raw-hide under his mantle, and made that remark simply to get the children within striking distance?

Give them a little liberty and love, and you can not drive them out of your house. They will want to stay there. Make home pleasant. Let them play any game they wish….

Let children have some daylight at home if you want to keep them there, and do not commence at the cradle and shout “Don’t!” “Don’t!” “Stop!” That is nearly all that is said to a child from the cradle until he is twenty-one years old, and when he comes of age other people begin saying “Don’t!” And the church says “Don’t!” and the party he belongs to says “Don’t!”

I despise that way of going through this world. Let us have liberty—just a little. Call me infidel, call me atheist, call me what you will, I intend so to treat my children, that they can come to my grave and truthfully say: “He who sleeps here never gave us a moment of pain. From his lips, now dust, never came to us an unkind word.”

People justify all kinds of tyranny toward children upon the ground that they are totally depraved. At the bottom of ages of cruelty lies this infamous doctrine of total depravity. Religion contemplates a child as a living crime—heir to an infinite curse—doomed to eternal fire….

Sabbaths used to be prisons. Every Sunday was a Bastille. Every Christian was a kind of turnkey, and every child was a prisoner,—a convict. In that dungeon, a smile was a crime.

It was thought wrong for a child to laugh upon this holy day. Think of that!

A little child would go out into the garden, and there would be a tree laden with blossoms, and the little fellow would lean against it, and there would be a bird on one of the boughs, singing and swinging, and thinking about four little speckled eggs, warmed by the breast of its mate,—singing and swinging, and the music in happy waves rippling out of its tiny throat, and the flowers blossoming, the air filled with perfume and the great white clouds floating in the sky, and the little boy would lean up against that tree and think about hell and the worm that never dies.

The laugh of a child will make the holiest day-more sacred still….

Do not treat your children like orthodox posts to be set in a row. Treat them like trees that need light and sun and air. Be fair and honest with them; give them a chance. Recollect that their rights are equal to yours. Do not have it in your mind that you must govern them; that they must obey. Throw away forever the idea of master and slave.

In old times they used to make the children go to bed when they were not sleepy, and get up when they were sleepy. I say let them go to bed when they are sleepy, and get up when they are not sleepy….

I believe in allowing the children to think for themselves. I believe in the democracy of the family. If in this world there is anything splendid, it is a home where all are equals.

You will remember that only a few years ago parents would tell their children to “let their victuals stop their mouths.” They used to eat as though it were a religious ceremony—a very solemn thing. Life should not be treated as a solemn matter. I like to see the children at table, and hear each one telling of the wonderful things he has seen and heard. I like to hear the clatter of knives and forks and spoons mingling with their happy voices. I had rather hear it than any opera that was ever put upon the boards. Let the children have liberty. Be honest and fair with them; be just; be tender, and they will make you rich in love and joy….

CONCLUSION.

I have given you my honest thought. Surely investigation is better than unthinking faith. Surely reason is a better guide than fear. This world should be controlled by the living, not by the dead. About this world little is known,—about another world, nothing.

Our fathers were intellectual serfs, and their fathers were slaves. The makers of our creeds were ignorant and brutal. Every dogma that we have, has upon it the mark of whip, the rust of chain, and the ashes of fagot.

Our fathers reasoned with instruments of torture. They believed in the logic of fire and sword. They hated reason. They despised thought. They abhorred liberty.

Superstition is the child of slavery. Free thought will give us truth. When all have the right to think and to express their thoughts, every brain will give to all the best it has. The world will then be filled with intellectual wealth….

As long as woman regards the Bible as the charter of her rights, she will be the slave of man. The Bible was not written by a woman. Within its lids there is nothing but humiliation and shame for her. She is regarded as the property of man. She is made to ask forgiveness for becoming a mother. She is as much below her husband, as her husband is below Christ. She is not allowed to speak. The gospel is too pure to be spoken by her polluted lips. Woman should learn in silence.

In the Bible will be found no description of a civilized home. The free mother surrounded by free and loving children, adored by a free man, her husband, was unknown to the inspired writers of the Bible. They did not believe in the democracy of home—in the republicanism of the fireside.

These inspired gentlemen knew nothing of the rights of children. They were the advocates of brute force—the disciples of the lash. They knew nothing of human rights. Their doctrines have brutalized the homes of millions, and filled the eyes of infancy with tears.

Let us free ourselves from the tyranny of a book, from the slavery of dead ignorance, from the aristocracy of the air.

There has never been upon the earth a generation of free men and women. It is not yet time to write a creed. Wait until the chains are broken—until dungeons are not regarded as temples. Wait until solemnity is not mistaken for wisdom—until mental cowardice ceases to be known as reverence. Wait until the living are considered the equals of the dead—until the cradle takes precedence of the coffin. Wait until what we know can be spoken without regard to what others may believe. Wait until teachers take the place of preachers—until followers become investigators. Wait until the world is free before you write a creed.

In this creed there will be but one word—Liberty.

Oh Liberty, float not forever in the far horizon—remain not forever in the dream of the enthusiast, the philanthropist and poet, but come and make thy home among the children of men!

I know not what discoveries, what inventions, what thoughts may leap from the brain of the world. I know not what garments of glory may be woven by the years to come. I cannot dream of the victories to be won upon the fields of thought; but I do know, that coming from the infinite sea of the future, there will never touch this “bank and shoal of time” a richer gift, a rarer blessing than liberty for man, for woman, and for child.

—Johnny Stallings
*

Speaking of miracles…well, I find the word ‘miracle’ too loaded with religiosity, so I will dub those events as ‘moments of awe,’ both outward(ly) and inward(ly).

Last night the brilliant full moon lit up Mt. Hood like it was the middle of the day. I could see Tie-In Rock, Langille Glacier, Eliot Glacier, Illumination Rock (so aptly named), Barrett Spur—every feature on the northeast side of the mountain, where we are, lit up as bright as day. At ten o’clock at night! Right there, the moon, and the mountain, a moment of awe. And then, then! from 4-5 a.m., I watched the lunar eclipse and watched and felt the shadow of our earth passing between the sun and the moon. Those who got to witness the solar eclipse in 2021 spoke often of having a spiritual experience during the moments of totality. This lunar eclipse brought forth the same kind of feeling in my being. I feel—graced—to witness moments like these.

I mentioned moments of awe both outwardly and inwardly—the ‘inwardly’ part is…the body, the human body. It is…awesome. I tutored a high school student who had cerebral palsy. I helped him study anatomy and physiology because he wanted to be a personal trainer. (Yes.) We studied every system of the human body, the nervous system, skeletal, circulatory, endocrine, digestive, respiratory, etc. You name it, we studied it, and learned it. I was blown away, studying alongside Daniel. Just for one example, the functioning of the liver is so elegant! And complex, that it defies belief! I was constantly shaking my head and laughing at the awesomeness of each part and each function, down to the cellular level. And the whole body is like that!

But you know what? The moon, the mountain, stars, the human body, trees, rocks, grass, light, dark, raindrops, birdsong, bird poop…it’s all damned miracle. An awesome miracle. There, I said it.

—Jude Russell

Hamlet: a reading 3/21/26
2026-03-21 14:00 - 16:00
photo by Corky Miller

Hamlet
a reading

Johnny Stallings reads an abridged version of Hamlet.
Saturday, March 21 at 2 pm
Artspace Room at Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont

this Open Road event is free

Jay Bean Performing Live at Hood River Brewing Company 3/21/26
2026-03-21 19:00 - 21:00
Jay Bean Performing Live!

Saturday, March 21st, 7-9 pm
Hood River Brewing Company
101 4th Street, Hood River

Will Hornyak upcoming performances
2026-03-27 - 2026-04-10
The First Irishman: The Legend of Tuan Mac Cairill and the Tale of the Dagda’s Harp (ORR) Storyteller William Kennedy Hornyak weaves the epic myth of Tuan Mac Cairill with poems, songs and Irish lore in celebration of Beltaine, St. Patrick and the Druids and gods and goddesses of the Emerald Isle.

Friday, March 27, 7:30 pm
KALA Performance Space, 1017 Marine Drive, Astoria, OR
Beer, wine & cocktails available
$20
Reservations: https://www.tickettomato.com/event/9948

Friday, April 10, 7 pm
Taborspace Copeland Commons, 5441 SE Belmont, Portland
$20 Cash/Check/Venmo at the Door
Limited Seating, Reservations Recommended:
hornyak.will@gmail.com

peace, love, happiness & understanding 4/2/26
2026-04-02 - 2026-05-06
Rocky & Johnny under the palm trees

THE OPEN ROAD
peace, love, happiness & understanding

April 2, 2026

Time is money.

—Benjamin Franklin
*

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

—Thich Nhat Hanh
*

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
*

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
*

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

For Amusement Purposes Only 4/11/26
2026-04-11 14:00 - 16:00
For Amusement Purposes Only

Johnny Stallings attempts to entertain.
Just for fun!
There will be snacks.

Saturday, April 11, at 2 p.m.
Artspace Room at Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont

this Open Road Event is free

A Midsummer Night's Dream in Prison: screenings on April 16th & 17th
2026-04-16 - 2026-04-17
This month, there will be two screenings of Bushra Azzouz’s film A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison, in Portland. If you haven’t seen the film, this will be a good opportunity. If you have seen it, maybe you’d like to watch it again. Or tell your friends about it.
Both screenings will be followed by Q & A with actors.
Both are free and open to the public.

Portland State University
Women’s Resource Center & Queer Resource Center
April 16th, 2026 3:30 p.m.
Smith Memorial Union Building
1825 SW Broadway
4th Floor, Room 439

S.M.I.L.E. STATION
Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League Neighborhood Association
April 17th, 2026 5:30 p.m.
8210 SE 13th Ave

Song of Myself 5/31/26
2026-05-31 14:00 - 16:00
painting of Walt Whitman by Rick Bartow

Song of Myself

To celebrate Walt Whitman’s 207th birthday, Rocky Hutchinson & Johnny Stallings will read from Walt’s masterpiece.
There will be a birthday cake!

Sunday, May 31, at 2 p.m.
Artspace Room at Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont

this Open Road event is free

¡Bibliophilia!
2026-06-13 14:00 - 16:00
Read any good books lately? What are your favorite books of all time? What books changed the way you understand and experience the world? Join Johnny for a lively dialogue about books

It’s gonna be FUN!.

¡Bibliophilia! Johnny Stallings hosts a conversation about books. There will be snacks.
Saturday, June 13, 2 pm
Artspace Room at Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont
This Open Road event is free!
