Spring

At this time of year when the snowpack is melting and flowing down the walls of Yosemite, it give me a sense of the earth. Water is the pulse of the earth, that continues the life cycles. These are part of what I call “my relations.” Earlier this month the guys from Planada came back up for the first time this year. It's been great to have on-going trips with them to help our story of Education Nature's Way. One of the first things they asked was "When can we fill our water bottles at the spring?" Going to the spring has been a great thing to experience with them, so it was our first stop.

What's fun about getting together is we don't necessarily have a plan. I think it is good to enter into Yosemite with an open mind, allowing for what may happen naturally. Being spring time, of course we wanted to check the water falls. So, we headed up the Vernal Fall trail with no expectation as to how far we might go. Along the way we took our time to visit and rest here and there. The guys stayed motivated to keep going and we ended up on top of Nevada Fall, where we found snow. It was the first time for some of the guys to experience snow in the mountains.

We've been together four or five times now and I feel like we move together well. We are always respecting each other and taking care of the reality to watch our step in an environment where there can be big drop offs and slippery granite at times. I really appreciate the opportunity to learn from our group how we can continue to build our reality by learning from nature.

By taking our time to enjoy and move with this natural pace we seem more connected to the moment rather than just trying to get to the top of the falls. Like we've said before this is an on-going opportunity to learn from the kids - how they find their own rhythm in nature, meaning truly being on nature time.

Without a doubt the healing powers of nature are real. Yosemite and all the natural world have always been our guide to the possibility of survival and well- being. Sacred Rok is committed to this way of nature as the teacher - Something we all need. But at this time, in such a technological world that pushes our youth at an unnatural pace, it is vital for their development. Finding a solid foundation with the earth is a way to learn to respect life.

Thanks for your on-going support and donations. Let's keep working together!

Storm

A heavy storm passed through our mountains at the end of last March. It was a Sunday evening and it had been snowing pretty heavily for a few hours when the electricity went off. It was real quiet, as it is here when it snows. And soon it all began. Our big oaks were being stressed by heavy wet snow. Unable to hold the weight, big limbs started to creek then snap and Kaboom! Hitting whatever was in its way. The mood became one of "Uh oh, this is really intimidating." Because within a few minutes the same creaking, cracking, Kaboom! echoed through the neighborhood, even at times shaking the cabin. After a long night of no sleep, I stoked up the fire before the first light, made some coffee and anticipated what it might look like and what had happened around our community.

As the light came I stepped out to a changed world. I knew Katie's cabin out back had been hit, I just wasn't sure how bad it was. The first thing I saw was the little greenhouse nailed by a limb. Katie's cabin was covered by a tree but miraculously unharmed. Across the street my neighbor's had been hit by a huge oak that was now laying on his house. As I continued making my way through town I saw trees down everywhere, blocking all the roads and hanging on power lines. The power was out and the phones were down. We had no way to drive away and widow makers hung over our heads. Life became simple, back to the basics, really fast. It was all about helping each other --sharing, supporting, working together. This went on for eight days.

It was a big experience to sharpen the reality to not only the power of nature but also to the power we have as a community. I realized how my wood stove is a priceless friend and how simple the need for food, water and shelter are. It seems so important to bring this into our education, becoming stronger and less dependent on things we might not really need but want.

The curious thing is that this had all started on the first day of Spring. Eventually the weather cleared, the roads opened and the phones came back on. A call came through from our Native Elder and I was soon gathering willow for a sweat lodge. It was time to rebuild the one that had been used for many years. It is always an honor to be asked to help our elders. In the dark, literally, for daysit was like coming out into the light as we started bending the poles into the shape of the lodge. Once again we were working together, for the benefit of everyone and in a sacred and respectful way.

For three nights people came from all different directions to share in the spring ceremony; which is the time for renewal. The fourth day was the ancient Bear Dance ceremony in the roundhouse at Yosemite Valley - where once again people come from all around to appreciate life, promote healing and simply be together in a community. For me this brings everything together - that's why we say "To All Our Relations," referring to Earth, plant life, rocks, water, animal life. It is an honoring of the sacred reality of our universal connection.

In nature's way everything is talking and we just need to remember how to listen and respect. The trees that fell around El Portal were a reminder, once again, that we all live here together and are counting on each other; that's our job. In my mind that's why Sacred Rok exists, to help our youth and ourselves to remember how to work together and take responsibility to respect life.

As we look forward to the youth returning this season, we are in a fund-raising mode. We were fortunate to receive word this month about a new grant from Clifbar, which will support trips with some of our Merced youth. It is really appreciated at a time when the agencies we work with are facing severe funding cuts. At this time, in exchange for a donation,  we would like to offer our Scared Rok T-shirt along with a photograph ,taken by me, from Tuolumne Meadows that represent the magic and beauty of these mountains, as well as a memory of climbing up the center of that dome at age 14 with my brother Mitch who was 16 at the time. Your donation will be used to help bring kids to Tuolumne Meadows this summer.

A $50 donation gives you the choice of either a T-shirt (S, M, L, XL) or a matted photograph.

A $75 donation gets you both!

Jasper Ridge

As we continue to delve into the world of youth in this new millennium, it is amazing to see how fast-paced life is, especially with technology. Only 35 years ago, I used to ride my bike 10 miles from my house in San Carlos to an area called Jasper Ridge, where my life as a climber began. Just a few weeks ago, I returned there for the first time since. The area is now closed off to the public and is on Stanford property.

 © 2011 Dan Quinn

Jasper Ridge is a biological preserve. It’s part of Stanford’s program to conserve, study, and appreciate nature in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is tightly protected with restricted access -- for research and education as they say. After I kept needling him to get me in there, Kenji asked a friend of his, Dan Quinn, who volunteers as a docent and is an avid photographer (some of his pictures are here). Dan was psyched to let us in, but also wanted to get the best light as a photographer, that magical time of sunrise. This visit, before dawn on a cold morning a couple of weeks ago, was very special to me, for Jasper Ridge is where my education began. Maybe I can say I was educated at Stanford!

 © 2011 Dan Quinn

We met Dan at the gate to Jasper Ridge at 6:30 sharp, as early as we were allowed. We drove to a parking spot, and hiked through theoak trees east toward the emerging light as we looked for an outcrop of sandstone rock. I felt a mixture of emotions as I experienced the smell and sounds, and the sight of the place. The bay trees smelled exactly as I remembered. The shape of the sandstone boulders, the mosses on the trees and the rocks all looked like they’d been waiting – well, I guess they had been there for thousands of years. This all sparked memories so strong about the preciousness of life, it made me think of connections to the Sacred Rok youth, as I was now experiencing a place that was part of my own youth.

I realized how important this place was for my development. Of course with my youthful enthusiasm it was more about bouldering and climbing. The 35-foot crack was a test-piece that two or three of us close friends found as a kind of initiation. And many times, I would be there alone as my imagination would soar, moving up the vertical boulders and hanging on these holds, pulling myself into another world. To come back to this area and put my hands on these holds gives me the profound realization that as I was touching the holds, they were touching me – a kind of connection of belonging that so many of our kids crave. This is what is shaping our gatherings as we bring our kids to Yosemite.

 © 2011 Dan Quinn

It was still first light, we continued finding our way through the boulders to this special spot on top of the ridge. Along the way, we passed by a beautifully-shaped sandstone boulders that had been used by the first Ohlone people for grinding acorn, reminding me of the connection with what I see all over Yosemite. As a youth, we would just walk by, not putting too much thought into it, we were so focused on climbing, but now as we walked by these rocks I realize that it had a lot more to it, a nurturing spirit, and obviously that was why the people would choose to be here.

When we got to the boulder near the top of the hill, I noticed the whirling sound coming from the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC). I turned to Kenji and said that sounded just like it did 37 years ago, kind of annoying, but part of the landscape now. Amazingly enough it’s the sound of all the high energy particle experiments that have been going on all these years!

Arriving at the top of the ridge to the main boulder where we climbed on, I reached up and touched the first hold, which was instantly familiar, a flood of thoughts and feelings came up through the last 37 years of moving on rocks all over the world, meeting all of these people. It was as though I had come back to shake hands with the wise old man that gave me the energy or understanding about myself. My journey started here. I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude and appreciation, for the wisdom of this rock and this place as I acknowledged the simplicity of practicing in this beautiful environment. It was also a connection to the sincerity of being. It is these kinds of experiences that we want to bring to the youth to connect in their own way just by being themselves, inspired from such an environment as Yosemite.

Kenji asked if this place was how I remembered it, and I said it was as I remember it, even more. He recalled his own experience some years ago when he went back to a “bug tree” that he used to explore when he was a kid in Kamakura, Japan. He remembered the incredibly generous and mysterious tree that was always filled with different beetles and insects, which he’d climb and catch and put into his live cage. Some of his scientific curiosity started there, watching the way bugs moved, finding eggs and trying to hatch them, figuring out what they’d eat. He’d remembered over the years that huge tree with long branches that he’d venture out on to catch bugs. When he went back as an adult, it revived his same sense of wonder and curiosity, the excitement of discovery, but he was also startled at how small the tree was, that somehow the tree had grown in his imagination over the years. But he had the same sense of appreciation for the early memories planted in experience that begins life’s journey.

From the boulder, we descended back down to the other side of the formation, where we found the 35-foot beautiful hand crack that was slightly overhanging. Again, there was this curious overwhelming sense of connection and appreciation.

The contrast to what I did the night before was quite interesting. I had come to the Bay Area to present at a fundraiser at Planet Granite for the Access Fund to “Save Jailhouse Rock” along with my friend Jimmy Thornburg. It was fun and I appreciated seeing all the people at this modern venue. I marveled at the hundreds of people working on climbs in the gym. It’s really an incredible facility, the amount of effort that went into building it, and the amazing energy of the people it has gathered. People of all ages, and even an 8-year old girl who I’m told has a rare talent. I wonder how different things are between my enthusiasm that started at Jasper Ridge and the enthusiasm of the gym. I’d love to work on the bridge between the indoor and the outdoor world.

When I got back home to El Portal, I happened to notice a classic little book that Malcolm Margolin wrote, called “The Ohlone Way”. I’m not even sure where I got the book, but it caught my attention because of the connection to Jasper Ridge. I really appreciated the way that the book talked about respect, equality, support -- words to inspire us as we look for how to create a healthy community, through the simplicity of being with one another, creating good relationships.

 © 2011 Dan Quinn

I realized from Jasper Ridge how this place shaped the course of my life. It made me understand the importance of the environment we are in as youth, and how it nurtures us. It was there that I learned the art of practicing, as a way of development. It started the imagination that took me all around the world, and to this day it fuels my appreciation of visiting the familiar climbs in Yosemite practicing the art of practice. The hold that I appreciate every day began with the appreciation of the hold in Jasper Ridge.

 © 2011 Dan Quinn

Our Sacred Rok youth, like all youth, have an abundance of energy, and it is our job to facilitate this energy in a positive direction. They already know how to respond to the right things, as I did to the holds at Jasper Ridge. Given the chance, like all of us, we can evoke our senses through the simplicity of respect and equality as we look for the harmony and balance between heart and mind.

Year End Reflections

In looking back over the year, I feel immensely privileged to have had so many meaningful and positive experiences in sharing with the youth what I have come to call the ceremony of nature. This may sound a bit exaggerated but living in the realm of such beauty and reality of the natural world, it’s just how I feel.

As we pass the winter solstice, and the angle of the earth’s rotation begins to swing our northern half into ever so slightly longer days, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work on this project with such a diverse group of people involved with Sacred Rok. Life continues to unfold in ways that inspire me to deeply reflect on my relationship with Yosemite, coming as a youth and always looking for the next challenge – from the next boulder problem to the next wall and adventures beyond in the Himalayas.

It feels like Sacred Rok for me has become a climb of a lifetime, putting together everything from my adult life to build on and expand into the reality of being human and continuing to stay connected to the lessons of nature. So I sit here, in my cabin in El Portal listening to the rain, pausing and contemplating the possibilities that nature brings to youth, and imagining how to build healthy communities.

I’ve had some good conversations with my friend Kenji recently about what this all means. He feels like he misses out on a lot by not

having as much time to spend with Sacred Rok as he would like, joining me occasionally in the ceremonies of nature with the kids, helping me with the newsletter stories and constructing our narrative. We are so different in the paths we have taken to Sacred Rok, but share the view and uniqueness of what we are trying to accomplish.

As an education professor at Stanford working to understand and fix problems of educating our youth, Kenji has reached a point in his career where this maturity, so to speak, is making him much sought after, to do more with his knowledge and experience to help school districts and government policies.

Yet he thinks that sitting in a small community center in Planada, talking and reflecting on our experiences in nature with Oswaldo (one of the Sacred Rok kids), as we did last Monday holds great meaning, even richer and deeper than changing government policies. He’s learning new things, and feels the need to do more, to more deeply understand how we learn. He even mentioned the Planada kids at one of his public lectures recently at the Ronald Reagan Center in Washington, using this experience to point out how we need to broaden our concept of what it means to be educated.

Kenji and I also had the chance to visit later that week at the annual Christmas gathering of friends of the Yosemite Conservancy at the Log Cabin in the Presidio in San Francisco. That was an event filled with the luminaries of the philanthropic world, a veritable “Who’s Who” of active supporters of Yosemite. As we mingled and enjoyed the good food and drinks, we were struck by the contrast in the worlds, having just been in Planada a couple of days earlier. I had gone that day to Planada from my climbing dojo in Yosemite – another big contrast – and now here we were in the elite world of San Francisco philanthropy. What does this all mean?

We feel that we have a unique story going on and a diverse collaboration of people that form Sacred Rok. We want to keep focus on the fact that true change comes from the power of the individual in the presence of a teacher -- nature. We look to nature to release the clarity of our innate senses. As Ueshiba sensei wrote in the Art of Peace about Aikido: “The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind). If the senses are clogged, ones’ perception is stifled. The more it is stifled, the more contaminated the senses become. This creates disorder in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all. Polish the heart, free the six senses and let them function without obstruction, and your entire body and soul will glow.”

To help us share this vision with you, our friend Francisco Mendoza from the Planada group produced a short video - in watching it, we hope that you feel as inspired as we do.

It continues to be an honor to share these thoughts and experiences with you.

Ron Kauk

Here is an update and summary from our Chair of the Board, Nancy Goodban.

Dear Friends of Sacred Rok:

As 2010 comes to a close, I wanted to thank you for your support of Sacred Rok. We have been in operation as a non-profit now for a year and a half, and in this short time we have connected with youth from the Merced area through a variety of partnerships, allowing what Ron calls “the ceremony of nature” to take place in Yosemite. These are kids who otherwise might not have access to the healing powers of nature, and so we are very proud of our accomplishments.

In 2010, Ron led ten trips -- 3 day trips for Probation youth, 3 day trips for Planada kids, 2 camping trips for Probation youth, and 2 camping trips for foster youth. The best moments have come in listening to the water, taking in expansive views of the high Sierras, or encountering a Mountain King snake. In the presence of natural beauty, we appreciate the power of slowing down and having the time to recognize the senses, clearing them out in order to gain balance.

At the same time, we built our infrastructure through our website and this newsletter. We completed the administrative basics: our tax exempt status, financial reports and insurance. The Merced County Human Services Agency provided customized training to our volunteers and staff regarding the emotional and behavioral impacts of child abuse, mandatory child abuse reporting, sexual harassment prevention, domestic violence, and bullying. We adopted anti-abuse, harassment, and bullying policies for adults and youth participants, as well as other basic policies including background checks and confidentiality.

We reached out to the outdoor industry and were grateful to receive cash or equipment donations from the Clif Bar Family Foundation, Patagonia, The California Endowment, Kleen Kanteen, Camelback, Kelty, Sierra Designs, North Face, REI, and Slumberjack. Ron gave educational presentations including at the Stanford University Alpine Club and to REI staff at Yosemite National Park as well as to several REI venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. And of course, many of you have contributed generously, for which we are extremely grateful.

We have developed a curriculum which outlines our philosophy, approach, and activities including learning outcomes and objectives as well as a logic model.

The Board has also identified the value of having an identified site for camping and other activities. We are working with youth who are at or near maturity, and want to provide a safe haven for them to return to at any time. Our vision is a small facility on several acres in or near Yosemite, where young people can come at any time once they have graduated from foster care or Probation. We are not sure how to make this happen, but are exploring various options – and your good ideas would be much appreciated.

Finally, please help us by considering the purchase of our first product line – Ron’s Midnight Lightning T-shirt, which we will provide for a donation of $50 or more. We produced it in collaboration with good friend and designer Jeremy Collins, and it is made from organic cotton. It would make a nice gift for a climber friend of yours, and help support a good cause.

Thanks, and may 2011 bring peace to the world and happiness to you and your loved ones.

Nancy Goodban

Chair of the Board

And now a few words from our cook:

A year and a half ago, when Sacred Rok was gearing up for it's first camping trip with the youth from HSA Merced they were in need of a cook and someone to manage the camp. Through a series of conversations and shared ideas it was decided that I would take reigns has Camp Chef/Camp Manager.

We wanted to bring the kids to our table; to share our meals with them and our appreciation for the communion food allows for us to have. Part of the idea was to use as much locally grown, organic goods we could find and to share with the youth some understanding about where the food we were eating came from and why it is not only beneficial to our bodies to eat good food but also to the environment.

Sacred Rok is a creative collaboration of a diverse group of people and I wanted to continue the theme of diversity into the food. We have a great advantage living in Yosemite in that the Central Valley rests only 60 miles away, allowing access to an array of locally grown and harvested goods. The youth we interact with all reside in the Central Valley and I found this to be a wonderful opportunity for them to see what amazing bounty grows there amongst them.

While much of the farming in the Valley is large-scale, mono-cultured growing there are quite a bit of small, family operated farms offering a nice assortment of organic fruits, vegetables, legumes and honey. These were and will continue to be some of Sacred Rok's best choices for delicious, nutritious fare. Wild onion and Watercress grow natively in Yosemite and the High Sierra and these were used quite often in my cooking. There were a few times while out on their walks that the kids would harvest these things for us, with the amazement that we could eat what the nature was growing right there.

It was while sharing food with these kids that I started to connect with them on a very basic human level. As we cooked, ate, and cleaned up with each other we shared stories and laughed. Soon they would ask about what we were eating; we talked about where the food came from, what was in it, how I made it and most importantly what was for dessert. Through these shared meals we started to form a trust with one-another, we started to form a community.

In working with the youth through Sacred Rok I aim to continue to connect with them by providing healthy meals in which they take part of by helping with the preparation and by engaging with them in conversation about where our food comes from. In these conversations I hope to shed light on the value of food and the value of taking care of our Earth so that it can continue to provide for us. In this sharing I hope to inspire creativity for Sacred Rok and in these youth, deepening our connection with one-another.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Katie Lambert

Sacred Rok is grateful for the support of the California Endowment, through the Building Healthy Communities Collaborative in Merced, for funding to support the Planada trips.