In Homing In, I tell about a dream that I had when I was a young teenager. In my dream I experienced what appeared to be was the end of the world, and I went with my grandmother to be taken up. Candlewood Lake, where I lived was reflecting the storm that was brewing destruction. The looming storm clouds appeared as a sign of the end times. While I flew over our region, in a kind of open flying machine, I understood that hell was the suffering I was witnessing on Earth. I took in an overview that saddened me.
 
Marnie, my dear grandmother, was patiently knitting in a kind of waiting room where we both were waiting our turn to be transported. But I couldn’t wait, I was impatient. I needed to go up immediately, even if it meant leaving my grandmother behind and risking the possibility of being separated from my family. Suddenly, I ascended in a tube-like cylinder that transported me.
 
Right before my eyes was the face of God. My whole body knew I was encountering the divine. There were three stars against a deep blue background that seemed to be a kind of trinity made of star sapphires shining brightly. I can remember thinking that if I was meeting God, that I must be dead. Still, I was filled with a kind of bliss that I have never found words able to convey.
 
Then surprisingly, I awoke alive with this vision that was imprinted in my whole Self or mind-body memory. I can’t explain my dream, nor understand why I was shown what I comprehended to be the face of creation. But recently, new NASA pictures were shared and one of the photos looks like the trinity of stars that I encountered in my dream.
 
Mystery is the foundation of faith. When I look at this photo I am filled with radical amazement for this image of the deep field of the Universe. We have all been offered the possibility to take a glimpse at the face of Creation and experience the ineffable. As humanity searches for its origins, we are discovering the deep field that generates life-form.
 
These explorations through time and space bring us closer to what Christians refer to as the Trinity. Looking at the face of God, revealed to us through NASA’s technology, is awe inspiring. These photos allow us to penetrate the mystery, traveling deep into the Universe. Each picture captures a unique unveiling of the divine.

Link to NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet

​We need strong relationships to become champions. Greatness is not achieved, races and battles are not won, without the support of our friends, companions, and our teammates. This summer I visited the Infantry Museum in Fort Benning, Georgia with my brother who is currently a Colonel at Fort Benning. He explained how ‘The Last One Hundred Yards’ is a fundamental part of the infantry training program for soldiers. The museum has an exhibit that shows how the infantry works to secure the last one hundred yards in historic battles. Soldiers must develop their physical core, their relational core, and their spiritual core to find courage and resilience in the battlefield to secure the last one hundred yards.
 
On the soccer field, my daughter Jessica plays for FC Sion Women’s Soccer team in the Swiss B League. She trains 4 times a week and has a match each weekend. The strong relational bonds that develop through playing together have carried her team to the championships. Jessica came from behind in her defense position to score a decisive goal for her team and assure their place within the B League in June 2022. Being part of an outstanding team provides the opportunity to experience strong emotions together, as during their final game in Sion, when they celebrated their victory.
 
Another example of friendship and companionship was the 76-kilometer Trail Verbier St. Bernard race that my son Nils ran in 14 hours and 40 minutes in July 2022. Along the mountain trail, family, friends and colleagues provided refueling with food, water and other beverages to make sure he kept up his energy during the race. This solidarity was reinforced during the last 30 kilometers when his good friend Simon ran with him to Verbier, making sure that he was accompanied to the finish line.
 
We thrive when we participate in trusting relationships that allow us to give the best of ourselves. The human family needs strong partnerships to both survive and flourish. Companionship and friendship provide the empowering relationships we need to experience championship. Victory is won through committed relationships that elicit the best of ourselves through relational commitment. When we support and defend honorable causes, we engage in championship.
 
 
The video explaining ‘The Last One Hundred Yards’

​This summer when I returned to Nebraska, I journeyed to Black Bird Bend Farm where my father David’s widow, Dody lives in a farmhouse sheltered by the bluffs near the Missouri River. Walking through the kitchen that used to have a large country pantry, I saw the familiar oak dining room table that reminded me of all the family meals together with my parents and grandparents.  In the family room that looks out over the back porch and down to the crops that end at the riverbank, she opened a small black box decorated with Russian artistry that held objects once held by my father.
 
She told me that I could choose whatever I wanted from the different possessions that once belonged to my dad. In the ornate box among pocketknives and other trinkets was a small compass. Over the last few months, I had been writing about activating the inner compass and how the questing process allows us to orient ourselves as we journey through life. As she opened the box and presented the contents, I knew that my father’s compass was being offered to me at serendipitous moment in time, marking the importance of the object mediator as well as the metaphor.
 
The inner and outer journey come together in a pathway that presents itself like pebbles and shells that are carried by the sea where waves meet sand, marking the shoreline. There is a synchronous coming together of sea and sand dotted by nature’s scatterings. Yet in the haphazardness, there is a divine pattern that emerges. The inner adventures that take us deep within ourselves, where metaphors evoke memories, transport while the outer journey takes us to new places revisited, adding new layers of meaning to our lifeline.
 
The compass came to me at a time in my life when I could appreciate its symbolic meaning.
The outer journey is guided by the inner adventure that informs our way forward, adding to our inner landscapes of meaning. This lifescaping happens through synchronicity, as well as the ability to see the symbolism that becomes a pathway to wholeness. In this voyage, landmarks become creative mythology, the art of living with the Gods.

Autoethnography can be understood as part of an integrated continuum within a narrative conflict resolution framework. Narrative methods have been shown to increase narrative coherency and generate transformation processes. Conflict transformation goes beyond conflict resolution by engaging people, families and communities in constructive social change processes. Even pedagogy can be used to elicit transformation processes. Guiding metaphors provide symbols that reinforce our ability to imagine a more desirable situation as we identify the changes we seek. When practicing holistic approaches, life-o-grams become transformagrams.
 
In this way, conflict is a gift when it is understood to be a vehicle for change. When conflict is perceived as a gift, conflict transformation opens to a passageway toward more life-giving opportunities and fulfilling relationships. Social change processes that increase social justice bring forth justicepeace, or peace rooted in justice. When we map our conflicts, we can better understand the processes-structures that are shaping conflict. We can see the patterns that give form to conflict. Our conscious awareness acts on these relational patterns. Mapping conflict transforms our perception of conflict as we explore the connections. This in turn allows us to behold our conflict narratives using Appreciative Inquiry.
 
We are living in glovircal landscapes, experiencing the global and local through virtual landscapes that offer increased interconnectedness. Conflict transformation allows us to enter constructive change process that lift our lives through creative endeavors, allowing our life stories to become works of art within the larger picture. Conflict transformation lifts our conflict narratives to the level of the aesthetic oeuvre, especially when our metaphors guide our questing process.
 
The Hero’s Journey becomes a form of ‘creative mythology’ that unfolds within our storylines, as we connect to our inner compass, homing in to our brave hearts. We must envision and respond with response-ability to our conflicts, understanding conflict as a gift that is inviting us to beautify our story mandalas. The place of art in conflict uses metaphors to enhance significance and bridging. This puts art in a central place in conflict transformation.

Listen to Jean Paul Lederach’s keynote presentation “Art in the place of Conflict”:

​Mediatorship is a vessel of connectivity. Mediatorship connects us to living wisdom that guides the conflict resolution process. Mediatorship engages us in a quest towards wholeness, as we navigate through our conflict and illness narratives. Mediatorship carries us through phases in a process that transports. Mediatorship invites us to travel through passageways, linking each phase of the journey within an integrated framework of conflict resolution.
 
Mediatorship is a metaphor and sacred questing vessel that uses our inner compass to Home In to wholeness. Mediatorship takes us from brokenness to linkedness as we embark on a transformational odyssey. When we enter in to the questing process, activating our inner compass, our mind-body is transformed. Autoethnographic practice develops narrative coherency. This transformative process provides actionable routes for transforming our perceptions. In this way, relational encounters are transformed on the Wheel of Perception by using quest orientation.
 
Mediatorship uses an inner compass to home in to the Holy Grail Way, a sacred pathway that leads us through our conflict and illness narratives; a passageway. We can tune in to living wisdom and awaken our brain using autoethnography as a tool for transformation. By listening to the messages of synchronicities, doors open to higher potentiality. Developing conscious awareness allows us to transcend life’s challenges and awaken to promising pathways.
 
Here is a video that presents Dr. Lisa Miller’s research in her new book, “The Awakened Brain”.

Autoethnography is an emancipatory process where we use our fingers and hands to manumit, writing to set ourselves free. Autoethnographic practice is akin to spiritual journey. As we write, we connect to living wisdom that guides us in a stepwise manner. In The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner uses ethnographic methods to explore the power inherent in rituals and symbols. Rituals and symbols are used to create liminal states or in-between spaces that allow for transformation to occur. Turner developed the performance theory in anthropology. He also explored ethnography as a performance.

​The Red Book shows his creative process.
https://quote.ucsd.edu/coled/files/2016/06/Turner-and-Turner-Performing-Ethnography.pdf

Autoethnogrpahy can be understood as a transformative performance. When we develop anthro-vision, using the lens of anthropology to gain insights, we experience a form of enlightenment or comprehension of life forces, patterns, and structures. Auto/duoethnographic writing spaces also provide a template for transformation. The Holy Grail Way is a concept that came to me in a dream while I was writing Homing In. My dream, the legend, and a pilgrimage to the Holy Grail in the St. Lorenzo Cathedral in Genova all represent facets of my waking dream process. My writing process provided a template for exploring my dream. It also offered a creative space where I could make connections. Through this creative process I developed a transformative pedagogy to accompany my students. The transformagram pedagogy that I have integrated into my courses at Creighton University and the Valais College of Alternative Medicine provides students with a vehicle for transformation, using narrative means for therapeutic ends. When students engage with their transformagrams they embark on a vessel christened “mediatorship” that transports them to new landscapes of meaning.
Chief Black Elk wrote about his vision in Black Elk Speaks. The Tree of Life that Chief Blackbird describes resonates with The Tree of Life that Carl G. Jung illustrated in The Red Book. There is also a wonderful mosaic representation of The Tree of Life in Otranto, Italy that extends upward to the altar on the Otranto Cathedral’s floor, growing under worshipper’s feet. I designed a stained-glass window with the tree of life in the center of the circle. It is in our living room, reminding me of the Seven Arrows medicine shield and Jung’s illustrations in The Red Book.
The Tree of Life is a symbol stemming from our collective consciousness. It is a symbol that can be understood as an archetype. It roots us in the Earth to strengthen our ability to flourish. Living in/on Earthship requires rooting deeply so to grow-up high. Our symbolic landscapes of meaning allow us to make sense of life in difficult times. The meaning-making process triggers actions that allow us to enter in to cultural performances that transform, transcend, and transfigure lifeforms.
Black Elk’s vision can be interpreted as a warning of Anthropocene and climate change. His vision quest led him to revive Sacred Pipe ceremonies for the spiritual renewal of the Native American people whose tribes had been devastated by Euro-American conquerors.
https://www.siouxreplications.com/extended-museum-articles/black-elks-pipe-and-pipe-bag

Jung had visions of devastation before World War I that plunged him into darkness but ultimately gave rise to his questing process that brought forth his psychoanalytical concepts. The Red Book shows his creative process. 
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/may/29/cg-jungs-the-tree-of-life-1922

Gandhi is yet another important figure who had a powerful vision of social justice. His emancipatory process used the Spinning Wheel or Charkha to resist and overcome the British colonizers. He used civil disobedience and ancient symbols to liberate his people. The Swadeshi movement allowed the Indian people to connect with faith, resilience and self-sufficiency.
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/BAUBNSJPyMyVJg
​

Each vision emerged from a cultural perspective that gave rise to different forms of spiritual questing and liberation through a performance of transformation. These transformational performances can be understood as passageways.
I refer to The Holy Grail Way as a passageway that allows us to walkthrough our conflict and illness narratives. The walkthrough is both a sacred passageway and emancipatory performance. These examples of emancipatory processes all demonstrate different cultural pathways that create a space of flexibility and reflexivity that open to new ways of being in the world. This is how life-o-grams become transformagrams.
Each era has examples of conflicts that play out on the international stage. I pray that the Ukrainian people and their neighbors will find a way to resist the current Russian invasion in an empowering process of liberation. The Serfs were only liberated in 1861 by Tsar Alexander the II in the Emancipation Manifesto. At that time almost 40% of the people were serfs, peasants that were the property of nobility, tied to the land in serfdom.
Manumitting means freeing oneself from slavery. May the process of manumitting continue, overcoming current forms of tyranny, liberating the people, and guaranteeing democratic rights and self-determination. May the brave hearts of the Ukrainian people be supported in tangible and effective ways by the united strength of Western democracies in this current emancipation process.
Emancipatory processes are emerging from our global conflict and illness narrative as we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lines of contention that were revealed during the pandemic have become open armed conflicts in Eastern Europe. The pandemic has played a role in the configuration of conflicts and certain conflicts may even have been accelerated. The performance of the insurrection in January 2021 is an example of anti-structure beating down the doors of political structures like the Capitol. Now we see other political conflicts that are emerging and breaking down borders and challenging national sovereignty in this current existential battle between democracy and autocracy.  

During the period that I was writing my book, I was looking for inspiration to guide my creative process. One morning, while cleaning my keyboard on my computer, gently wiping the surface with a soft cloth before beginning to write, “Heaven is for Real”, a film in my computer files, suddenly began playing. I was surprised how it started playing, mysteriously triggered by my movements when I simply brushed across the computer’s keyboard. It was puzzling, and I saw this as a sign. Why hadn’t another film in my computer been activated?  I decided to watch the film, that also happens to be a Nebraska story, like my story. I listened carefully to the message, wondering what I was supposed to understand.
 
Although I repeat the words in The Lord’s Prayer every morning saying, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”, both the “Heaven is for Real” book and film bring the words alive, storying a young boy’s near-death experience and revelations. After watching the film, a second time, I looked at the meaning of the words in the prayer more carefully. This mysterious showing made me ponder the thought-if heaven is for real, then we are called to bring Heaven to Earth like the prayer suggests.
 
The young boy in the film, Colton Burpo, comes back from an illness experience with a memory of sittings on Jesus’ knees and being comforted by Angels who sing to him. He also meets a little girl who explains that she is his sister but was never born into the family because of a miscarriage. This encounter, later revealed to his parents, leads the Burpo family to question their faith in light of their young son’s experience. The story also portrays how Colton tried to explain to his father, a pastor, what Jesus looked like. One day he saw a painting by a young Ukrainian artist, Akiane Kramarik, and told his father that her painting resembled Jesus.
 
The painting is entitled “The Prince of Peace”. It was painted by a young Ukrainian girl with an extraordinary gift. These two children’s stories dovetail, bringing a more vivid vision of heaven and Jesus to Earth. Asking us to question, “What if we lived each day as if Heaven is for Real?”
 
Another story referenced in Homing In, “Proof of Heaven”, written by Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon, recounts exploring realms of consciousness with a woman he didn’t recognize when he was severely ill and unconscious. His adoption and reunion story explains that only later, after his recovery, does he discover that the woman on the butterfly wing, that escorted him on his visit to different levels of consciousness, was his sister who had died.
 
Having been adopted, he only discovered their connection after meeting his birth family later in his life. When he finally met his birth parents, he saw his sister’s picture in their home and was able to make the connection. His encounter with his sister brings together forms of connectedness that can be felt, but not fully understood until the veil was lifted in moments of divine timing configured by his adoption and reunion story. Only after his reunion with his birth family, was Eben able to understand the interconnections revealed during his illness experience.
 
The Nebraska story, the adoption story, and Akiane’s incredible ability to paint at age 8, all express the ineffable. When my computer started playing the film, I was called to look and listen more attentively to these stories that bear witness to the mystery of life as well as Jesus’ living presence.
 
These incredible stories inspire radical amazement. We are truly sharing one mind, a consciousness, that links science and spirituality. Learning to trust in the loving God force that takes care of us is an important message that Dr. Eben Alexander brought back. His work confirms that memoires are not stored in the brain, revealing important information about the mind-brain connection.
 
His research explains how prayer can open portals and allow us to experience higher levels of conscious awareness. And also how the placebo effect, mind over matter, can influence health outcomes, even triggering spontaneous remissions and healing. We are all looking for purpose and ways to transform our lives. Wholeness emerges by participating in the evolutionary process and coming in to wholeness, wisdom, purpose, healing, health and deeper meaning. This happens by touching the loving force across the veil and living this life today in a way that allows us to grow and transform into the soul we have come here to become in this lifetime.
 
Listen to Dr. Eben Alexander explain how soul journey can elicit growth, transformation, and understanding. We live in One Universe where the primacy of consciousness that is understood through quantum physics supports true free choice and the becomingness of our soul. “Living in a Mindful Universe”, his recent book, allows us to understand that it is all about healing and becoming whole. Let’s work together to make this world a better place!

​Here is Akiane’s Prince of Peace painting:

I first discovered Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s work when I decorated my mediation service for political asylum seekers in 2001. I chose his photographs to inspire the people that sought out my help. His book “The Earth From The Air” sat on an easel next to the chairs, so that his vision of the Earth could sit with us during the many mediation sessions that I hosted. The beautiful view of a heart shape, configured by lush green plant growth, was one of the photographs that hung on the wall.
 
In 2019, the Yann Arthus-Bertrand came to the Opale Foundation in Crans Montana to speak about his lifework. I was able to listen to meet him in person and then take in the exhibit that showed his many photographs and films. We even brushed shoulders.
 
Having completed my blog series in November 2021. Each blog entry corresponded with a book chapter, providing resources that make Homing In truly a teaching story. I am  nowbeginning a new cycle of blog posts that complement the information shared in the previous blog posts that follow the chapter of my book.
 
Home is a film and book by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. When I was completing my book and adding references from Home to the chapter I was working on, a surprising happening occurred. While playing the film on my computer and going back and forth citing words from the film, writing them into my manuscript, a technological linkage triggered a sudden reading of my book. Suddenly my computer was reading my book to me. Somehow the artificial intelligence was performing a private reading. I was hearing my words and experiencing my book coming alive, not knowing how this was all possible. It was truly incredible, and beyond my comprehension. I just listened in awe, appreciating my words as they were sounded out, spoken through a voice on my computer. I listened as this artificial intelligence read to me, taking in my own words in wonderment.
 
Having ended my Postscript with the Zen calligraphy of Thich Nhat Hahn, “I have arrived, I am home”, I would like to begin this new phase of sharing with the film Home that allows us to contemplate the beauty of our home, and the miracle of life on planet Earth. Let the mystery penetrate your whole being, filling you with wonder.
​
Here is the link to the film Home:

​A vision of The Holy Grail Way was revealed to me in a dream, in the Fall of 2018. My birth parents were visiting for our grandson Nevin’s baptism. The dream came to me on the night before we walked in the Balavaud Alpine pasture where the oldest Larch tree in Europe is rooted.
 
Later, I discovered that the Holy Grail is a treasure in the St. Lorenzo Cathedral in Genova that I have since visited twice. The Holy Grail is also a powerful Arthurian legend that has inspired Western Civilization. It brings together legend, Christian symbolism, and the different stages experienced in mystical life. I have come to understand that the The Holy Grail Way takes us from brokenness to linkedness. Within this framework of understanding, writing to transform relations is a form of narrative repair. We can restore and transform that which has been broken-experiencing wholeness and well-being. Writing emancipates, makes whole, and sets us free, while connecting us to living wisdom.
 
The Holy Grail in Genova was taken by Napoleon. During its transportation, it suffered a break. Later, it was returned to Italy restored. The Holy Grail’s hi-story is a metaphor for restoration and restitution. There is a symbolic connection with my own story. Though the Giveaway Girl was taken away from her birth mother and offered to another family on the sacred alter of life, her place was eventually restored within her biological family circle.
 
As we walkthrough our conflict and illness narratives, we participate in a sacred pilgrimage of becomingness. Storying our process allows us to participate in narrative transformation and narrative repair, as we find our way walking through the Medicine Wheel, making meaning of the different stages of our life. Here, we create an aesthetic pathway by interweaving stories, articles, artwork, films, and photos that incorporated together elicit the Jungian transcendent function.
 
My autoethnographic process grew to become a teaching story that has taken form through my blog posts and website, sharing what I know through this “glovircal” space-the global and local linked together through virtual connectivity. Each blog post is part of a stepwise quest on a glovircal expedition. The quest has become a glovircal pilgrimage, using mediatorship as a vessel of transportation.
 
My Medicine Wheel is an artform that has taken the shape of a story mandala. It has been inspired by Native people’s concepts of health and illness. Designing it has contributed to my health and healing, as well as my self-realization. Movement in the Medicine Wheel is guided in a “sun-wise” direction. Transformation occurs by walking in a “sun-wise” way through the wheel of perception. This transformational process takes us to an inner space that opens to the experience of narrative coherency. On this vision quest, I have been transported to a place on the Medicine Wheel of life where I can see a new vision of living in/on Earthship. From this vantage point, we can see how our sacred vessel Earthship is holding us together in a loving embrace. Behold!

​Here is a picture of the Holy Grail in the St. Lorenzo Cathedral:

​Here are pictures of our trip to Berlin with Jessica:

​Here is a picture of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi that I visited in the summer of 2021:

The oldest Larch tree in Europe. A Larch tree with angel wings.

​Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, is an artistic representation of homecoming, forgiveness, and mercy. The Father in the painting welcomes the son with a loving father/mother acceptance. Spiritual journey can take us to a place of homecoming and mercy. As we increasingly become like the father/mother in Rembrandt’s painting, we can receive the Other, bestowing recognition and acceptance on those who home in to our families and other relational circles.
 
But home coming can be understood as more than repairing our family relations. We can grow to embrace home coming on a planetary scale. The Journey of the Universe film presents a New Story about planetary evolution, providing us with a coherent cosmology story. Thomas Berry wrote about how we need a new story that can transform Earth-human relationships. Now Brian Swimme is developing important themes in his series on the Noosphere that supports our process of awaking to cosmic memory that we pass on to future generations through heredity.
 
I have included links to the Rembrandt’s painting, the Journey of the Universe film, as well as an article about the film project. These are resources that can support your own homing in process. As we continue to learn and grow, we participate in the dissemination of knowledge into the future. Like the father in Rembrandt’s painting, we can choose to pass on loving kindness.

Information about The Return of the Prodigal son by Rembrandt:

​Click the picture for more information:

We are unfinished works of art. Each choice that we make, each hard decision, orients our becomingness. The words we use to tell our stories and the images that we draw upon to illustrate our lifeworlds are future forming. Opening the door to new generations is also part of the becoming process. Living is a relational project. We are attracted to new relationships and opportunities for collaborating, finding more desirable ways to be together.
 
Autoethnography is part of an integrated conflict resolution continuum. My book has been an invitation to all my relations to meet me in this dialogical space so that we can explore how to go on together, working through the past so that we can pass on a hopeful future.
As we transform relational patterns, we open to new flyways that are revealed as we fly into the horizon with the hope each sunrise brings.
 
Autoethnography is a form of narrative conflict resolution that offers a dialogical space for intrapersonal conflict resolution. Mediatorship is a vessel of transportation that contains multiple levels of methods and practices spanning from the individual to the glocal. Mediatorship is also the connectivity that we experience while writing, connecting to living wisdom that guides and sustains us on our journey home. When we home in to our hearts, the Way is revealed. And our life-o-grams become transformagrams.
 
With bright strokes of color we fill in the outlines of our Selves, sometimes painting over the initial lines. We use the life forms that nature has provided to inspire our portraits. The colors of each season as well as the different shades of diverse landscapes and waterbeds, all provide a palette to paint our lifescape. Here we map the self-world and the story strands in our narratives, asking “What makes a better storyline?”.
 
Depth psychology and liberation psychology that Mary Watkins refers to as psychosocial accompaniment provides an understanding of how we can walk alongside each other in a form of mutual liberation. The Taos Institute provides a series of podcasts that explains social constructionist approaches. And Sarah Cobb develops narrative conflict resolution that is part of the mediatorship continuum. I have included resources that you can access for your own journey of becomingness.
 
There is an important question we can ask. “How can we bring the unfinished into our storytelling?”.
 
“Unfinishedness is a feature as generative to art and knowledge production as it is to living.”
 
Autoethnography allows individuals to transform their stories into works of art, reinforcing the emancipatory process. But what are the ethics framing the production of stories and how can we reinforce the aesthetic aspects of our story mandalas? How can we show up as works of art?

Here is my article about transformative pedagogies:

Here is a link to Unfinished: An anthropology of becoming
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780822372455-001/html
 
Here is a link to Mary Watkins website that has videos and interviews explaining her approach to psychosocial accompaniment: https://youtu.be/Onyngjgw4lA
https://www.mary-watkins.net/audio-video/
 
Here is a link to the Taos Institute podcasts on social constructionism: https://www.taosinstitute.net/resources/podcasts
​
Here is Sarah Cobb presenting her book-Speaking of Violence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKRTsKL-29I

Rabbi and scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel teaches about radical amazement by pointing to the ineffable. His life models not just beholding the mystery, but the call to repair and transform the world. He believed that “something is asked from us”. He also said, “some are guilty, but all are responsible”. His lifework testified to the importance of being partners with God. This partnership was central as was his belief that religious diversity is God’s will.
 
As pilgrims, we can discover humanity’s heritage that takes us beyond our individual stories and life histories, to embrace our world heritage. Heschel’s legacy reminds us of the dimension of wonder-the dream of a world redeemed.
 
When my sister Cathy and I converged in a reunion with our birth family before our maternal grandmother died of cancer, I experienced the “ineffable”. Our reunion story has allowed me to cultivate radical amazement elicited by the mystery surrounding our homecoming.
 
This radical amazement is the catalyst for sharing my story with the world. I hope that my readership will be touched by our family’s reunion story in a way that will reinforce their own ability to see the ineffable more clearly in their lives. It is through wonder and radical amazement that we can find our unique way to partner with God, upholding the covenant between God and humanity.  This partnership opens toward a way of wonder filled with gratitude and a sense to serve. In his last interview he says that life is a celebration and that one should live life as if it was a work of art.

​Here is a link to Heschel’s last television interview:

Here is a link to a recent film about Heschel’s lifework.

​When I reconnected with the case worker that accompanied me during my search process, she shared a story with me about my father David, who called her to tell her that he supported my choice to search for my birth mother as well as sharing how much he loved me. That important story was like a “message in a bottle” that found me years after my father’s death.
 
The Nebraska Children’s Home Society has supported my process from being a foster child to searching for my birth parents, supporting me throughout the entire unfolding process. Here is a link to their website: https://nchs.org
 
The book Synchronicity and Reunion presents case studies that develop the theory of a homing in mechanism that guides children and parents separated at birth.

​I have many wonderful memories of being with my father. However, this picture of us in Wyoming, hiking Medicine Bow Peak, stands out. He initiated me by taking me “into the wild” with a backpack and good hiking boots when I was 14 years old. Cathy Hansen and learned about camping, making fires, fishing and cooking our catch, as well as how to endure long hours hiking in the high altitudes on pathways through the Rocky Mountains.
 
Those lessons shaped who I have become and even who my children are today. Cathy’s children all love to hike and ski too. Our fathers taught us to love the great outdoors as they did. They encouraged us to be strong, independent girls. They also believed in us and were convinced that we could carry all we needed on our backs as young teenagers. Those lessons have been invaluable. I am forever grateful for the nurturing, education, and love that I received from my father David Wilson Mossman.

Dialogical space invites healing conversations as well as new relational flyways. “Narrative truth” is an evolving narrative matter. As we transition from life-o-grams to transformagrams, we find new pathways and flyways. As we are storied beings, our stories constitute us. As we grow older, we can creatively choose to develop happy endings, writing enriching chapters in our Book of Life. It all depends on how we decide to write our story mandala, interweaving golden threads and pearls of wisdom or silencing the inner voice that calls to be heard, providing impetuous for the creative process.
As autoethnographic practice evolves into spiritual journey, we give more importance to those storylines that need our attention, touching on the themes that resonate strongly within our heartminds, connecting to our heartfelt stories that often reveal vulnerabilities.
 
Just as Kandinsky asks, “What is spiritual in art?”, we can ask, “What is a better storyline?”
Engaging in healing conversations is a way to work through our life sentences, allowing dialogic space to emerge, as well as offering more desirable ways of going on together. While walking through our life hi-stories we can participate in the meaning-making process, enfolding kernels of wisdom in between the lines as we write to transform our relations.
 
Much like when we watch the alpenglow on the mountain peaks, glowing with the last colors of a day well lived, a life well lived, we can contemplate the generative force of narrative and just how it does matter. The burning fire in our hearts enkindles stories that bring us to completeness. Our deep longing for an ever-better storyline can be understood as a burning desire to find peace and sublimation; the power to transform life history into the art of storytelling.
 
The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center offers a film depicting Pollock’s method, showing the floor where he painted. Here is the link that shows the artists’ work. I have also included pictures of my visit to their home in the East Hamptons: https://www.stonybrook.edu/pkhouse/

​We beautify our story mandalas when we walk through the medicine wheel of life, transforming our perceptions and narratives. Dancing sacred dances like the grass dancers, we seek wholeness for ourselves, our communities and our planet Earth. We not only honor the four great directions, but the seasons. Each season brings forth a new landscape of meaning and an opportunity to move to a new rhythm, as well as the possibility of personal growth.
 
My family performs as snow dancers on our Alpine slopes in the Winter months in a different kind of dance on the mountainscape, gliding down the slopes with precision. In the summer months we hike alongside mountain flowers that offer colorful bouquets filled with medicinal properties.
On the medicine wheel of life, turned 50 and wrote a performance about Jungian psychology and the archetype of the adopted child searching for her origins. When I found my voice, I found my way. Voix (voice) and voie (way) sound the same in French, indicating a way forward, a pathway. We all search and need to find our place. Belonging is a central theme in my book. Developing my voice as a researcher and author has allowed me to find my place.

​My quest has lead me to a “glovircal” way of living. Global, local, and virtual, connecting with students and my readership using new forms of technology that provide connectivity in a virtual space/place.
Here is a home video of my performance with my good friend Murray in La Tzoumaz at our chapel.

Engaging in autoethnographic practices activates transformational processes. My experience took me on a pathway from a life-o-gram to a transformagram. Beautifying the story mandala allowed Sophia or wisdom to flow through me, guiding me towards narrative concrescence. My life history has been transformed, but even more, I discovered transformational pedagogies that I now use in my teaching. Ira Progoff’s Intensive Journal Methods have offered a proven framework for incorporating journaling into coursework.
Liminal space can be understood as the in-between or entre nous. In this space we can create wiggle room, transitional space that can provide a matrix of relational potentialities. As we enter our journaling sanctuaries with the intention to find our way forward, we can activate the homing in mechanism. Writing to transform our relations brings us to new landscapes of meaning where we can trace new flyways of becomingness. In this liminal space, transformation is engendered. Questing enkindles the pilgrim’s intentions to move beyond Self in search of narrative truths.
 
Jim Harrison a famous American author wrote two adoption stories taking place in Nebraska- Dalva and The Road Home. He describes not only the beauty of the landscapes and wildlife but tells intergenerational stories of families who have lived on the Great Plains of Western Nebraska.
 
Just as the natural environment shapes lifeforms, words are meaning containers that allow us to recollect and transform our narrative truths. Dr. Emoto’s photographs of water crystals show us how words shape water crystals. As our bodies are around 70% water, we can only imagine how words and music fashion and configure our bodily forms.
 
We are all experiencing an acceleration in connectivity. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote about the Noosphere that is an emerging form of planetary consciousness. Here is an article that allows us to better understand this period of great acceleration that we are experiencing as the paradigms of Anthropocene and Noosphere play out in yet another liminal space, acting upon our planetary becomingness.

​From Anthropocene to Noosphere: The Great Acceleration

​Dr. Emoto’s Water Crystals that show how words and music influence form:

Here is a PBS news presentation of American author Jim Harrison who wrote Dalva, an adoption story in Nebraska:

​Here is an article about the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola that presents transformational processes including Progoff’s Intensive Journal Methods:

Future forming methods invite us to shape our becomingness. They include engaging in a culture of care, caring for our families, as well as the Earth and all of Creation. Future forming involves choosing our actions carefully, understanding that our choices and actions will configure our life trajectories and those of future generations. The Native American tradition refers to our actions affecting seven generations.
Epigenetics refers to how our environment and perceptions influence our genetic expression. Important influences that influence the unfolding of life include our families and caregiving practices, our political systems and the equal or unequal distribution of wealth and resources, as well as our energy consumption and environmental footprint. 
While searching for explanatory models and unifying theories that might explain the genetic connection of adoptees and birth parents, I discovered the importance of synchronicity. The interconnectedness that I have found has taught me to recognize patterns and distinguish schemas of interrelatedness. While searching for my birth family I was guided by synchronicities that allowed me to ultimately home in. Activating the homing in compass is essential for us as a species, so that we can home in to a bright and hopeful future.
As we are storied beings, Thomas Berry invites us to rediscover the Dream of the Earth, while actively writing New Stories that have the potential of transforming Earth-human relationships. Through the storying process we can transform not just how we relate and care for each other in our families, in new forms of kinship, but also how we relate with and care for the Earth. Reflecting on our human kinship and planetary Earthship can transport us to new ways of living in/on Earthship. Celebrating all life on Earth is part of the process.
With the arrival of our second grandchild, Liana, on July 8, 2021, I was again presented with the wonderful unfolding of life within my own family lineage. While my daughter Katrina was at the hospital, Angelo and I took our grandson, Nevin, to the Marécottes Zoo in Valais to see the lynx, bears, deer, boars, fox, and wolves. What do you see when you look at the face of the Earth?

A link to the Marécottes Zoo: https://www.valleedutrient.ch/fr/zoo-piscine-marecottes

A link to an interview with medical anthropologist Margaret Locke:
https://anthropologyandgerontology.com/aage-interview-with-anthropologist-margaret-lock

Here is a link to a conference about Thomas Berry’s work at Georgetown University:
https://thomasberry.org/life-and-thought/georgetown-conference/

Here is the link to Laudato Si’:
Down the file HERE

​When we first enter the world, our families embrace us, cradling us in their arms. My autoethnographic work describes kinship from the vantage point of an adopted child. This reflection guided me to an understanding of a relational approach to living on Earthship. Through the resolution process, writing to transform my relations, my perceptions evolved as my metamorphosis enfolded. And as my perceptions were transformed through the walkthrough, on the “medicine wheel of life”, I was able to behold a transformed image of Earthship. I saw how the Earth is a sacred container, holding us together.
 
Our Alpine chalet holds together our family in a “holding environment” that allows us to live a lifestyle that values the international relations we have cultivated while living in a ski tribe on the mountain. We ski, hike, make good family meals, play the piano, and enjoy the comfort of our home. In the summer we decorate the balconies with geranium pots and hanging baskets. Our home is filled with special objects and books from our relatives that remind us of our family lineage. Our chalet has provided us with a beautiful lifeplace where Angelo and I have raised our children.
 
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit Priest and scientist wrote about the Noosphere. His vision of the evolutionary process described an awakening of planetary mind. The growing level of awareness that we are experiencing individually as well as the increased connectivity that we are developing globally, can be understood through the concept of the Noosphere.
 
As we move towards more “glovircal” ways of living-global and local or “glocal”, connected by virtual interconnectedness, we must find ways to develop the vitality of our lifeplace. Our relationships shape us in numerous ways. As we increase our connectivity on a global scale, we become more aware of our oneness. Dr. Lazlo refers to this historical period as the Akashic Age, an emerging new paradigm that underscores our interconnectedness. We can use this period of global crisis as a catalyst to activate driving forces as we engage in the conflict resolution process.
 
Storying is a way to connect and reinforce our relationships. Earth-human relationships are fundamental for our survival as we are facing Anthropocene or the 6th phase of extinction.  Our ability to consciously guide and shape our relatedness will allow us to home in to a bright future, living in/on Earthship. As we connect to our inner compass, we can steer Earthship towards a flourishing future. Hear the call to activate the homing in mechanism as we lift ourselves and our planet up to experience ever more coherent ways of flourishing on Earth.
 
The Human Energy website offers information about the Noosphere and a film series that reinforces our shared evolutionary process and experience of emergence. Come sit around the camp fire and listen to this Third Story.

​Human Energy website:

Stewardship is a fundamental concept, referring to how we are stewards of what we have been given.  Stewards must take care of their land and organizations. Stewardship also evokes the responsibility that we have to pass on all that was ours during our lifetime to the next generation. Intergenerational responsibility is at the core of stewardship. We must take good care of all we have been bequeathed. In Switzerland there is a way to manage the land referred to as the commons. The pastures, mountain glaciers and water sources, ski slopes and pastures are all part of the commons that are managed by the “bourgeoisie”.

​My husband Angelo’s grandparents, Catherine and Emile, were stewards of the land, the pastures and their herds. Catherine was the village midwife and cared for all the women in Isérables when they gave birth. She also cared for her large family of 12 children.
 
This unique Alpine culture is our inheritance. Not far away is the Great Saint Bernard Pass and Hospice that cared for the travelers walking over the pass, a historic metaphor for hospitality. The traditions of our region provide interesting examples of stewardship and caring for the commons.
 
Living in harmony with our bioregions entails tending to the gardens, the pastures, the herds, as well as the wellbeing of families and communities. The quality of the land gives rise to our ability to flourish. Even the microbes in the land influence our health and wellbeing. These connections are increasingly understood in biology and medicine. “Old Friends” or microbes allow us to keep our internal balance, influencing our immunoregulation.
 
Women in the village of Isérables wore a traditional costume until the 1980’s when the mountain villages became more accessible. However, some women still choose to wear their costumes. Women is Switzerland only got the right to vote in the 1971, however women in the Upper-Valais were an important example of progressive women’s suffrage in 1957. Today, women continue to seek more fulfilling and egalitarian ways to participate in society, holding up their half of the sky.
 
Isis, the Egyptian Goddess stood for motherhood. In my name Susie Riva, you can play with the letters, rearranging them to read Isis Rises. My name resonates with the rising feminine energies that are so needed in today’s world. Let us rise together, co-constructing a Culture of Care for our Common Home.
 
Here is an article about our “Old Friends”:

Here is an article about the commons:

Here is a link to an article about the Valais:

The Egyptian traditions speaks of the weighing of the heart, suggesting that the heart must be as light as a feather to pass into the afterworld. Going to the Egyptian museum in Torino and the British Museum in London to see the Egyptian collection allowed me to ponder the meaning associated with the scarab.
 
Scarabs also represent synchronicity in Jungian psychoanalysis. These sacred beetles can be found in museums and on our walking paths. Recognizing the signs and deciphering the synchronicities is part of the meaning-making process.
The sacred heart is also an important Christian metaphor. Jesus points to the sacred heart in many paintings in statues. Heartways open up to us through transformative practices, forgiveness, and grace. Making peace with the past allows us to walk forward in a more lighthearted way.
 
Peacemaking involves engaging on multiple levels. However, peacefulness can be found in mediation, and other practices like prayer and mindfulness that we can incorporate into our daily routines. Making peace with all our relations is a lifelong endeavor and a daily practice.
Our family histories can be transformed when we engage in autoethnographic practices that bring us to a form of narrative coherency. Dr. Daniel Speigel uses the term mindsight to describe this interconnected vision. The mind-body in an interconnected system influenced by the field of the heart. Writing and praying can facilitate the transformative process.
 
Mediators also contribute to world peace initiatives. And Thomas Berry writes about yet another form of peace, the “Peace of Earth”, that is dependent upon human decision in this era of Anthropocene. Berry wrote about a cosmology of peace in the Dream of the Earth. The “Peace of Earth” arises from hopefulness. He suggests that we can find guidance in the dream of the earth for the task that is before us. My experience suggests that we have the innate capacity to home in to our hearts, and connecting to our inner compass, to find our way into the future.
 
Integrated relationships lead to resilience and wellness. Social engagement fosters our wellbeing. Working on our inner state of being can contribute to fostering strength in the face of adversity. We can create a culture of presence, by attuning to our inner compass, and resonating in a world of trust where we give our best effort while facing planetary challenges. Kindness and compassion can light up the world, opening relational heartways.

​Here is a lecture from Dr. Seigel that explains the importance of brain integration:

​Here is a picture of a scarab in the British Museum:

Here are pictures of a beetle on a path near our chalet:

​

​In chapter 37, I explain how I met Rusty Schweickert in Boulder when I was a young college student attending a conference at the University of Colorado. The picture of Earthrise as well as his personal experience, witnessing the beauty of Earth from space, created a paradigm shift for the entire human race. The awe that he felt brought forth fundamental questions he had about the meaning of life on Earth.
 
In an interview, he explains that we are at the point of what he calls “cosmic birth” referring to a concept about Earth’s birthing process, using the metaphorical comparison of human birthing processes. His explanations allow us to understand where we are in the cosmic birthing process.
 
Epigenetics ushers in yet another major paradigm shift. We are the Keepers of Earth, Keepers of Life and our Genome. We are also Shepherds of our planet’s biodiversity. Hidden within the symbol of the Shepherd may be an archetypical enigma about how to care for life on Earth. How can we expand our circle of caring to include all the creatures and the Creation? Schweikert’s telling the story of space exploration brings us to a new level of coherency, offering a vision and explanation of the unfolding trajectory of wordlings.

Link to a Newsweek interview with astronaut Rusty Schweickert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3vHNl6NMdw
 
Listen to Rusty Schweickert explain his vision of Cosmic Birth: https://apollospace.com/rusty-schweickart-apollo-9-beyond-film/
​

​Moral Imagination’s definition in Britannica is as follows:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/moral-imagination
 
Moral imagination, in ethics, the presumed mental capacity to create or use ideas, images, and metaphors not derived from moral principles or immediate observation to discern moral truths or to develop moral responses. Some defenders of the idea also argue that ethical concepts, because they are embedded in history, narrative, and circumstance, are best apprehended through metaphorical or literary frameworks.
 
Autoethnography creates the capacity to imagine more just lifeworlds through narrative inquiry. Poetic representations also contribute to forming ideas about what is good and just, right or wrong, in our lifeworlds. When living in an Alpine winter mountainscape, I ski on of fields of snow crystals that reverberate lifegiving energy to my family of snow dancers. Rumi, the Sufi poet, invites us to meet in a field beyond judgements of right and wrong. In this field of transcendence, we get a glimpse of our personal representations of the good life by connecting to our moral imagination.
 
Living in the Alps, highlanders have a different perspective than those living in the valley. We develop different world views that arise from our cultural landscapes. From the top of the mountain, I ask, “What lifts you?”. This chapter moves the story line towards what Kenneth Gergen refers to as “narrative slope”.
 
Climbing to the top of one side of the mountain, leaving the past behind, I ski down the other mountainside towards a vision of a bright future. On this side of the slope, using my ability to perceive through the lens of moral imagination, I envision enriching relationships that bring forth more just societies. I invite you to come ski down this narrative slope with me. Here, we leave behind the snow fields on high, walking through blooming orchards that hold the promise of ripening summer apricots, plums, pears, and apples.
 
Relational research also contributes to moral imagination by co-constructing ways to improve the human condition with research design. This relational approach to problem-solving gives value to transformational processes. Here is a video with Ken Gergen and Sheila McNamee, Taos Institute founders, talking about relational research. I did my PhD. with the Taos Institute, benefiting from the knowledgeability of these pioneering social constructionists. Autoethnography is an important method that they discuss in their conversation.
 
 
Ken Gergen and Sheila McNamee: Invitation to Conversations About Constructionist Practices in Research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UomKu3eOCZc&list=PLlblTswvpXI4JVgL-NI_VVKOfCIJSk4dp&index=4
 
 
Here is the book Moral Imagination, The Art and Soul of Building Peace, by John Paul Lederarch that explores conflict resolution using ethnographic approaches.

Here is a picture of my son Nils, skiing up the mountain.

Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” relationship, the Seven Arrows Medicine Wheel, as well of the saint’s lives are connected by their ability to bring us to higher levels of perception. We experience a form of relational transformation as we are lifted by sacred practices to see the interconnected nature of life and the divine working within all relationships. Spiritual traditions use different languages and representations. Religion can be understood as what we “rely” on, or what we are dependent upon and have confidence in.
Encountering the divine can happen as we journey through life. There is the inner and the outer journey. We can encounter great thinkers through their writings, and we can encounter sacred places through pilgrimages. There are different ways to gain higher knowledge that often transforms our perceptions. When we are lifted, we can see the sacredness of life.
The pain experienced by orphaned and adopted children is understood as the primal wound. It is a wounding that happens when babies are separated at birth from their mothers. The term “innocents” is used in reference to the Biblical story of the innocent babes that were killed by Herod. When I journeyed to Florence, Italy, I went to visit the first orphanage that was built in the 1400’s, known as The Hospital of the Innocents. Connecting with this historical site that received and cared for abandoned children brought me to a sacred place. As I prayed and gave thanks for all those who have cared for the innocents, I became even more consciously aware of the pain of mothers and children who have suffered the consequences of being separated at birth.
This inner and outer journey provided an encounter with higher knowledge through the historical understanding of the evolution of caring for abandoned children as well as the spiritual experience of connecting with these life histories. Through the ages, children like me, and my sister Cathy, have been cared for when the circumstances of our births didn’t allow us to remain in our families. Visiting the museum and attending the mass held there, allowed me to sublimate my personal experience through journeymanship, connecting even more deeply with the story of the innocents.
 
Here is the link to the museum:
http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/ospedale_degli_innocenti.html
 
Here is a documentary film that tells the story of the innocents.
 
The Innocents of Florence: The quest to save 600,000 children
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theinnocentsofflorence

​The Golden Pocket Watch that fell into my lap, brought a needed form of recognition at a threshold moment of my life. As I found the courage and strength to complete my doctorate, this timepiece arrived in a package with a letter that bequeathed the pocket watch to me. This capping moment has come to represent divine timing or synchronicity as well as the confirmation that my ancestors were “watching over me”.
The thought of “passing on the Golden Pocket Watch” has also made me consider what I value and what I want to pass on to my children. This idea of transmission is a central theme that thickens in my storyline. The watch-giving tradition passes forward love from ancestors to future generations, creating a line of inheritance.
Gnothi Seauton, “know thyself” is an invitation to Self-discovery so that we can ultimately recognize our own worthiness. It is also a pathway taking us to the heart of contemplation. As we decipher the enigmas engraved in the timepiece of our life, we experience wholeness. Once knowledge is gained, there is a need or growing desire to pass it on either through family lines of inheritance or fellowship and scholarship. My book has become a teaching story. My website is a way for me to share what I know with educational resources that can be accessed online. Adult online education engages life-long learners in journeyship.
 
Here is a picture of the Golden Pocket Watch, my transitional object:

Here is an article about the adult learning:

Here is the link to Harry Potter’s Golden Snitch that contains flesh memory: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Flesh_Memory
​