when I was young I wrote an alternate version of lyrics for "Country Road" by John Denver

Almost heaven 

Sweet Mt. Shasta

Devotees Lady

Glistening White Mountain

Life is old there 

Older than the hills

Wider than the mountains

Blowing on the breeze

Country Road

Take me home

 to the Place

I belong

Sweet Mt. Shasta

Devotees Lady

Take me home

Country Road

I played this a lot for girlfriends and friends on guitar and singing for them in the early 1970s before I got married the first time and had a son. I didn't have a lot of money then because I was going to college mainly but my friend and I who loved climbing on Mt. Shasta and how it felt to be there each had a VW Bug which allowed us to travel there cheaply when we had time off school. After my friend got his Master's degree from UCLA he decided to buy property there and to build his first house there. I helped him do this. Before this we camped a lot up at Horse Camp at tree line and often I fasted on the mountain there during the summer time. And my friend and I and a couple of other friends from the "I AM" religion we both were in at the time climbed Mt. Shasta in 1970 after the Pageant there on the life of Christ which is done in an Amphitheater built for this purpose.

So, Mt. Shasta from the time I was about 5 years old and my father took me to swim in Castle Lake then in 1953 in the summer has been sort of a Spiritual home for me ongoing and still is. I lived there in 1976 and 1977 and for a few months in 1974 as well and then again from 1980 to 1985 when I too bought 2 1/2 acres and built a home there. The last time I lived there was 1992 after living in Hawaii on Maui in Hana and Paia in 1989 and 1990. My family then and I lived Mt. Shasta for the last time  from around late 1990 until 1992 when we bought another business and moved back to the greater SF Bay area.

However, even today I try to visit for a week or more several times a year to see the snow and swim in the mountain lakes and hike the area there when I can even now at 75. Also, my friend who is now traveling in India and Nepal with his girlfriend and another friend still owns his land and home there all these years later.

It's been a truly amazing life centered in many ways around Mt. Shasta my spiritual home on earth.

By God's Grace