Between the summer of 1977 and February 1980 I was a single Dad and was a Landscaping Contractor who worked in rich places like Rancho Santa Fe and La Jolla a lot where I could make a lot of money. Rancho Santa Fe and La Jolla are wealthy areas sort of like Suburbs more distantly to San Diego. Really beautiful nice areas (especially then as a Landscaping Contractor) I got a C-27 Contracting license through Sacramento so I could work anywhere in the state .At that point you only needed a $50,000 dollar bond you could buy for somewhere between 100 to 500 dollars then to be legal in doing this after you passed the Contractor's test in Sacramento, california (Sacramento is California's state Capitol).So, I was a California legal Landscaping Contractor. I had many buddies who were contractors too then and when the days got too hot we would go surfing or SCUBA diving. My parents also lived in the San Diego Area so while I was working as a Contractor there my mother would take my son to a Montessori School in I think Encinitas then.
The Summer of 1979 I met my 2nd wife in Mt. Shasta while working building a home for a French Architect there. I brought my son with me which was hard because I was a single Dad then too at first until I figured out I had to hire Baby sitters for my son so I could work building this home. Before this my mother helped me with my son so I could work in San Diego. So, this was a new experience for me because my son was now 5 years old and started Kindergarten in Mt. Shasta at Sisson School then in the fall of 1979.
So, even though I had already met my 2nd wife I thought she was with another guy I met there who introduced her as his family at the work site. However, it turned out this was something he did for cover then because he was actually gay. However, he did want to marry her except that he was gay not straight.
However, letting construction workers think he was straight with a wife and kids was a lot of protection then, especially with all the red neck Construction workers working there then. I wasn't like this though.
I was always live and let live. But, many were not like this then. So, then telling some people you were gay was fatal more than now but then again this was 1979 around mostly red neck Construction workers in Mt. Shasta.
I was helping my French Architect Friend build his dream house as a speculation house that he lived in for awhile and then sold and made a profit on.
Later (about 9 months later) I visited this house and my next wife was invited by him because he liked her too. In talking with her I found out that her friend wasn't straight and that he helped take care of her and her children instead. She had met him while working in Carmel and he was the Maitre d while she was Hostess at a fancy restaurant and hotel on the coast south of San Francisco.
So, this started a friendship between my next wife and I then. Then she went skiing with a lady who was one of my room mates in Mt. Shasta and the lady who skied with us (my next wife) was an incredibly good sport because the snow conditions cross country skiing were really awful.
So, I realized this lady was a really good sport and would ski with me even in really bad snow conditions. So, I asked her by herself to go skiing with me and she did after that. Soon we were together and got married in March 1980 in Mt. Shasta. She had two Children she was raising from her first marriage and I was raising a son from my first marriage and we were both then 32 years old and had both started our divorces in late 1977 and the divorces finished in 1978.
Then a few month after we were married we paid cash for 2 1/2 acres of land out Past McCloud with a running stream but no electricity or phone lines or natural Gas lines. Then my father had just retired and he came up to help us build our home there the summer of 1980 in his Motor Home with my mother. We had a wonderful time building this home together and my friends in Mt. Shasta helped us also building this home which reminded me in some ways of Swiss Family Robinson. Very very Fun to build an A-Frame where it snows up to 7 feet of snow at 4000 feet in the winters!
However, about 2 or 3 years ago it snowed on a friend out there 12 feet of snow that didn't melt out until at least April to June some time there. So, living out there is a lot when it does this that long into the summer in June.
However, living out here was the beginning of my best part of my voyage to Enlightenment. Why?
Because my life was much better and easier after we paid cash for land and built this house. Why?
Because we saved about 60,000 to 70,000 dollars in rent over the next 5 years which was a lot even then.
So, we could home school our kids and not worry about money so much during this time. And because of this our process of enlightenment as a whole family together was amazing! And we home schooled our kids because this was too far from any public school for them to go to also.
So, enlightenment's nectar began with this buying of land for cash and having everything paid for there and only owing land taxes on it and that's all. Land Taxes Food and Gas and Kerosene for lamps was our only expenses then except for clothes. It was really wonderful with a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta and pine trees and oak trees and Fir Trees and Manzinita in the direction of Mt. Shasta.
A Truly remarkable experience for all of us then.
So, this new found freedom gave us the time to actually move towards enlightenment of owning our own land and our own house outright with only land taxes as our only expense instead of rent.
No Mortgage! No Rent. No utilities. Only a wonderful Life in the wilderness where we had built our home!
This was the beginning of enough time to actually begin our journey towards enlightenment!
by God's Grace
One of the advantages of doing this was by 1985 we were able to put aside enough money to go to India, Nepal, Thailand and Japan from December of 1985 until April of 1986 with all three of our children!
So, this also helped in learning about Tibetan Lamas and Tibetan Buddhism and getting the Kalachakra initiation in Bodhgaya, India with 500,000 other people from the Dalai Lama himself!
By God's Grace
No comments:
Post a Comment