Why A Vision quest in 1983 was important to me

I sort of needed to ask God: "What's Next God?" "What am I doing here?" we were raising 3 kids then 1 of my own from my first marriage and 2 of hers from her first marriage and we had divorced the same year from our respective spouses 1977. So, now it was 1983 and we had been together 3 years about. And my parents had come up and helped me build an A-Frame on 2 1/2 acres we bought in the fairly remote wilderness about 10 miles from the nearest Gas Station or store of any kind (except maybe a Ranger station at about 9 miles away.

So, this Vision Quest on the Trinity River in Northern California was useful for me to find my way forward. However, it answered questions in a different way and context than I could ever have imagined.

I realized that people mostly don't know who they really are. What I mean is that most people don't realize what and who human beings really are.

The best way I can say this is we are domesticated animals sort of like the pets we raise like Dogs and Cats but I think humans are more like Dog pets than cat pets.

We are sort of pack animals like Dogs were cats are more independent. Whenever I go number 2 for example in the bathroom our corgi comes in and my wife calls this "Poop Support" which seems normal for a dog to give comfort by their presence while people are trying to go to the bathroom. They are pack animals but humans really are pack animals too only domesticated like we domesticate our puppies into adult dogs in some ways.

Our lives are completely conditioned by those who raise us and associate with us through our lives.

But, we are also a solitary animal too and one finds out about this while doing a vision quest in some remote place in the wilderness. 

However, after 4 days of no water or food can you then walk back to civilization so you can continue to survive? This might be an important question BEFORE you walk 15 or 20 miles into the wilderness alone and expect to survive a Vision quest of no water or food for 4 days or 96 hours.

The strangest thing to me is that I kept urinating for 4 days even though I didn't drink a drop of water during this time.

The next strangest thing was how vulnerable I felt not drinking water or eating food for 4 days and nights.

The next strangest thing was that I realized I didn't really understand fully what a human being really was before this vision quest. Why?

Because civilization robs us of who we are and who we once were as beings here on earth.

Civlization is sort of like living inside of a painting. Is it fake? No. It's a painting. And Artwork. So, we grow up inside of a human artwork and don't understand who and what we really are at core.

After my vision quest of 4 days and nights I felt closer to every living thing on earth than ever before.

I felt closer to myself than ever before.

I realized I liked myself and I liked the world and I loved myself and I loved all life on earth.

And this has given me great peace ever since.

By God's Grace