I will share the inspirations that shape this story as a cosmology into a deeper reflection of what it is to choose our way, and evolve continuously, in nature, nurture and nourishment, moving from immense suffering, through tremendous love and beyond with persistent presence.

These stories are in part a personal-memoir, a collection of incredible authors who came before me, and a compassionate expedition exploring the past, present and perennial. All of which follow a soulful quest into self-awareness and our potential for a fulfilled consciousness in becoming more aware, awake, alert and alive in the distinct, dark and divine worlds we exist and play in.

I have come to better appreciate the natural world as the process of evolving and creating itself. When I seek questions, answers or wisdom ultimately, I look for natural metaphors and signals in our common elements of nature; space, water, fire, air and earth. The first source of wisdom is nature itself, and that wisdom is perennial as it keeps evolving. We will delve into the sacred space between all things as one of the common elements and is known in Japan as Ma and Sanskrit as Akash.

I am no saint, as I have experimented with the three worlds in the divine, dark and distinct. I have strived to make the most balanced choices, and I sometimes choose excess over temperance, egoism over humility, and agitation over patience. When I am persistently present, I can make more balanced choices, and I do make them and then I do not, suspire, perspire and transpire.

The manuscript expands on the evolution of a vision I experienced while returning from my hermitage on the Pacific northwest coast. A vision can be like the universe, in that it is evolving through alchemical reactions of self-creating atoms, molecules, and cells. Words evolve in similar ways, from letters, sounds, sentences and phrases into great stories and deeper, more complex meanings and cosmologies.

Aldous Huxley said, "Experience is not what happens to a person; it is what a person does with what happens to them." He paved the way for inclusion and transcendence amongst all cultures and generations and it is because of his sharing stories that we can carry on the development and participation of perennial wisdom, tradition, philosophy and science.

Our appetites change over time, tastes evolve, and we hopefully come to better appreciate the company around our banquet table in the garden and beyond. Engaging with others becomes more important than getting a full belly as we find simpler ways to experience nature, nurture, and nourishment. I welcome all who are willing to share in hospitality and possibly even a good squabble.

We are never truly alone, there are always realms of energy available to us for relationships in our communities. There are unseen energies that help manifest our dreams, call them conscious agents, conscience, angels or rascals the great news is that we get to choose which energy we participate with in a deliberate determined detailed destiny. I am learning to choose chances for change, participating and expanding in collective consciousness, while seeking the meandering mystic.