Manai'a Explorations
HC SVNT DRACONES

After swim practice, Special Ed and I (and Wrangler and Jammer) headed south to Box. The desert is velvety green from the great monsoon season and the clear air made for crisp, sharp horizons. We started hiking through waist high grass in the LZ around 2:30 PM. The trail is mostly gone. Occasionally we would find a short strip of worn foot path, but most all of the hike was bushwhacking. The winds were very, very light, the temperature was warm, but it was the high humidity that made it uncomfortable. The humidity, trail breaking and having to high step through the acacia and grass reduced our pace to a crawl. Ed and I have both summited Box in 1 hour. It tooks us almost 3 hours yesterday. The big surprise on launch was the smooth 6-8 knot breeze right up the spine. Perfect conditions for beginners or two old men who haven't flown in a year. I stepped off and immediately floated up 200'. Ed floated up right behind me. We floated around for an hour in perfectly smooth lift. A bi...

All is well And all is well And all manner of thing is well. There are moments when the universe and my time and place in it are exactly as they should be, moments of perfection. And this could be a perpetual condition, except that I go about applying my morality - this is good, that is bad, it's better over there. To exist in the perfection of the moment, must one be will-less, ambition-less, passive? To follow one's bliss, to act in the world, does that by default exclude the perfection of the moment. How does one act in the world and simultaneously be at peace? Are they mutually exclusive? If you act but are not attached to the outcome - but what is the point of action if not the outcome? "I have a vision of us transformed - courageous, uninhibited people living and loving with reckless abandon." The hero ventures forth into the unknown, there fabulous forces are encountered, a decisive victory is won, the hero returns to bestow boons on his ...