Photo credit: Mary Pat Traxler
On this first day of the New Year, January 1st, 2019, I thought I would take a look back at this past year. 2018 was filled with a lot of travel. We took a trip to England, Wales, and Iceland in May that I have blogged about. I have continued my work as a Whole Health Education Champion with the national VA Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation and teaching programs took me to Madison, WI; Portland, OR; Nashville, TN; St. Cloud, MN; and three times to the Boston area (including an evening visit to Walden Pond). My mother had a couple of surgeries, which went well, but took me back to Illinois three times during the year.
As far as writing goes, I continued to work on the next book with Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow). My sister and I took a trip to visit him in October.
We finished the book on the Winter Solstice and I am now gathering a few endorsements for the book and we will be starting the publication process now. The new book is called Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into A Living Spirituality. Here is a copy of the table of contents, and the cover we are working with.
Joseph Rael’s painting, cover for Becoming Medicine
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abbreviations
Foreword by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Secret Journey
Part I: Separation (Seeking)
Chapter 1. Becoming Medicine
Chapter 2 Circle Medicine
Chapter 3 Separation
Chapter 4 Becoming a Visionary
Chapter 5 Becoming a Shaman
Chapter 6 Becoming a Mystic
Part II: Initiation (Finding/Receiving)
Chapter 7 Story Medicine
Chapter 8 Entering the Doorway
Chapter 9 Guhā: Cave of the Heart
Chapter 10 Enlightenment & Endarkenment
Chapter 11 Initiation
Chapter 0 Na-yo ti-ay we-ah (We Do Not Exist)
Part III: Return (Giving)
Chapter 12 Returning to the Land
Chapter 13 We Are All Pangeans; We Are All Related
Chapter 14 Spiritual Democracy
Chapter 15 Refounding
Chapter 16 A Living Spirituality
Chapter 17 Returning to the Garden of Paradise
Chapter 18 Secret Journey to the Secret Garden
List of Sound Chambers
We had an excerpt from Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD published in Parabola magazine, which was very exciting. We’ve also given permission for the book cover to appear in a movie about someone healing from PTSD and we’ll give more information about that as it becomes available. We had an article called “Sage—the Wise One,” published in the International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy. I gave a workshop for Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Behavioral Health on “Circle Medicine for Healing Trauma.”
Mary Pat and I took a very restful trip to the Pacific coast near Copalis Beach just last week and I’ll post a few of those photos.
Corbin and I took a hike up Fletcher Canyon near Quinault. We couldn’t go far because there were a lot of trees down. We scrambled over a few before turning back after about an hour of walking up hill.
We stopped on the way back to take in the world’s largest Sitka Spruce tree, estimated to be 1000 years old.
1000 year old Sitka Spruce
One morning, I heard a raucous cacophony of crows cawing. I quickly ran out to see what was happening. I saw a flutter of movement on the ground and an eagle flew off, leaving a stunned crow. I watched over the crow for a few minutes, eventually he flew off, a bit unsteadily, and then the eagle gave up and flew off in the other direction. These aren’t shots of that seen, but other photos of an eagle and some crows.
Who knows what 2019 will bring, likely lots of changes, as well as the publication of Becoming Medicine!
Being Fully Human 
What a great year David! Can’t wait to get a copy of “Becoming Medicine”. The chapters look like a hero’s journey, but supercharged with mysticism and universal healing. Yeehaw! P.S. Thank you for the coffee. Sincerely, two of your biggest fans, Mike and Marie
Happy New Year Mike! Thanks for your comment. Yes, the book is really taking shape and it is a hero’s journey! Lewis Mehl-Madrona is looking at it now with an aim to write a foreword. All the Best to you and Marie in the New Year! David