Living Zen Life

You may ask why I chose this name for my site. Here is my explanation.

Once, while camping, I was sitting alone at my morning fire, surrounded by the big trees in the Pacific Northwest. I had a book about the species of the Cascadian bioregion and was reading about ravens. Honestly, at that time I did not know the difference between a raven and a crow. When, on this particular morning, the morning I was to pack up and go home, I heard a clear and slow flapping of big wings. That is, I think, unusual. I looked up and to my right. Raven was flying low, maybe 10-15 feet above, and coming straight towards me. As the bird flew directly above my head, they sharp-turned and began flying away in front of me. As they did so, they emitted the croaking sound typical of the species. I had an instant and intense sense that, “I had been visited.”

Visited was the very word that came to me in that moment and that I wrote quickly in my camping journal. Here, context provides some meaning behind this. My wife of thirty-one years had passed after a long walk with cancer. My mourning period was continuing and, I think, never ends. I went to this place I knew to be a place of healing and rest. Here it was that raven visited me.

Had that been all, I may have not given the incident much more thought. As I said, I had to pack up and leave that day. I did so and was driving out of the Hurricane Ridge parking lot down the beautiful stretch of road headed back towards Port Angeles. It was a sunny morning and, if you’ve ever driven that road, you know that, on the right is a steep drop off to the south, providing big views of the Olympic range. On the left is a sheer rock wall. I saw just above me, as I was driving, a raven who crossed in front of me. Then, I could see their shadow on the rock face flying just in front of me. Odd. I kept sight of that bird, shadowed on the rock face, for perhaps a mile or more down the road. I felt then that I was being given an escort for my way.

Some happenings are coincidences. Many would say that about these incidences that happened to me that day. But they happened to me and I knew in my gut that something of a spiritual nature happened between me and that raven – the same one or another matters not. I believe they understood my mourning, probably because they too had lost a love. The wild creatures know far more than we often believe.

So, since before my wife passed, I had begun sitting zazen and that has become my way, having recently received my dharma name – Korin Etsudo, meaning “ancient forest, joyful path.” I think of that raven as my “spirit guide.” It is my understanding that one doesn’t get to choose their spirit guide but they choose us. On that day, I believe I was visited by kin and chosen.

Following the events detailed above, and wanting to commemorate what had happened, I purchased this artistic print at the Steinbrueck Gallery in Seattle, done by David Boxley, who grew up among the Tsimshian peoples of Alaska, adopting their language and traditions.