The bridges expressed in the following chart summarize the Mission Statement I have been operating with since moving to the mountains of Western North Carolina 2004:

I will now be tending these bridges with care and passion, both inside the individual and collectively in the culture, from an urban environment, moving away from my nest in the wilderness.

This week I began work in a newly rented office space in the beautiful, historic Flatiron Building in downtown Asheville, 20 Battery Park Ave., Suite 500. This old timey building has marble staircases and elevators with those see-through doors that have to be run by elevator operators. My office is on the 5^th floor with very tall windows that let in wonderful light and offer a view of downtown as well as vistas into the mountain ranges beyond, those lusty layers of smoky blue ridges that feed the soul. Town and mountain framed in the vision.

One of my friends who was encouraging me to finally make this move said, regarding my years of living alone in a remote place, “You’ve been on the longest damn vision quest that anyone has ever heard of!” Maybe it is true. The vision is still forming, but it appears to be the time to work with it from a different location and perspective. I’ve just spent time rewriting some of the pages of my website to reflect the move.

Right now I am in my mountain nest listening to only wind and birds, seeing only forest, mountains and sky. Reflecting. Soon I will be living full-time in my little apartment not far from downtown, working in the center of it all.

I named my work Bridging Worlds after a magnificent dream I had while sleeping in my bed in California, before any idea to move to North Carolina had occurred. In the dream my car stalled, then stopped for good at the side of a gravel road in the forest. I got out, stretched and looked around. I saw a big stone and grassy bridge nearby. On the other side of it was my house in the woods. I started across the bridge alone. Then one or two people joined me, then dozens, then hundreds maybe, lots and lots of people. We all broke into song and started dancing – singing and dancing as we crossed the bridge together.

Some weeks or months later I found a house in the woods in these mountains and knew it was mine. Moving from urban Los Angeles into such a spot, reflecting on this dream, the name for Bridging Worlds arrived.

And now I move back the other direction. Who wants to sing and dance on the bridge with me?

From Hafiz:

There is only one reason
We have followed God into this world:

To encourage laughter, freedom, dance
And love.

Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me
Saying,

“Hafiz,
Don’t just sit there on the moon tonight
Doing nothing  –

Help unfurl my heart into the Friend’s Mind,
Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!”