{"id":1109,"date":"2011-06-27T10:07:26","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T10:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/?p=1109"},"modified":"2011-06-27T10:07:26","modified_gmt":"2011-06-27T10:07:26","slug":"down-to-the-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html","title":{"rendered":"Down to the River."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you who follow Project Conversion regularly, you know what the Lumber River is and why I visit. The river is my holy ground, a sanctuary, my spiritual forge&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>A black, winding, mirror.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to the river this morning\u00a0to prepare for\u00a0the last half of this year. This month, June, is not what I expected. I was not ready for its challenges. In fact, the whole month is a shadow of what the end of the year will look like. As with any adventure however, the hero\u00a0often faces\u00a0his first great test far before he is ready.<\/p>\n<p>June is truly a void, the\u00a0Fringe. I lost my spiritual compass and while I believe I navigated the\u00a0churning waves\u00a0fairly well, I know things are different.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m different.<\/p>\n<p>Something happened yesterday\u00a0which punctuated this reality.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/l-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-1110\" src=\"https:\/\/projectconversion.com\/2011\/06\/l-001-265x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My walking staff, a steady companion for nearly three years, snapped in half.<\/p>\n<p>What are some attributes of a walking staff?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Help with balance<\/li>\n<li>Protection<\/li>\n<li>Guidance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Perhaps yours bears additional meaning, and once mine cracked in half, the symbology of the act galvanized my feeling for the whole month. My temper returned this month, my impatience reared its ugly head&#8230;I felt the old me rising to the surface and I believe it&#8217;s because I was unexpectedly rudderless this month.<\/p>\n<p>Each religion thus far provided what my now broken staff once did: Balance, protection, guidance. I am a spiritual rogue, but I&#8217;m not ready\u00a0complete independence yet. There is so much to learn and master, so much ground to explore.<\/p>\n<p>I need two things now in order to continue this journey:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A new staff<\/li>\n<li>To face myself<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I will perform both of these tasks at the river. The black, still water is like a curved obsidian blade. Will I be able to face what I see? Will I find a worthy staff to bring me out of the dark swamp? I don&#8217;t know. What I do know is that I cannot leave the river until I complete the task\u00a0(or until my wife bugs me to come home). I&#8217;m not going to discover enlightenment,\u00a0the divine, or\u00a0some great spiritual experience\/truth. That doesn&#8217;t mean I reject these as possible\u00a0useful phenomena. What it means is that I&#8217;m going for one simple\u00a0reason: clarity.<\/p>\n<p>The clarity of\u00a0emptiness. Anything else is gravy.<\/p>\n<p>I want to start July as if it were January. A clean slate. Pure and ready for\u00a0inscription\u00a0from the months ahead.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/ml-180.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-1111\" src=\"https:\/\/projectconversion.com\/2011\/06\/ml-180-265x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is my Jesus in the desert, Siddhartha under the bodhi tree, Baha&#8217;u&#8217;llah in the Black Pit, the Hindu rishis in the wilderness, Zarathushtra in the wilderness. The rest of the year depends upon success at the dark waters.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know what will happen. I can&#8217;t promise that I&#8217;ll emerge fully inspired\u00a0with light and wisdom shining from my head, no doubt causing vehicular accidents on my way home. Maybe I&#8217;ll sink into the swamp like the great mendicants of the East, never\u00a0seen again. Perhaps aliens will abduct me as I sit by the river (hopefully there&#8217;s a decent\u00a0internet connection on the ship so I can update the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/home.php#!\/pages\/Project-Conversion\/168033533223699\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff\">Facebook Page<\/span><\/a>) and show me the cosmos.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever happens, I will emerge\u00a0fundamentally\u00a0changed. I go in with\u00a0nothing, and through the crucible of\u00a0facing myself in the river, come out with the\u00a0clarity to finish this year.<\/p>\n<p>And with a deep breath and\u00a0plenty of bug spray, I&#8217;m\u00a0gone. Don&#8217;t wait up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you who follow Project Conversion regularly, you know what the Lumber River is and why I visit. The river is my holy ground, a sanctuary, my spiritual forge&#8230; A black, winding, mirror. I&#8217;m going to the river this morning\u00a0to prepare for\u00a0the last half of this year. This month, June, is not what&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":1110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16,35,152,161,177,233,261,273,332],"class_list":["post-1109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fringe","tag-andrew-bowen","tag-bahaullah","tag-jesus","tag-journey","tag-lumber-river","tag-project-conversion","tag-self","tag-siddhartha","tag-zarathushtra"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Down to the River. - Project Conversion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Down to the River. - Project Conversion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those of you who follow Project Conversion regularly, you know what the Lumber River is and why I visit. The river is my holy ground, a sanctuary, my spiritual forge&#8230; A black, winding, mirror. I&#8217;m going to the river this morning\u00a0to prepare for\u00a0the last half of this year. This month, June, is not what&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Project Conversion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-27T10:07:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/291\/2011\/06\/l-001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Down to the River. - Project Conversion","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Down to the River. - Project Conversion","og_description":"For those of you who follow Project Conversion regularly, you know what the Lumber River is and why I visit. The river is my holy ground, a sanctuary, my spiritual forge&#8230; A black, winding, mirror. I&#8217;m going to the river this morning\u00a0to prepare for\u00a0the last half of this year. This month, June, is not what&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html","og_site_name":"Project Conversion","article_published_time":"2011-06-27T10:07:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/291\/2011\/06\/l-001.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html","name":"Down to the River. - Project Conversion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/291\/2011\/06\/l-001.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-27T10:07:26+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-27T10:07:26+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/291\/2011\/06\/l-001.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/291\/2011\/06\/l-001.jpg","width":"1600","height":"1200"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/06\/down-to-the-river.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Down to the River."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/","name":"Project Conversion","description":"12 Months of Spiritual Promiscuity","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2387,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions\/2387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}