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c h aP t e r 7

O

ver the next few months, my life went through many
changes. Spring was now approaching, and I sold my old
station wagon to buy an even older pickup truck with a
camper shell for summer camping and road trips.
Also, I decided to move out of the busy sensory and social atmo-
sphere of the Pearl Hill household to get some much-needed peace
and quiet. Besides, I’d decided to put off school for another semester,
so I no longer had the choice to stay there anyway. My friend Matt
(whose lawn I had lived on the previous summer) and his girlfriend
Sharon had rented a new place together, a little house with an extra
room. They invited me to stay with them while I was looking for
another place to live. Though it was a funky house, pretty run down
and next to a busy street, the rent was cheap, and it would be a
welcome change from the communal responsibilities and constant
activity of the Pearl Hill House. Plus, it would give me the chance to
spend some time with Matt and Sharon.
I moved into their place at the end of January and ended up liv-
ing with them for a couple of months. Eventually, I found another
room, in a house with three like-minded housemates. Soon after-
wards I quit my early-morning job delivering bread and got another
job delivering pizza in the evenings. I progressed with my yoga and
meditation and continued to make regular trips out to the barn at the
arboretum, or else to some nearby hot springs or river swimming
spots, to get out of town and connect with nature. I also continued
my process of bodily vibrating, releasing ever-more deepening lay-
ers of blocked and frozen energy, and in so doing bringing light into
parts of myself previously shrouded in darkness.