Cloud Hands

Dosewallips SP Campground

Dosewallips State Park WA 39 miles north to Port Townsend

Dosewallips SP Images 13 miles north to Quilcene

Dosewallips River Images

Dosewallips Oyster and Clam Harvesting

Quilcene

Dabob Bay

Port Townsend 215 miles south to Vancouver

Four Days at Grayland: Extensive Travel Guides, Yurt Camping notes, local cities and villages, reports, commentary, Yurt Camping Information, Native American Information. Yurt camping on the coast in Oregon and Washington.

Tai Chi Chuan at the Beach: Please join Michael P. Garofalo for a Taijiquan Meetup/Gathering/Retreat at Dosewallips State Park, 7 am, Yurt C. I hang a kite on my Yurt that is shaped like a Salmon Fish. Campfire chats and a little practice sharing.

The best book I used to study general travel options for the Hood Canal
for my trip in May 2024 was:
Olympic Peninsula with Olympic National Park. By Jeff Burlingame.
Moon, 5th Edition, 2024.

I will be Yurt Camping at Dosewallips State Park on the Hood Canal near the village of Brinnon, Washington. I will arrive Monday, May 6th and leave for home on May 9th, 2024.

I will drive USA Interstate 5 from Vancouver, WA to the junction with US Highway 101 at O;ympia.
Olympia to Shelton, 101, WA
Highway 101 reaches the Hood Canal at the Skokomish River
Shelton to Hoosport, 101, WA
Hoodsport to Brinnon, 101, WA

I plan to visit and shop in the town of Shelton, breakfast at the Little Creek Casino and Resort, drive around in the area, visit the library, and walk a little. I hope to visit the Skokomish Twana Native American Museum near the Skokomish River. Then on to: Potlach, Hoodsport, Brinnon, Dosewallips.

Dosewallips State Park WA

Union WA

Hoodsport WA

Brinnon WA

Four Days in Grayland Camping at the Beach
Yurt Camping in the Coastal Pacific Northwest by Michael P. Garofalo.

Books I have found useful in my study of the Native American People of Olympic National Park (fournded in 1938) include:

Olympic Peninsula with Olympic National Park. By Jeff Burlingame. Moon, 5th Edition, 2024.

Images of America: Hood Canal. By Michael Fredson. Arcadia, 2007.

Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula|: Who We Are. By the Olympic Prninsula Intertribal Cultural Advisory Committee. University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. This book covers S'Kallam, Skokomish Twana, Sqaxin, Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah Native Americans in the area.

The Olympic Peninsula. By Ericka Chickowski. Moon, 2009.

Longstreet Highroad Guide to the Pacific Northwest. By Allan and Elizabeth May. Longstreet, 2000.

Tai Chi Chuan at the Beach: Please join Michael P. Garofalo for a Taijiquan Meetup/Gathering/Retreat at Dosewallips State Park, 6 pm, Yurt C. I hang a kite on my Yurt that is shaped like a Salmon Fish.

Images from the Internet

Monday, May 06, 2024

Hood Canal: Adventure I, Day 1

Day 1 May 6th

I will be Yurt Camping at Dosewallips State Park on the Hood Canal near the village of Brinnon, Washington. I will arrive Monday, May 6th and leave for home on May 9th, 2024.

Karen and I drove south from Port Townsend down 101 via the Hood Canal in 2019 and in 2010. Strickly a driving tour back then in this area.

Today, I will drive USA Interstate 5 from Vancouver, WA to the junction with US Highway 101 at O;ympia.
Olympia to Shelton, 101, WA
Highway 101 reaches the Hood Canal at the Skokomish River
Shelton to Hoosport, 101, WA
Hoodsport to Brinnon, 101, WA

I plan to visit and shop in the town of Shelton, visit the Little Creek Casino and Resort, drive around in the area, visit the library, eat breakfast at a local cafe, and walk a little. I hope to visit the Skokomish Twana Native American Museum near the Skokomish River. Then on to: Potlach, Hoodsport, Brinnon, Dosewallips.

I will focus on local travel in four days along the Hood Canal from Shelton to Port Townsend.

Vancouver WA 110 miles north to Olympia

Olympia WA 23 miles north to Shelton

Shelton WA 41 miles north to Brinnon

Dosewallips SP Campground

Dosewallips State Park WA 39 miles north to Port Townsend

Dosewallips SP Images 13 miles north to Quilcene

Dosewallips River Images

Dosewallips Oyster and Clam Harvesting

Quilcene

Dabob Bay

Port Townsend 215 miles south to Vancouver

The best book I used to study general travel options for the Hood Canal for my trip in May 2024 was: Olympic Peninsula with Olympic National Park. By Jeff Burlingame. Moon, 5th Edition, 2024.

Books I have found useful in my study of the Native American People of Olympic National Park (fournded in 1938) include:

Olympic Peninsula with Olympic National Park. By Jeff Burlingame. Moon, 5th Edition, 2024.

Images of America: Hood Canal. By Michael Fredson. Arcadia, 2007.

The Olympic Peninsula. By Ericka Chickowski. Moon, 2009.

Longstreet Highroad Guide to the Pacific Northwest. By Allan and Elizabeth May. Longstreet, 2000.

Images from the Internet

Sunday, May 05, 2024

Taijiquan Treatise

The Taijiquan Lun (Treatise, Theory, Discussion, Thesis)

"English Translation of "The Taijiquan Lun," with extensive and good commentary, by Yonatan Vexler, Qufu Teacher's University, Shandong, China

Published in "Qi: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health and Fitness," Volume 27, No. 1, Spring 2017, pp. 38-51.

This Treatise is sometimes attributed to Wang Zongyue.

"Taiji (complementary duality) originates from wuji (non-polarity). It is the process of motion and stillness, also known as the creator of contrast (the yin and yang). Motion causes separation, while stillness leads to unity. I allow opponents to advance, and I advance when they recoil. When my opponents are hard and I am soft it is to flow, successfully following their motions is to stick. When they move fast, I quickly react, and when they move slowly, I slowly follow. There can be a thousand scenarios, but the one principle applies to all. Engrain this principle in practice to understand force, understanding force will lead to higher levels of advancement. Without a long time of serious practice, one cannot advance.

Emptiness leads power up, while breath sinks down the dantian. Don't lean, and don't bend. Able to become shadow and suddenly materialize, if opponents go left, nothing will be there, of opponents go right, let them be led to the right. If opponents look up, let them go up, and if opponents lean down, let them go lower. If they go forward, let them have to go more forward, and if they go back, let them have to go even further back. A feather's weight can't be added, sensitive even to a fly landing on one's skin. They cannot follow me, only I can follow them. To be a hero that encounters now opposition, this is what one must do.

Many schools try to mimic this. There are many different methods, but most emphasize the strong defeating the weak and the slow yielding to the quick. When the strong beat the weak and the slow yield to the quick, it is only natural ability, and has no relation to the power that comes from learning and wisdom. Consider the phrase, "four ounces overcoming a thousand pounds", and it obviously cannot be done with brute strength. Consider the old man who can fend off a gang of attackers; is this outcome determined by sheer speed?

Stand like a balanced level, and be as dynamic as a cartwheel can spin. Shift weight as needed to be lively, for being uncoordinated stagnates the flow. If you see one practicing for years without advancing, being controlled by the opponent, it's because one has not heard of the fault of being uncoordinated. To avoid this fault, one must know about yin and yang. To stick is to flow, to flow is to stick, yang is within the yin, and yin is within the yang. They (the passive and the active) compliment each other, so one can understand force. Identify different forces to advance your training. Carefully study this knowledge, put it to practice, and you will be able to do anything.

The most basic idea is to follow your opponent. Many make the mistake of planning ahead. As the saying goes, "off by an inch, off by a mile", so a student must be able to clearly distinguish! Hence, there is this treatise."

- English Translation of The Tijiquan Lun by Yonatan Vexler, 2017

Tai Chi Chuan Classics

Cloud Hands Taijiquan

Chang San Feng

Thirteen Postures of Tai Chi Chuan

The above four webpages were prepared by Mike Garofalo

Saturday, May 04, 2024

Tai Chi Ruler

The Tai Chi Ruler is a wooden stick about 12 inches long used in Qigong exercises. There is some theory involved which is related to Hand Reflexology and hand acupressure and massage. The Taiji Ruler exercises also involve gentle movements, stretching, and breathing coordination.

You can check my research on the subject of the Tai Chi Ruler.

Friday, May 03, 2024

Aging and Humor

Old Age . . .

"To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable." - Oscar Wilde

"The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for." - Will Rogers

"We must recognize that, as we grow older, we become like old cars – more and more repairs and replacements are necessary." - C.S. Lewis

"Old age comes at a bad time." – Sam Banducci “

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." - Jennifer Yay

"Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it." - Golda Meir

"The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened. - Mark Twain

"Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes, age just shows up all by itself." - Tom Wilson

"I’m at that age where my back goes out more than I do." - Phyllis Diller

"Nice to be here? At my age it’s nice to be anywhere." – George Burns

"Don't let aging get you down. It's too hard to get back up." - John Wagner

"First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down."

Leo Rosenberg

"At my age, flowers scare me." - George Burns

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us…at age 40, we don’t care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all." - Ann Landers

"As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two." - Sir Norman Wisdom

“The older I get, the better I used to be.” – Lee Trevino

"I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap." - Bob Hope

"Getting older. I used to be able to run a 4-minute mile, bench press 380 pounds, and tell the truth." -Conan O’Brien

"When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old." - Mark Twain

"The idea is to die young as late as possible." - Ashley Montagu

Thursday, May 02, 2024

Taoist Immortals

Chronicles of Tao: The Secret Life of a Taoist Master. By Deng Ming-Dao. Harper One, 1993, 476 pages. VSCL. Biography of Kwan Sai Hung. (1920-...) A fictional Taoist Master/Immortal.

"Some of the Masters of Mount Huashan were already addressed as "Immortal." These were highly regarded individuals, agless in appearance. Their titles meant "realized persons," signifying that the Masters has fulfilled, as a minimum requirement, the completion of internal alchemy for the sake of longevity, liberation from the cycle of transmigration, enlightened perception of the nature of life, astral travel, and the total memorization of the hundreds of volumes comprising the Taoist Canon." - Chronicles of Tao, p. 69

Bat Immortal, Yin-Yan Immortals, Frog Immortal ...

Eight Immortals - Wikipedia

Xian - Wikipedia

Xian (Chinese: 仙/仚/僊; pinyin: xiān; Wade–Giles: hsien) refers to a person or similar entity having a long life or being immortal. The concept of xian has different implications dependent upon the specific context: philosophical, religious, mythological, or other symbolic or cultural occurrence. The Chinese word xian is translatable into English as:

(in Daoist philosophy and cosmology) spiritually immortal; transcendent human; celestial being
(in Daoist religion and pantheon) physically immortal; immortal person; an immortal; saint
(in Chinese alchemy) alchemist; one who seeks the elixir of life; one who practices longevity techniques
- (or by extension) alchemical, dietary, or qigong methods for attaining immortality
(in Chinese mythology) wizard; magician; shaman; sorcerer
(in popular Chinese literature) genie; elf, fairy; nymph; 仙境 (xian jing is fairyland, faery)
(based on the folk etymology for the character 仙, a compound of the characters for person and mountain) sage living high in the mountains; mountain-man; hermit; recluse
(as a metaphorical modifier) immortal [talent]; accomplished person; celestial [beauty]; marvelous; extraordinary
(In new-age conception) seeker who takes refuge in immortality (longevity for the realization of divinity); transcended person [self] recoded by the "higher self"; divine soul; fully established being

Xian semantically developed from meaning spiritual "immortality; enlightenment", to physical "immortality; longevity" involving methods such as alchemy, breath meditation, and tai chi chuan, and eventually to legendary and figurative "immortality".

Victor H. Mair describes the xian archetype as:

They are immune to heat and cold, untouched by the elements, and can fly, mounting upward with a fluttering motion. They dwell apart from the chaotic world of man, subsist on air and dew, are not anxious like ordinary people, and have the smooth skin and innocent faces of children. The transcendents live an effortless existence that is best described as spontaneous. They recall the ancient Indian ascetics and holy men known as ṛṣi who possessed similar traits.^[1]

Wednesday, May 01, 2024

With Beauty Again It Is Finished

"Greeting the Dawn,
This Fruitful Day,
For Sun, Sky, Soil, Water, Plants, Animals, and Mankind
I am so grateful.

Seeing the Light without,
Feeling the Light within,
I walk on.

Thus joyfully you accomplish your tasks,
Happily will the old men in the fields regard you,
Happily will the children regard you,
Happily will women in their homes regard you;
Happily may our trails lead us in the way of peace.
Happily may we all return.

With beauty before me I walk,
With wisdom above me I walk,
With good works around me I walk,
With love it is finished,
With beauty again it is finished!"

Adapted by Mike Garofalo from a Navaho prayer found in Pagan Prayers collected by Marah Ellis Ryan.

In the summertime, I begin my walk very early, around 5:30, at daybreak. It is cooler and quieter at this time of day. A good time for a prayer of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. In the winter, as shown below, I walk around 9 am.

I enjoy this painting of a Daoist Sage, an Immortal, smiling, walking in the clouds. A bottle of magical elixir hangs from his Dragon Cane in one hand, and the Peach of Immortality in his other hand. There is also a sacred Crane ready to show the way.

"Zen Master Yunmen Wenyan and Shifu Miao Zhang were walking together in the valley behind the temple one cloudy summer morning. It began to rain steadily on the two old friends. Yunmen said, “My staff has changed into a dragon and is swallowing up the heaven and earth. So, my friend, where do mountains, rainfall, rivers and the great earth come from?”
Miao Zhang was quiet for awhile, stopped on the trail, and then held his cane in his hand with the tip pointing to the sky. He said, “Yunmen, as for the source of their coming, the tip of my cane points to the fecund depths of vast emptiness, the crook end to the endless inter-marriages of ten thousand realities, and my hand grasps the heartwood of the ordinary mind. So, my friend, Yunmen, where are they all going?” "

- Shifu Miao Zhang's Koan Collection
By Mike Garofalo, in Way of the Staff

A repost from 9/2020.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Yurt Camping and Travel Preparations

I will be Yurt Camping at Dosewallips State Park on the Hood Canal near the village of Brinnon, Washington. I will arrive Monday, May 6th and leave for home on May 9th, 2024. I will be exploring the area from Shelton to Port Townsend, mostly on 101 along the west side of the Hood Canal.

I will be yurt camping at Grayland Beach State Park, near Westport, Washington, from June 3rd to June 6. Karen and I will also be staying at resorts in Shelton, Port Townsend, and Forks in 2024. We stayed in Port Angeles, Bemerton, Lake Quinault, and Ocean Shores in 2023. Karen and I drove south from Port Townsend to Olympia down 101 via the Hood Canal in 2019 and in 2010. We have been exploring along Highway 101 (The Olympic Highwaay) from Ilwaco to Olympia, Washington. Basically, we have been exploring the Olympic Peninsula, Olympic National Park, and the Olympic National Forest.

I will focus on local travel in four days along the Hood Canal from Shelton to Port Townsend.

Vancouver WA 110 miles north to Olympia

Olympia WA 23 miles north to Shelton

Shelton WA 41 miles north to Brinnon