Healing Beaches Hawaii

My name is Dale Stubbart and I am launching Yellow Bear Journeys - a new Eco Journey Company. The purpose of our journeys is to reconnect people with nature and help them become more fully awake to all that life can be on this incredible planet. Each journey is designed around three elements - a tour or workshop, a celebration, and an awakening. Our tours will take us around the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. We are committed to leaving a light footprint while touring by seeking lodging, transportation, and meal options that are environmentally friendly. Celebrations are a chance to share the joys we've experienced and may be as simple as conversation during a shared meal. What is the awakening? Perhaps the best way to describe it is to tell you my own experience.

My awakening occurred over the period of seven years. I had a very successful twenty-plus year career that I loved as a computer consultant. But contracts for the most skilled and experienced consultants began to disappear and it became apparent that I would need to change my focus. As I became unemployed and tried to deal with that situation, I received the book Finding Your own North Star, by Martha Beck, as a Christmas gift. Soon my wife, Terry, and I were laughing our way through Beck's wise and funny exercises, seeking our true purpose in life. About this time I also started having visions of a Yellow Bear going Northwest. More than ten years earlier, a mentor had once told me that in a Native American way, I would be called Yellow Bear because I would "go where the wind blows me". After years of hibernation, it appeared that the bear was on the move! However, our current home in Colorado was already cold enough for my tastes, so I resisted following that bear any further north. Finally a stop-gap job opened up in Washington state, and lo and behold, we moved to the Northwest.

Once in Washington, I fell in love with the area, especially the beaches. In all my travels, both domestic and international, this was the first time I ever really felt at home. Then one day Terry opened a book of photographs of the Pacific Northwest, and there, looking back at her from the page was a yellow bear. She nearly fainted! It was a Kermode Bear, or Spirit Bear in Native American terminology. Technically it is considered white, but frequently there is a yellow tinge to its coat. With the famous Twilight Zone theme playing in our heads we continued to ponder our life purpose and why we'd come to the Pacific Northwest, home of the Yellow Bear.

I had several ideas of what I really wanted to do in life but nothing seemed to gel. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to work more with the environment and with peace. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer. Not knowing my life's purpose was really frustrating me, so I hired a life coach to help me figure it out. Her first question was, "What do you think you want to do". I had no idea, that's why I'd gone to her for help in the first place. Then I realized that I did have two concrete ideas: Eco Malls and Eco Journeys. It took four months of coaching before I was certain that Eco Journeys were what I really wanted to do.

Through coaching, I discovered the eight values that are most important to me: Quest, Fun, Community, Triumph, Environment, Peace, Linguistics, and Creativity. Working with computers fulfilled six of those values. The two that were missing were environment and peace which were exactly what I was looking for. Eco Journeys fulfilled all eight values and everything began to fall into place.

It is amazing! I was fairly happy working with computers. Now, just thinking about Eco Journeys gets me so excited, I often dance a little jig for joy. Working with computers never made me that happy!

Meanwhile as I pursued life coaching, Terry was on her own path of discovery and attended an "Art and Discernment" workshop at a local spirituality center. Her strongest sense of direction came on a contemplative walk when she stepped from a natural path onto an asphalt parking lot and experienced a jarring sense of "wrongness" as her foot hit the unyielding artificial surface. Later she noticed that the collage mandala she'd made at the workshop was composed entirely of images from the natural world. Clearly similar desires were stirring in both of us.

I've described my own journey, and a bit of Terry's, but what is "The Awakening" itself? I know what it is, and yet I also don't know. It remains, in part, a bit mysterious and indefinable. My awakening included visions, dreams, just "knowing", the "Eureka" experience, and the "Of course, why didn't I see that before?" experience, to name just a few. For others, life may just open up. Over time they realize they are in a very different place with no major "transitions" they can point to or "woo-woo" experiences.

I believe the awakening is wise, happening at the best time and in the best possible place. If the awakening cannot be precisely defined, here is the key point: the hallmark of the awakening is that it brings joy to the person who experiences it.

On the Eco Journeys we hope to provide a context and an opportunity for an awakening experience for each participant. Since most of the tours average five days in length, that may seem a bit ambitious. Our goal is that the next step of each participant's true life journey may open up with greater clarity - whether it is as life changing as my own has been, or whether it is a tiny baby step forward. Both are equally valid.

I feel there are four major areas of concern in the world right now, the environment, people, spirituality, and creativity. Most people sense that one of those areas speaks directly to their heart. The Eco Journey Awakening will help people discern the next step they'll take regarding that area of concern. For example, if an individual's major focus is people, they may realize they want to start working at a food bank. At first glance, that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Eco Journeys, but when we each move forward on our true path, we experience a richer and deeper life. This helps the world in general become a better place, and all aspects of life prosper, even if they don't seem directly related.

Often the first step in the awakening is realizing more fully who you are. During the Eco Journeys, we may pursue this with questions like:

• What is my area of concern?
• What is my role in society?
• Where do I thrive?
• What miracles can I perform?

Another step in the awakening, and often the only other step, often presents itself as "Now that I know who I are, what am I going to do?" Helpful questions may be:

• What is the next step I'm going to take in my area of concern?
• Who's going to take it with me?
• What door is now open to me?

At times, the awakening will reveal the need to do less, not more. It may be time to simply stop, rest, enjoy, and regroup. Or we may realize that the first thing we need to do is something for ourselves. The awakening also puts us in touch with others - people who become best friends, soul mates, associates, or other contacts. If we all work separately in our area of concern we will make some progress, but when we work together, we will make much more progress in a much shorter period of time.

For some the awakening may be not so much a matter of doing as a matter of being. And so we may ask ourselves:

• Who's my tribe or to whom do I relate most naturally?
• How am I going to be more fully myself?
• What is my manner of being?

Putting this all down on paper can make it sound very structured and regimented. In practice it can be as free and easy as a natural conversation while we walk on a beach, unwind, breathe deeply, and daydream. It's actually all very light and happy - nothing heavy.

I've always enjoyed traveling and exploring nature on my own, but I enjoy it even more with others. The enhancement produced by the group experience cannot be overstated. My focus is the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and the Caribbean, because that's what excites me the most. However, I also get enthusiastic about things that excite others. That is why I'm planning Organic Coffee and Organic Wine Journeys, even though I don't enjoy drinking either! Eco Journeys are always group collaborations, and the joint venture can begin with the design of the tour from the ground up. I'll consider designing an eco journey for any environmental topic that is presented to me.

We return to Hawaii in February and March , 2008 to experience more of those healing beaches.
The Green Car Tour will happen in  May, 2008, when I'll lead a tour that I've wanted to take since seventh grade. I tried to write a paper on electric cars then, but didn't get very far as every lead seemed to slip away. Now, 39 years later, I've put together a Green Car Journey which is essentially a mobile workshop on alternative transportation. We'll cross Washington west to east and south to north, and venture across the border into British Columbia, in order to get a first-hand look at a variety of alternative vehicles and technologies available in the area. Healing Beaches Hawaii and the Dungeness Spit Hike are among other journeys scheduled that month, so there is quite a variety available from the start.

You can contact me through my website - http://www.yellowbearjourneys.com/ - to learn more about pre-planned Yellow Bear Journeys, to request a custom designed tour, or to learn more about the awakening. Join us as we explore nature and new horizons, expand our learning, care for the earth, celebrate life, and awaken to new possibilities. What we find may be a delightful surprise. We may find that together we can work miracles!

Also founded http://ecotoursnw.com.