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WALDEN – THE SEEDS OF HOPE
By Walter Bowman Littrell
If today we would live as though everyone and everything is an embodiment of the divine, then we would be completely transformed. This is the proposition that links us to the time when Henry David Thoreau lived on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts from 1845 to 1847. His American classic, Walden or Life in the Woods, provides a unique example of self-reliant individualism and has served as inspiration for over thirty years in the Walden House community formed in San Francisco. Together they plant the seeds of hope for our future. Our task is to not give up but to work and preserve the hope for a better way of surviving for ourselves and others in the world.
After earning his degree from Harvard, Thoreau retreated from society in 1845 and lived alone in a little hand made cabin for two years writing On Walden Pond . Today, he would be labeled as a reclusive “odd ball”, but this iconoclast challenges our beliefs and provides an example and a vision with solutions to questions on our survival and prosperity.
In 1969 I co-founded the Walden House therapeutic community in San Francisco. Looking back over the last 35 years it is nothing short of a “Miracle” to see the results of our meager beginnings and our “Dream” of making a difference. Our start was risky and perhaps I really was “crazy” with no funding, no staff and no experience to start our non-profit agency. My wife, Jean, and I provided the initial seed money with the proceeds from the sale of our original family home in Marin County in order to purchase a big old turn of the century Victorian home in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. Starting naively at 28 years of age I was scrambling from the very first day to set up the non-profit agency, to survive, to support my wife and three year old son, Nathan, and care for our first 25 people in the program.
It is absolutely astounding now to see Walden House providing services for over 4,000 individuals each day and over 25,000 persons each year. It is obviously not one person doing this, but it comes from the caring level of professionalism and commitment from the staff, the funding agencies, foundations and of course primarily the participants in the program. This powerful creation is the result of a shared “Spirit” providing Hope and inspiration to those in need every day.
Teachings expressed in Thoreau’s Walden Pond have been applied in Walden House for over 35 years. They provide us Seeds of Hope for the future.
Examples of Seeds of Hope are:
1. Love and respect life
2. Live in balance with the earth
3. Have courage for personal commitment
4. Listen for truth
5. Practice responsible consumption and economy
The motivation to apply these teachings is rapidly increasing, as we encounter more stress and pain both individually and as a global society. There are many parallels between teachings of the great religions and philosophy, but as they are ignored we, our society and our environment continue to run into new crises created by our own neglect and denial
“Directing your eye inward” as Thoreau advises, can change a life. John Muir was from Thoreau’s generation and also a man with a great respect for nature. He was a hard working factory manager until one day in 1868, when a sliver of a metal file shot into his eye and blinded him. His other eye went sympathetically blind, and for weeks Muir could not see. It was in this moment of his life that he suddenly saw inwardly that the meaning of life involved the works of God, not the work of man. This revelation changed his life to one of devotion by protecting nature. When his sight returned in both eyes, he began a pilgrimage that set him walking from Indianapolis down South through Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico. He boarded a steamer for California, where he would become known as one of America’s first advocates for the preservation of nature for its own sake.
This tough Scotsman would be the first white man to hike the high Sierra and would begin a career as a celebrated writer, scientist and mountaineer. It was due to his efforts that Yosemite was eventually made a national park and the Sierra Club was born. His struggle led to hard fought limits on foul smelling pig farming and destructive grazing of animals in the Yosemite Valley and the beautiful Tuolumne Meadows. Progress and preservation were in direct conflict, and it required strong public advocacy to shift the direction toward a future park reserved for public recreation and not private profit. The wiry “Man of the Mountains” would climb tall trees in the midst of a thunderstorm in order to feel closer to the Creator.
Muir’s writing such as this selection from THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA would open the minds of readers everywhere.
“Contemplating the works of these flowers of the sky, one may easily fancy them endowed with life: messengers sent down to work in the mountain mines on errands of divine love. Silently lying through the darkened air, swirling, glinting, to their appointed places, they seem to have taken counsel together, saying, “Come, we are feeble; let us help one another. We are many, and together we will be strong. Marching in close, deep ranks, let us roll away the stones from these mountain sepulchres, and set the landscapes free. Here make ground for a meadow; there, for a garden and grove…” Thus, and so on it has often times seemed to me sang and planned and labored the hearty snow-flower crusaders; and nothing I can write can possibly exaggerate the grandeur and beauty of their work."
Inspired by the beauty of his treasured Yosemite Valley in the Sierras one morning I wrote the following song not far from the spot where John Muir had his cabin.
HIGH SIERRA MORNING
THIS HIGH SIERRA MORNING
DAWNING SO SERENE
MAJESTIC GRANITE MOUNTAINS –
LIKE FEW HAVE EVER SEEN
THE SOFTNESS OF THE MORNING MIST –
GIVES THE MEADOW A MOUNTAIN KISS
THIS HIGH SIERRA MORNING
FILLS MY HEART WITH BLISS
ANOTHER HIGH SIERRA MORNING
PASSING EONS OF TIME
WATERS FLOWING TO THE OCEAN –
MORNING SUN WARMS THIS SOUL OF MINE
NATURE SHOWS HER COLOR –
TREES IN SHADES OF GREEN
FLOWERS SMILE IN SUNSHINE
AND SHARE THEIR LOVE WITH MINE
I have just produced as an original singer/songwriter my first CD, “Freedom’s Spirit”, and this song, High Sierra Morning, is my first selection. Just as founding Walden House was my first great leap in community service, Freedom’s Spirit is my very first endeavor as an artist to produce musically. Certainly with both endeavors fears of the unknown and the “critics” can be daunting. Finally, I just had to tell myself that this was my own free expression for my own inner satisfaction, and had to at least give it my best and “trust the process”. We have to realize that we are not perfect but must trust the creative process and follow our bliss. The creative process for the artist and the visionary takes us down an uncommon spiritual path that can border on both idealism and lunacy.
Music takes me back to being a teenager. Here I am as a grandfather writing a Rock and Roll song about motorcycles. My philosophy is that while I’m still alive, I may as well live the best I can, because it’s no good living each day with one foot on the gas while the other is riding the brake! Life is an adventure, so let’s live it no matter what our age! Each of us has our own drive to get what we think will make us feel good or even better- make us feel “Great, Sexy, Ecstatic, Powerful, Loved or High”! This drive is universal among every human being on the planet. We each have our own “special desire” that at times can drive us wacko, but it gives us juice, and it doesn’t seem to do any good to lecture about preventing it.
These desires are set in motion early in life. Why else do TV advertisers pump millions into influencing the young minds of children. My own personal story goes back to when I was 13 years old growing up in Ft. Worth, Texas. Somehow or other I was bitten by the insidious “motorcycle bug”. I may justify buying a motorcycle by saying it gets twice the gas mileage of an automobile, but like many teenagers getting interested in cars and girls, I just had to have it!
MOTORCYCLE FEVER
FEELIN’ RESTLESS TIRED OF THE BATTLE
FEELIN’ HOT TO JUMP IN THE SADDLE
AND RIDE, RIDE, RIDE, RIDE
MOTORCYCLE FEVER MAKES ME GET UP AND RIDE
HELP ME DOCTOR! HELP ME PLEASE
PLEASE DO SOMETHIN’ FOR THIS DISEASE
LET’S RIDE, RIDE, RIDE
MOTORCYCLE FEVER GET ME AN ASPIRIN PLEASE
Thoreau advises us that it is possible to march to our own “distant drummer”. Take a step at a time, but don’t be afraid to follow your own intuition. This spirit is also leading me to write my first book, Walden- Seeds of Hope.
“Stress and Pain” give us the extra motivation to initiate what we can refer to as “the Walden shift”, leading to a simpler, more reflective, less stressful, and more nurturing living condition. Those of us living in California find it easy to associate the stress level building up within us to be like an earthquake. The stress put on our minds and bodies can be relieved by making the shifts deep down in our being, just as the stress building up in the tectonic plates deep in the earth can be relieved by earthquakes. This is the key to feeling a deep sense of liberation and freedom.
Walden House residents, who have been helped by the “Family” therapeutic community, have learned the true meaning of the term “recovery”. Whether it is in the residential community based programs or through in-custody programs instituted with the California Department of Corrections, we help each other through a process of gradually increasing our ability to handle responsibility. By courageously working through their process each person gains a sense of self-esteem that had previously been clobbered by self-destructive behavior, addiction, dysfunctional or broken homes and a load of pain, suffering and guilt that would crush anyone. We have learned that punishment of an addict is really a waste of time and energy, since most are better at punishing themselves than could ever be done by others.
The song, Headstones, shows the importance in embracing life each day to the fullest. As my son, Nathan, is fond of saying, “Yesterday is history- Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present!” I take this message to heart, particularly, since I feel I’m on my second lifetime. My cardiologist tells me how lucky I was on May 1, 1995 when I drove up to the hospital emergency room just before I had my heart attack. Today I would be a goner, if the electric paddles had not shocked me back to life.
What is important is-- to show a better way and a more meaningful life. The greatest gift of Walden House is “Love”. With the sharing of love we can share our loads with one another. This gift of love is what provides the compassionate core of Walden House. This is the gift that can give us the strength and “hope” for our future. One thing we have felt in all this time is this common bond, this seed for love unites us all in a shared caring spirit.
Thoreau gave us a picture of living in a way that expressed a love for life. He communed simply with nature in the beauty of Walden Pond. He loved “wildness” and confronted the necessities of life in his own iconoclastic style but took the time to reflect on the direction and hope for our society. We in the present look back at millennium after millennium of human beings evolving but asking the same basic questions of life and trying to meet the same basic needs.
The great American writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, allowed him to live on his property at Walden Pond at no charge, because he shared Thoreau’s friendship, artistic passion and social concerns. Thoreau wished to live with as little disturbance to the land, as possible. He had a true respect for nature. Today we use the term “sustainability” to describe our new relationship with the earth, and we measure our “ecological footprint” or impact on the environment. Thoreau wrote of the actual impact of his feet walking down to the pond each day, disturbing the grass and forming a depression in the soil, “It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men, and so the paths which the mind travels.”
His awareness of the impact of his feet and his mind forming a path seems totally insignificant compared to the extent of our ecological impact today. He had a deep respect for nature and understood the importance of balance between nature and the economic effect that we have on it. His persuasion to respect living creatures led him to become a vegetarian. “No true humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.” As today we witness war and violence we must consider ourselves responsible to follow the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”.
I would consider myself and any human being very fortunate to live a full life without taking the life of another person, whether by accident or by design.
Walden House was begun as an experiment in the 60’s during the horrors of the Vietnam War to try and positively address some of the pressing needs in our society. Then just as now I watched my fellow countrymen on TV each day killing and being killed, and I realize how life is very precious and very fragile. The journalist Daniel Schorr wrote, “Television celebrating violence, promotes violence.”
There finally came a time when my wife, Jean, and I were willing to try and make a difference. We wanted to do something that had “meaning”, as suggested by Viktor Frankl”s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. To finally get off the couch and act to start Walden House took a vision of hope. We felt that any act of love in the present here and now does something for peace everywhere and for all time. As Albert Einstein suggests, “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” The real dilemma for the visionary and the creative artist is that one must feel free enough to create without being dependent on the result in order to express a new vision or “core self”. Unfortunately, many times the artist or visionary must give their energy and resources to an endeavor, when their capacities and resources are limited. While we were starting Walden House, we had “Hope” in our leap of faith, but we had little resources and no security for our endeavors. This forced us to be out on a limb and hanging on from our very first day.
Today millions of individuals live so close to the edge that one major setback in medical bills or loss of a job places them in jeopardy of losing their homes or even possible bankruptcy. The lyrics to Unemployment Blues, tells of the plight of over 8 million unemployed in the U.S. and over 150 million around the globe. International corporations are abandoning workers, their families and whole communities, as they move jobs from place to place around the globe in search of profits and cheap labor. Loyalty to the original workers who built a corporation is lost in favor of the drive for power, profit, greed, abusive low wage labor conditions and environmental degradation. Those “who have lots” exploit those “have nots”.
Employment is extremely critical for our national prosperity and especially for clients in recovery. One of the most successful early experiments that we tried at Walden House was the development of satellite apartments with reentry education and job training for clients leaving treatment and going back into the community. The satellite apartment enabled six clients to share an apartment and their living expenses, while they started back to school, job training or going back to work. This reentry phase is critical for continuing the recovery process and enables clients to make the transition to being a normal, invisible and anonymous citizen like any other person on the street without labeling or stigmas. This gives clients a real sense of freedom- freedom from drugs- freedom from prison- freedom from the fear of homelessness- freedom to make new friends- freedom to schedule our own time- and freedom to repair the relationships with their families. They also have the freedom to make their mistakes like you and I, and they have support to deal with them.
It’s always easy to hear others speak about a problem; it’s another thing when the problem hits you personally.
UNEMPLOYMENT BLUES
THESE UNEMPLOYMENT BLUES
JUST NUMBERS ON THE NEWS
THEY DON’T EVER SHOW
ALL THE WORN OUT SHOES
THE PRESIDENT GOT HIS NAFTA
AND HIS WTO
BUT WE’RE HURTIN’ DOWN IN TEXAS
AND UP TO OHIO
THEY TOOK MY JOB AND SHOVED IT
DOWN THE OLD RATHOLE
SENT THE JOBS TO ASIA
AND OLD MEXICO
CEO GOT HIS BONUS
AND MILLIONS WITH HIS TEA
I JUST GOT A PINK SLIP
AND IT’S THE STREET FOR ME
BILLIONS GO FOR MISSILES
ROCKETS TO THE STARS
WEAPONS OF DESTRUCTION
PRESIDENT’S FOREIGN WARS
BUT HOW DO I PAY OUR DOCTOR
IF I CAN’T FIND WORK
IF I CAN’T EARN A PAYCHECK
I FEEL LIKE A JERK
IF I DON’T PAY MY MORTGAGE
BANK’LL TAKE MY HOME
CONGRESS TAKES OUR TAXES
WITH DEBTS FOR YEARS TO COME
SO WHAT ABOUT OLD LINCOLN
JACKSON – WASHINGTON
GOT NONE IN MY POCKET
GOT NONE FOR MY SON
Homelessness is pervasive, as estimates of homeless persons in San Francisco run up to 15,000, Los Angeles has up to 40,000, and New York has up to 38,000. As millions of us are making determined efforts by working more and more just to make ends meet, the increased stress creates a sense of futility and impacts our health and social welfare.
Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life. –Aristophanes
Persistence in the pursuit of endeavors using means of violence and abuse demonstrates the folly of fools. History is replete with examples of powerful leaders making brief appearances on thrones built by war, violence and tyranny, but who ultimately end up in the dustbin of infamy. Today the cost for the world’s military is over $900 billion per year, and it is the burden of millions around the globe to pay these escalating expenses. Over half of these costs are for the U.S. military alone. We continue to waste precious lives and lavish spending on unusable nuclear weapons that could be used to provide clothing, food and shelter to save thousands living in grinding poverty each day. As we wage war in the Middle East, Africa or any number of future nations, it is the poor and the civilians paying the greatest price for these acts of madness.
Just as bullets and bombs are exploding in neighborhoods of the world’s oppressed poor, our prisons are exploding their populations with primarily the poor, the uneducated and the abused. It took our nation from its founding in 1776 until 1990 to reach one million inmates in our nation’s prisons, but it has taken only ten years for us to double the number of prisoners behind bars to reach a staggering two million. Approximately 1.5 million of these individuals are incarcerated for drug related offenses and while many require incarceration, there are also many who are better served through appropriate drug treatment programs, job training, remedial education and recovery.
There is hope for us, if we are willing to take the challenge to change. Following the shock and devastation of 9/11, we must take a serious look at the roots of war and violence. This means that we are now forced to take a look at our basic attitudes. Rather than demonizing others as evil, we must look deeper to ask, “What are we doing wrong?” We must deal with the root causes of violence and despair, if we are to make our world safer. Real security requires a strong commitment to hope for all people and freedom from fear. Managing the world’s escalating six billion person population by providing the basics of food, shelter, healthcare and jobs is our universal task. This is the challenge to provide true security.
While the U.S. Congress struggles with increasing military expenditures and expanding federal deficits, the lawmakers in California are struggling to balance a budget with a state prison population over 160,000 at a cost well over $5 billion. Legislators have held hearings to focus on possible changes to the correctional system and are disturbed by studies that report a recidivism rate of around 70%. Since many treatment programs like Walden House, Center Point, Daytop Village and Phoenix House are working in the prisons, we are showing progress in recent years. Still there are approximately 80% of prisoners who have drug problems but only around 5% are in treatment. Most inmates read at a seventh-grade level, but only 3% are receiving educational programs. We need additional job-training, parenting programs and classes in non-violent problem solving skills for inmates, who will ultimately be returned on parole back into society. While lawmakers are now recognizing the problems and high costs of past failures in the prisons, they need further encouragement to change an outdated system. The courts are welcoming a renewed emphasis on rehabilitation, but attitudes in the public are slow to change.
“If public opinion would but frown on violence, it would lose all its power.” - Leo N. Tolstoy
In this spirit I submit the following poem, which became the lyrics to another song in tribute to Walden House and those committed to making progress. I sang this song for the first time to those enrolled in a prison program operated by Walden House. These prisoners are proving to be a true source of inspiration to me and a demonstration of hope for a better future.
HOPE FOR FREEDOM
There is hope for freedom
There is hope for every land
There is hope in a spirit
For those who need a hand
There are hard times in prison
There are hard drugs on the street
There are hard lives awasting
Demons we must meet
In our hearts we’re changing
As we struggle to get free
Our lives are rearranging
There is hope for you and me
So no matter your religion
No matter sex or race
Our family pulls together
We feel it’s warm embrace
But a new day is coming
We are learning how to cope
Day by day we’re showing
Never give up hope
Fortunately, it is possible to find freedom from the cycle of violence and the Triple Threat” of Alienation, Abuse and Abandonment. This freedom is possible, because we have seen real examples of miraculous change. We at Walden House and other similar programs around the globe have witnessed the miracle of rebirth and change in individuals, who had been written off as hopeless by society, family and even by themselves. Love and nurturing can heal a damaged spirit, if we are not afraid to try.
Many children are subjected to the triple AAA threat. This creates not just the problems for our youth but also often a time bomb is implanted to be set off later in adulthood. The triggers for these future blow ups may be issues of self-esteem, job loss, death of loved ones, divorce, health crises, suicide and violence. I have seen how at times a particularly lethal combination of these events can have devastating consequences. All the power in our nuclear arsenal did not protect us on 9/11 from the devastation created by a few determined individuals nor will it in the future. Gandhi taught, “Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by fear of punishment, and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.”
The children of war and the adult casualties of the “Triple A’s” need special attention, but too often they are relegated to the fringe of society as outcasts. They are too easily labeled as the “Other”, the untouchable or even in the extreme case the terrorist label. This is “scapegoating”, and once people are given the label as being bad, it is too easy for them to act out the role by accepting this label. Without our understanding and seriously addressing their issues these individuals will have the greatest likelihood to commit further acts of violence, end up in prison, addiction and perpetuate the same patterns of abuse in the future.
Children fed a high calorie, high sugar diet with high daily doses of violence on TV become addicted to “high sensation” or “high physical and emotional stimulation” with “highly aggressive and competitive” behavior patterns. High consumption behavior drives the American social and economic engine, but does little to provide nourishment for the spirit. Today’s parents will drive their kids to Sunday morning soccer, baseball or football games, rather than to Sunday morning worship service, music lessons or a family nature hike. Mother Teresa called Americans, “the spiritually poorest of the poor” because they could not see their way to a life of service and meaning. Is it any wonder that one-half of the juvenile detentions and incarcerations are due to drug related crimes, while too often these incarcerations give us a false sense of security.
Unfortunately, the criminal justice system itself is built on the basis of fear and threat power. The prison system itself has a dehumanizing capacity to turn normal feeling human beings into unfeeling, sadistic and violent victims. This has been shown to be true for both the enforcers of the system and the individuals subjected to the system. I have also seen fear push others into violence and even suicide. The constructive alternatives to the criminal justice system including treatment, rehabilitation and recovery can not only save lives but save vast personal and tax payer’s expenses.
The best crime prevention programs remain: 1. a loving family and 2. a good school. A Greek proverb states, “When a school opens, a prison closes.” The State of California has been so busy building prisons in recent years that it has abdicated the responsibility to provide higher education for high school graduates. The state has not built one additional university recently forcing many university qualified students into overcrowded community colleges.
Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance” complements Thoreau’s writings and further illuminates our path for today. Their writings complement those of Thomas Carlyle’s forceful statement,
“To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects in himself.”
Walden House provides a refuge and a sanctuary for healing. At our annual graduation ceremony for over 600 residents completing their treatment regimen, we witnessed living examples of lives healing from the effects of homelessness, drug addiction, HIV, mental illness, alcoholism, and prison. It was done with lots of hard work, the grace of love, guidance and great perseverance, as illustrated in the Walden House Creed written by a resident over 30 years ago.
W is for WHO ARE YOU
A is for ASK YOURSELF
L is for LEARN TO LISTEN
D is for DEMANDING OF YOURSELF
E is for EAGERNESS
N is for NOW IS YOUR LIFE
H is for HERE IS HOW
O is for OWE IT TO YOURSELF
U is for UNION OF BODY AND MIND
S is for SATISFACTION GAINED
E is for ETERNAL CHANGE WITHIN
Each one of us must deal with suffering. It is a condition of life just as there are moments of joy, so are there moments of pain. These are the personal experiences that are our greatest teachers, although most of us are trying our utmost to prevent feeling pain. We want to feel safe and secure in spite of suffering all around us. Some of this pain we may say is preventable but much is simply a given condition of life.
The last 3 years have been most difficult for my wife and me, but demanding times also bring internal growth. Instead of things getting easier as we approached retirement, they became harder due to the combination of health issues and financial issues. It was during this time that we began to meet a few other people with similar conditions. Eventually we had our own little community; whether it was through the web, church or friends, we supported each other. Whether the issue was cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, or any other ailment, we found comfort in knowing that we are not alone dealing with pain, suffering and losses both personal and financial. We could speak with others also in pain, and we were able to share with other spouses and care givers the suffering we were all going through. After several years of struggle, we have not only survived but life is a Joy, which is my wife’s middle name. So it is with this experience that we have been reminded of the Buddha’s wisdom, “Life is suffering”, and the senior citizen’s adage, “Health truly is Wealth”!
There are no easy answers. In our advancing years it seems we constantly hear news of death or health problems. When we are young all this “medical” talk or “social concerns” talk may be tedious and of little interest. Although all these conversations are “a pain in the butt” to the uninitiated, it is from these struggles with cancer, AIDS, drug addiction and myriad trials and tribulations that we have wonderful examples of cures, remissions and recovery to guide us on our path. All of us at some time will experience conditions where we eventually have to ask, “What do I do with a body that may refuse to heal and does not carry with it any factory warranty or known cure? How is life an embodiment of the divine?” In Walden House and other “healing/therapeutic communities” around the world we are confronting these issues daily with men and women, both young and old dealing with their issues whether it is drug addiction, mental health, AIDS, prison or how to repair family relationships and save lives. As stated in both the Koran and the Talmud, “Whoever saves a single life, saves the whole world.” There is hope for us to turn our lives around! We are able to “Live simply, so others may simply live.” These are the “SEEDS OF HOPE” to be shared with the world!
“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”
-Attributed to Augustine of Hippo
We continue to hold precious memories of those, who have given so much of their lives to make this “Dream” come true. It was possible with the sharing of a Seed of Hope and a Vision of Love beginning with my wife, Jean, along with my friend and co-founder Hosea L. Blye Jr, who both have passed away several years ago. Our original Spirit is continuing with Walden House today. Walden House now has an annual budget of $50 million, equity in properties in the millions of dollars and 500 staff operating many programs throughout the State of California. In spite of many crises Walden House has survived, and we have helped through the years hundreds of thousands of individuals. Through the generosity of thousands of donors Walden House is a continuing success and a triumph of the spirit.
It is with the utmost gratitude that my wife, Carol, and I have survived this far, and we’re still alive to witness the “Miracle” of life each day. We can enjoy our grandchildren, music, friends and family.
I can point to many success stories of Walden House, as well as many difficulties, but the greatest measure of success for me is not the amount of money, the numbers of operating facilities or grants being funded today. Our greatest success is not in money, power, prestige, immediate or physical, but our greatest success is through the expression of the power of each person to touch the universal, the eternal and the spiritual. I am left with the feeling that there must be some divine spirit saying, “Go Ahead! Follow your Hopes and Dreams!
Through poetry and music many times our inner “muse” or “spirit” can move us with timeless emotions in the middle of the night to communicate better than any prose. In conclusion this is one example of such a song’s transformative experience that began as a dream poem, then became a eulogy and finally became a song.
SEEDS FOR LOVE
Walter B. Littrell
THE MIRACLE OF BIRTH THAT BROUGHT US HERE
THAT SPARK OF MIRTH AND BABY’S TEAR
FORGIVE OUR HURT, ENDURE OUR PAIN
AS COOL SIPS OF WATER FALL WITH THE RAIN
WE CAN BE SEEDS FOR LOVE
ALOHA SPIRIT-SEEDS FOR LOVE
A TINY SEED MADE A TREE
SEEDS FOR LOVE MADE YOU AND ME
THE MEANING OF LIFE WE MAY ASK
BUT SHARING LOVE IS OUR TASK
SHALL WE PURSUE A LIFE OF GREED
OR PLANT A GARDEN FOR FUTURE SEED?
IN THE END WHEN LIFE IS DONE
AROUND THE BEND WHAT WAS WON?
NOW IS THE TIME THIS IS OUR DAY
AS FIELDS OF FLOWERS SHOW US THE WAY
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