JoAnn Saccato

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9/22/2019

Treasures from the John Muir Trail (Pt. 1)

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View of Tenaya Canyon from the Half Dome Trail, Yosemite, California. September 14, 2019.
{I recently completed an eleven month project, the Lake Family Resource Center's California HOPE project,  leading a team working with fire survivors of the Mendocino Complex fire in Northern California. As part of my closure for this project, as well as my growing interest in solo backpacking, I hiked a small, iconic, portion of the John Muir Trail. This series is a reflection and a taste of insights I received from that journey.}

In 2018 my planned John Muir Trail hike in Yosemite National Park was hijacked by smoke from the Fergusen Fire. I took an alternate trek in the park to Vogelsang (read more about that adventure here), but within three days, Yosemite Valley was shut down and I found my way back to base camp.

As I drove home to Lake County, the Mendocino Complex Fire, now known as California's largest wildfire in recorded history, had just broken out. I was hearing reports via phone never imagining what the next year would hold for me as I drove from one set of smokey mountains to another. By October, I was invited to lead the FEMA funded project.

____________________

This year in Lake County a few small fires have broken out throughout the summer. Residents here, triggered again and again as each golden-green patch burns, have been living with catastrophic fire since the summer of 2015 when three devastating fires, including the Valley Fire, consumed nearly a third of the county.

It was in July, the beginning of fire season in Lake County and about a month away from completion of the project, that my self care and wellness started slipping. The project itself had a strong self-care component for the team--a team that would meet directly with survivors, help them navigate resources, common reactions to disasters, and learn to set priorities and take small steps toward their recovery.

But, between this project and completing a year long mindfulness teacher training (along with all the usual busyness of life!) I started to slip. I was staying up late watching movies or shopping online. I was eating bigger portions and lots of sugar--things I usually resort to when I'm tired and need to push through what's on my plate, rather than glide with joy through the day's adventure. I was distancing in my intimate relationship, but most importantly, though, I was losing touch with the sacredness of the moment.

By a  few weeks before the end of the project, fatigue took over and I had to rest. I intended to be hiking 3+ miles with full weight (35 pounds) at least two times per week by this time. But instead, I had to set it all aside, only doing the very minimum to get through the day.


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9/23/2017

My Home Still Stands: A Case for Compassion (Pt. 7)

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Ornate ceramic and stone pieces surround a koi pond in a Valley Fire devastated neighborhood
How does the human mind make sense of the seeming chaos?
I instinctively knew not to get too close to the crippled buck--concerned eyes shone through his protective furrowed brow. If we got too close, feeling  threatened, he would flee--possibly injuring himself further.

As Nathan captured images of a large ashened concrete and brick fish pond, I tended to a half ajar gate leading down to a small earthen pond. Surely the buck would need water and ensuring an easy path seemed the most important thing I could do to increase his likelihood of survival.

The burnt-orange and speckled black koi swam slowly around the rectangular pond--they had survived. We cleared debris off partially submerged fencing used to keep koi predators at bay. Broken chunks of large ceramic and concrete figurines lay strewn about the brick lip of the pond. Obviously a once precisely designed and carefully tended garden space, it now looked quite aged, as if from some ancient civilization. I imagined the owners a well-travel elder gay couple who who returned many times from the Orient, bringing home rare, one-of-a-kind and garishly ornate treasures.

Enroute to our friend's home, undertaking a wellness check as canine companions were left at home on what began as a typical summer Saturday in Lake County, I couldn't help but notice for the first time the haphazard randomness of the fire--homes demolished down to brick, concrete or dirt  surrounded by blackened tree sticks juxtaposed with unscathed homes, tucked and hemmed in with still-thriving green conifers, solemn oaks and thirsty bushes.

How does the human mind make sense of all the seeming randomness--the chaos? Lives in a moments notice forever changed--a small community thrust and scattered into oblivion, never landing in the same configuration again; never to feel the tediousness of day to day life together again; never to experience the security of stable community with each other again.



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1/8/2017

Reflections from Asia (Pt. I) 

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Sunset at Phra Borom Maha Ratchawang, Bangkok, Thailand.
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The trail to the Tham Khao Makaeo cave on Koh Lanta Yai.
Traveling in Asia feeds my heart in so many ways, yet equally confounds my mind in just as many ways. I have a deep affinity for so much of the culture--and yes, some of those things that drive my mind wild. Refreshingly different things juxtaposed with heart wrentching incongruencies has kept me pondering this trip, I thought I'd share a few of them here:
  • Seemingly outrageous and chaotic traffic. This took some time to understand. While it seems chaotic and out of control, really, people and drivers are far more courteous,  inclusive and cooperative. There seems to be an attitude of "we're all in this together trying to live our lives and reach our destination. I want you to be safe and happy, too." This makes sense in a predominently Buddhist region given that keeping others' happiness in our hearts and minds is a Buddhist tenet-- we all want happiness and here we take the time to help others be happy. We've heard of some hairy accidents, but for the volume of traffic, they seem relatively small in comparison. I recently rented a scooter for a few days on the island of Koh Lanta. Learning how to drive on the left side of the road is challenging enough, but merging traffic, blurred and ignored divider lines, and roads needing repair kept me mindful and in the moment!
  • Things are not perfect nor perfectly safe. Jim and I were not the only ones that found this refreshing. While in general, safety and boundaries can actually increase our ability to be more creative and fulfilled (we're not having to struggle with our basic needs), some cultures have regulated moment-by-moment living out of life through excessive concern with safety and boundaries. Our trek to the Tham Khao Makaeo cave on Koh Lanta brought this foremost in our minds. What we thought was going to be a simple, overpriced tourist trap walk into an open crevice in a mountainside turned into a three-hour exhilarating trek...
Can life be perfectly safe? What gets lost when we try to make it so?

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10/12/2016

My Home Still Stands: A Case for Compassion (Pt. 5)

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Photographer Nathan DeHart capturing images of the Valley Fire, September 14, 2015.
The next morning I found myself riding alongside my client, friend and photographer, Nathan DeHart. He was on assignment which afforded him access to the cordoned off area. I was hoping to get to my home--to see if it still stood--as well as retrieve the necessities. As soon as we embarked, though, I knew that the opportunity existed to share information--immediately with friends and neighbors living in the area, as well as in the long term, whether through blogs, articles, talks or what, I didn't know.

The ride up Bottle Rock Road, which was close to the ignition point of the tremendous blaze, but the least affected traffic arteries into the area, showed signs of immediate destruction--power poles downed, wires strewn about the roads; helicopters flying overhead dangling their load of water, swaying gently across the hazed sky; patches of scorched earth interspersed with surviving foliage. The choking haze reminded me of  sci-fi movies. Particularly those scenes of landscapes devoid of life due to lethal gases. Were those same lethal gases now choking our lungs, choking our eyes?



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1/21/2016

My Home Still Stands: A Case for Compassion (Pt. 3)

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It's amazing how quickly the mind can forget profound truths. Particularly those that are discovered in exhaustion and under stress. Like the wind that blew through our camp, this attitude and outlook upon the situation drifted out of my mind upon waking in the morning. My mind resorted to trying to figure out all the differing scenarios of possibility.

I had been homeless before upon the ending of a 13 year relationship. Shyla and I spent a year in a tent on a friend's property--it was one of the best experiences of healing and perfect opportunity for connecting more deeply to the Tao of existence. It also was the stepping stone to my living in the cabin for all those years. Was this a bad thing? Quite the contrary! Not anything that I would have specifically chosen for myself, but so deeply grateful the situation presented itself and circumstances were as they were where I had to live there long enough to find the depth of beauty and aliveness that held me there for over 10 years.

Is this the fate that was in store for me again? After three years of setting up home on Cobb, was it all to be gone?


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