Sweat Lodge

My first sweat lodge was in rehab on a snowy mountaintop in New Hampshire. Now it's eight years later...Thought you all would like to know that I drove down south of San Jose with my sponsor today to participate in my second California Indian sweat lodge. The ceremony was intense, and we were joined by some 15 members of a group called Common Vision - total nomadic hippies living in painted buses and traveling around California planting trees for schools. Wasn't sure if it was 2007 or 1967. The man leading the sweat (my sponsor's sponsor) talked about what he remembered from the 60s, and how much these young people reminded him of the good old days. Anyway, as we were driving back at sunset through the scrubby hills surrounding Hollister and Gilroy (garlic capital of the world)we saw a bobcat - a first for me! He was most certainly chasing rabbits who were out to silfay, but he stopped and let us admire him for a while. So, I can now add this rarely-seen beauty to my list of species that I've seen for the first time out here - including elk and quail.