November 15

It was twenty years ago today that I became an Orgonian. I remember driving to my new home on a cold, clear late afternoon. I just left the title company with the keys. The house was empty and cold.

I wandered around the house with a video camera to record the house as I found it. I haven’t looked at that tape since then, but I should look at it again.

The previous owners left me some wood and some chickens and a duck. I fed the animals before dark and I went in and lit a fire. I don’t recall what I ate that night. It must have been take-out of some sort because I didn’t have a refrigerator.

The next day I went out and bought a washer and drier and a refrigerator. I bought a bed and some other furniture.

The most memorable event of my first 24 hours in Oregon was at one point in the evening I turned off all the lights and went out side. I went into the back yard. It was clear and cold. The frost had already settled on the lawn. I looked up at the vast sky and the stars were magnificent. I heard the sound of coyotes in the distance.

Back then there were few neighboring houses and I could see no lights in the distance, just the woods around the property. I was alone at night in the wilderness. I loved that feeling. It made New Jersey seem that much more distant. I was exactly where I wanted to be. Twenty years later I am still there and I hope to be there twenty years from now.

Cheers to everyone who feels at home where they are. Those who do not, I wish for you the joys of home in the near future. There is nothing quite like it.