Evolutionary Provocateur

Fillmore, Utah: A KOA that Delivers on its Promise

As a camper i have stayed in one or more KOA campgrounds. The experience sucked. Jammed between two massive RVs with no access to the services advertised and paying a ridiculous amount of money for the experience, i swore i would never stay in a KOA again. 

I am not the only one. My brother and his wife drive a motor home and found that the KOAs are overpriced and under deliver. So when i reached Fillmore, Utah after a long day of driving when the owner Ann encouraged me to come to her campground i was pretty reluctant to accept the suggest as the image and association of high cost and low to no value was stuck in my mind. 

The skies were overcast, lightening was booming no more that 5-8 miles away (lightening strike... then count one elephant-two elephant - till the boom hits). For only $5 more than the State park i received my own site that was private, big, roofed picnic table, water tap... apparently known as a super tent site. Value. This works. 

So for those of you campers who have ever been turned off by KOA do stop by and stay with Ann and Dick. Great place, great people and a nice way to enjoy a thunder storm. 

Whether KOA know it or not, they have done a deep disservice to their owners when their expansion was driven by greed over providing a consistently high level of value to their customers. How many others have given that KOA a walk past because of a past promise not delivered upon? 

When companies grow, the principles upon which the growth takes place are effective when grounded in love and compassion aka www.cafegratitude.com KOA have some catching up to do and some radical reputation recovery to compensate owners like Ann  and Dick in Fillmore, Utah. 

Perspective, Dolphins, Release and Gratitude

There are a lot of people who would see me as nuts! Others might see me as courageous. For every person there is a perception supported by a perspective on life, beliefs about how the world works and how it 'should' work. 

As we enter a period where life change, career change, job loss, dis-ease, or choice becomes the portal for self-actualization and self-leadership the need to accept the risk of stepping into the unknown is natural. So here i am, car packed to the roof with my life, no computer (nuts!), no phone (nuts again), but armed with maps and a rear view mirror that tells me generally whether i am going north or south, i am heading off to share what i know about change and how it can deeply empower, teach, and help you see your place and purpose. 

What role does fear have? None, unless you feed it of course. 

What role does doubt have? None, unless you focus on it and nurture it over your intuitive sense and capacity to be present with each thought, feeling and decision. 

On the Easter weekend i was living on the Sunshine Coast in a small waterfront cabin. The 3 weeks i thought i would be there expanded to 3.5 months with nothing turning out the way i thought it should or expected it to. So feeling full of a sense of being judged for what might be seen as my irresponsibility i was feeling pretty emotional. On the Monday, after two days of solid rain, the sun came out and in celebration i walked along the beach with my trusty dog. Out on the channel i could see fish jumping... No! Not fish... to my shock and surprise i was looking at 75-100 dolphins moving down the channel at breakneck speed. A few leaders out in front, they were cavorting and playing. As they passed in front of me one breached jumping clear out of the water. 

In the Medicine Cards, dolphin is Manna or breath with one representation being emotional release. I cried. The vibrational frequency of dolphin is known for its healing qualities. How wonderful it was for them to transit through at that moment. Cheering seemed perfectly appropriate. 

How many times have animals shown up to provide some kind of sign, support or to convey a message that you were ready to hear? Gratitude is the only way of acknowledging the nature of this connection. So simple. So real. So powerful. 

When doubt and fear attempt to get my attention, i think of dolphin and the power of manna; breathing my way through the bump to see the freedom on the other side. 

The Skunk, Trust, and Magic

While house sitting at John and Fiona's place, the last place i stayed at in Vancouver before hitting the road, John, a former pro Irish rugby player, current chef, and a natural gift for making animals feel safe, told me the story of the skunk. The skunk lives underneath the front step and has since they moved into their house at the top of Berkeley off of Mt.Seymour in North Vancouver. When they first moved in, he could hear her weezing as if there was something terribly wrong... there was. 

Wrapped around her neck was a plastic case holder that comes off of cans: beer, pop. She was being slowly strangled. Most people would have called the exterminators to ensure that no other native species could share space with humans. John instead sat on the back step and eventually she came to him. One day at a time for a period of five days he took his manicure scissors and snipped at the tightly wrapped plastic noose. Finally on the fifth day, it was cut through and there was much gurgling as air reached into the opened channel. Skunks have the capacity to let loose with a rather pungent odor that can make your eyes water. The smell takes forever to get rid off BUT skunks are also not inclined to use this superpower unless they are really annoyed. I had a family live under my barn for 15 years. We got along fine. Only one dog ever got sprayed... that was after he put his nose in her butt. What would you do???

The skunk never sprayed John at all. Her gratitude was expressed in a rather interesting way. He had left his shoes on the back porch (size 14... not hard to miss). After noticing that his shoe was missing he located it at the entrance to her den under the front step. She had diligently hauled this huge shoe around the house, didn't take it into the den, though she could have. 

They have a rather interesting relationship which is characterized by respect and compassion. How sweet would it be for personal relationships with those we might think a bit 'smelly' to evolve to this place of mutual acceptance and respect for unusual superpowers?