Leaving No Story Behind - We Are In This Together

2024 Spring Rite of Return

Veterans are the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the way for the whole nation. If veterans can achieve awareness, transformation, understanding, and peace, they can share with the rest of society the realities of war. And they can teach us how to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again.

—Thich Nhat Hanh

2024 Winter Incorporation Gathering

2024 Winter Incorporation Gathering

Spring 2024 Rite of Return

2024 Rite of Return Guide Training

2024 Memorial Council at American Lake VA

Summer 2024 Rite of Return

Larry and Susan Hobbs

Summer 2024 Mirroring Workshop

Veteran Vibrations at the Seattle Vet Center with the music of Listening to Smile

Fall 2024 Rite of Return

Veteran Rites with the The Wilderness Guides Council

This Veterans Day we bow to Veterans and the Civilian Angels that have and stand with us as we move with slow urgency to step into a new story that begins to live up to the Thich Nhit Hanh’s call to “to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again.”

Behind every Veteran story is a family and community of unsung heros that step into the circle our lives to bear the grief and the praise of the greatest stories ever told, the story of humans healing and living together fully and authentically.

This Veterans Day, we would especially like to honor all of the Veterans that answered the call with Veteran Rites to share their story of transformation and the lineage of often unseen family members, friends, partners, spouses, wisdom keepers, translators, and allies in these lands and beyond that have our backs.

To the Veterans and Civilians in 2024 that went above and beyond to volunteer deep time, space, or resources in order to make transformation happen for others, thank you for all you carry for and with us.

Jamo Gaines

Twan Martin

Debbee Maraglio-Lynn

Maria De Jesus Gomez

Aaron Hughes

Landon Kinsey

Semba Love

Jessica Gorée-Medoff

Dan Medoff

Briana Foster

Brandon Dorrington

Dell Leeth

John Smedstad

Sarah Blum

Carol Mussotter

Galen Stilwel

Sara Harris

Mitchell Brookman

Tara Souch

Pete Krawitz

Erin Cooper

Silvia Talavera

Trebbe Johnson

Sher Diwatahan

John Crary and Barabara Whiteside-Crary

Sheila Sebron

Steve Fronckowiak

Swil Kanim

Chris Wolf

Mark and Amanda Oravsky

Jim and Michelle Baumgart

Jeffrey Goldstein

Gigi Coyle

Jackson Sillars

Donny Reed

Danny Frazier

Wade and Teresa King

Banks Lake Brewery

Urban Log Studios

Hub City Honey Company

Nine9Line Veteran Services

Seattle Vet Center Staff

American Lake VA Suicide Prevention

Wilderness Guides Council

Seward Park Audubon

Change the Narrative WA

Seahawks and Task Force 12 Partners

The Marie B&B (Olympia)

Susan Hobbs

Larry Hobbs

The Hobbs Family

Our entire Donor Fellowship that stand with us.

The lands, waters, and people on this plane and the next that give us the privilege to heal on ceded or unceded indigineous land.

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May we continue to move in combined arms to Leave No Story Behind with Love and Honor.

Cj Ryan Eugene Mielcarek

Executive Director, Veteran Rites 

NMCB 74 (OIF) Veteran

Leaving No Story Behind - Jose Victa "Lolo"

By Sher Diwatahan,

“Lolo” is who he was to me. Lolo is the Tagalog word for grandfather. His actual name was Jose Victa. He was a humble, impoverished farmer. But when World War II came, he answered the call to fight for his country, the great archipelago of the Philippines, as a guerilla fighter. So effective were these fighters that my family changed their surname to Victa to hide from being wanted by the Japanese.

But growing up, I didn’t see Lolo as a badass being hunted by the Japanese. I was 14 when he came to the United States, him barely knowing English. I didn’t know Tagalog, and we were both quiet, coexisting in the same house rarely saying anything to each other. But I do remember the raucous he would make watching boxing, yelling at the TV with fists punching into the air. My mom would translate stories of the neighborhood kids giving him marijuana to smoke, laughing because they thought they were pulling the shade over his eyes. But we were laughing too—he used to grow his own in the Philippines and gladly welcomed the offerings. I remember the man that cultivated our yard into a beautiful oasis, and the man that would stare out the back door contemplating life.

I always thought I took after Lola, my grandmother, with her round face and stern expressions. When I told my mother I was majoring in retailing and minoring in business and entrepreneurship, she told me that my grandmother would go to the market selling things to help make money for the family. These things solidified in me that I was a hustler, like Lola. 

But recently I’ve wondered if I’m more like “Lolo ko”, my grandfather. With my work to better my mental health and decolonize myself, my thoughts regularly go to my ancestors—the headhunters and those that fought against the Portuguese and Spanish that I come from. I think of their ferocity and try to tap into it to balance my timidness and difficulties speaking up for myself. But I don’t need to look back that far in time. Lolo defied people and establishments when he fed and hid American soldiers separated from their units. He defied an entire country and the Axis to get medicine to prisoner of war camps, nearly being caught time and time again. And much to Lola’s chagrin, he defied the matriarch of the family to plant fruit trees on the outskirts of the farm for the hungry to feed themselves.

Reflecting back, this man was not solely a World War II guerilla hero of legend. Nor was he solely the slow, bent man with a full head of luscious white hair that shuffled everywhere. He’s both, not either/or. If I want to tap into my ancestors, I would do well to use Lolo as an example of strength in standing up for what he believed and for those that could not. He is an example of wholeness and light that could challenge and hold the shadow. 

Despite not being proficient in my learned language, he loved in a universal language. He loved with a humble quietness. He loved his family, his country, and his neighbors with a fierce softness.

Sher Diwatahanis a 9 year OIF/OEF Navy Nuclear Electronics Technician with 3 deployments. After leaving the Navy, she became the first female power plant control operator on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) electrical grid. Sher graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Retailing with three minors in Textile Science, Business, and Entrepreneurship. In addition to being a wilderness guide with Veteran Rites, she works with homeless youth and fights against food insecurity in her community. Sher wears many hats: first-generation immigrant, first-generation college graduate, wife, mother, dog mom, and part-time caregiver of her mother. Yet, one's own identity has been elusive for her. Sher’s path towards healing and self-discovery has not been easy due to the trauma she has experienced, but her resolution to seek help and guidance brought her to Veteran Rites. She knows the path towards healing can be difficult and daunting, however, she is ready to help cast a shining light for the lost. At Veteran Rites, she hopes to lead by example and guide others with compassion. When Sher is away from Veteran Rites she spends her time as a visual artist, writer, master gardener, Filipino reconstructionist, and petter of dogs.

Leaving No Story Behind - Richard C. Maraglio (WO-1)

Just six days after Debbee Maraglio-Lynn was born, her father, Richard C. Maraglio courgeously answered the call above and beyond the call of duty in Vietnam. These actions would would result in him earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Warrant Officer One (WO-1) Richard C. Maraglio (ASN: W-3161151), United States Army, for heroism while participating in aerial flight evidenced by voluntary actions above and beyond the call of duty on 13 November 1968 while serving as a helicopter pilot with 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date in the vicinity of An Loc, elements of the 1st Squadron became suddenly engaged with a large enemy force. When ammunition had to be resupplied to the embattled troops, Warrant Officer Maraglio completed four resupply missions under extremely adverse and dangerous conditions. Each time upon approaching the extremely narrow landing zone, his aircraft came under intense automatic weapons fire. However, he immediately directed his door gunners to fire on the enemy and began taking evasive action. As the aircraft started to descend he realized that since his aircraft was overloaded and the landing zone was narrow, it would be impossible to climb out again. He, along with the pilot, skillfully affected a controlled crash landing to deliver the ammunition on four separate missions. Warrant Officer Maraglio’s courage and professional ability contributed greatly to the successful resupplying of the friendly force. Warrant Officer Maraglio’s unwavering devotion to duty, personal bravery and expert flying ability were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-84910/

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We at Veteran Rites call Debbee Dr. Deb, an accomplished Navy Veteran and organizational leader who is on the path of becoming a VR Rite of Return Guide and skillfully facilitates spaces of healing that serve the whole veteran in body, mind, spirit, and soul. She carries on the the courage, skill, and humility of Richard (who is currently battling cancer) through her own voice, wisdom, experience, and compassion to relieve suffering and empower veterans to live fully and serve again.

I want to honor the Veterans close to my heart: My grandmother, Peggy, a WWII Army Veteran; my Grandfather, a WWII  Army Veteran; my Mother, Dottie, an Army Vietnam Veteran; my father, Richard, an Army Vietnam Veteran; my brothers, Frank and Perry USAF Veterans. To all my family members who have served and have not mentioned. To my partner/spouse, a retired Public Health Service Veteran, my dear veteran friends, new and old... Thank you for your continued camaraderie and service to your families and communities. I send much love and deep gratitude to you all. - Dr. Deb

Dr. Deb with Donny Reed facilitating Frequency Meditations at the 2024 Veteran Rites Winter Incorporation Gathering. You can read Deb’s full bio on the VR Leadership Page.

We Are Veterans ... Our Rite of Return

WE ARE VETERANS…OUR RITE OF RETURN

A Community Mirror by Dr. Debbee Maraglio-Lynn

We are beautiful

We are Veterans

We are Nature

Our stories are us and give life to our new stories

Our new creations and our I AM statements.

We are joyous and safe

We forgive others for ourselves

We love ourselves

We are free from shame

We are free from the military

We are loved by God

We build and grow community and trust

We are a masterpiece, glorious, powerful and worthy of Love

Our stories are perfect just as they are

We heal our Earth

We heal our Ancestors to heal our children

We are the shadows within the light and the flame within the night

We are the same yet unique and ever-changing

We simply are

We are strong, real, and accomplished humans

We are worthy and deserving of love and respect

We are able to be vulnerable

We are worthy and deserving of acknowledgment

We are worthy of all the happy and beautiful emotions that come with respect

love and being seen

I am enough

You are enough

We are enough and we ALL BELONG HERE

We are Veterans

We are Nature

We are Beautiful

We are Connected to our Creator, the Earth, to each other, and our ancestors

We are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers,

Aunties and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers

We are the daughters of our mothers

The sons of our fathers

Returning from the Rite of Return Ceremony

Whole initiated adult humans

Sharing our seven stories revealing the mysteries and messages

Revealing the human spirit’s ability to transform, transmute, and lay to rest what once was

To unveil what truly is and what is possible

Diving deeper into self and community

To find meaning in self

In messages from nature and in messages from God

Finding love, self-care, beauty,

grief, another’s suffering,

love of self, love of God,

Deep love of family, and love of community.

The mighty helpers of family and community asked for help

Allowed themselves to be supported and loved, Allowed for the receiving of help

The helpers were helped, loved, supported, and safe

Asked for help from God, the Creator

The owls sang messages

The squirrels watched and protected-safety

A lightness and immense love of family

Love and Joy

A dingo doglike parent and child pass across the path with a message

Deep rituals and strong sense of safety

A father’s love

Joy and love

The right spot is found after several trials landing northeast

Buzzy bee protects

Beloved cats and humans in a series of sorries and forgivenesses, acceptance lands

Love and Joy

Enchanted forest sunlit glen barefoot walking in awareness

Understanding pain of husband

Self-love and child-like joy

Joy and Love

Far away hilltop, rest,

Facing the bully head on

Until no more loathing words came

Knowing safety, love of self, and being loved

Love and Joy

The ridgetop found beauty with plans of a funeral; realized a wedding more appropriate

To take only what is needed, honor community and Earth

A queen with a beautiful crown; bee stings messages, eagles soar

Joy and Love

Being seen and heard

We are held in support, honor, and safety

We are seen and heard

Willing to give and receive; help and love

Phenomenal…Bubbling Brook…Humbled…Honored

Excited…What will the medicine do?

Magical, Rested, Hurt Good, So proud of you

Sharing vulnerability, joy, song, and poetry

LOVE and JOY

Gratitude…Filled with Seven Stories

Wonder, unpredictable, real

Beauty in grief, sunset spider web flashing, grief and beauty coexist

Stories intertwine, loom woven of contrast, connection of the weaving threads in community

DEEP GRATITUDE

I am enough

You are enough

We are enough and we ALL BELONG HERE

We are Veterans

We are Nature

We are Beautiful

We are Connected to our Creator, the Earth, to each other, and our ancestors

Becky, Chuck, Kristina, Kristin, Mark, Doug, and Dana, thank you for showing us all what is means to come to True Identity, Purpose, and Belonging after military service.

From the team privileged to hold that story…

Photos: Dr. Debbee Maraglio-Lynn, Chuck Tyler, Cj Ryan Mielcarek

Bow to Mark Oravsky and Donny Reed for preparing initiates for their Rite, to Larry and Susan Hobbs for opening up their hearts and land to us, Enterprise Truck Rental Olympia, The Marie Bed and Breakfast, Warrior PATHH, The Wildernesss Guides Council, our initiate community, partners, and donor fellowship.

For just one of many moments over twelve days in August 2024, you helped mend the scars from service with the joy of wild freedom.

In Loving Memory of Tim Linder

Wholeness and Nature - The Love Song of Larry Hobbs

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

- T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

So closes the epic of T.S. Eliot’s masterpiece, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, with the inevitable return from whence we all came, nature. It is a poem that Veteran Rites Co-Founder Larry Hobbs, myself, and elder guide Trebbe Johnson hold close to the chest. Larry once wrote his master’s thesis on it in an attempt to “diagnose” ole Alfred, and in another life I had “we have lingered in chambers by the sea” spray painted on my dorm room ceiling as a knuckleheaded wannabe undergraduate poet at Marquette before I enlisted and headed to Iraq. I asked him what the thesis concluded, and in that Larry laugh, he said, “he’s screwed, and we all are to unless we shift to a new paradigm in our thinking.”

As a wildlife bioligist, explorer, recovering therapist, photographer, storyteller, and seasoned example of day to day sobriety, he had lived many lifetimes and could have written many books on humanity. At his initiation into modern day rites of passage with Stephen Foster and Meredith Little at The School of Lost Borders, he dove into direct experience into the “Big Lie” that we are anything but nature, and has since guided and mentored hundreds of souls across the threshold into their direct experience with that truth, with the prayer that when we meet our true self and each other from the deepest parts of our being, as nature, we might actually begin to return to right relationship with the earth, with each other, and all species.

At the core of the Rite of Return for Veterans is this initiatory return to our True Self, Purpose, and Belonging with all our imperfect, wounded, wild, vulnerable, paradoxical, and sticky parts included.

As we say, “you’re not broke when you come and you’re not fixed when you leave.”

You are whole, living into the eternal dance of bringing the undernourished parts of yourself into balance, just like earth.

But in order to step into who you’ve always been but are not yet, you have to claim that wholeness and face the old stories, ways of being, and ungrieved grief that no longer serve.

When you do courageously show up for the death and rebirth of your true self, magic happens.

We can’t explain it.

You are shifted into a new paradigm you never thought possible.

Co-Founder Larry Hobbs and VR Rite of Passage Guide Susan Hobbs.

Now, after decades of study and sweat, Larry and his “Wizards of Climate Change,” Charles Fowler, and Megan Rodden, have published a work that calls on us into a new paradigm shift of how to show up for earth, The Wizards of Climate Change: How Can Technology Serve Hope and Justice? Holism in Dealing with Global Problems.

To the extent that we humans believe that we can solve our species-level problems with technology, we remain on the path to self-destruction. But there is an alternative; we can see other species like ours as empirical examples of how to be a species—how to participate in ultimate reality. This article exemplifies how holistic information provided systemically by other species can be used. Such information reveals the magnitude of humanity’s challenges and what is needed to address the myriad interrelated global problems, including climate change. Such systemic thinking involves a shift from conceptually extracting things from their context to seeing everything embedded in its context.

This scientific and spiritual work was too controversial for mainstream scientific publications, as it calls us to to see the world and other species in ways that stretch our understanding of ourselves beyond our comfort zone. So thank you Zygon, for your courage to show up for the new paradigm of hope.

So let us go then, you and I, and listen to Larry’s Love Song to Wholeness and Nature.

And as he would say, “Don’t Forget to Have a Good Time!”

Give Rise to New Life - Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox 2024 

Dear Friends of the wild places,

 The spring is now making its way towards emergence and winter’s last hold is inviting us to name what dreams are ready to sprout. Or might we wonder whether some things might be lying dormant waiting to re-emerge. The time of hibernation is ending and the quiet stirring we are feeling both inwardly and outwardly is a sense of hope.  And the surge of life force flowing through our veins is warming us towards renewal.

The winter’s darkness is finally yielding to the light of spring and the dead of winter now begins to give rise to the new life.

As the first crowning of the tentative new growth appears, we begin to sense the excitement of the possibilities that lie ahead. And we begin to follow the pull toward the sunlight of personal growth fed by the rays of visions and dreams. There is a lure in the spring to expand into the creative that is now longing to be expressed.

Spring spurs the verdant miracles upward in a subtle explosion as the earth gives way to the new birthing. Just as in nature we are wired to grow and bloom and just as in nature we reflect the beauty, the abundance and sacred of the one who created all things.

May you rise to the sacred and wholeness within your self that you might create miracles. This world is in need of miracles. This world is in need of your wholeness.

With heart,

  Silvia

“Tell me, what will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

                                                                          Mary Oliver

Silvia Talavera (she/her) 

Inspired by the wild places without borders Silvia guides from a full life experience that is filled with the sacred, profane and the wild graced with humor and curiosity.

A wilderness guide since 1993 and a seasoned hospice nurse and a Reiki practitioner. Silvia continues to hold the similarities of the symbolic death and the physical death and how one mirrors the other and how both of these have informed her life.

She is a supporter of deep immersion into the natural landscape where exploration of the mythic, the archetype and the imaginal dimensions is the gateway to the hero/heroine’s journey.

Silvia is an elder, great grandmother, mentor and embraces her elderhood with great joy, deep humility and daily gratitude.

Her work in all its expressions is devoted to the reawakening of our true selves and remembering our natural instinct to love and healing for the benefit of all beings and remains committed to service of the greater good.

The loving sister of a Marine Vietnam Veteran, Silvia has brought her magic and spirit to Veteran Rites since 2020.

Email: silvia@lostborders.org

Exhale. Pause. Observe. Give Thanks. Inhale. Continue - Crossing into 2024

In invitation from the incredible Autumn Skye of @autumskeyart

As we breathe the final exhale of this past year and prepare for the inhale of the new year, may we remember to take a moment of pause, even if brief, to dwell in the liminal space between.

May we reflect on all that has occurred over this last cycle, all of our actions and effects in the world, all of the stories that we have carried along the journey that may be ready to be laid to rest. Acknowledge all of the losses, all of the gifts, all of the love, all of the grief, the celebration, the breakthroughs, the healing, the growth, death, birth, creativity, awakening.
These facets of our experience are intertwined and prismatic, inseparable and each with their own embodied teaching.
Exhale.
Pause.
Observe.
Give thanks.
Inhale.
Continue….

As we all step into into 2024, may we take Autumn Skye’s words into our hearts and into the wild, raw, and slow heart of nature, where our stories and wholeness are always being mirrored back to us in the most beautiful way.

In that soulful silence a spark of inspiration will inevitably arise. We will hear a whisper from the wind of what needs to be released in order for our next story to emerge, what parts of our being are aching to be reclaimed, voiced, and nourished.

A natural threshold will be revealed between two trees, or we will create one with weary, grieving, sticky branches. Whatever is there in front of us will be perfect and awkward.

All the insecurities, grief, fears, doubt, and resentments that have been doing pushups in the parking lots of our mind will suit up and do what they do.

The ghosts of our heart will cement our legs into the sod. “I just can’t do it” we’ll think.

But then our remembered ones will say with compassion, “It’s time, we’re good now.”

The beating prayers and intentions in our chest will open our mouths and finally find way to meet the sky.

And we will cross once again, shaking, wild, free, and really uncertain of what’s to come.

Because that is the calling, and simply how we’re built.

May the land rise up to meet you and the sky embrace you.

We can’t wait to meet you on the other side, and hear the first telling of your story.

It’s the least we could do for being so essential to ours.

Love and Honor,

Cj Ryan Eugene Mielcarek, Seabee OIF Veteran, Executive Director, Veteran Rites

Enjoy a few minutes of video nature prescription featuring the frequency sounds of Listening to Smile.

Oh, and don’t forget to have a good time!

The Darkest Hour: Renewing Ourselves

“ A reminder of the sacredness of life as well as our innate connection to the worlds capacity to renew itself in the darkest hour.” Michael Meade

Hello dear veterans, humans, and explorers of wild nature,

Here you are in mid-winter awaiting the solstice sacred pause through the darkness and into light. A cosmic moment reminding you that this is an opportunity to bring your inner gifts, your genius and your own light in the midst of the dark to shine in service of the highest good. And that you also, like the good earth, have the capacity of renewal during the darkest of times.

This is also the time of actions that pull us towards manifesting our visions and dreaming. Ask yourselves... What things are lying dormant and what things will die during this fallow time? What actions do you take in service of humanity? In what ways have you accessed the wisdom of your wholeness during the difficult times?

The winter season is filled with hidden treasures and is full with survival tools and good actions, thriving skills and self-empowerment. One only needs to look closely and pay attention to the miracles occurring during this fallow and dormant time.

During the holidays and the holy days there are opportunities and blessings in the giving and sharing to open your hearts to humanity.

May this time bring you regeneration, joy and peace wrapped in the ribbons of divine love.

People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,

but when darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

Elizabeth Kubler- Ross

With Heart,

Silvia Talavera Senior Wilderness Rites of Passage Guide with Veteran Rites (Below Left)

View fullsize

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Original “I AM” art by Jessica Gorée-Medoff Veteran Rites Wilderness Rite of Passage Guide and Board Member ( Above Right)

May the warmth of the sun wrap it’s arm around you and yours in this crossing of solstice threshold into longer days.

And may you always find grounding in the truth and wholeness of your “I AM.”

If you are having troubling remember that, just have the #Strength2Rise and reach out.

We know who you are in truth and how you serve in truth.

Love and Honor,

- VR

Anybody can pray for rain, you best get digging a well.

This is a trip report from the Wilderness Guides Council gathering in CO and a Kendeda Foundation gathering in Montana from VR Executive Director CJ Ryan Mielcarek.

Nearing the Tiny Church in Emigrant, Montana on a clear October day I heard Charlie Crocket say on YouTube the words “anybody can pray for rain, but you better start digging a well.” Then he proceeded to sign Midnight Run while I caught the sign saying Welcome Weary Travelers.

What makes a man think that he can forget about what used to be
Be happy with the way life is, not think about what once was his
Whiskey drunk and under the gun
I'm taking me a midnight run

I'm taking me a midnight run
I'm making another one
A thousand miles or more I'll drive to where I lived when I thought I was alive
They'll never know I was ever around
Just my shadow on the ground
I turn east to face the sun
After making me a midnight run

I tell you all 'cause you need to know
They don't call for me to go
I hear that voice coming 'cross the miles
I got no choice but to be gone a while
I say get in you better lock and load
Don't let the wind block the road
I'll be gone but when it's done
I'm all alone on my midnight run

I'm taking me a midnight run
I'm making another one
A thousand miles or more I'll drive to where I lived when I thought I was alive
They'll never know I was ever around
Just my shadow on the ground
I turn east to face the sun
After making me a midnight run

Something about all that made me pull over and go in when I’d have rather kept on to Yellowstone after a couple thousand miles and few days on the road.

To be honest had it been any intentional garden or four upright walls welcoming weary travelers I feel I’d a stopped for a spell to cross a threshold into some open sky with no timekeeper on standby, including the one in my head.

A few days before Birdy Bear and I loaded up in the Silverado from Olympia, WA with a mission to make it to the Wilderness Guides Council gathering in Deer Hill, CO. We came to tap in to the national network of tender-hearted wilderness weirdos that have been beating the drum for over 40 years in their own way signing the song that the only way out of this mess is by journeying into our internal wilderness in the community of the wilderness. I pulled over with limited reception to hold an online incorporation council with the initiates from our last ceremony somewhere near MOAB. With that complete, I had to drop Birdy off with a sitter in Cortez. And that dear dog sitter Jacek happened to also have spent five years as VA Homeless Veteran social worker in San Francisco. No accidents I thought, and gave him a sweater for his efforts for our community.

I arrived late night to Deer Hill Expeditions to some ridiculous moonlit hospitality from WGC Netkeeper Christi Strickland then climbed in the back of my truck in the struggle to get to sleep. I awoke with icicles on my nose in the shadow of the back shoulder of ancestral lands Mesa Verde.

I jumped right in still twisted around my own axle from that driving into reconnection, service work, deep conversations, and intentional councils that stretched our hearts and our patience into the unfolding story of how to be fully human in a community of unity and difference. I listened and learned about the struggles and glory of so many radical humans of all generations each doing their courageous work finding the peace of their true nature and guiding others to do the same. Queer, trans, straight, non-binary, elder, middler, and wise youth of many perfect shades of humanity opened my eyes and heart with their stories. After some conflict exploration on CAREfully setting a container that honors belonging and inclusion for all, we eventually locked arms as beings of nature each on our human trip, with much to explore and integrate in ourselves, as organizations, and as a council moving forward, intentions set for WGC in the PNW in four seasons.

I was humbled to share just a little about me but more importantly the Veteran Rites story.

A story of unity and difference, how every Service Member, Veteran, Partner, Provider, or Survivor that courageously answers the call becomes our teacher on how to be a better human and protector of space to ourselves, each other, and the land.

A story of their stories, their terror, loss, isolation, trauma, prayer, and resilience. An unimaginable landscape of battle wounds patched up on cliff’s edge, of grief, desperation, isolation adorned by imperfectly whole humans with an unpredictable contradiction of intersectionality, ancestral roots, creativity, spirituality, betrayals, shadows, presences, identities, gender expressions, skin tone, dark humor, tenderness, politics, personality structures and individual experiences that could win the Joseph Campbell Human of the Universe Mythology Award. Every single one of them.

A story for all times, of Veterans and Civilians fumbling shoulder to shoulder to practice soaking in each other’s grief and lived experience with a one-two punch of intentional community and solitude in nature.

A story for all people, if we deploy our resources with urgency to remove barriers for ALL people to access their true nature as nature, we may just be able to sing this humanity song at it’s highest octave.

OK. I didn’t say all that but I meant to. So here’s the redo and on to Montana.

Wilderness Rite of Passage Guides Semba (Army), Sher (Navy), and Jessica (USCG).

After giving our beloved Larry, Susan, Trebbee, and Kinde a hug and proceeded to drop off a couple of badass woman elders a ride to the airport, including our Board Member Sara Harris, I picked up Birdy and deployed up the highway with kinds of food and amount of sleep I’d rather not mention. I stopped in Utah, regretting I didn’t get a chance to catch up with a few of our VR Community in Colorado, including my old Seabee battle buddy Justin. I was thinking this as I put the nozzle and set it to pump till full. I heard that big click and looked at that how much I’d spent. Exactly $74.00. Our unit was Naval Mobile Construction Batallion 74 out of Gulfport, MS. I also stumbled up a Black Rifle Coffee Company brick and mortar. Can’t make this stuff up.

When crossing into Montana the Gods and Goddesses were in good moods. Man what country.

Birdy and I arrived at 4:50pm for a 5:30pm event in Bozeman for the Kendeda Foundation that generously supported us and a ridiculously powerful network of grassroots organizations in making Montana, and the world a better place. From Land Conservation to Veterans to Indigenous Healing and Renewal, I just felt lucky to be in a room with such do-gooding all stars and learned so much about the spirit and the people of Montana. I ran into Heather from Project Sanctuary, an incredible organization for military veterans and families. She was gracious enough to make sure I at least didn’t look like I didn’t know anyone there.

Diane Blank opened her speech with the Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry. It was perfect. I was able to tell her and Tim at Kendeda before they close the doors on their foundation that they definitely funded the Peace of Wild Things at Veteran Rites. The whole deal just gave me hope for humanity and reminded me that we are all playing our parts in preserving, protecting, and healing this spinning rock. Also, that I could sill wear a blazer. Having hit my adult deadlines in CO and MT…

I turn east to face the sun
After making me a midnight run

And there we were again, at this little out of nowhere church for weary travelers so I can pass through Yellowstone on the way back to Washington. Something about this sign spoke to me. Something about stopping and slowing down after an incredible VR Ceremonial Season with not much time to integrate. So I did my thanks for all these blessings hoping no one else came in because that would be super awkward in a shoebox church. The stroll though Yellowstone was like a walk in What Dreams May Come.

Having been connected to groups like Yellowstone Forever from going to the dinner the night before I somehow felt initiated into a community closer to this land. Yes there were Bison and all sorts of 2 and 4 legged beings, but it was the quiet moments in the super accessible rolling hills and healing waters. I think I cried out whatever needed to be released from the last year of holding stories, and took some glamour shots of Birdy amidst those waters and the Tetons.

It is beauty that wells up the chest most of all. It’s why I think we do the healing in the wilderness. It’s also the place where all of the committee in my head starts the film reel of shoulda and coulda of life, and where I heard the winds of the Tetons say the midnight running is an old story. So instead of pushing on through the night, I stopped in Jackson, said goodbye to some old friends from that old story, said a little prayer at the Veterans Memorial, and headed down the Snake River.

There’s something about the snake and the shedding of skin and old stories. Of the windy and unpredictable path of life. And this was the river to truly mark my 45th birthday from a few days before, of six years of being broken open on the land in ceremony to embark on a very strange and inexplicable journey to bring others to do the same.

There felt some sort of completion here to a man on a midnight run which eventually led to the clean rivers of fatherhood and sobriety. So I got a good scream in and shouted thanks to all the beings of that land and in my life that have had my back, including you reading this. And then it clicked, this is The Roaring of the Sacred River, for me at least. Still wet from My River Runs Through it, I hopped on a hybrid Mirroring for Empowerment Practice with some initiates who held the first telling of this big story.

At VR we believe a story in nature has to be witnessed. And there I was, with the privilege of good people around me willing to witness and be witnessed without trying to fix anything about me or my story. Wild, real, and raw I shared and was held. A perfect reminder that no one gets out this ceremony of life alive and as Mark Nepo suggests, “Life is just tough enough that we need each other.”

Then I heard the news about conflict in Israel and Palestine.

Some fifteen hours of driving remained ahead of me crossing some of the most isolated lands of Idaho as all everyone in my own internal system had their say reflecting on the crisis. I finally crossed the Columbia and made it back home. A week later I am still rocked in what it all means, what it all meant, and what is mine to do as a human, a leader, and as a Veteran.

I keep hearing, “follow the drum beat and get to the grief.”

I keep seeing the image of a constellation that a few of us worked on at a workshop earlier this year where we journeyed into the root of veteran suicide.

At this workshop, there were felts put down as representatives for the disruptive veteran and the insecure civilian. What emerged in the abyss between them was a felt representing the well of ungrieved grief that can only be addressed by soaking in each other’s pain and the deep witnessing of each other’s story. I took this as saying that any action, system, structure, and culture that does not allow for all of the hands accountable for the results of war to viscerally feel the grief of war is just kicking the can down the road with a band aid made from the fabrics of fear, indifference, and division.

The scars from service are half the story, it’s the community we come back to that writes the rest. If we had a form in our culture and veteran service system where we normalized grieving together as a community more of our people would not become casualties of war.

Why this insight matters right now.

It just seems that what we are learning as Veterans transforming the conflicting wilderness within our souls towards wholeness, balance, and peace is something the world might need in times of war and peace.

Something that innocent children will always need.

One council at a time, can we practice standing down our internal armored divisions to hold the ungrieved grief and unheard stories of THE OTHER?

I believe we can get big enough to hold the edges of that container.

It think it will be slow medicine.

It would definitely take generations.

But all I can do is quit praying for rain, and start digging my well from this spot.

With a prayer that this shovel will contribute lasting peace to someone, somewhere, sometime.

BRING ME THE RIOT IN YOUR HEART

“Bring me your suffering.
The rattle roar of broken bones.

Bring me the riot in your heart.
Angry, wild and raw.

Bring it all.

I am not afraid of the dark.”
― Mia Hollow

This wild and whole group of veterans courageously answered the call for their 12-Day rite of passage and initiation into True Identity, Purpose, and Belonging after military service. By diving into their own wilderness to lay down what no longer serves they have crossed the threshold into who they have always been called to be but haven’t been yet.

Char (USN)

Brad (USMC)

Twan (Army)

Mark (Army)

Bishop (Army)

Rocco (Army)

Danny (Army)

Dylan (USAF)

It is so. You and the land will never be the same. You are the best of what it means to be a whole human and a veteran. Keep submitting to your own myth. Everything else is a lie.

Welcome Home Dragons of the Scablands.

Catch four and half minutes of Veteran Badassery at the 12-Day Fall 2023 Rite of Return in the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington, featuring the epic photographic mirror by John Crary and the frequency minded music by Listening to Smile.

We Are the Safety of the Shore: Grand Rising

Shända L. De Anda at the Rite of Return

The Safety of the Shore

By Shända L. De Anda

She knows it’s close …

can feel its breathing.

Tries again to scream

but only hears her own heart beating.

The monster closes in.

There’s no place left to hide.

She turns to fight … what she faces is a mirror.

The monster is her ... it’s somewhere inside …

She looks deep, unable to turn away.

It’s bigger than a small thing … no it’s much more.

IT is great strength, raw power, fierceness.

She is her own protection …

after a turbulent journey, the safety of the shore

---

Veteran Rites bows to the courage, resilience, and wholeness of the eight initiates from our military family who blessed our ceremony on Easton Ridge this August.

With grace and grit, you show us that whatever the “turbulent journey” in life, the grief, the pain, or uncertainty, we can always find the “safety of the shore” if we turn into OUR TRUE NATURE and THE NATURE THAT MIRRORS OUR WHOLENESS.

From that remembering we can always regain our footing in our TRUE IDENTITY, PURPOSE, & BELONGING.

Your stories are completely yours and all of ours.

Together, WE ARE the Safety of the Shore…GRAND RISING.

Welcome Home with Love and Honor.

Mzsoldier

Mary C.

Rachael

Emily AKA “Purple Haze”

Incredible Whole Veteran (left) and Teresa (right)

Anthony

Summer 2023 Veterans Rite of Return Ceremony Team and Initiates

From Top Left: Elder Wilderness Rite of Passage Guide Susan Hobbs, VR Co-Founder and Senior Guide Larry Hobbs, WROP Guide Mitchel Brookman, Ceremonial Assistant Brandon Dorrington, Incredible Whole Veteran, Initiate Mzsoldier, WROP Guide Semba, Initiate Teresa, Ceremonial Assistant Debbee Aquila, Initiate Rachael.

From Bottom Left: Initiates Mary C., Emily AKA “Purple Haze”, Anthony, and Shända L. De Anda

Acknowledgements: Deep gratitude to all VR Rites of Passage Guides (Susan, Larry, Mitch, Semba) and our incredible Ceremony Assistants (Debbee, Brandon), VR Welcome Wagon Jess Gorée-Medoff & Dan Medoff, Inventory Crew Carol & Galen, the crew holding down circles while on the land (Mark, Steve, Sheila, Shari), our man JD in Roslyn, our Community Fellowship of Donors, Enterprise Truck Rental (Olympia), The Marie Bed & Breakfast (Olympia), and Andrew Nicholls at Urban Log Studios.

Thank you to the voices that enabled our initiates to hear the call to the land: The Compassionate Warrior Council for Reintegration, Sarah Blum, Thunder, Yolanda AKA “Ya Ya” Jones, and all souls within and beyond the bare bones wilderness rites of passage lineage of the School of Lost Borders, the Wilderness Guides Council, and Veteran Rites.

We honor the privilege to have gather and heal in the wilderness cared for and stewarded by Larry and Susan Hobbs for decades, which sits within the boundaries of the ceded lands of The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.

Witness three minutes of Veteran Transformation in the YouTube Video above with moments from the land with the frequency-minded music of Listening to Smile. *Volume Up!

Welcome Home On the Pulse of Morning

On the Pulse of Morning

by Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree

Hosts to species long since departed,

Marked the mastodon,

The dinosaur, who left dried tokens

Of their sojourn here

On our planet floor,

Any broad alarm of their hastening doom

Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny,

But seek no haven in my shadow,

I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than

The angels, have crouched too long in

The bruising darkness

Have lain too long

Facedown in ignorance,

Your mouths spilling words

Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today,

You may stand upon me,

But do not hide your face.

---

Maria de Jesus Gomez

Teak Safiya

Debbee AM-Lynn

Dr. Gabriella Korosi

Mindful Brandy

Galen

Yolanda “Ya Ya”Jones

Welcome Home with Love and Honor

YOU ARE an inspiration to the military family.

May the land rise up to meet you and the sky embrace you.

Watch the whole Rite of Return journey in the video above with photography by John Crary and Frequency Minded Music by Ian Morris at ListeningtoSmile featuring the one and only mOody bLaCk.

be A-live even when you are A-fraid - Carrie Lovejoy

My feet meet the earth

But I don't seem to feel them

Am I falling, or flying?

Birds sing despite the lingering patches of icy snow

Is it winter, or spring?

The sun ducks behind a cloud and then peers out the other side, touching my face

The weather dabbles with its decision

Or indecision?

Must it be

Either, or?

Less, or more?

I loved seeing you, she said

You looked gorgeous

But did she?

See me, I mean

The pain behind the glitter

The heartbreak beyond the cheerful pattern of my babydoll dress with the magenta tights and the calf high boots?

Nature says to me

"Look into my mirror, child,

Lean in close and see

You are the storm

And the sun

The earth and the sky

The calm

And the chaos

The ecstacy

And the ache

If I can hold all of those things in one magnificent container, so too can you.  Be all of it.

Ignite every speck of stardust within your soul, and be brilliant.

Be kind.

Be intoxicating, and too bold, and too much.

Be erotic and eclectic, and breathe in life- breathe that life into the world around you.

Be awkward, and artistic and alive - be A-live even when you are A-fraid.

Trust me. Trust you.

Carrie wonders how she was born with legs instead of roots, but accepts that it's because she is here to transcend the gap. She is a mother, a lover, a sister, and a weaver of words. A Rite of Return initiate, Carrie has claimed her space as a whole woman creating a peaceful and stable future for herself and her children with the help of her community. 

Welcome Home with Love and Honor - Answer the Call in 2023

Veterans Journey Home: Leaving it on the Land by Warrior Films

Veteran Rites invites you to step off on a journey as old as humanity itself. From Co-Founder and Army Combat Veteran Mark Oravsky…

Upon leaving military service, many of us are caught at a threshold, no longer a Service Member and yet not a Civilian. We are unable to fully “return”, or reintegrate into our communities. The lack of shared experience separating “us” and “them”, stands as a seemingly insurmountable abyss. This chasm between the close bonds and brotherhood we experienced as soldiers and the lonely alienation we experience as civilians can feel impossibly wide. We know the statistics.

We feel it in our bones and many of us have walked the cliff edge between suicide and one more day. For centuries, civilizations and communities across the globe have utilized ceremonial rites of passage to welcome returning warriors home from battle. In most cases, elders who had been to war met combatants outside the village. They understood that to re-enter the village too soon, without a proper rite of return or cleansing ceremony could be harmful to both the warrior and the community.

These elders also understood that once cleansed from battle or service, each warrior carries insight and wisdom from their experiences which are invaluable to the long term survival and sustainability of their community.

It is time to re-establish who we are in this world after military service.

The Veterans Rite of Return serves as an initiation for veterans who are looking for a way to reconnect with themselves, their place in the world and in their communities.

The roots of the Rite of Return are pan-cultural, and offer a model of human development that acknowledges the changes and transitions inherent in being alive. It marks an individual's passage from one stage of their life to the next.

Our Veterans Rite of Return is a guided ceremony that is not based in any religion or dogma. It relies on each individual’s background, creativity, culture, and unique perspective to "self-generate" a ceremony that is meaningful for their life circumstance and a successful return home.

The ceremony is held in a wilderness setting with trained veteran and non-veteran guides. Participants experience time in community with other vets, four days of solo time, fasting in the wilderness, and a marked return where their stories are shared and witnessed in a“council of elders”. This return marks the beginning of a veteran’s process of incorporating that which they have gained and learned during their time in service and explored in the context of time alone in the wilderness, so they may bring their gifts home, able to participate more fully, in service of their families and their community.

The Veterans Rite of Return is a unique opportunity for the military family seeking long term solutions to PTS, Moral Injury, Military Sexual Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Suicidal Ideation.

Answer the call for deep healing in the wilderness, separated from society, in solidarity and solitude, to cross the line to your true self.

Eligibility

The Rite of Return is available to Current and Prior Military Service Members, Spouses, Partners, Gold Star Family Members (18+), and Dependent Survivors of Veteran Suicide. Veteran Rites will work with every prospective initiate called to the land to fully prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually for their Rite of Return journey and address unique barriers and conditions that may prevent participation.

CLAIM YOUR SEAT AND STEP INTO A NEW STORY

Rite of Return Ceremonies are limited to 10 participants from the military family. Cross the line and claim your seat!

Set your intention by signing up in one of the four ceremonies in 2023.

WELCOME HOME WITH LOVE AND HONOR

Please reach out!

Ryan Mielcarek, Seabee OIF Veteran, Executive Director at council@veteranrites.org

Mark Oravsky, Army OEF Veteran, Co-Founder at moravsky@veteranrites.org

Not Just Statistics to Me - 988 Crisis Hotline - Jo Arlow

Washington State has a new license plate emblem highlighting the 988 crisis hotline and suicide prevention, with funding for veteran community and peer support programs

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2020 nearly 6150 veterans died by suicide. 181 were our brothers and sisters here in Washington State.  Veterans often make up more than 15% of Washington’s total suicides although they are only 7% of the population.  And it is estimated that every suicide impacts the lives of at least 100 other people.

But these are not just statistics to me.  In November of 2011, my husband Greg—intelligent, funny, loving, a veteran of the US Navy SOF and struggling with chronic pain and moral injury —took his life with a firearm.

There are many veteran service organizations in  Washington, and like Veteran Rites,  many are organized around a peer support model.  Some of them engage in threshold and ceremony through wilderness retreats, others are based in farming and agriculture, horsemanship and outdoor adventure or equine therapy.   Often times their mission includes encouraging veterans to further engage in community service and leadership. These organizations can offer a transformative experience, but at a more basic level they offer a new cohort and community particularly for those who are transitioning to civilian life, struggling with uncertainty and isolation. 

Some of these community based and peer support organizations also serve family members of veterans and military service members.  Family members, in addition to being sources of support for veterans, are also at increased risk of suicide when a loved one takes their own life.  That was certainly my experience and a local veterans peer support program helped save my life. 

In 2015 I was still very much struggling with my husband’s death, with my grief and very intense guilt.  In my town of Olympia I discovered  Garden Raised Bounty’s Victory Farm, a veterans program that combined farming with intensive peer support.  From the day I walked onto that farm, those veterans (including Veteran Rites founder Mark Oravsky) welcomed and accepted me.  They not only understood my husband and who he was but also understood me in my grief, having  lost many brothers and sisters to suicide and many having experienced their own struggles with suicidal ideation.  I felt I had finally found the right nurturing and supportive place where I could be myself, be understood and accepted in my grief without judgment.  I finally really started to heal day by day alongside this group of veterans and their families.

This is why I was so pleased to be able to attend the reception at the State Capitol for the unveiling of the new state license plate emblem that will raise dedicated funds in support of suicide prevention and peer support programs for veterans, military service members and their families.  The new emblem is available to adorn any vehicle’s Washington State license plate with the banner: “988 Lifeline -There Is Hope!” in white typeface on a bold red background.  The new emblem costs $18, $10 of which will be remitted to the Veteran and Military Member Suicide Prevention Account established in E2SHB 1181, sponsored by Rep. Tina Orwall and passed by the legislature during the 2022 session.

In addition to Rep. Orwall, Washington Department of Veterans Affairs Director Alfie Alvarado and Department of Licensing director Teresa Berntsen were present, as was Governor Inslee who joined us via zoom.  An Iraq War veteran, Jason, also gave moving testimony of his own personal journey highlighting the critical need for peer support in saving the lives of veterans.

Not only will the new 988 emblem raise funds for grants to community based suicide prevention and peer support programs, it will raise awareness about the new 988 crisis line number.  Beginning in July of 2022 all states were required by federal law to have the 988 number which links callers to information about and services in our state’s mental health crisis response system, similarly to how 911 links callers to the emergency response system.

I am grateful to have been part of the team that crafted the enabling legislation E2SHB 1181, which included Forefront Suicide Prevention at the University of Washington School of Social Work, WDVA, veterans and members of the Governor’s challenge committee to reduce veteran and service members suicide.  In addition to providing grants to community and peer support organizations funded by the emblem, E2SHB 1181 included encouraging safe storage of firearms,  educating medical providers about the new 988 crisis hotline and appropriate benefits and services for veterans , and established the authority to create a state Global War on Terror Memorial.

To learn how to obtain the new 988 emblem for your vehicle please visit https://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/sp-vet-suicide-emblem.html

Jo Arlow is a force of nature, lawyer, advocate, professional photographer, survivor, nature explorer, friend, and inspiration to Veteran Rites since our first Rite of Passage in 2017. We are honored to walk with her in honor of her whole self and Greg’s memory to bring our our people home.

Rite of Return 2017 with Mark Oravsky, Ryan Mielcarek, Chris Wolf - Photo: Jo Arlow

In Memory and Honor Of...#GivingTuesday

ADAM M. RAUMA, USMC - OIF

JIM VINES, ARMY - VIETNAM

BRYAN DIAGLE, USMC - OEF

CODY DENHAM, ARMY - OEF

GREGORY M. LEWIS, NAVY - SOF

LARRY MEDOFF, ARMY - VIETNAM

WASHINGTON GOLD STAR FAMILIES

We are grateful and honored to share the names of the Veterans, Friends, and Families named In Memory and Honor Of this Giving Tuesday. Behind every name there there are stories we as a community all need to witness and remember. Behind every photo there are loved ones tenderly holding on to their living memories in the deepest parts of their being. We see you. We see them. We remember, and are listening. We feel these stories in our bones. They ground us into the uncomfortable reality of the long journey home for Veterans and Military Families. Every one is the greatest story ever told. We will carry their names and wholeness into our circles. May we carry them in a good way with Love and Honor. Together.

Our Giving Tuesday really began the Wednesday before, when our community gathered online to share our gratitude for all we’ve been given and for each other. It’s become a bit of a VetsGiving ritual.

It continued on Sunday, where the Seahawks and Task Force 12 treated a few of our All-Star Volunteer Veterans to a game experience like no other. We saved a seat in memory of OIF USMC Veteran Adam M. Rauma and his mother Katie. Special Guests Nino, Monica, and Jane made us all feel right at home.

It’s an odd thing being spoiled as a veteran. There is always a pull on the heart thinking on who else could be sitting in your seat if they were still playing this game of being alive. Then you get caught up in the atmosphere and the company. Of the artistry and wisdom of the game and how it mirrors the military experience in its own way. The training, sacrifice, uniforms, strategies, injuries, and tactics. The reality that a good heap of the humans in the NFL or the Armed Forces grew up with duct tape on their sneakers running towards a dream for a better life and a hero’s journey.

Of suiting up and showing up with all we got with short memories and laser focus urgency for the next mission or play. Of the Who Am I? feeling once we’ve taken off the uniform identity.

We wondered what it would look like if that stadium was filled by 12’s on an regular rotation to witness the stories of Veterans and Families. Not a ticker tape. A pin drop quiet listening, but of course Pearl Jam would headline or something. Maybe then we might get to the place where no more of our people die with their stories inside of them. Until then, we will do what we can do in our own small way, one circle and Welcome Home in the wilderness at a time.

Which brought us to Giving Tuesday, which we began on the Circles voices group support app hosting a council focused on thanking those that have had our backs on our journeys back to civilian life. We thanked our mentors, battle buddies, civilian angels, board, our wives, nature, our formerly unintegrated wild selves for surviving, and each other. Vets, partners, and friends from Israel to Ohio to Washington shared the gifts within the grime of their sacrifice in a circle with people who get it. Joining our Task Force 12 veteran nature amigos Growing Veterans we left inspired to continue leveraging Circles as a FOB to share gratitude and return to belonging.

Slowly the online donations with names In Memory and Honor Of started to appear. Have to admit those evoked immediate emotional Seabee sweat from these eye sockets. Some had been inspired to the VR mission by Dmitri’s testimony, and many were our community giving back for their VR experience in circle or ceremony.

With no space to get too emotional, it was time to suit up for a special zoom with those that have donated to VR so we could get face to digital face and share the inspiring stories from the land that they have made possible. 30 minutes of gratitude, tears, powerful memories, hilarity, technical FUBARs, and cross-sector supporters combining hearts across the screen to share in the Writing of a New Story on Welcoming Veterans Home. As in any circle, whoever ends up there is who was supposed to be there. It got to the heart of the matter and reminded us on how important that EVERYONE connected to the mission gather for a cup of tea and share stories. That is a whole community welcoming our people back. And we are so blessed.

So blessed that by the end of the day Veteran Rites could account for $14,122.24 new dollars to initiate veterans into whole idenTity, purpose, and belonging in 2023!

Initiates, friends, board members, foundations, corporations, civilian angels, survivors, guides, all suited up and showed up to fill the Veteran Rites #GivingTuesday gift basket. Then that basket was matched by a civilian angel deeply invested in carrying this mission forward.

It was the perfect day. As perfect as the eyes of our people when they come back from their solo after four courageous days and nights of deep solitude in the wilderness to lay down what no longer serves and step into who they are truly called to be after military service.

And then, after the hugs, the food, the celebration, the sharing and mirroring of stories we get to tell them “That was the easy part.”

Like our initiates, now that we have received the gift we have the responsibility and the privilege to suit up and show up with laser focus and open hearts to bring our people home. So we end this Giving Tuesday story where we will begin our next ceremony, in The Memory and Honor Of…

ADAM M. RAUMA, USMC - OIF

JIM VINES, ARMY - VIETNAM

BRYAN DIAGLE, USMC - OEF

CODY DENHAM, ARMY - OEF

GREGORY M. LEWIS, NAVY - SOF

LARRY MEDOFF, ARMY - VIETNAM

WASHINGTON GOLD STAR FAMILIES

With Deep Gratitude, Love and Honor,

Ryan Mielcarek, Seabee OIF Veteran, Veteran Rites

Lift Your Head Up - Poems of Gaybriel Rockett

Lift Your Head Up

Lift your head up Queen

Lift your head up King

People gon’ be mean

So in between

Walk with your head held high

Make a connection with the sky

It’s alright to let out a deep sigh

‘Cuz things will be alright

If not now, very soon

It can just be a matter of the moon

It’s placement or displacement

Just keep your head lifted

Don’t settle for complacent

You suppose to grow

You are here to glow

If things haven’t changed

Keep your head lifted for the show

Not for anyone else

Only to become your best self

No matter the circumstance

Keep your head lifted

Give your Being a chance

With your head lifted

So will your spirit be

With these two lifted

You can get through anything 

Happily

Just Keep Going

There will come a time when u want to stop

When you want to hide

When you will break your stride

There will be times when no one is around

When all you feel is down

When all u wear is a frown 

In this moment

Take this moment

And tell yourself 

I must keep going

I must keep growing

I must keep glowing

These words alone

Will sit you back on your throne

You will find your way home

But you gotta make this known

Tell yourself “I got this”

“Yes, I am great”

This place you are at is not your fate

It’s just a state

Navigate through it

Tell yourself “I will do it”

It’s just a stop

Something like a hop

You are headed to your destiny

This I need you to believe

Just keep going

Please keep knowing

You are great!

It’s just now showing

You Are Not Alone

You are not alone

I am here with you

You don’t need many 

Maybe one or two

Keep your friends close

Sometimes they do the most

But when times get tough

You, your friends, and family 

Should take a toast

Cheer it on

Don’t be alone

When you feel blue

Have someone near you

Let’s take it higher

To a higher power

Sometimes you don’t need the physical

Cuz sometimes humans devour...

So call on a higher power

I’m talking ‘bout in your darkest hour

Quiet time

And grateful thoughts 

These are some things that brought me out

So from one star to the other

You are not alone

I am your sister, your mother, and brother

I am everything that you need

In your darkest hour

Call on me

The Light

Gaybriel Rockett joined the Navy from E. St. Louis, Illinois to discover the roads less traveled. Today, she is a modern day pioneer, published author, elementary school teacher, entrepreneur and much more. Her words are her story and a blueprint to living and healing.

"We Know We've Been Changed" - Welcome Home Initiates

---

- Eight Veterans answered the Call to Claim their Rite of Return in the Wilderness -

A collective mirror by VR Elder Witness Susan Hobbs

---

The bowl moves around the circle, and the ancient wind drowns out the world’s noises.  The towering trees sway softly in response, opening minds and souls and hearts.

We’ve heard stories of the kindness of hospital personnel, birds, levitation, ancient grandmother’s, needed sleep, horrible sleep, Moses and Jesus, turkey feathers, sunsets, blood, anxiety, and the warmth of the sun.

The Spirit talking to each one in a language they can understand, through sickness, the touch of God on a shoulder, balls of light, dreams and chipmunks, trees talking back, voices in the air giving directions, Martin Luther King and a deer, loving the spot and cleansing with blood and a rock pile buddy.

Asking questions; what is my higher power, who am I, Can I be a whole adult man, give me direction, what’s the meaning of life, what am I doing out here and what am I going to remember?

All eight realize in their own way, they came for love, cleansing in the river, man cannot live by bread alone, magic is real, welcomed back to Mother Earth, clarity, you’re on the right track, boundaries, self-care, compassion, pride, wild she-woman and remembering the experience.

All found connection, conversation, belonging and a sense of community by gathering for the same purpose of joining and coming home,

Finally, eight whole adults and elder humans and one Leo the Service Dog Lion, realized, and in the words of Gabby

“The spirit in Me honors the spirit in you” – “We know we’ve been changed.”

Photo Credit: Susan Hobbs/Veteran Rites

Welcome Home July 2022 Rite of Return Initiates

In Loving Memory of Adam Rauma and Jason Michael Dobrusin, as well as all of our brothers and sisters that never came home or never fully landed, their families and loved ones.

Chris, Carrie, Teri, Trevor, Samantha, Taylor, and Carol,

You courageously journeyed to the depths of the wilderness within to lay down what no longer serves by root and branch.

Crossed the threshold courageously to reclaim your truth, your wisdom, your gifts.

To bring your True Self back to the people.

So our community can be made whole through your Rite of Return.

Strong as an O.A.K.

Thank you for your courage, your scars, your service, and wild joy.

WELCOME HOME with LOVE and HONOR

With a deep bow of gratitude we thank…

Our mentor and VR Co-Founder Larry Hobbs and Susan Hobbs

VR Co-Founder Mark Oravsky and Amanda Oravsky

VR Board Chair, Witness, Photographer John Crary and Barbara Whiteside Crary

VR Rite of Passage Guide and Witness Mitchell Brookman and Kristi Brookman

Trebbe Johnson and her Radical Joy for Hard Times

Stellar Basecamp Assistants Semba and Nicholas Mojan (with sidekick Cara)

The VR Welcome Committee Dan Medoff and VR Rite of Passage Guide Jessica Goree

Field Queen Kristina Brown for all her intense work in preparing this ceremony for the land

The Marie Bed & Breakfast in Olympia, WA

The entire lineage and spirit of the Wilderness Guides Council

The WA State Department of Natural Resources and the Kittitas Valley Fire Department

Wild Cove Farm

The entire VR board (Paul and Sara!), community of initiates, friends, vets, partners, and DONORS!

With reverence we acknowledge we have the privilege to gather and heal on unceeded ancestral lands of the Psch-wan-wap-pams (stony ground people), also known as the Kittitas band of the Yakama or Upper Yakama, whose people, spirits, and stories are still living and thriving today.