05/27/2024
www.tombrown3.com/blog/alaska-part-5 Hello everybody! I hope this lovely Sunday evening finds you happy and healthy. I just finished my latest blog teaching a three-hour tracking webinar, and it wore me out—in a good way! Teaching energizes me, unlike office work. In that respect, I am my own worst enemy as a business owner due to my general ignorance of capitalism. I want to teach people how to grow close to the earth and discover a new way of life that leads to a much happier, healthier existence with deeper connections to the people, places, and other beings around them.
I've learned many hard lessons in the last two years—some good, some bad, and some ugly. Anyway, I also want to share some information about my upcoming trip and teasers for future collaborations. Next year, probably in March, I want to run a five-day "nature photography and Immersion retreat" at my good friends Matt Corradino and Carmen's epic Saint Croix jungle paradise, the legendary Mount Victory camp. It is truly one of my favorite places on Earth. It's so beautiful, the people are lovely, there are free-roaming chickens, and as many mongooses and coconuts as you could want (my real reason for going down there is to create a new energy drink composed entirely of blended mongoose and coconut). As someone who has been teaching and practicing wilderness living skills for 24 years, it's the only place I could 100% guarantee I could live off the land and be fine, just like in the movie *Countryman* #.ELEMENTS brother
ElEMENTS!
Long story short, I have spent the last two years working myself to death for a cause that I am willing to die for even If I or one of my photos causes sooner to not just look but truly see life on all levels. We must reestablish our connection to nature and experience the wondrous health and happiness benefits that time spent outside gives us.
To my fellow outdoor educators, thank you—especially those who educate the youtglings. Even though I have been humbled well past my knees, I wouldn't trade a second of it for anything; love, thanks, and praise to all for your support during the two roughest years of my 46 years. Oh yea P.S If anyone wants to hook me up with a four-wheel-drive camper van, I could set up my command station, roam the country, document everything, and teach a whole bunch of people who want a class but can't afford my flight and tuition. With the proper rig, I could livestream from nowhere and make a documentary dedicated to my father. I want to travel the country and visit schools, organizations, and individuals who have taken the teachings and adapted the material to their particular style. I want to show him his profound effect on the world. Now, if I could get Gandalf to grant me a wish or find a gold bar, who knows. I'm sure someone who has the means will read this. Obviously, we're in pipe dream central here. But seriously, one passed our cabin today twice, I thought. I would chop my pinky off for that. Im thankful for everything in my life. Where I live, even though I feel the shame of not being current with my rent as many years ago, I consciously choose to always be a man of my word. That kills me.
I dedicate almost every waking hour to helping people break free from societal shackles that hold them back from reaching their ideal selves. Ironically, I have created my shackles, which I am Looking to Shatter. I dream of having a four-wheel drive van with a lift and a winch. Add Starlink and Solar, and I can teach online from anywhere. I will travel around as long as I can secure my editing monitors and have a table and fresh water tank. Visiting individuals and organizations that are influenced by my fathers and grandfather's teachings, I've been on a two-year vision quest, and I realize that every single thing I have, pretty much every single person I know more than just casually, I owe to my father and the legacy that he he has built and my cheer dream is to hand him or send him a documentary for his 75th birthday. Van or not, I will still do this during my travels.
I never expected to get rich doing the work. I do, in fact I am a chronic undercharger.. I do this willingly because my personal struggles, hurts, fears, and traumas are nothing compared to those of the approximately 9 million other species that suffer due to the wholesale slaughter of nature for short-term gain.
I do this willingly because I don't want my fellow humans forced into lives that perpetuate the lie that happiness comes from fancy, expensive things (The van is a tool and has so much room for activities!) and material possessions. I want to live in a world where people don't have to carry bags of masks to continually swap in and out throughout the day. A time when the Earth and the whole of creation should be recognized for what they are: our one and only home, a pale blue dot that is a ball of rock traveling through space at about 67,000 miles per hour. At the same time, Earth rotates around its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour.
When you step into nature, you are moving across a quantum computer that scales the globe and are very much connected to it. The problem is that society has turned off the lever, preventing you from reaching your ultimate form: a caretaker, a protector, a counselor, a warrior, one more voice that says STOP! I can help you free yourself from your shackles, and what I've learned recently through my several apprentices is that by working with them, they do the same for me, which is a miracle. Don't you see? The elements that compose your body have also We are all one. The pattern continues. I am grateful to be alive at this point in time. It's a good thing I never look at the news.
That's the reason for this rambling post. I'm starting to work on my book again and found a quote I came up with 30 years ago as I sat beside the most beautiful waterfall in Vermont with my best friend, Bradford Bacon, whom I miss so much, even though he is always here! The line says, "You can't judge success by money, power, and wealth, but by the content of character, mind, body, and self." I am one human. I can only do so much. And I am so tired. Good night, my family much love,
T3
