new friends

Emmett Eastman is a 76 year old powerhouse. That is his Colonial name, by the way. He is from the Dakota Nation, but he is also a descendant of Charles Eastman...yeah, the Kodak guy. He met Dennis Banks back in the 70's and went on the original walk in 1978. Since then he has been to 22 countries on Sacred Runs, bringing messages of peace and wellness for the world. He tells me about honoring the 7 directions..east, west, north, south, Father Sky and Mother Earth and the 7th one..the one he says we forget about ..the soul. He treats his body as a temple, which is why he an still walk alongside us -- up at the front of the group, for 16 miles at a stretch. He prefers to run actually and says it's much easier on the body. He participates with our runners when we need to link a lot of miles together. Emmett doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs, "I don't even use aspirin." He's such a beautiful man - I look forward to getting to know him better.


This is Jun-san and Bonnie. June-san is a Japanese nun who has also been all over the world with her Buddhist order (which I can't remember right now -- sorry!). She's walked thousands of miles, chanting and drumming for peace. She was also on the original walk and her and Dennis have become good friends. Dennis tells the story of how she spend night after night in 20 degree weather, chanting for him outside the jail he was incarcerated in during a peace action.
Bonnie is from Australia and has been on peace walks with Jun-san here in the States as well as Australia. She's told me a couple of funny stories about Jun-san and here's one of them:

During a peace walk in Australia, there was a guy I guess streaking around that country and making the news frequently. One night while the peace walk was camping, three guys from outside the camp came streaking through, drunk..in the middle of the night and started yelling and banging on Jun-san's tent. She got up and saw these three naked drunks guys and said, in typical Jun-san fashion, "oh, namu myoho renge kyo! You look cold, would you like some tea?" And then preceded to go over to Bonnie's tent and bang on it, "Bonnie-san, Bonnie-san..there's naked men out here, come see!" And Bonnie was telling me, "And I'm going..it's the middle of the night, I don't want to see that you evil woman!"

Bonnie's leaving on Monday to go home. Sad. She's fun.


Here is Larry, Kathleen and Carrie. They are frequent lunch companions. It's so nice to have people to eat lunch with -- it hasn't taken that long to find folks to hang with..but it's nice to have your regulars, y'know?