It’s with a heavy heart that I report the passing of Robert H. Stremba, originally of the Philadelphia PA area. Bob was a good friend and fellow board member of Mountain Spirit Institute based in the USA. He served on the board, and as president, until his death. Bob supported the vision of Mountain Spirit through thick and thin.
Every conversation with him was always framed in the positive, from brainstorming what types of programs we could run in the USA, Peru, and in New Zealand from music exchanges to author speaking engagements to trips to Lakota Studies on the Rosebud Reservation. I met Bob when working in recruiting and marketing for Hurricane Island Outward Bound on the east coast, during a stopover at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where we has the Adventure Education Department chair. We became good friends, and I eventually asked him if he’d serve on the board of my new non-profit I was creating based on Outward Bound principles with a bit of a spiritual element. He was on board. Not long after, he asked if I’d be interested in being an adjunct professor, teaching Intro to Outdoor Education and other classes. I took him up on the offer. Over the years, Bob supported Mountain Spirit Institute by attending and assisting with fundraisers, providing ideas on program curriculum, experiential educational ideas based on his background with the Association of Experiential Education and as an instructor with Outward Bound and he even gave generously in financial support to Mountain Spirit.
Three of my favorite interactions with Bob were: The last time I saw him in the US when my family and I stayed with him at his home. We did the normal tourist things in Durango and would come back for dinner then join him for a jaunt into his favorite trails in the mountain surrounding his home.
Bob Stremba at Lake Sunapee New Hampshire
One of the best courses I ever had the opportunity to run, was with Bob called H.A.W.K or Healing Adventure for Teens We had a small group of teens that had in common, some recent loss of a loved one in their lives. Our job was to provide a safe space in nature with experiential activities that allowed them to better process their loss, within a peer group. It was an amazing course and I cherish the time I had planning and working the course with Bob. One last adventure we had was when he came to visit us in New Zealand. We picked him up at the airport, took him to the campervan rental desk, only to discover he had left his driver’s license in stateside. We headed back to Kingston, where we lived at the time to regroup and come up with a driverless vacation for Bob. The original plan was for him to spend time adventuring with us, and to spend some time traveling on his own. After numerous phone calls stateside and here in NZ, it was clear, Bob wasn’t going anywhere without me. Hence we rented a Juicy van, with a roof tent above, and headed off for parts unknown. I’m glad he left his license in the states.
Bob retired as Chair of the Fort Lewis CollegeAdventure Education Department in 2017, after serving 11 years developing and teaching in the Adventure Education Bachelor’s degree program. His areas of focus include teaching how theory, research, and conceptual models inform practice, and vice versa; the connections between nature and mindfulness; project-based learning; and adventure processing and facilitation to promote social-emotional development. He co-wrote the graduate text and faculty resource book about how to teach theory experientially, Teaching Adventure Education Theory: Best Practices (2009), and wrote the instructor guide chapter on outdoor leadership for the college text, Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming (2018).
Bob also developed bachelor’s degree programs in adventure education and outdoor leadership at Plymouth (NH) State University, and New Mexico Highlands University. He developed and implemented new student outdoor orientation programs at two universities, and served as Director of Counseling, Health, and Wellness Services at the University of Puget Sound for 17 years. Bob even did a short stint creating and leading outdoor programs for REI, an outdoor cooperative retailer based in Washington.
Over the years, and continuing until his death, Bob served with the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) as a lead reviewer of outdoor education and therapeutic wilderness programs internationally, traveling to far flung and remote locations. He also served on AEE regional and international conference planning committees, including convening two AEE regional conferences at Fort Lewis College in recent years. Bob also served on the Board of Directors of Durango Nature Studies. Most recently Bob was Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Experience Collaborative with Jay Zarr and Andrea Parrish. EC’s mission is “Enhancing your strengths through experiential consulting and training. Bob leaves many friends in the professional outdoor educator’s world. There are many who could share a good story or two, of learning, and outdoor adventures with Bob. If you have any, feel free to post them in the comment section below. There will be service, both live and online, celebrating the life of Bob on the 25th of September 2022. Please get in touch if you would like more info. We miss you Bob! Randall
Randall Richards, Director/Founder Mountain Spirit Institute Mountain Spirit Ltd, NZ
I recently sat down with publisher and owner of Tross Publishing from Wellington, New Zealand, to talk about the recent release of “A Jab in the Dark” by Ron Asher. Here’s the interview in full. Mr. McLean recently spoke in Wanaka, New Zealand to a full house.
An Interview with John McLean of Tross Publishing, Wellington, NZ
I love it when spirit nudges us. Our family does an evening reading at our dinner table every night before eating. Without looking at the bookshelf behind me last night, I pulled a random book off the shelf. Then I opened to a random page, then I looked at a random quote.
It’s one of my favorite quotes: “Believe me my young friend, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” Kenneth Grahame.
This quote arrives just when we’ve put our Lake Wanaka Yacht Charters business “on pause” due to New Zealand border closures. The lack of tourists is “forcing us to live our dreams” and as we consider and possibly prepare to use the yachts in more of an educational role, for experiential adventures on Lake Wanaka. This is my first love anyway. As every passenger that’s gone out on the lake with me attests, they got more than they bargained for, regarding an experiential sailing experience. Once they get out there, my job, and mission, is to light up their eyes and soul by helping them connect to the wind, the water, the place and themselves, and of course have fun.
Here at Mountain Spirit NZ, we’ve been hooked on the “AirBnB drug” prior to our Covid lockdown, and now we’re advertising for domestic visitors to stay with us with a purpose in mind, whether to just have a digital detox, record some music in our piano studio, or take some yin yoga classes with Amanda in the yurt. We’re stepping out into our own possibilities.
The trick to being fulfilled and successful, (however you personally define success), is stepping out of the way, allowing the Universe/Spirit/God to help out, and importantly, look for those reminder signs when they pop up and recognise them as such, then of course, take action.
I just attended a powerful presentation yesterday here in Wanaka, New Zealand, by Lake Wanaka Tourism They’re our local tourism association. As you can imagine, like many of us in tourism here in New Zealand, they’ve been in on a path or re-inventing themselves. They’ve been working on a new branding program. I’ll write more on that in later in a separate post, as it deserves more time. But I have to mention here, about the power of timing, being at the right place at the right time, taking action when a crisis/opportunity presents itself and listening to spirit. Lake Wanaka Tourism is taking the bold steps to create a wonderful vision of post-covid “tourism” for operators, the land, community and visitors alike.
Here’s just a snapshot of some of the Lake Wanaka tenets going forward: The Vision: “Our aspiration is for the visitor industry to enrich this place, as well as the lives of the local community both now and into the future. To create mutual value for Whanau/whanui (which includes our families , our community, our visitors), and our whenua (our place and natural resources) and our economy.
“Values: Guardianship for our people, our place and our plant; Inclusive and respectful; Living with a sense of balance; bold and free thinking.”
There are plans being put into place with a whole re-adjustment of what it means to be in tourism here in Wanaka, and fortunately, the leadership and staff at Lake Wanaka Tourism are taking on the challenge with heart and purpose. The future looks bright because there’s a proactive approach. I look forward to sharing more about LWT’s and the community’s plans going forward in future posts. I would say LWT is following their spirit course.
Back to the reading about messing about on boats. I can’t wait for the next sign to come down the road, and hit me with a spiritual 2×4. But for now, I thought I’d share this little nudge from Spirit.
JP Sears has been a family favorite for a few years now. My wife first turned me onto him a few years ago with his classic video, “How to be Ultra Spiritual” and his spoof on how to irritate people by being vegan. If you haven’t seen his work, check out his website and his Youtube channel, while it’s still is there.
I attended an Eckhart Tolle retreat in Australia a couple of years ago, and Mr. Tolle had a wonderful “Evening of Spiritual Entertainment” multimedia presentation. Sears’ post about Tolle was included in the evening. I wrote to Sears, letting him know Tolle thought highly enough of his video to include it in his presentation. Sears was thrilled.
JP has really stepped up to the plate with this recent post. He’s effective not only because he has done his homework, is intelligent and gets the point across, but does it through humor. He’s recently been censored on Youtube and he didn’t take to it lightly.
JP Sears calls it like he sees it about censorship and free speech, and our rights.
It’s time for us all to step up our game, and protect our inalienable rights of free speech. I’ve considered my acquaintance with an alternative narrative, introduced to be me by my uncle in the late ’60’s, as a hobby. I’ve certainly looked into the alternative press, read history books, and personally interviewed “radicals” and made my own phone calls. Those interviews and phone calls were an eye opener, which confirmed my uncle’s views and insights. More in him in another post. Now it can no longer be considered a hobby. Now it is time to speak up, at age 62, I have a 9 year old, and I want him to know I also spoke up in the year 2020. I have accumlated too much information over the years not to speak up. If you have inside info, I suggest you do the same. Thanks JP for this inspiration. This blog has formally been restricted to Mountain Spirit’s wide mission statement, but in light of the recent events, it’s clear this subject falls under our mission to help reconnect to others, ones self, and nature by further the cause of freedom. So I hope you “enjoy” upcoming posts about my personal history, and knowledge of the NWO. I’ll back it up with personal experiences, and fact. I feel it’s my duty to forge ahead with what I have known for over 45+ years. More to follow on this subject.
REI’s Seattle Store..Take note of the “day out” banner. Regaining sanity
Below are a couple of excerpts from Jerry Stritzke’s piece on REI (Recreation Equipment Incorporated coop). A great idea started four years ago, it seems to be catching on. Even though REI loses a lot of revenue in some ways, they’ve made great strides in re-instilling a sense of sanity in an otherwise completely “world-gone-crazy” holiday shopping season.
Thursday and Friday, REI will be closed. For #OptOutside, all of our 12,000+ employees will be paid to take time off and be with family and friends. We’re asking each to take someone they love who might not get outside as much with them. If we’re honest, these are stressful times, and we hope it will help bring people closer together.
When #OptOutside started four years ago, it was about reclaiming a day that was distorting a time to give thanks for what we have, and re-grounding in what we value most in life as an outdoor community. Back then, closing down on the busiest retail day of the year shocked the system. Now, millions of people have chosen to make a walk in the park part of their family tradition.
We have been inspired by the momentum. Being together outside has brought us together as a community. It’s unusual in today’s atmosphere to find a movement that unites rather than divides.
By Holistic Life Foundation
School Sends Kids to Meditation Instead of Detention, with Amazing Results
Traditionally when children act up in school, they would get detention or they get suspended. An elementary school in Baltimore has a far healthier approach, read more…
Maurice Machoud is doing good work, really good work. He’s a retired Swiss chemist and has had a 15 year dream to convert a luxury barge in Myanmar, into a floating hospital. And it’s happening! Marurice was a recent client of ours on Lake Wanaka Yacht Charters, where we went out for an afternoon sail. Learn more about his dream and his project below. (Image of the Floating Hospital to be added soon.)
Decisions on the Life Path
Felix is from Bavaria. He had a choice to make – Follow in his father’s footsteps, or follow his heart. Learn what he and his fiance decided to do!
The waking up process is a very personal experience. Once we become aware of the existence of a fabricated world we thought to be real and that our true nature is anything but what we’ve been told, there’s no turning back.
It may appear to be a lonely path, but we are by no means alone in this awakening. It is happening in all walks of life. Whether a banker or corporate employee wakes up to the scam being perpetrated on humanity and pulls out of the matrix, or a normal taxpaying worker realizes they’re contributing to a military industrial machine hell bent on control and world domination, we’re all the same.
Leadership in Chaos
And those are just surface issues compared to the deliberate suppression of man’s innate spiritual nature, whether we call it social liberty or the freedom to create and manifest as we truly are.
Triggers for Awakening
There are many such triggers that wake people up. Once someone realizes how the world was scammed on 9/11 and that the powers that be are willing to perpetrate such atrocities to promote their agenda, the digging begins. When we realize we’re at the complete mercy of parasitic central bankers more than willing to not only implode the world’s economy, but finance both sides of any conflict for personal gain and control and that our governments are complicit in this scheme, we start to grasp the enormity of what befalls us.
That we have rapidly evolved into an advanced militarized surveillance police state is driving many to ask some hard questions – and the answers can be startling and difficult to swallow, especially when you realize they have cut off all avenues of recourse.
Meditation in Action
Another major issue is that it’s more evident by the day that our very health is under attack, again by complicit government and multinational corporations pushing GMOs, adulterated food, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, atmospheric aerosols and the like, all of which have been proven to be extremely hazardous to humanity. Yet they push harder by the day, mandating program after destructive program. Meanwhile, natural and organic farming and foods, as well as supplements, are under intense attack by these very same perpetrators.
The truth about these issues and many, many more including massive planet harming programs such as fracking, electrosmog, and the geoengineering assault on humanity are driving a major perceptual paradigm shift amongst all walks of life as we delve more deeply into who is doing all this and why.
Back Room Politics
There Is No “They” – Oh Really?
This is often the final breakthrough point for many people. As the true picture starts to crystallize, the horrific realization that the “powers that be” are fundamentally a clandestine cabal with front men comes into focus. These are powerful minions, Read the rest of this story..
I had the good fortune to meet Tom Shepherd yesterday, here in the little town of Kingston, New Zealand.
Although he won’t admit it, Tom has a remarkable story to tell, which actually isn’t over yet. He’s half way through a “figure-8 circumnavigation” of the North and South Islands of New Zealand – and he’s learning to sail as he goes along. What’s more impressive is he’s approaching his 84th birthday next month, and, he has been diagnosed with cancer. Seven years ago he was given six months to live. Every six months after that, for two years, nothing happened. He finally decided he wasn’t going to sit around to see would happen. Learn more of his story:
When he sailed in to the docks in Motueka, near Nelson, people were gathering and walking down the dock to greet him with “You must be Tom Shepherd, the fellow sailing down the coast.” Word had traveled before his arrival. Since then he’s been interviewed by the Maori Channel here in New Zealand. He was kind enough to grant me the interview (see above), but, half joking, said he was considering going into hiding.
The next leg of his journey would provide an opportunity as a recluse, as he heads from New Zealand’s southern tip into the deep fjords of the the west coast. I want to keep track of this man – who is an inspiration. He’s getting out there and doing something. He’s not posting on Facebook or blogs, he’s just doing it. Tom’s adventure is about being alive as much as it is the uncharted journey on his yacht. It reminds me of the quote by William G.T. Shedd – “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
Please see the post interview clip, (below) of how Mr. Shepherd “rubbed off” on a bummed out cab driver in the Christchurch area. It’s been said that one of the tenants of a spiritual person is to serve as a fire that helps kindle the soul of another. Tom Shepherd humble, but the results around him seem to be clear. He’s making this place a better world, just by living.
Mountain Spirit's Blog 
What It’s Like Being Censored
12/09/2020JP Sears has been a family favorite for a few years now. My wife first turned me onto him a few years ago with his classic video, “How to be Ultra Spiritual” and his spoof on how to irritate people by being vegan. If you haven’t seen his work, check out his website and his Youtube channel, while it’s still is there.
I attended an Eckhart Tolle retreat in Australia a couple of years ago, and Mr. Tolle had a wonderful “Evening of Spiritual Entertainment” multimedia presentation. Sears’ post about Tolle was included in the evening. I wrote to Sears, letting him know Tolle thought highly enough of his video to include it in his presentation. Sears was thrilled.
JP has really stepped up to the plate with this recent post. He’s effective not only because he has done his homework, is intelligent and gets the point across, but does it through humor. He’s recently been censored on Youtube and he didn’t take to it lightly.
It’s time for us all to step up our game, and protect our inalienable rights of free speech. I’ve considered my acquaintance with an alternative narrative, introduced to be me by my uncle in the late ’60’s, as a hobby. I’ve certainly looked into the alternative press, read history books, and personally interviewed “radicals” and made my own phone calls. Those interviews and phone calls were an eye opener, which confirmed my uncle’s views and insights. More in him in another post. Now it can no longer be considered a hobby. Now it is time to speak up, at age 62, I have a 9 year old, and I want him to know I also spoke up in the year 2020. I have accumlated too much information over the years not to speak up. If you have inside info, I suggest you do the same. Thanks JP for this inspiration. This blog has formally been restricted to Mountain Spirit’s wide mission statement, but in light of the recent events, it’s clear this subject falls under our mission to help reconnect to others, ones self, and nature by further the cause of freedom. So I hope you “enjoy” upcoming posts about my personal history, and knowledge of the NWO. I’ll back it up with personal experiences, and fact. I feel it’s my duty to forge ahead with what I have known for over 45+ years.
More to follow on this subject.
Tags:Censorship on YouTube, commentary, Free Speach, Globalism, humor, JP Sears, Keeping an open mind, NWO
Posted in Film/DVD, Global Politics, Human Rights, Leadership, Open Mind Project, Sense of Humor Perspective, This Just In Department | 1 Comment »