For a billion years, the Texas Colorado River has carved this country of hills. Its waters have been grinding away at solid granite rock four times longer than the layered sandstones of Grand Canyon. It has created a haven for fish and foul, foliage and game. From the time human beings first fell upon this place, it has been a good place to call home.

 

You can feel the presence of our predecessors just by palming a 20,000 year old stone tool. You can sift through evidence of their camps and can almost hear the children playing on the river's rocks. The essences of these departed ones can be seen if you show up with a camera and an open mind, especially in the evening. The orbs of their energies will blow your mind and remind you of how much we don't know.

 

These old native friends remind me of Tommy Yazzie. He was my boss while working as Tribal Architect for the Navajo Nation. He was my friend while I worked on becoming a human being. I wish you could have known Tommy. We named our Blue Healer after him. Brave. Intelligent. Loyal. Powerful but quiet most of the time and always happy ... in a way.

 

Tommy, like all of us sometimes, was wading through some muddy sands in life. He came from the Navajo Nation to CastleRock, Texas. He liked the view from up here, like I do. It's from views like this and those Tommy and I shared long ago from the Navajo Plateau, that we might see a little better what life's all about. 

 

Tommy Yazzie was with us for only ten days.

 

Coming home one evening too late and too tired from worrying through one too many bottles of beer, he was hit and killed by another drunk. The other guy lived to kill again. Looking back on it now, I knew somehow that Tommy knew ... that he came here for some other reason than to simply work for Living Architecture. He came to work on and in me.

 

Before Tommy left us, he called his brother and his wife that same day, telling them he loved them and that all was going to be okay. He was with Marley. Then he gave my wife an Eagle's feather, one blessed by his father, Dudley, a Holy Man. Tommy gave her the power of the snake too but this, after he died, so she would have strength and would not fear.

 

Tommy has visited Lynn and I here, down by the water's edge and here on the mountain top many times ... these special visits too sacred to share in these pages. That has to be done in person and in special settings.

 

I will share however, this very clear reality given me by my friend Tommy:

 

"Remember things East. Yellow. They come from tomorrow. The future is good to think about but let it come. It's a new day. Be born again every sunrise. East is to smile."

 

"Remember things South. Red. They come from everyday life. Sunshine and rain, happiness and pain. Just live it. South is to live."

 

"Remember things West. Black. They are already gone. What's done is done and has no power over you. Let it wash away into the great ocean where the sun eats and then rests. West is best unfolded."

 

"Remember things North. White. North is wisdom. Wisdom comes in Time. Snow is wisdom. It is clean and coldly honest. North is death and death is nothing but being born again. Don't fear the North, we all go into the snow. North is snow."

 

Some of the things we talk about up here at CastleRock don't have too much to do with development and business. Some of the things we talk about count.

 

You can all count on that and STILL have a great time LIVING OUT LOUD. Tommy did.