Brian & Leigh October 2017

Hi!
     We spent the summer at our home in Laguna Beach, CA.  It's been 2 years since we were there!  Really appreciated what I think is the most perfect climate in the world, the smiling liberals, swimming in the clean ocean, hiking right out the back door, so many sunsets, and fast internet.  Ah, an easy life for awhile!  We also went to San Francisco and did a few hikes in the Sierras.  
     I'm wary of the stock market's relentless rise and invested a few hundred hours learning about selling options.  If you're geeky like me, this is truly fascinating stuff: calculable probabilities versus opinion, faith and luck.  I surveyed this topic decades ago and technology has finally caught up to make it easy.  I no longer feel like I'm guessing and at the mercy of the markets.  For me personally, that's a good thing!   
     I got a drone (it folds up!) and an electric unicycle (50 miles on one charge!).  Those two toys fit perfectly on the boat and are fun to learn.  :-) 
We took a month to drive from home to the boat in St. Mary's GA, camping and hiking along the way.  The  Escalante wilds, Telluride, Ouray, Great Sand Dunes, Pagosa, Taos, Espanola ('where cultures unite'), Santa Fe and then a dash to the Atlantic.  I've never really experienced the area around Escalante and love it!  If you're into geology like me, it's a paradise.  A rift valley!  Time is totally in your face there.  It is remote and empty with the darkest skies in the lower 48.  It is beautifully humbling.  I love it!    
     The boat is in a boatyard, near trees.  Again the hurricanes ran by us.  (This was our fourth one.)  Again we were unscathed, but only two miles away docks are destroyed and dozens of boats were lost.  Many of our boatie friends were hit (Puerto Rico, Marathon, Big Pine, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Pensacola, St. Mary's...) and most are okay.  The stress, helplessness and potential loss is a lot to bear.  We're thinking of keeping the boat someplace like Baltimore!     
     It is finally cool enough to be in FL/GA... timed it about right.  We have a long list of boat projects and the determination to tackle them.  Git 'er done!  This time we're not living on the boat and working on it at the same time.  Instead we've rented a quiet studio and 'drive to the office'.  It is so nice to leave the boat and boatyard at the end of a gritty work day!  We had planned to repair the boat and head to the Caribbean this winter, but the extensive hurricane damage there has nixed that plan.  Instead we'll work on the boat for a few months, spend two months in Queensland, Australia in a home exchange, then back to the US and take the boat north in the springtime.  We'll explore the Chesapeake, NYC, MA, maybe as far as Maine.
     That's the latest from us.  Leigh does Facebook, link below, if you're into that.  I prefer letters like this.  Either way, we'd love to hear from you!  And if this email is junk mail to you, please let me know and I'll remove you from the list with no offence at all.

Brian & Leigh Jacobs

Presence-ing May 2017

I rarely send an update so soon after the last one, but there's something I want to share with you.  Skip ahead to the last paragraph.

 I had the boat towed about 30 miles from Brunswick to Saint Mary's, GA.  The tow captain suggested I complain about the expense to BoatUS.  I did and it worked: covered, no cost!  Yeah!  On the hard in the boat yard, I (with the help of Jacques, a French Canadian) pulled the engine and drive leg, about 600 pounds.  For my boatie friends, here's the plan:  I'll put a 130 lb 20” leg (5” extension available) 25HP 16A EFI Yamaha OB on a jack plate with 16” of travel.  With both electric and pull start I won't need a start battery anymore.  Since it is NEMA 2000 I can install a second Garmin 741xs to display engine and fuel info.  No more analog gauges!  Backup chart plotter!  The old AC/engine coolant hot water heater?  Out!  I'll install an on-demand propane heater.  An Engle freezer will fit where the old water heater was.  A freezer!  Yeah!  A 30” pressure vessel for the 12V water maker will fit in the old engine locker.  The water maker,  incredibly, already runs off the solar panel.  The range/broiler/oven is old and nasty.  Out!  Replaced with a clean drop-in cook top and a small microwave.  If I had a need for it, a Honda 2000eu fits quietly in the old engine locker, vented out the transom.  The rigging is 16 years old and has some corrosion.  Refitting with Sta-Lok isn't difficult, so I'll likely do it.  The acrylic windows are shot and need replacing.  There's no avoiding painting.  I gave away the 18 year old PVC dingy.  A Stack Pack is, I think, necessary to see under the boom.  Even though I'm eager, I learned the hard way about working in southern heat, humidity and mosquitoes, so all these thrilling projects will wait until the fall.  :-(

 Leigh's growth and healing continues to move and inspire me.  Here's an example:  We spent 3 weeks at South Padre Island, the OBX of TX, because it is about the best place in North America for her to learn to kite surf.  Kite surfing can be terrifying and is dangerous (and huge fun, of course.)  She's determined and progressing well, making runs in both directions.  We're sitting in 8” of of water, setting up.  She's harnessed in, arms and kite overhead, conditions she's familiar with.  Though nothing was exceptionally different, fear began to rise in her.  She started by breathing through it, with deep exhales.  More fear arose and she started to cry.  Then came flashes of anger, followed by more deep tearful sobs.  Soon her whole body was trembling, shaking, chattering and convulsing in the deepest terror.  After about 15 minutes it subsided and we brought the kite down.  She stood and we walked back to the palapa.  Later she shared about the experience: the posture, sitting on the ground, arms overhead, a much more powerful force above her, yanking her up, was the trigger.  In childhood she dissociated, but this time terrified 'little Leigh' stayed throughout the event.

Sometimes the triggering event is known.  I was on Maui, working with a guy in his 20s.  Years before he had nearly drowned in surf, and entrusted me to facilitate him in processing that.  We were sitting on a calm leeward beach where I led him in focusing and presence-ing.  We moved gently from the sand into contact with the water where he opened to the physicality of his fear.  Then into waist deep water where he transitioned from standing to laying in the water, lightly cradled in my arms.  His body erupted in free release with thrashing, convulsions and gasping.  After it subsided, we moved back to the sand where he sobbed for awhile.  After a few minutes of integration, he rose and plunged back into the water, laughing.

Leigh connected me to a gal in Australia assembling travel retreats for depression, abuse, anxiety, grief and loss, etc.  If this comes together, we could facilitate work this summer in Mongolia.  Mongolia!  What a kick!  I fractured a toe in South Padre Island have had to lay low.  So I learned a bit about GIMP, wrote more autobiography, and am studying the ToS platform.  The toe is almost healed now, so I can get back on the fitness wagon soon.  And, this is big for me, Leigh has begun selling her watercolors!  See www.etsy.com/shop/HeartToHandFineArt.  Leigh would love to hear what you think about her work.  She's also working to get these images on yoga pants. Contact her at https://www.facebook.com/LeighPresenceing, On instagram: @hearttohandfineart and @presence.ing or cell/text 949.415.9373  More good stuff.  Yeah!

 In a financial Catch22, we may have to sell our home.  We'll see.  We'll be here, on and off, for the summer at least.  In the mean time, we'd love to share our wonderful pad with YOU!  Let me share more: Laguna Beach is surrounded by a greenbelt, secluded rocky coves and hosts a famously contrived summer arts festival.  Our home is at the top of a quiet 700' hill with whitewater, village, island and sunset views.  Walk or take a city bus to the beach, village, galleries, museum or art festivals.  Hey, I did a video a few years ago.  See 008 at  https://www.youtube.com/user/presencingly  There is nice hiking right out the back door.  We don't interfere or fuss over guests and want you to come and go as you please.  You'll have your own bedroom and bathroom.  We'll give you suggestions for places to explore your interests.  Make our place your home for awhile, a base for a break, exploring, personal work, or whatever you like.  Since we don't know how much longer we will live here, we'd love to share this beauty and our good fortune with you while we can.  Come!

 Love, 

 Brian & Dr. Leigh Jacobs

 Here are a few of Leigh's watercolors:
 


 

Presence-ing March 2017

We've been in Laguna Beach, CA since the death of my stepmother in November, scrambling with an estate sale and house renovation, sleeping on a bouncy airbed there. Both she and my father died in the house. In certain rooms I always felt someone else was there. It was scary. Sounds at night. Chilling horripilation. A vivid sense of people or things with unfinished business and foreign agendas, and they didn't want to leave. I kept lights on at night. Things improved after a massive estate sale. Apparently some of the spirits were connected to the stuff. The place is being extensively (real estate agents, contractors, fumigation, paint, landscaping, vacating to hotels...) redone and feels very good now. It will be worth it. Whew!

While in the house, saturated in spirits and memories, I worked on family genealogy. A fascinating documentation puzzle, organizing, digitizing, sleuthing going back 7 generations. I deciphered crumbling clippings, scrawlings on the back of photos, even tintypes into a five foot tall stack of plastic bins and discovered ..my sister died on the 67 day voyage from.., ..built his home.., ..was the first white woman in.., ..4 of their 8 children were doctors or dentists.., … had 16 children.., ...factory and store destroyed in the 1906 SF earthquake.., ..enlisted for WW1.., ..sold the car dealerships.., ..photographer killed in a flash flood.., ..designed the entrance to the SF Worlds Fair.., ..died of pneumonia.., ..married Jesse James' granddaughter.., ..Darjeeling.., ..government censored letters.., ..wrote a book.., ..died of alcoholism.. The work gave me a much better sense of who I am and the origins of the 'family stuff' I've worked on for decades. I got it all into a program with pictures, audio and video. I'm glad I did it. I feel more grounded now, for sure.

In Laguna 3% of the population turned out for the Women's March, compared to .3% nationwide. As a therapist, I know nothing heals without being revealed and experienced, and that is happening. Long term, say Paleozoic, I'm optimistic.  My degree is in atmn college, I worked on atmospheric photochemistry.  

Now say ahhh for dental delights including Leigh's surgery to extract a molar embedded in a sinus, our cleanings, fillings, crowns and an extraction for me. Highlights: still dopey on anesthetic, I helped Leigh check the engine oil. I had a crown installed on my birthday. I'm a strange one, indeed! Oh, the frazzling telomeres. Hopefully we're done with that.

Leigh's recovery continues to amaze me. The change in her since Peru is profound and permanent.

I've put a lot of energy and research into tax and financial planning, wills, trusts, dissolving my corporation, consolidating, reallocating and such. Incredibly, we've found a solution to Leigh's crushing student loan debt.

Meanwhile, the boat sits unattended in GA. You don't want to leave a boat unattended for long, but we haven't had a choice. And we miss her! By the time we get back there, the sailing season will be ending. We still have to move our disabled boat ~50 miles and get her out of the water. Let alone repairs and our intentions for the Bahamas, Cuba and Guatemala! And we miss our wonderful sailing community!


So the past few months have been a lot of busy and very necessary work. Cleaned and conscious. Getting ready for the next thing. I'm excited to see what happens next. Leigh found the word for it. Coddiwomple. Eventually we all share the same destination, don't we?

Give a call, drop a note or send a text: I'd love to hear from you!
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