Dear Friends -
Life is truly a treat. I'm so very grateful having this wonderful 4Runner to travel the country in. Late Saturday night, after driving through Texas, I stopped at a remote campground outside of Clayton, New Mexico, rolled down the windows, crawled in back and slept like a baby. I much prefer my SUV bed over a Best Western motel, unless I need a shower.
Friday morning I left the Louisiana bayou, and by Sunday morning I was driving over a pass at 9100 feet on my way down to Taos, New Mexico. The last two nights I slept breathing in the crisp fresh 7000 feet Taos mountain air, parked in front of the home of my sisters Geoli and Susie.
How I met Geoli . . .Anchorage Daily News, mid March 1980 classified ad: Cook Wanted. Willow Wind Restaurant, Homer, Alaska. Call ----------
The owner, David Allison, me, answered the phone, still mostly asleep. “It’s six in the morning.”
“I’m your cook. I’m ready to work. How do I get there?” the woman’s voice asked, without an excuse for the early morning intrusion. (not that I can remember)
“I’m sorry. The restaurant won’t be open until April,” I answered, almost ready to hang up.
“But I need work now. I’ll come right over. I’ll be the best cook you ever had.”
“Do you have any idea where Homer is?
“No.”
“It’s 250 miles from Anchorage and I’m sorry, I don’t have any work for you now.”
“What am going to do? It’s cold. I’m in a phone booth in some strange city at six in the morning. I need help.” (she was hired for a job under false pretenses, and quit on the morning of arrival in Anchorage from Las Vegas)
For some strange reason I responded, “Why don’t you call my mother? Maybe she can help you.”
Three hours later my mother called. “Who is this strange woman in my dining room?”
“You picked her up!!!”
Thus began my life-long relationship with my sister Geoli. Back in 1982 after my divorce, with her former husband Brandy, a full-blood Gypsy born on the high seas - with bad tattoos from hundreds of drunken seaport nights, she became my sons' nanny for a year. They introducing us to their wild, tumultuous, and crazy-real lifestyle. She taught me to read the Tarot, and we began a book we're still working on 28 years later, called Seven Lazy Steps to Enlightenment.
Geoli swept me into a whole new life philosophy - one of brutal honesty, a living testament to deep, but tough family love - with personal freedom and acceptance at the core. Once embraced into a Gypsy clan, you have a home and family for life, as do my sons and any friend I choose to bring in.
The moment I stepped in the door two days ago, after being lost in Kauai for twenty years, I naturally folded into the embrace of my sisters Susie and Geoli, and her 6'6" ex-con son Bart. My Gypsy life continued as if no time had passed. David, the long lost brother, was totally loved, accepted, healed, fed, whatever - and before I knew it the laughter and profanity and story telling/sharing began in a big huge unstructured Gypsy Druid, dogs and cats, bundle of love.
Welcome home.
And I was the brother who returned with new gifts. Suddenly the home was alive with Human Design. With HD their differences suddenly made sense. Everything that I had learned while away, was the perfect next thing for the family to know and embrace.
Geoli, now 73, is sort of a mongol blend of Gypsy, High Irish Druid Priestess, Elder Grandmother, and Cowgirl. She’s always known who she is, and who she is has never been New Age or a Seeker of anything. Geoli didn’t have to take workshops or classes. She just Knows; she is wise, wild and profane, brilliantly intelligent and brutally honest. Within a few hours she was explaining Human Design as if she had already mastered it. Susie, our Priestess sister, joined the family around forty years ago. She is currently in deep study of Human Design. I bought that $100 book to bring to her.
David Wilson, now a part of the family with Geoli, Susie and Bart, connects us/me with Louisiana and Tennessee. He was born not far from Monroe where my dear sister Chante, who painted the pictures I've included, lives, and he went to college in Louisiana. Davey was a Cherokee Jew - or so it seems, but it doesn't matter - he's now a Taos gypsy. He lived for many years in Chattanooga and knows my other sister June. It’s a very small world. He is now teaching me frisbee golf.
When I left on this journey I stated that I was looking for a home - looking for my family. As written, my journey has taken many unexpected and illuminating twists and turns. I’ve surrendered to signs and omens along the way, and the directives of my still voice within.
But what has become clear is that I have found bits and pieces of home and family along the way. Somehow I feel that it is all connected. My home and family is spread out all over the place; its not just here in Taos. There’s six different places I could live, and none of them are where I lived before. Maybe I'm simply a Gypsy story teller - with family homes scattered here and there, all filled with people I love: so far - Seattle - Copper Harbor & Detroit Michigan - Chattanooga - Monroe, Louisiana and Taos, New Mexico. I'm sure there will be others as I travel on.
For now, it is time for me to explore more of Taos. By the way - I met some other family members yesterday. They are making a Shaman movie. Check out their trailer: www.blackandgoldfilm.com Diane is the woman singing the song.
With continuing love and blessings,
David Dakan Allison
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