R. N. Homer Christensen

Homer is a long-time writer, having worked on instructional and software documentation for over 20 years. Many of his projects were recognized with national and international awards by the Society for Technical Communication.

Writing is teaching, exploring, communicating; it's serving, really, whether by introducing ideas, entertaining, or teaching new skills which enable the reader to better his or her life. And as such, it's been a gratifying way to spend time.

Closest to my heart, however, is the creative work that I've written for myself, to document my spiritual path. In many ways my greatest love is poetry -- poetry is writing compressed and fermented. Through the careful choice and placement of words, in a short space one can create (or re-frame) an experience that is profound and emotionally moving, insightful and enlightening, funny and enjoyable.

He has been fortunate to work on some amazing projects as a Technical Writer, Graphic Designer, and Instructional Designer for Microsoft, Aldus, Adobe, Macromedia, and others. In the course of his career, he designed books, web sites, newsletters, advertisements, business identity packages and postcards, and somehow found time to run an online and brick-and-mortar art gallery for 10 years.

He is also a mesa carrier and long-time student of indigenous shamanism, most recently studying intently the work of Alberto Villoldo's Four Winds Society and its Healing the Light Body School. He has also worked and studied with chamanes, curranderas, ayahuasqueros, and the Earthkeepers of Peru, the Q'ero. Studying with Alberto Villoldo changed the course of his life in a slight, but critical way.

I learned how to release and work through deep emotional issues that were limiting me and keeping me from really appreciating the beauty and abundance that I daily lived and was gifted with, even though I wasn't often aware of it. Perhaps the most important components were living in Ayni--right relationship--and taking responsibility for the stewardship of life on earth. What I found is that there was a welcome place by the fire for me--there always was--and that I could sit there amongst the ancestors to hear their wisdom, and occasionally add my own piece. It didn't matter what skin, location, or circumstance we were born into; we're each perfect children of God and that connection is the over-arching one that makes our earthly differences unimportant. 

He is also a Shihan (teacher) in the Komyo Reiki Kai, a Japanese school for energy medicine. Reiki is such a beautiful energy--the loving life-force energy of the universe--and its use requires that the practitioner become a hollow bone, a conduit empty of one's own issues or judgment, in order to allow the free flow of energy to another. It's a great practice, both individually in one's spiritual journey, and a concrete example of being entirely in service to another. 

Another valuable and much appreciated experience was attending Vipassana meditation retreats led by S. N. Goenka, goenkaji, whose selfless service has helped spread Vipassana meditation around the globe.This difficult and beautiful practice is reportedly an unchanged technique passed from the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, and was kept pure throughout the centuries in Myanmar (Bhutan). Practicing Vipassana is a way to see reality as it is, without the filter of emotion or ego.