Paths And Journeys

This is the eighth volume in the Comparative Austronesian series. The papers in this volume examine metaphors of path and journey among specific Austronesian societies located on islands from Taiwan to Timor and from Madagascar to Micronesia. These diverse local expressions define common cultural conceptions found throughout the Austronesian-speaking world.

In "Windshield Refrains: Paths and Journeys," Dr. Fred Smiley has fashioned a book of poems that relate to the metaphor of "life as a journey." He recounts in his poems the trip he took from one teaching position in Kentucky to another one in Montana. The first entry is an homage to a senior citizen he met leaving on the journey, and the last entry is a treatise on possible future days and events. In between, the readers will encounter a wide variety of people he met, areas and places he witnessed, weather patterns, and events he encountered, from white crosses beside the road, an estate sale, to a curious train he may or may not have seen. Though the free verse poems were written in chronological order, they deal with much more than just the physical journey he encountered. The poems' titles, pictures, and texts interact with each other on several levels. The titles offer many and various moods and contexts to draw in the readers, the pictures reflect portions of the titles or the verses following, and the poems themselves complete the entries. Some of the poems are witty or humorous, some are thoughtful and pensive, and all of them are commentaries on the grand and wonderful adventure we have in life. This thoughtful and engaging text offers readers an opportunity not only to read the various experiences of the poet, but also to compare and contrast their own journeys.

Like the light and the darkness of life, we all walk on both sides many times, taking our steps carefully and sometimes foolishly, where things may happen, either good, bad or both. I have walked in light and in darkness, and with those people who sometimes corrupted or enriched me. Nevertheless, they made me into the human being I am today. My Elder friends and teachers of times past have shared with me their great knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes I get hit with a thought, a revelation, into what they taught me while they were still in my life. I sometimes cry tears of happiness knowing in my heart that they taught me well, and have helped me to become a teacher like they once were to me. Life is a great mystery, but it evolves around you. You choose where to go, and sometimes find what you seek. Other times, it is not at all what you were expecting. The stories within this book are exciting, sad, mysterious, maddening, and may touch you right to the core of your heart and soul. Live with me for a little while and let's journey into the life of the ancestors and those who may have accompanied them....

Every man and woman has a path that can take you through all types of journeys before you reach your destination...years in the making, I discovered a talent that allows me to put my path into poetry.... I know I'm not alone in this journey...life is filled with them...I dedicate this book to the adversities that I went through in this world that made me who I am today. The friends that I lost and the new friendships that I gained and the love of my life, my daughter Geneva...ultimately God gave me this tool to use, I have no doubts in my heart about that. So I decided to share it with the world...hear my thoughts and read my words... the path where all on, the journey in many give up or get lost, and the destination that we are all fighting to reach...thanks to Xlibris publishing team for having patients with me, my mom and her tough love methods, my brothers and sisters from another mother for listening to me every time I had a new poem, Geneva, Hazel, Lisa, the back bones that helped me stand tall but ultimately the man above, God...

An investigation into experiences of other realms of existence and contact with otherworldly beings • Examines how contact with alien life-forms can be obtained through the “inner space” dimensions of our minds • Presents evidence that other worlds experienced through consciousness-altering technologies are often as real as those perceived with our five senses • Correlates science fiction’s imaginal realms with psychedelic research For thousands of years, voyagers of inner space--spiritual seekers, shamans, and psychoactive drug users--have returned from their inner imaginal travels reporting encounters with alien intelligences. Inner Paths to Outer Space presents an innovative examination of how we can reach these other dimensions of existence and contact otherworldly beings. Based on their more than 60 combined years of research into the function of the brain, the authors reveal how psychoactive substances such as DMT allow the brain to bypass our five basic senses to unlock a multidimensional realm of existence where otherworldly communication occurs. They contend that our centuries-old search for alien life-forms has been misdirected and that the alien worlds reflected in visionary science fiction actually mirror the inner space world of our minds. The authors show that these “alien” worlds encountered through altered states of human awareness, either through the use of psychedelics or other methods, possess a sense of reality as great as, or greater than, those of the ordinary awareness perceived by our five senses.

Like the light and the darkness of life, we all walk on both sides many times, taking our steps carefully and sometimes foolishly, where things may happen, either good, bad or both. I have walked in light and in darkness, and with those people who sometimes corrupted or enriched me. Nevertheless, they made me into the human being I am today. My Elder friends and teachers of times past have shared with me their great knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes I get hit with a thought, a revelation, into what they taught me while they were still in my life. I sometimes cry tears of happiness knowing in my heart that they taught me well, and have helped me to become a teacher like they once were to me. Life is a great mystery, but it evolves around you. You choose where to go, and sometimes find what you seek. Other times, it is not at all what you were expecting. The stories within this book are exciting, sad, mysterious, maddening, and may touch you right to the core of your heart and soul. Live with me for a little while and let's journey into the life of the ancestors and those who may have accompanied them.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE The original bestseller from the beloved author of UNDERLAND, LANDMARKS and THE LOST WORDS - Robert Macfarlane travels Britain's ancient paths and discovers the secrets of our beautiful, underappreciated landscape 'The Old Ways confirms Macfarlane's reputation as one of the most eloquent and observant of contemporary writers about nature' Scotland on Sunday Following the tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British Isles and beyond, Robert Macfarlane discovers a lost world - a landscape of the feet and the mind, of pilgrimage and ritual, of stories and ghosts; above all of the places and journeys which inspire and inhabit our imaginations. 'Sublime . . . It sets the imagination tingling, laying an irresistible trail for readers to follow' Sunday Times 'Read this and it will be impossible to take an unremarkable walk again' Metro 'He has a rare physical intelligence and affords total immersion in place, elements and the passage of time: wonderful' Antony Gormley

Despite notable explorations of past dynamics, much of the archaeological literature on mobility remains dominated by accounts of earlier prehistoric gatherer-hunters, or the long-distance exchange of materials. Refinements of scientific dating techniques, isotope, trace element and aDNA analyses, in conjunction with phenomenological investigation, computer-aided landscape modeling and GIS-style approaches to large data sets, allow us to follow the movement of people, animals and objects in the past with greater precision and conviction. One route into exploring mobility in the past may be through exploring the movements and biographies of artifacts. Challenges lie not only in tracing the origins and final destinations of objects but in the less tangible ‘in between’ journeys and the hands they passed through. Biographical approaches to artifacts include the recognition that culture contact and hybridity affect material culture in meaningful ways. Furthermore, discrete and bounded ‘sites’ still dominate archaeological inquiry, leaving the spaces and connectivities between features and settlements unmapped. These are linked to an under-explored middle-spectrum of mobility, a range nestled between everyday movements and one-off ambitious voyages. We wish to explore how these travels involved entangled meshworks of people, animals, objects, knowledge sets and identities. By crossing and re-crossing cultural, contextual and tenurial boundaries, such journeys could create diasporic and novel communities, ideas and materialities.