Our names are Mark and Barbara Veale Smith.  Thank you for your interest in Harmony Lake Ranch.  We often receive questions about how the ranch came to be in our lives, and what we are up to here.  We offer the following reflections in an attempt to provide some background about ourselves and HLR.  

We were both raised within the Roman Catholic religious tradition, nourished in loving families who shared the teachings of Christ.  Today we have a deep love for Christ and his teachings, which is grounded in our experience of the Truth about which Christ spoke, and from which he lived. 

Mark was raised in Michigan, and Barbara grew up in Massachusetts.  In the fall of 2002, we were living in the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan with our two children, Conor and Tara, who were six and four at the time.  On the outside, we were a successful, contented family:  active in our local parish; involved in community activities; and engaged in our children's lives and their school community.  Yet, in the midst of our apparent worldy contentment, a growing inner disharmony was stirring.  We were looking for something more deeply fulfilling. 


We had met a number of professional water skiers in the preceding years, as we were avid amateur slalom skiers ourselves, and followed the sport closely.  (Professional water skiers are very accessible people;  when you go to a professional tournament, they are as likely to be standing next to you watching the other skiers as any other spectator.)  We became particularly friendly with professional water skier Terry Winter and his wife, Windy.  We were also inspired by the preaching of Bishop Tom Gumbleton, at St. Leo's parish in Detroit, and heard his consistent and prophetic call to service.  Tom's preaching was reminiscent to us of our days in Baltimore, Maryland where we had both served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps;  Mark at a soup kitchen, and Barbara at a non-profit peace education and advocacy organization working to reduce excess military spending and increase federal spending for human needs, such as education and health care.

In the course of our friendship with Terry and Windy, we learned that they had heard of some property with a lake already on it, in the rural town of Christmas Valley, Oregon.  We purchased the 300 acre ranch and lake that we now call Harmony Lake Ranch, and with Terry and Windy we shared a vision of creating a place that people could come to, in order to "get away from it all", to be refreshed, to be re-created, and to enjoy and learn about water skiing.  We moved to the larger town of Bend, Oregon, 90 miles northwest of Christmas Valley, where Terry and Windy already resided.  With Terry and Windy and a number of other friends, we began to update the 4500 square foot home that sits on the property and to develop and manage the lake so that we could use it not only for slalom skiing and general recreation, but to do so in a way that would support the wildlife and ecosystem that thrived in and around the property (If you have a pool, or water feature you may appreciate this effort when you realize that the 80 acre lake which sits on the property has 300 million gallons of water in it!) 

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Terry and Windy, who were instrumental in first identifying the property and introducing us to the beauty of Oregon, and whose hard work, dedication and love for Christmas Valley and the lake helped us immeasurably in our first two years in Oregon.  In the spring of 2004 Windy was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia, and 10 months later she died.  Terry moved back to his home area of Sacramento, California.  He has since remarried, and is still skiing professionally and coaching water skiers.  When we began to invite people to stay at the ranch and to host retreats, our neighbors Joe and Rose Rodgers became caretakers of the property.  To this day, we simply couldn't offer the hospitality and access to Harmony Lake Ranch that so many have come to enjoy without Joe and Rose.  They are hardworking and conscientious friends, and we are very grateful to them for their work at the ranch, their attention to detail, and their kindness.

In the spring of 2004, our dear friend Jane Tormey, encouraged us to read Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now.  Eckhart had experienced a powerful transformation of consciousness out of an egoic, personal based identity into what might be thought of as more a universal identity based not in his personal situation - but rather in the Beingness of Life itself.  In Eckhart's experience, we connected with the power and non-attached nature of Jesus Christ, who was able to be intimate with Life and unconditionally loving to all those around him yet not identified with his own personal story.  Christ called for a "death to self, in order to be born again"  and he encouraged his followers to be "in the world, but not of it."  Eckhart's journey and insights in The Power of Now suggested that a transformation of human consciousness could be invited forward from within.  The possibility that such a shift was possible for ordinary people shook us free from a sort of hero worship of spiritual figures from history, and enkindled a curiousity and hopefulness that the inner disharmony, which we had identified in our years in Michigan, didn't need to be the last word on our experience of life.  We were introduced more clearly to the terms "enlightenment" and "awakening" at this time, and began to look for other ways we could be supported in the spiritual movements that continued to unfold within each of us.  

In the fall of 2005, Barbara was leafing through the Sounds True catalogue, which features spiritual teachings on CD, DVD, and in books, and saw an advertisement for a CD set called "Spontaneous Awakening" by a teacher named Adyashanti.  In her mind, she heard, "instantaneous" awakening.  In her enormous longing for a more harmonious way to live, she rushed to buy the CD set and just about as quickly listened to all the CD's - waiting and hoping for something to "happen" to her, perhaps like Eckhart's immediate, transformative experience.  She passed the CD set along to Mark, who went out to Harmony Lake Ranch for a quiet three days alone.  In his time at the ranch, he listened deeply to Adya's teaching, and while there, a powerful shift did occur - the first of many shifts that were to come for both of us.  Mark felt he needed support in understanding his experience, and called the nonprofit organization in the Bay area of California which was dedicated to promoting Adya's teachings, Open Gate Sangha.  When he explained that he was looking for a teacher with whom he could talk, he was told that Adya's wife, Mukti, was beginning to teach and that he could speak with her.  Our conversations and retreats with Mukti have been among the most transformative experiences of our lives.  We have continued to attend retreats led by Adya also, and to be guided by his video, audio and written teachings (many available free on the websitewww.adyashanti.org).  Through Mukti and Adya, we have also met and been guided by Dorothy Hunt and Sharon Landrith, women that Adya asked to teach after each experienced this essential shift of identity.  Our family's prayerful experiences at First Presbyterian Church in Bend have also been deeply nourishing, and we are extremely grateful for the openhearted preaching and presence of Pastor Steve Koski.
 
And so, as we began, we end with a reference to our deep love for Christ and his teachings, which is grounded in our experience of the Truth about which Christ spoke, and from which he lived, not simply from a belief in Christ.  As you read those words, your mind might be wondering - "What does that mean?"  Our experience suggests that when we begin to live into the Reality toward which Christ pointed:  that the Kingdom of God (the full Life of God) is at hand right now;  a change of consciousness can be invited forward.  In doing so, the idea of selfless living becomes not simply an ideal that one strives to attain, rather you actually come to know that all your seeking for happiness;  your yearning to live from and as peace; your desire to be selfless; are all pointing back toward that which is most elemental in your actual experience of life.  There is a formless, inephable energy or presence that never comes and goes within and around you.  This is a simple, unconditional Beingness, which has been referred to as Awareness, Mystery, Spirit, Consciousness, the Dazzling Dark, the Ground of Being, Source, Unconditional Love and even God Him/Herself.  The thoughts, emotions, and sensations that are registered through your senses are all arising from and returning to this carpet of Beingness, as if it were the canvas on which all of your life experiences were being painted.  In seeing this, you may realize that the self you thought you were - simply doesn't exist.  When this is experienced, you begin to realize that the Wholeness or Universal Life Force from which all forms of life arise and return are none other than the Truth of You.  The possibility then exists to live and move from selflessness on a moment to moment basis - not as a conceptual reality (i.e. "I want to be selfless" because you've been taught this is a good way to live, or because you value selflessness), but instead because this is actually what is already and always happening.  We offer activities and events at Harmony Lake Ranch to encourage and nurture the realization of this Truth.

 "The liberating truth is not static; it is alive…
and lives beyond all forms of conceptual fundamentalism. 
What you are is the beyond – awake and present, here and now already.” 
- Adyashanti

Yeshua* says,
Come into being
as you pass 
away.


Logion 42, The Gospel of Thomas

Yeshua* says,
Come to me
for justice is my yoke,
and gentleness is my rule,
and you will discover the state of rest.


Logion 90, The Gospel of Thomas