| Soon, drilling and fracking rigs were running up and | | | | the property and noticed that everything in it, all |
| down the newly cut-in roads, popping in wells | | | | the frogs and fish and water spiders, were dead. |
| every couple of acres. Janet and I helped where | | | | The salt water had leaked out of the holding pond |
| we could, but were more interested in digging up | | | | and contaminated the ground water, coloring it a |
| a large plot of ground by the trailer for the one | | | | telltale red. The land was beginning to erode as |
| hundred tomato plants we were nursing in their | | | | well, with many of the trees now gone, and the |
| little boxes. We gathered red mulch from inside | | | | pump jacks were rusting away. Our little hill was |
| rotting logs in the forest, loaded it on our little | | | | not the same. |
| three-wheeler's trailer, and used it as fertilizer. | | | | Janet and I became disheartened. Things that |
| The first three wells went in within one hundred | | | | initially endeared us to the property were |
| yards of each other close to the mobile home. | | | | changing, as all things do, and sadness was |
| Only later did we learn that pump jacks are giant | | | | creeping in. I found myself becoming emotional |
| lightening rods! And we were in for it since we | | | | quite often, feeling as if I was standing on a |
| lived on a hill! Although lightening never hit the | | | | tarmac tearfully waving goodbye to a dear friend |
| trailer, it regularly hit the pump jacks next to it, | | | | that I knew I would never see again. Perhaps this |
| which made the severe storms that frequent | | | | was a sign that my practice was deepening. I |
| Northwest Pennsylvania interesting to say the | | | | wasn't sure, and although the pain was |
| least. | | | | melancholy, it was painful nonetheless. Now I |
| Once a well was drilled, steel pipe casing was run | | | | understood why I had always been afraid to |
| down the hole and then pressure was introduced | | | | attach to things too tightly; it just hurts too much |
| by the huge fracking rigs, shattering the rock | | | | to let them go. But go they must, as all things |
| strata below, and allowing the oil mixed with salt | | | | seem to do in time. |
| water to seep from the formations where it | | | | Whenever Janet and I surrendered supports that |
| would be subsequently pumped to the surface. | | | | we relied upon, we usually found ourselves |
| Rods with seals were lowered into the casing to | | | | navigating through turbulent waters. Giving up |
| act as a pump, and pump jacks were built above | | | | both the heaven we had counted on so |
| the well (looking like giant grasshoppers), to move | | | | desperately, and the world as well, was difficult |
| the rods up and down. | | | | without feeling a crushing loss. This always left us |
| After a well was outfitted, underground plastic | | | | no foothold, but maybe this spiritual poverty was |
| piping and electrical lines were run. The piping ran | | | | exactly what we needed in order to slide down |
| from the wells to large storage tanks in the | | | | that mountain we had created and have been |
| middle of the property where the oil and salt | | | | struggling to climb. If need be, we were more |
| water was separated. The oil was stored in the | | | | than willing to live in both the poverties - material |
| tanks until a local distributor picked it up, while | | | | and spiritual. |
| next to the tanks a large, deep pit was dug and | | | | This was a dark time for me. I was restless and |
| sealed with plastic sheeting to hold the salt water | | | | began to doubt myself; perhaps my whole life had |
| until it could evaporate. | | | | been for naught. Life had lost its appeal and I was |
| The salt water was produced at a greater | | | | depressed, and even though I always had Janet, I |
| volume than I expected, however, and I had a | | | | began to feel alone and abandoned. It was if I |
| bad feeling about it. As the wells were completed, | | | | was waiting for something . . . and there was |
| my job was to pump them making sure that | | | | nothing I could do, except wait. |
| each well was pumping twice a day for the | | | | A shot rings out, a deer falls, the universe is |
| appropriate amount of time so that it wouldn't | | | | diminished. After being exposed to two hunting |
| pump dry. This involved all kinds of electrical and | | | | seasons on the hill, it was time to leave, and like |
| mechanical maintenance and repairs on pump | | | | two rivulets of rain running into a stream that is |
| jacks that were regularly damaged by lightening. | | | | happily returning to its Source, we ended up at |
| Janets brother-in-law was already in the process | | | | the Zen Center in San Francisco. I thought that I |
| of drilling more wells in other fields, but when the | | | | had conquered any meditation related illnesses |
| price of oil dropped and legislators ended the cozy | | | | that developed at the Abbey, and threw myself |
| tax shelters connected to oil wells, it wasn't long | | | | into the practice, but I was about to learn that |
| before the oil boom . . . went bust. | | | | what I thought was of little consequence. |
| One day I looked at the creek that ran through | | | | |