Unique

May 4th 1949	(Born. My dad was a Presbyterian minister, my mom was a housewife and later a travel agent.)
Dec 1950	(Moved to Leland, Mississippi)
1952	(My sister born)
1953 1954	Osteonecrosis (Perthes Hip) in my left hip. I spent 6 weeks in bed, 6 months in a wheelchair, and a year in brace and crutches - this is how I was when I started kindergarten in 1954. By the end of kindergarten, my hip was 100% cured & both legs the same length.
Jan 1967	Page in the U.S. House of Representives in Washington DC
May 1967	Graduated from Leland High School - Valedictorian, Math medal, Science medal, American History medal.
Sept 1967	(to college in Memphis, Tennessee)
May 1971	Graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis with a B.A. in mathematics with honors, Phi Beta Kappa
May 1971	(married)
Summer 1971	Began a 37+ year career of playing with computers for money. I still can't believe they paid me that much money to have that much fun!
May 1974	(Moved to San Francisco, California)
June 1975	(divorced)
Spring 1976	Discovered the Great Outdoors: Hiking & backpacking, whitewater rafting, canoeing, etc.
Dec 1978 Dec 1981	3 year solo trip around the world visiting Pacific islands, Australia, New Zealand, SE Asia, Nepal, India, Western Europe, Canada, USA
June 1985	Began meditation at a 10 day retreat taught by Ven. Ayya Khema.
July 1986	(Moved to Marin County, California)
Jan 1988 Jan 1989	1 year solo trip visiting Australia, SE Asia, China, and Tibet. Stumbled into the 1st Jhāna while on retreat in Thailand.
Feb 1989	(Moved to Alameda, California)
May 1990	Learned jhāna meditation from Ven. Ayya Khema.
June 1992	Began learning Tibetan Dzogchen meditation from Tsoknyi Rinpoche.
Nov 1995	In Kathmandu, Nepal to finish 1st version of a Tibetan Word Processor and Database program which I wrote to assist Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Tibetan text preservation project.
Feb 1997	Began teaching meditation retreats. My first retreat was taught at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center in southern Washington state.
Aug 1998 Jan 1999	6 month trip around the world. In Nepal again to finish 2nd version of the Tibetan Word Processor and Database program; continued on to Western Europe and across the USA. I only paid for 1 night's lodging during the whole trip - I have friends all over the world by now.
Nov 1999	The Tibetan Word Processor and Database program released to the public as freeware.
Nov 2008 - Nov 2016	Retired from playing with computers for money. Began 8 years on the road: meditating at IMS's Forest Refuge (20 out of the initial 36 months of retirement spent there, and then more months after that); teaching retreats; visiting friends; and enjoying the National Parks.
April 2011	9.5 month retreat at IMS's Forest Refuge.
Jan 2013	1st draft of my book Right Concentration finished.
Oct 2015	Right Concentration published by Shambhala Publications.
Nov 2016	(settled in Oakland, CA)
Aug 2017	Bought an electric car. Most fun car I've ever driven!
Winter 2020	(Global Covid-19 pandemic begins)
Spring 2021	1st draft of my book Dependent Origination and Emptiness finished.
Oct 2021	Altho I had an offer from a publisher, I decided to self publish Dependent Origination and Emptiness as a free eBook. This made it available immediately instead of waiting more than a year for it to become available.
March 2024	The Gradual Training self published as another free eBook.