About Patrick

Hiking one of my favorite Tucson Arizona trails as
the sun is setting on the Catalina mountain range

In 1971 when I was seven, I awoke to rocking and rolling. My parents said there had been an earthquake, where a dam had broken and could flood our whole neighborhood. The car was running at the curb. I imagined drowning in our own street with water over the rooftops. The dam did not break that day but the cracks were a concern for weeks. My Dad decided to move the family from Van Nuys, California to Brookings, Oregon, a logging community. We moved partway through my 2nd grade. We moved again partway through my 3rd grade to Vancouver, Washington, and partway through my 4th grade to Salem Oregon. We moved again in 1977 to another logging community of Snoqualmie, Washington. I didn't know it at the time the potential effects of multiple early shakeups and the child's interpretation that his parents cannot keep him safe. 

It makes sense to me now, but not then, that I become reckless and impulsive. I had numerous motorcycle accidents, often with head injuries. I got knocked out in football, snow skiing and fistfights. Two of my accidents required knee surgery. That did not slow me down from cliff diving, motorcycle roadracing and other risky behaviors. I began drinking and using drugs at age 13. I often did things I regretted. In college I showed promise of becoming a math teacher but my discipline and commitment faltered (or perhaps the sum of head injuries) and I flunked out. I became a construction worker and had two near-death close-calls, me and a shovel in a 20 foot deep hole with a concrete truck above and no shoring, and my head being nearly missed by a track hoe reaching over a wall, that ticked my hard hat. These incidents made me screaming mad with a sense of injustice. 

My first wife had some injuries from car accidents from 1986, causing her chronic pain. After a few years she found Randy Nakasone, P.T. who provided her tremendous pain relief. He allowed me to observe her sessions. His Osteopathic Techniques amazed me. With Randy's advice, in 1993 I began massage school and made a transition from construction to massage. 

I quit drinking the first time after a horrible misunderstanding in which my wife felt afraid for herself and our baby daughter. I became a Tibetan Buddhist, receiving several attunements and empowerments.

In 1996 my wife and I partnered in a healing center in North Bend, Washington. We named the business, Natural Essence. We thought that name had a nice ring. Soon a healer named Stephen Bruno came into our shop and told us he was called to be there, then when he saw the sign he knew. He taught workshops about being Natural and embracing your Essence - Natural Essence. Stephen began working there as a counselor and giving workshops for writers, for personal discovery and writer's groups, all of which I attended. He became our family counselor and I continued receiving counseling from him and attending all his workshops. 

Thinking I was cured, I started drinking again. I quit drinking for good after a DUI in 1999. 

In 2001 I took my Reiki training from Stephen and have been teaching Reiki since then. 

After Washington we moved to Anthem, Arizona. I moved to central Phoenix in 2004. In 2007 I married writer Traci Moore. Traci and I began Monsoon Voices, a live literary magazine with poets,  poets Shawnte Orion, Susan Vespoli, David Chorlton and Jefferson Carter. Traci and I remain participants in the arts in Tucson and Bisbee, Arizona.

In Oregon I was in Boy Scouts where we went on a campout once a month, rain or shine. At age 11 and 12 I went on two 50-milers and did cross-country orienteering off-trail at 13. I continue loving nature wherever I go and I do dayhikes now in Arizona. My nature photography is posted HERE . In Arizona  I have encountered a Black Bear, groups of Bighorn Sheep, White-Tail Deer, and curious little Coati who came near me. In our yard we have seen numerous Bobcats, Coyotes, Great Horned Owls and Harris's Hawks which hunt as a cooperative family. 

My life included mistakes, shame, hardships and disappointments which drug me down for years or decades but by now I wouldn't change them because of what I have gained.