INTRODUCTION:
BEGINNING ANOTHER IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
The Psalmist decared:
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.....from the Lord who made heaven and earth."
In perhaps my time of greatest need...unable to walk.. I found strength in the
"hills of Timpanogos"
and I was blessed with seeing his hand in what I began calling
"the divine visions of nature" *
I was given new life!
That led me to beginning my 3rd book in 2023 ....or 5th counting the redoing of my Uintas book divided into two for Amazon.com. and now hopefully by Christmas 2024....Opps! I forgot my slow motion stalking pace, so I will finish the book with 9 chapters by the end of January.....rather on February 2
*Timpanogos is the magestic mountain overlooking Utah Valley 40 miles south of Salt Lake City in the state of Utah. It is featured on the cover of this book and will be seen numerous times throughout the book.
CHAPTER I
tells the story of my
GREATEST CHALLENGE
that led to my life saving daily hikes ....and the BIRTH of this BOOK.....supposedly finished in the Fall of 2023 with 6 chapters, but to keep alive I had to keep hiking through the winter of 2023-24...and now 2025.... with almost daily new discoveries and better photos added..... making the book more complete and inspiring....with more coming almost daily.
So it is now completed with 9 chapters, plus at the end APPENDIX
1 with an important precursor to this Chapter l telling the story of a
fall in the Uintas that should have killed me 5 months before not
being able to walk.....that likely had a lot to do with that a few months later.
Also new is Chapter 5
Celebrating our NATIONAL BIRTHDAY honored breathtakingly in
the Grove Canyon of the foothills of Mount Timpanogos....
....an INSPIRING VISION of MAN'S CREATION...
......plus a new chapter 7 documenting with stunning photos the discovery of many new beautiful plants and their usefullness,
plus the outcome of a
STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL WET SPRING,
followed by 2-3+ months of
DROUGHT & PLAGUE
and how this adversity tried to ruin almost everything,
but how.......
THE DIVINE VISIONS of CREATION
fought back with marvelous and unique survival instincts which will
fascinate you with grateful AWE!
*************
This CHAPTER 1
DESCRIBES HOW THIS BOOK EVOLVED FROM
nearling dying, and becoming a
cripple unable to walk
BUT WITH STUBBORN RESOLVE TO BE USEFUL STILL ...
....I WENT TO WORK and with THE LORD'S HELP FOUND A WAY TO LIVE
and BEGAN LIVING MY THIRD
"IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
.jpg)
My FIRST was most of my life dedicated in Guatemala's MOUNTAINS of the MAYAAnd then from 67 years old to 82 blessed with,
My SECOND described in my HIGH UINTA MOUNTAINS books.
Now,
My THIRD, The Divine Visions....book, perhaps the last which I'm likely not capable of actually portraying adequately as it has
been breathtaking for me to review what I went through that became
my greatest.....
CHALLENGE to NOT GIVE UP NOR GIVE IN
....WITHOUT A FIGHT....
Gratefully the Lord blessed me so far to do a lot more than I
envisioned possible when in 2020 I couldn't walk....right leg
seemingly dead...muscles gone, and I experienced a couple of mini-
strokes all having me feeling like...
"THIS MUST BE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO DIE!"
Some thought I should have been put in a Rest Home, but the Lord
gave me new life with the help of several imagined
"tongue in cheek" heavenly guardian angels....and some real tangible
ones .... my wonderful angelic kids:
Jesse, Nephi, Mahana and Nita!
NOTE: I bet it's the first time someone has called you 4
"angels"
but you were...and I'm totally grateful and love all of you!
It took a while to figure out what to do......but eventually
with constant effort
each step began to work followed by another and then another.
Finally what I was doing to survive....like a year later
having me look forward every day to more advanced effort
and by 2023 my hikes in the hills created the idea of....
...another book...
......for me an inspiring story of miracle, after miracle that had me
focus gratefully on THE MIRACLES of DIVINE CREATION .....
that I felt I had to share freely with others which I do my best to
explain and show with wonderful heavenly photographic
representation of
THE WONDERS OF THE DIVINE CREATION of NATURE
FROM THE FOOTHILLS OF TIMPANOGOS!
My INTENTIONS? "bless and brighten"" your day with
VISIONS
created by the Light of this World without which
there would be none of the INSPIRATION described in this book and
in the song....
"SCATTER SUNSHINE"
with a few of the words below...
Scatter
sunshine all along your way.
Cheer and
bless and brighten
Ev’ry
passing day.
I pray each of the marvelous & miraculous VISIONS
I will show you will literally "bless & brighten" all your
days, and will importantly move all of us to seek the
DIVINE LIGHT that is given freely to all of us and all of HIS creations
blessing us all with productive and wonderful lives.
********
...in my 89th year with my
THIRD IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
and my now 5th BOOK about the
inspiring ......
This effort actually began as sort of a PERSONAL JOURNAL
documenting my efforts to overcome being a cripple, and building
my faith by focusing on what during my many years of exploring the
High Uinta Mountains....Utah's ALPINE WONDERLAND.
I began calling...
"VISIONS of NATURE"
In that effort and sharing it I was thanked many times by grateful
friends, some who directly were appreciative for having shared my experience which saved their lives.
My sincere desire is that the sharing of my struggle,
and in a sense, triumph,
will also SAVE LIVES as well as
ENHANCING THE LIVES OF ALL WITH INSPIRING DIVINE
VISIONS of NATURE!
That experience of actually saving lives from the 20 year long High
Uintas Project/challenge had me deciding for my personal benefit
and benefit of others to record this experience....photographically as
well as with what this educational experience for me might
reveal.....that I would be able to enjoy during my twilight years with
a big format printed book, but also share with others to bless your
lives.
It all evolved from what seemed like
MY TRAGIC "COUP de GRACE" ...MY DEMISE!
THAT NEAR TRAGIC ENDING....
....AND A NEW LIFE!
So I have to begin by reviewing for those who are new to my
story, how I turned what seemed like a "tragic ending" into
becoming a "recovering cripple" and actually producing a book full
of the ....INSPIRING CREATIONS of NATURE....like maybe you've
never seen before....otherwise my painful mini-hikes in the foothills
will be laughable to real outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen.
I also have to beg forgiveness for what also might be "laughable" to
botanists and real experts, who might recognize I am most certainly
a learning amatuer and a simple man with some inevitable
mistakes....except for the photography which is pure truth & light as
well as my sincere efforts with over 380 hikes in the foothills of
Timpanogos and many hours of investigative research and writing.
******
So from the onset....best to know,
"I am a grateful recovering cripple,"
as more than 4 years ago...in 2020...after a seemingly botched back
surgery, my right leg died or went into deep sleep making it
useless. I couldn't walk, nor stand up and was confined to bed.
As I laid there in bed the muscles in my legs began to disappear
shockingly with just bone left reminding me of holocaust victims, so
since I'm sort of known for
NOT GIVING UP...WITHOUT A FIGHT,
I went to work doing every kind of exercise I could think of lying in
my bed, starting with isometrics...all the time.
This was basically tightening the muscles of different body parts and
holding each for 10 to 30 seconds and then repeat, and repeat....then
on to the other leg, arms, abdomen, chest and entire body as I
couldn't let happen to my body, because of disuse, what had
happened to my right leg.
My focus was on my whole body, but with the dead leg receiving special focus, so importantly I would push hard with both legs on the cabinet at the foot of my bed, holding it, then again, and again trying to force the dead leg to wake up and do what the other leg was doing. Eventually one leg at a time....at least first trying to teach my dead right leg to stiffen so I would hopefully be able to at least stand up.
I figured it would get my circulation going better, help my blood
pressure problem that at times was dangerously out of control, keep
my muscles from atrophying and disappearing, prevent all of my
organs from also going to sleep, and of course keep from losing all
of my strength.
Then using my good left leg to help lift the dead or sleeping oneas well as with my hands moving it through the movementsto remind it what it was supposed to do....so I worked at forcing my dead leg to hopefully wake up and keep up with the rest of me.
In the middle of that giant struggle I had to be taken back to the clinic groaning continually with pain in a wheelchair loaned to me by my good friend Garth Norman, with Jesse, my son, pushing me.
At the clinic they were shocked exclaiming,
"That's not what was supposed to happen!"
X-rays and an MRI followed and then being wheeled again with constant pain to the hospital for an emergency surgery with my continual pain that moved me to the front of the line.....to get me out of there fast so as to not scare off the other patients.
This was the 16th surgery since beginning my High Uintas Project in 2003, all necessary to keep me going through my last two
Impossible Dreams.
After the surgery Jesse took me home and he and Nephi, another wonderful son, literally carried me into my little house (I'll show it to you below). The procedure helped a little, but I still couldn't walk, nor stand up with a pretty useless right leg.....so I persisted with greater determination doing all the things I believed would work.
But it took me more weeks of intensive exercises in bed in my tiny mobile home first achieving being able to maintain that sleeping right leg stiff so it wouldn't collapse and make possible standing up....otherwise I would immediately fall as the leg had no strength....like it was actually dead.
Then I finally got outside with walking canes Jesse got for me and then a walker my daughter Mahana brought me. She also came daily to change my bandages, bring me treats, and always a more than welcome smile.
Jesse and Nephi were incredible during those difficult weeks and months doing things I couldn't quite do for myself yet..........some disgusting tasks, but never a complaint.
NOTE: I feel I have to add something really important here. My kids were smart enough to know even at 86...going for 90, I needed to do as much as I could for myself, so they let me do all I could, even some difficult tasks, as they knew it was for my good and an important part of my recovery and survival!
Jesse went to work while I was totally shut-in building a porch at my entrance with a ramp that had a railing that has been a blessing. He, Nephi and Mahana doing unending things to help.
Marcia "Nita," my daughter, also helping with critical visits and special food I needed. The special food needed was caused by first having had Covid-19 in March 2020 that I got through fine, but then the surgeries....all upsetting my digestive and sleep systems requiring the special foods and a new life schedule and routine aimed at solving, or at least coping with, each of my bodily functions that were not normal anymore.
Challenges were always exciting for me from my childhood on as I relate in my autobiography, Part1: 0-22 years actually called simply:
THE VISION QUEST
This Part 1, available free in English and Spanish at:
www.guatemalanfoundation.org is followed by 3 Parts more that
make up the book.....the last 3 parts are not available anymore.
Most people were not capable of seeing all the good, and divinely
miraculous and be able to interpret justly..... and came to
misguided, unjust conclusions.
There is in that great adventure a message of life or death, and I've
twice attempted to make it available to those who need it for their
own good and that of many others, but their reply is SILENCE!
Maybe one day I will create a sanitized version and make it
available to the public.....although I likely won't live long
enough.......best get on with what I believe I can finish!
But, in Guatemala it was a life of living from
"Crisis, to crisis" or "challenge to challenge!"
Including living there for 35 years
during the entire GUERRILLA WAR in the mountains
where it was fought along with there also fighting
THE BATTLE AGAINST POVERTY, IGNORANCE,
SICKNESS & DEATH!
It finally ended after 50 years with several boiling it all down to
what was maybe said most succinctly by a good friend,
Harold Brown:
"Thousands of lives were saved, and many tens of thousands of
Lamanites aided in receiving an education!"
He led the way interpreting correctly our life among the Mayans
insisting that we had stimulated the Church to organize World Wide
Welfare Services....but qualifying that telling us we would never be
given credit for it. He was a true friend until the end.
**************
BACK TO THE CHALLENGE FROM 2020 ON.....
All my kids gratefully helped, but thankfully let me do all I could for
myself. They were life savers during a period when I was pretty
useless with even the thought, perhaps mentioned already, that mybe
I would have to be put in a Rest Home of some kind.
NOW MY TINY HOME....ALSO A LIFE SAVER!
The two or three who visited me....were shocked to see my tiny
7' x 11' home...a picture of which I'd best insert below for the rest of
you. In my Mountains of the Maya book I tell the story with some
detail how this all happened.
One visitor, prior to me becoming a cripple, was a wealthy friend
who was embarrassed with what he was seeing, and with grim
determination blurted out,
"How can you live this way?"
What he was really saying was very likely,
"Aren't you ashamed to live this way?"
I tried my best to explain that a simple life is what I actually believed
in, especially now being alone after having lived for 35 years among
needy Mayans where he had visited us once and went through the
Great Earthquake of 1976 that killed 25,000 Guatemalans.
I went on to explain that most of our 35 years there we purposely
lived a simple life not out of reach for our Mayan students and
employees if they accepted the
The Philosophy & Principles of the Good Life
that was the formula we set an example living and taught and
helped them work for too....if they were willing to
work hard for a better life.
I SHOULD OUTLINE BRIEFLY THOSE PRINCIPLES SO
YOU WON'T MISUNDERSTAND:
1. Cleanliness in all aspects of living...using a special system we invented to convince them of the invisible world of microbes.2. Proper well balanced nutrition...again convincing them of its importance with a special system we created.
3. Live in a healthy, cleanable house & homesite that would be mentally stimulating.
4. United families, parents loving children, children loving parents.
5. Education for all...young and old.
6. Hard work, but learn how to work more effectively with vocational education we offered to all interested.
7. Once achieving the Good Life, share with others.
The effort to teach these principles at Valparaiso, Guatemala resulted in 3 consecutive years with NO DEATH, where the average for years had been 8 babies dying a year, plus others....in a population of 239 Maya/Poqomchi Indians.
During that period we did have a friend or two and had the
opportunity of making a slide presentation to the LDS Welfare
Committee, then a 4 hour meeting with personnel from the then
forming Church World Wide Welfare (or Humanitarian) Service, and
then a presentation in the Church auditorium.
Much of the first organization of that Service incorporated my
suggestions and principles, disguising it all with somewhat different
terminology, so in the words of Harold Brown,
"You won't get credit for it!"
The Philosophy & Principles of the Good life
and the battle cry....
Never Give in, nor give up....easily...Without a Fight!
was the foundation of my life seeking
IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS
The lyrics from the famous song will be spread throught this chapter:
************************
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
***************************************
I went on to tell my visiting friend that it,
"Warms my heart now....many of them calling me Papa Cordell, as it
worked pretty good and today they are property owners, live in their
own healthy homes in their own community I helped them
create...and have smart phones, all being my friends on Facebook, so
in many ways I achieved my objective as today they are all better off
than me, which doesn't embarrass me in the least, rather gives me
that warm, fuzzy feeling....that you should understand!"
I didn't let him off the hook and went on giving some examples,
like: At our Center for Indian Development in Guatemala (I'll
insert a picure of right now.)....that a sociological study made by
Guatemala's National Electrification Institute...INDE, called:
"AN OASIS OF HOPE & JUSTICE FOR THE POOR."
For example, one of my Vocational Students, Felix Rosales, from a
remote village, who we see below in 1976 as a student learning to
drive a tractor...also became a convert and soon became the first
native Q'eqchi'/Mayan to become a fulltime missionary for the LDS Church and ....
......THIS PART JUST HAPPENED so I couldn't tell me friend
that...Felix just became the President of the new Coban LDS
Temple!
Below we see the Valparaiso Community I organized for my people.
The Valparaiso community today that I personally surveyed, measured, drove the stakes, organized legally, and helped each have
property and their own home they worked and paid for. With some
help from me they worked hard to build their own potable water
system, and get electricity for their community.
My wealthy friend and visitor knew much of this and I reviewed some
of it for him anyway , but apparently I didn't convince him as I never heard
from him again and he soon passed on leaving his giant mansion
behind!
IRONICALLY MY TINY HOME A GREAT BLESSING!
But, once my ordeal and challenge of becoming a cripple began, I must say that my simple tiny home has been a blessing and key element of my survival as when needing to sit up, slide down to the end of my bed to use a portable toilet Jesse got for me, stand up, get some food, or take sponge baths, and eventually a shower...no matter what... there was always something to grab onto to help pull me up, move me along, or prevent me from falling. And, having lost most
of my balance ....especially when closing my eyes to wash my face,
or dry it, pull a t-shirt over my head, or in the dark, etc. I would
instantly begin falling, but I couldn't really fall as in every direction
close by there was a wall, a cabinet, or something to prevent a
deadly fall.
I have lived in it since 2013. During the cold months parked alongside Jesse's home in American Fork and with all of my glitches since 2020 l permeantly parked at Jesse's place.
From it I have managed the Guatemalan Foundation at no cost
as a 50 year non-paid volunteer until retiring it on its
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY in 2017
which I celebrated alone with a Hot-fudge sundae at McDonalds... and then I went to work writing a book about my
"Impossible Dream" in the Mountains of the Maya.
My tiny home has also been my office from which I managed my
HIGH UINTAS PROJECT,
writing a two volume book I've already showed to you with full information on the Home Page. Now a 5th...this BOOK about the VISIONS of NATURE.
SO, BACK TO THE STORY and....
NEVER GIVE UP.....WITHOUT A GOOD FIGHT!
****************************
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not go
************************************
I was forcing my dead right leg to keep up with the good left one.
Gradually it began to work, and with my fierce independant streak I gratefully inherited from my mom and dad, I even learned to drive my car tucking the useless right leg back under my good one, and driving with my left leg.....grateful for an automatic transmission!
The funny part of that was on my first venture out with the car. My boys, Nephi and Jesse, noticed the car was gone and panicked, worrying....A LOT....and waiting for me.
On my return
They evoked "THE 25th AMMENDMENT " on me and
TOOK THE KEYS AWAY FROM ME,
like as though I was some rebellious, untrustworthy teenager! I finally showed them I could do it safely and got my keys back. Now, a few years later I'm back to driving normally with both legs as my efforts finally worked and.....
...MY DEAD LEG CAME ALIVE!
A major part of my COMEBACK was when my good friend Paul Edmunds, one of my wonderful 400 customers from when I gratefully worked from 2009 to 2012 for LORIE PAULSON at REAMS SUPERMARKET in Springville.... ......but Paul gave me a "Luxury style walker," and to build back my leg muscles in the summer of 2022 I began going on hikes..... gradually increasing the distance from American Fork, and months later finally getting up to Lone Peak High School in Highland (9 or 10 miles roundtrip), and then....
I decided to do the HALF MARATHON DISTANCE (13.2 miles) all the way to Alpine and back. NOTE: From 1994 to 2007 I had done 14 consecutive half marathons in Guatemala's famous Coban International Half Marathon competing with the Kenyans and other international stars until reaching 72 and not able to make more trips to Guatemala to supervise Foundation projects because of lack of funds....so no more Half Marathons.........UNTIL 2022!
During the night before attempting to go all the way to Alpine and back,
I dreamed of doing again the International Half Marathon in Coban, Guatemala and ....
......I FINALLY BEAT THE KENYANS DOING IT WITH MY WALKER!
NOW BACK TO REALITY....
The next day was a hot day, and I'll confess it took me all day.....at least 6-7 hours! On the return along the North County Boulevard (a divided highway) I was stopped by two police cars who said that they were getting 911 calls from motorists about...
... an old guy with a walker on the highway that
maybe needed saving!
Apparently I didn't look too good, but I assured them I'd make it home alright.
Then two beautiful young ladies, one in a Mustang convertible, stopped to save me. The one with the convertible, in her attempt to get me into her car, told me it was 96 degrees! WOW, was it sweet talking to them but..... I was one strong 86 year old guy, thanked them and finally made it home by myself with my virtue intact!
***********************
To right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
*******************************
I was finally building muscle again, and then moved to the parks on grass with no aids, learning to walk like a baby, in the beginning with the help of my infant Guardian Angel, TED...
.....you'll see TED again below a few pictures when we get to the hills where we are inserted in the foothill montage of my 2023 efforts to
NEVER GIVE UP....WITHOUT A GOOD FIGHT!
Part of that was TED teaching me to fall like a baby so I wouldn't kill myself and learning to get up again with no gadgets to help me!
NOTE:
With my misaligned spine you see below.....my spine surgeon told me a fall would kill me, and gave me strict instructions to use trekking poles if hiking in the foothills.
.......then to climbing stairs with a railing on the south side of the American Fork Fitness Center, where the stairs face south and the snow would melt quickly...... Always in the beginning with my little buddy TED! I hope all of you friends know that Ted is a fun figment of my imagination who I haven't seen...yet...but maybe he's there as I couldn't have made so much progress by myself!
Eventually I graduated from the 7" stairs seen above to 11" stairs at the American Fork Amphitheater that even in the warm months I would often do every other day alternating with hikes in the foothills.
Then, when the weather was too cold in the winter
or snowing I discovered the.... .......INSTACARE 4 floor building..
...with a drinking fountain, restroom and soft chairs on every floor, as well as a snack bar near the pharmacy.....also of course with all the EMERGENCY SERVICES NECESSARY for an old guy maybe pushing himself too much!
WOW, WHAT A WONDERFUL BUNCH of FREE EXERCISE
MACHINES....ALL OF THEM THAT HAVE HELPED SAVE MY LIFE.....for an even BETTER DAY IN THE FUTURE!
There I enjoyably and safely persisted with my preparations for
SPRING IN THE FOOTHILLS
and when Spring 2023 came, off to......
Behind the beautiful trees of Pleasant Grove we see
THE FOOTHILLS OF MOUNT TIMPANOGOS
coming alive with Spring and we see here the fairly restricted area I mainly focused on during the summers of 2023-24.
********************
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
**********************
Below you see me all over using the previously hated trekking poles that I always said were for wimps!
NOW LOOK WHO THE WIMP IS ........
In this montage I show two of my 2023 triumphs getting to the VALLEY VIEW SPOT going up the front of the hills, rather than the easy, safe way going up the canyon and switchbacking to the SPOT as I did my first time in 2023 represented in Chapter 2.
Chapter 3 will be built around a hike switchbacking up the front of the mountain the "LONGEST but SAFEST WAY."
Chapter 4 will feature THE HARDEST...and MOST DANGEROUS WAY but SHORTEST." I will be honest admitting at times being in trouble and how I found solutions.
Chapter 5 will focus on THE BIRTH of OUR NATION and the PATRIOTIC ACTIVIES IN THE FOOTHILLS of TIMPANOGOS
at the Grove Creek Canyon Trailhead & area.
Chapter 6 will be built around other hikes up the canyon and switchbacking to "THE SPOT," spiced up by my every-other-day shorter trips just in the foothills and in the canyon I did all Spring, Summer and Fall to keep alive in 2023 and 2024 through December approximately 366 hikes.
Chapter 7 will be built around my many new discoveries in 2024 plus
4 hikes to the Valley View Spot in 2024.... the last in October to
document the largest of the 136 plants identified, plus the story of
Mosses, and will tell the
STORY of NATURE DEALING WITH THE DROUGHT & PLAGUE
in the SUMMER 2024
Chapter 8 Will be A Summary of all Identified & all Unidentified
"VISIONS of NATURE" and eventually will end with the
THREE MOST DIVINE VISIONS of NATURE
in all my years of experience in the
FOOTHILLS of TIMPANOGOS.
Chapter 9 is entitled:
Our "Dynamic Earth & The Creation from Wence Cometh All the
DIVINE VISIONS"
All hikes with my Nikon camera and special 18mm x 400 mm lens
producing over 5,000 photographs and counting....likely the best
collection in existence of the foothills of the Wasatch.....what's
maybe missing I will do my best to get during the 2024 season that I
can tell you now May 25, 2024 has been an avalanche of new
discoveries, new amazing photographs, and so far
LIFE SAVING EXPERIENCE.
**********************
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
***************************
I'll admit all my hikes are done carefully and VERY SLOWLY and
SAFELY as a fall could kill me! Actually going slow—with the
STALKING PACE, blesses me.......my physical complications and
age bless me even more by forcing me to go even slower which
makes possible
SEEING the STUNNING WONDERMENT of
NATURE
I want to share with all of you.
**************************
I will level with all that in my hikes I experience constant back
pain.......and other complications of being in my 89th year...but all
made bearable and possible as I am blessed being able to recognize
inspiring beauty and fascination...in
flowers, plants, trees, insects, arachinids, animals, reptiles, rocks,
lichens , mosses & birds, and wonderful sunsets...so I never tire of my
hikes every day in the hills and canyons—and now in the Fall of
2024, with the need of research, investigation and writing, hiking at
least three times a week.
With the oncoming winter, I'll do as I did last year every other day
hiking when temperature is above freezing, and when not I'll have
to resort to the stairs at INSTACARE —otherwise my blood pressure
gets out of control scary, back pain worse and once 3 days of
"resting" had both of my legs beginning to go to sleep with no
feeling, brought on two mini-strokes and for the first time since 16
years old when I experienced an NDE and shouted "I'm a dead man," I actually felt like it was the end and I asked myself,
"IS THIS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE WHEN ONE IS DYING?"!
But I learned my lesson that I have to keep moving
EVERY DAY or DIE!
So, in spite of the pain and so far losing 5" in height, I exercise
usually every day, in the
FOOTHILLS OF MT. TIMPANOGOS!
And, as I do so I have in my mind words I believe were from the
Creator, who advised us to.....
LEARN about all saying:
"And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another...... that you may be
instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in all things.... Of things both in
heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are,
things which must shortly come to pass; That ye may be prepared in all things."
THE PLAN
I began early in the Spring documenting with photos each plant as
they germinate and spring to life, then follow their development to
blossoming, and continue to the unique process of
reproduction...some plants with spectacular systems I'll show you
with some...meaning....."the whole story" on a few, good detail on
many and magnificent conclusions on all.
I will show briefly that whole process for a lot of plants,
with more emphasis on extraordinary plants that quite literally
are STUNNINGLY SPECTACULAR and INSPIRING....wonderful
witnesses for me of our WONDERFUL CREATOR.
*******************
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
********************
.....BUT HARDLY ANYONE NOTICES!
Perhaps because you're low on testosterone, don't have a long zoom
lens or you concentrate more on making long hikes fast
like MARATHON BACKPACKERS wanting to set a record
or quickly get back down to......
ARBY'S..."where the meats are!"
NOTE: A good level of testosterone, for man or woman, will help
you have a better mood, and enhance your ability to recognize and
appreciate beauty....yes in the opposite sex, but also in the
beautiful VISIONS of NATURE, and even in the CHAOS OF
NATURE! So, if you don't recognize amazing beauty in what I'm
going to show you, you need a good dose of
ANDRO 400 Max, or equivalent!
Just in 2024 AMAZON now offers this effective product and
now an even more potent Booster
ONE MORE NOTE on THE PLAN
As the previous 8-9 month period (March to December) has been
expanded to 12 months from the second year on, I have been
discovering so much more and the supposedly "finished chapters"
are being added to and by the end of the 2024 growing season I will
complete the Divine Visions of Nature with another 200+ mini-hikes
in 2024 bringing my two year total to around 366+ hikes, and with
January 2025 until publishing in February, the total came to 380
hikes, with more discoveries, more identifications, expanded
research on medicinal & nutrition information, and other fascinating
facts all of which will be included in the online BOOK.
The task of converting it to a printable book with index is a very big
task, so....we'll see if I can get that done too in 2025.
*****************************
LAST COMMENTS
This will be an online book with 9 chapters ...including after the
seasons are over when the evolution of most plants go to sleep with
their last gasp of life in the foothills until next Spring. As you
lmight have noticed in the beginning, the book also includes a
Chronological Listing by Chapter of all identified plants, plus an
INDEX of all identified plants, including listing them with several
names.....so you can find the whereabouts of what your looking for.
I
will then see if I can tackle the big chore of converting that into a
printable book version with page numbers, footnotes, references and
a complete Index.......the link to download it to your computer might
cost a donation to access ..and if
you want it printed you can take it
on a thumb drive to COPYTEC or your favorite printer, or maybe
I'll get it on Amazon too.
NOTE: The color pictures will not be the tiny ones most reference
books of recognized organizations have in their FIELD GUIDES to
WILDFLOWERS. The final print version will be large format, 8.5" x
11.5" as are my other books. I might even try FOR ME 11" x 13" as
is photographer Willie Holdman's wonderful book, TIMPANOGOS.
The finished version will be large format....quite expensive to print
due to many hundreds of color photos. But at least one will be
printed as I'm old school and need that
ONE....FOR ME....
....to thumb through and be continually inspired when I GET OLD
needing to remember all the hundreds of enlightening and life
giving moments on my hundreds of life saving therapy/hikes in the
FOOTHILLS OF TIMPANOGOS!
With that done it will likely occur to you that this whole effort
is actually selfishly...... FOR ME.... which is true as it actually
began to keep me alive with a personal photo/journal.
However, remembering my NDE as a 16 year old teenager, the
message being....
"I WAS RESCUED TO SAVE LIVES....in some way,"
my decision was quick to share with all interested.
I sincerely hope it will be enjoyed by many and be life saving for a
few others as has been the case with my HIGH UINTAS books, and
with the MOUNTAINS OF THE MAYA book that describes
saving thousands with the potential of much more than that
in the long run!
*********************
To be willing to march, march into Hell
For that Heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
***********************
What I created came from my efforts to save my own life to be able to
experience "ONE MORE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM" and as it
began to work my gratitude moved me to these several years of work
putting it together done out of love for each and every one of you.
I was moved to admire and be inspired by the
GOD OF NATURE & CREATION
and his
infinite DIVINE VISIONS of NATURE ......and moves
me in the twilight of my life to quote the last verse from the song
Fill the World With Love
by Petula Clark.....
In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset,
At a moment in my life when the night is due.
And the question I shall ask only God can answer.
Was I brave and strong and true?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?
I tried real hard & did the best I could with lots of love!
ENJOY!
************
NOW
LET'S GO HAVE SOME HEAVENLY FUN
learning about all the unending, inspiring and beautiful
VISIONS of the LORD'S CREATION
in the foothills of Mount Timpanogos!
**********************************
APPENDIX 1 has to do quite importantly to the story told in this Chapter 1, so I am adding it here, rather than leaving it for the ending of the book which would be the end of VOLUME 4 - possibly quite some time from now, March 26, 2025.
***********
APPENDIX 1
This excerpt from my website… from August 2020
CONFESSION:
I have been inactive for several months in my 85th year with three problems I’ll tell you about, but I will reshuffle the items mentioned in my post as the 3rd item actually came first, it was:
1. I had a chance to be exposed to COVID-19, and except for my back, am in better health than others my age so I decided best build up my immunity now, so….
“BRING IT ON WHILE STILL HEALTHY.”
When my blood pressure indicated something was going south in my body I started the
CURATIVE LEVEL OF MY WELLNESS FORMULA,
The next day the blood pressure was solved, then had one day later with a temperature of 99.1 F, then one day at 99.9 then always normal. No body pains nor breathing problems, only daily headaches and my taste turned on end for three weeks with even my favorite foods and drinks being NASTY! But mostly my life continued normally, the normal flu–had years ago before discovering the WELLNESS FORMULA, was many times more miserable & dangerous. YOU CAN HAVE THE WELLNESS FORMULA by buying my book, it being explained in Appendix 5 in the article entitled “THE ANTI-AGING CHALLENGE,” on page 635-636, along with solutions to most problems in the 55 page article, and my survival stories sprinkled throughout the book that can SAVE YOUR LIFE!
THE KEYS TO BEATING COVID-19 & ALL HEALTH PROBLEMS?
HEALTHY WEIGHT — EXERCISE —
BE AT PEACE
STUDY MY “ANTI-AGE CHALLENGE” IN APPENDIX 5,
plus
Chapter 5: “LIGHTWEIGHT, JOYFUL & SAFE BACKPACKING”
2. On May 11th on an exploratory trip to be able to report to you the accessibility conditions I took THE WORST FALL OF MY LIFE THAT SHOULD HAVE KILLED ME. Let me describe it for the survival lessons it teaches, I quote:
“I decided for the report on my website I should include pictures of a wildflower in bloom at the lower elevations. I noticed some in bloom up a steep slope and pulled off the road. I’d been behind the wheel for an hour or so and as I started up the slope I felt very unsteady with awful balance. I even strangely thought, “Wow, I could use a hiking stick or trekking pole!” That I have resisted all these years as usually I had in my hands my camera, or my munchies. But, I finally got up to the flower, and on the uneven steep slope with rocks and sagebrush, each time I’d try and focus I would lose my balance, so sat down to get the picture
Then I started down, but completely forgetting what I have advised going down a steep slope—” ALWAYS LEAN INTO THE MOUNTAIN…because if you fall the OTHER WAY, YOU’RE MOST LIKELY DEAD!” See pages 563-564 of my book. All of a sudden I began losing my balance–one of the first things you begin to lose as you get older. I did my darndest with me feet to keep up with my body but couldn’t do it as all was happening so quickly and all of a sudden I went head over heels flying downward, apparently hitting the rocks a time or two I determined afterwards seeing the deep dirt and green scuff marks on the back of my shirt, then somehow quite miraculously my body got twisted around in the air–that saved me, before I hit the bottom so I landed with a thud on my back horizontally with the shock evenly distributed the length of my body. If I had of hit on any angle I would for sure have broke something. I laid there stunned thinking, “For sure there’s got to be multiple fractures somewhere–MAYBE EVERYWHERE!” I carefully moved one leg, then the other. Then each arm. I raised my head just a little, and then more. By then I was feeling warm blood on the back of my head. My left arm shirt sleeve was soaked with blood. I carefully sat up, and slowly got to my feet, and noticed nearby my Nikon camera with Zoom lens that separate from me somehow had come down the steep hill with me, dirty with dust, but back in the car I checked it out, and it too had survived without breaking anything. My first thought, I stupidly had violated the rule and NOT LEANED INTO THE MOUNTAIN. The second thing that came to mind: VERY LIKELY MY BACKPACKING DAYS ARE OVER WITH, BUT I WAS ALIVE! Thirdly, once again the supplements I promote in my “Anti-Aging Challenge” chapter in Appendix 5, primarily: Magnesium/Calcium and others, saved my body from any kind of fractures. I mention in the book Dr. Jackson saying, after my hip replacement surgery.
“Your bones are the hardest we’ve ever seen!” WHY? see Appendix 5
IMPORTANT NOTE: As indicated in the story of my fall, BALANCE is one of the first things we lose as we get older, and I’m convinced that some of those who have been lost in the Uintas and never found, very possibly–in the numerous dangerous places in the Uintas have just simply lost their balance as happened to me, and fallen into a ravine, or out of sight area, and are never found.
Like famous Australian backpacker ERIC ROBINSON doing the Highline Trail and disappeared for 5 years, before his bones were finally found at the bottom of a cliff–HE UNDOUBTEDLY LOST HIS BALANCE TRYING TO GET BACK TO THE HIGHLINE TRAIL, AFTER SOMEHOW GETTING WAY OFF COURSE. See pages 156-159 for all the details.
SO PLEASE….BE VERY AWARE AND TAKE SPECIAL CAUTION, especially in the first few days on a trip–until you get your “mountain legs working,” & IN DANGEROUS PLACES…..AND IF YOUR BALANCE IS LESS THAN NORMAL, I GUESS YOU’LL HAVE TO USE TREKKING POLES.
3. Consequently my back problems that were already bad–having had two surgeries with titanium appliances in my lower back, but now worse, with discs worn out and missing in my mid back, my spinal chord being pinched in those locations and the Doctors feel at my age and the nature of the problems its too dangerous to repair with surgery. The Dr. injected something into my spine, but its doing almost NOTHING! Consequently NO MORE BACKPACKING, JOGGING, but NOT GIVING IN YET–I’m doing daily my 40-50 good pushups, flexibility exercises, an 8 lb. barbell in each hand while watching TV, and walking every day at the American Fork Amphitheater park, climbing up and down holding onto the railing, and will…… somehow find a way to again do
“the impossible!”
...that by the Fall of 2020 was to get worse....
....and I had to have my 3rd back surgery….but something went wrong. My right leg was dead, or in deep sleep, and I couldn’t walk anymore. I was confined to bed, and the muscles in my legs, especially the dead right one, began quickly disappearing. Seeing them reminded me of holocaust victims. I was shocked, and with the thoughts of me ending up in a Rest Home, had me going to work as I have explained in Chapter 1.
By 2023 the HIGH UINTAS became a bit difficult....cutting down a bit the size of
THE FIGHT TO NOT GIVE IN.....to the FOOTHILLS of MOUNT TIMPANOGOS, and
400 mini-hikes in those foothills. plus unending work with many thousands of photographs, and never ending research, investigations, and writing by early 2025 produced my
THIRD IMPOSSIBLE DREAM REALIZED.....
A 9 chapter online book with photos of the creation like many have never seen before!
Available free for all of my friends and lovers of the inspiring great outdoor's wonderment....at the retired Foundation's website: www.guatemalanfoundation.org
Throughout the 2025 season I will persist
NOT GIVING UP....WITHOUT A GOOD FIGHT,
doing my daily hikes to keep my body and mind from going to sleep, by keeping track of all the plants, insects, mammals, repitles, lichens, rocks, and now BIRDS too,......
.....and not stop until having created a printable book with page numbers and index documenting like no one has done before the DIVINE VISIONS of NATURE from the FOOTHILLS of TIMPANOGOS....
.......that I promise will WOW you unless you still need to take a testosterone booster!
Check here and .....once in a while at
https://www.facebook.com/cordell.andersen/
********************************************
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
A major part of my COMEBACK was when my good friend Paul Edmunds, one of my wonderful 400 customers from when I gratefully worked from 2009 to 2012 for LORIE PAULSON at REAMS SUPERMARKET in Springville.... 
I decided to do the HALF MARATHON DISTANCE (13.2 miles) all the way to Alpine and back. NOTE: From 1994 to 2007 I had done 14 consecutive half marathons in Guatemala's famous Coban International Half Marathon competing with the Kenyans and other international stars until reaching 72 and not able to make more trips to Guatemala to supervise Foundation projects because of lack of funds....so no more Half Marathons.....
or snowing I discovered the.... 
%20(1ab).jpg)
.jpg)
a.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment