The best this world has to offer, to each little cog in the industrial wheel of life, is this little bitty row boat of human limitation that has you rowing and bailing and rowing and bailing and rowing and bailing, while the storms and currents of circumstance continuously frustruate your endless effort to reach dry land.

     This is not God's intent for you. God designed your soul as a shining clipper ship, gleaming white, lofty sails and sturdy masts, to be the master of the oceans of life, easily making straight tracks to safe harbors, no matter what the currents, no matter what the storms through which you're required to pass.

     Find out now about the Real You which you have forgotten about for far too long. Let your memory be refreshed. Enter now onto the path that'll take you home to the Heart of God, into the arms of your best Friend, wherein the many colored robes of your Divine Identity await your broad and humble shoulders.

    Footprints on
the Mountain is dedicated to the famous wilderness explorer, conserva-
tionist, and founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir, who is best known for his explorations, during the late 1800's and early 1900's, of the mountains of California's Sierra Nevada, most especially of his observations of the inestimable beauty of Yosemite Valley and surrounding wilderness areas. The most important legacy of John Muir is the daily journals he left behind and bequethed to all future generations of Americans, in which he faithfully recorded his observations of the most interesting and beautiful sights and experiences that were spread out before his eyes during his many years spent in these beautiful wilderness areas. There is no better way to get a grasp upon the divine beauty with which God endowed these wondrous landscapes than to see them through the eyes and the writings of John Muir.

    Footprints on the Mountain, another important compilation of journal entries, is set forth in this spirit of explor-
ation, revelation, and journalism, but the experiences recorded herein are generally not those associated with the outer natural world, as beautiful as that is, but of the inner terrain of the soul, that unique landscape associated with the Path of Initiation, which appears at one moment as a battlefield between the forces of Light and Darkness, and in the next, i.e. when the Light wins, which it always does, as the very garden of paradise.

    The Path of Initiation is walked within the context of the Teachings of the Ascended Masters as those Teachings were set forth by the Messengers Mark and Elizabeth Prophet. These Teachings give the soul the knowledge and the tools necessary to balance its karma and serve the purposes of God on a planetary scale through the use of the science of the spoken word, initiating an ongoing process of internal transformation whereby the soul ascends the mountain of spiritual attainment, day by day, a few steps at a time.

    The author of Footprints on the Mountain was first introduced to the Teachings of the Ascended Masters in 1979 through the book, "Studies of the Human Aura", a compilation of dictations given by the Ascended Master Kuthumi (St. Francis in the ascended state), and in 1981 became a member of the Keepers of the Flame Fraternity, an organization sponsored by the Summit Lighthouse. Mr. Showers attended the first quarter of Summit University at Camelot in the fall of 1983. Since those early years of discovery, the author has kept his feet firmly planted on the path of initiation, which is to this date, a period of more than 21 years. For all of that time, he has kept his own daily journal, recording those internal events and observations of particular and profound interest experienced during his own ongoing journey up the mountain. Ninety-nine percent of these journal entries are recorded during the author's daily service before the Altar of the Holy Grail at his home in Ventura County California, 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

    One of the key themes that carries through these journal entries is one of gratitude for the labor of the Messengers, Mark and Elizabeth Prophet, and for the teachings they delivered into our hands, which gave us the ongoing opportunity to employ the science of the spoken word in service to St. Germain's mission for America. At the center of this mission is the student's here and now reunion with the personal and beloved God Presence which is the soul's most blessed friend. This goal achieved over the expanse of hundreds, then thousands, and then millions of embodied souls, results in the anchoring of a new golden age for the earth.

    The nature of these recordings are not therefore in the manner of intellectual meanderings. The worded forms are wholly an attempt to describe internal events that have occurred within the region of divine power.

    The journal entries of the author were first set forth within Homeward Bound - The Journal of Ascended Master Devotion, as the "Editors Notepad". When this feature was first inaugerated, it was just one of several areas of high priority for the Homeward Bound Journal. At that time the author devoted one day a week to the transcription and presentation of these journal entries. But as the new year turned from 2000 to 2001, this work was moved from the bottom of the heap to the top of the heap in terms of priority, and the name was changed from "Editor's Notepad" to "Footprints on the Mountain" to reflect this new sense of priority. For a period of about six months (the first half of 2001) the author's journal entries were transcribed and html formatted on a daily basis with the goal of completing the transcription and html formatting of each day's entries by the following day at the latest.

    But since July of 2001, the priorities of the author have had to shift toward the completion of several larger manuscript projects. Therefore, the project of transcribing and html formatting journal entries for the Footprints feature has been put on the back burner for the time being. While the author stills maintains a daily journal, it will be a while before another opportunity opens up to continue transcribing and html formatting existing journal entries for the Footprints feature.

    It should also be noted that given this change in priorities, that the author did not even have time to actually publish the completed Footprint files for the first of half of 2001, until November of 2001. (Even when files are 99% complete, a host of little details always seems to present a major barrier to the final publication).

    Links to all available Footprint files will be found on the Journal Table of Contents page. The files are broken up into sizes that allow for a reasonable download time. For those months where there are several Footprint files, at the bottom of each page, at the end of the journal entries for a particular range of days, a link will be found to the next Footprint file which holds the entries for the next few days. This allows sequential reading without having to return to the Table of Contents to access the next sequential file.

    In most cases, journal entries are made in a hand written form (or scrawled as the case might be) in the author's daily journal. And in most cases, journal entries are made in the course of the author's daily decree services in the sanctuary. But, on occassion, entries into the daily journal are made at other locations away from the sanctuary. In those cases this fact will be noted. For example, those entries that are made in the office area would carry the notation: [notes recorded in office]. Also, on occassion, and this is true primarily during transcription work periods, notes will be recorded into the current Footprint file directly at the computer, i.e. typed in, rather than handwritten into the daily journal. In those cases, such entries will carry the notation: [c-notes recorded in office]. In most cases journal entries are transcribed as they were originally recorded in the daily journal. This is the general rule. Though at times it becomes evident to the author that there is a need to clarify and expand some entries during the transcription process. In such cases these entries will carry the notation: [expanded during transcription].

    When there is a renewed opportunity to return to work of transcribing and html formatting the editor's journal entries, top priority will be given to catching up with journal entries for the year 2001 first, and bringing them up to date with whatever is the current date at the time. But it is worth noting that worthwhile journal entries exist in the body of the author's journals going back two decades. These entries for past months and years will be transcribed and posted as time permits.

    The Journal's Fireside Briefs consist of a monthly compendium of brief statements on a variety of subjects. These statements fall into the primary categories of politics, public policy, and social issues. Though on occasion, when a particular spiritual principle needs to be expanded upon, you will find that here too. Often introductions to the larger articles can be found here. When a reader makes a comment cogent enough to elicit a response from the Editor, that response will appear in the Fireside Briefs. The first two examples of this format can be found for January 2000 and February 2000and September 2000.

    The Journal's Editors' Desk is the venue for major articles and expositions for the current month. When a particular item becomes too long for the Fireside Briefs format, it will be presented under the Editor's Desk format. A good example is the treatise "Elian and the Law" spanning several pages going into quite a bit of depth concerning what the law actually said about the fate and destiny of Elian Gonzalez.

    The reader will find a comment box on every page throughout the journal. The comment button in the upper toolbar will take the reader to the comment box on that page. All comments will be read. If the reader leaves an email address, the comment will be replied to in one way or another depending on the nature of the comment or suggestion. If the comment evokes a response from the Editor that the Editor feels might be of interest to others, or least represents a further illumination of important principles on a particular subject, that reply will be posted on the current Fireside Briefs page. The reader will be notified if this is the case.

    All articles and essays posted on the Fireside Briefs page for each month will be added to the subject index. The major articles found in each Editor's Desk document will also be added to the subject index. The entries in the Footprints on the Mountain section are not generally added to the subject index, except the prayers in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. These are listed in the subject index. The subject index is a stand alone fil that is linked to from a button on the upper tool bar on each page.

    A lot of effort goes into making all Homeward Bound Journal pages look the same in both Netscape Communicator 4.7 and Internet Explorer 5.0. Browser specific html is avoided. Moreover, the pages are designed for viewing on a display using 640 x 480 pixels. If you have a larger pixel display we would like to hear your feedback about how goofed up (or perhaps good) the pages might appear in larger formats. These pages should be viewed with Javascript enabled because in a few places links point to Javascript initiated windows.

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