Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Press Release - "Spiritual Quest" Book Launch



Press Release                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sally DeMasi – October 6, 2017 - McCall, Idaho

Spiritual Quest Book Launch – Discovering Your Higher Self Through Love

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What are your spiritual dilemmas, how can you realize your authentic self and find an individual path to spirituality at this time in your life? Not someone else’s journey, but yours. What is right for you now, in this precise moment?

DeMasi’s extremely personal journey is revealed as a roadmap for others to uncovered the big questions we ask in life –death, passions of love, our God—found with the assistance of angels, as we uncover compassion and surrender. What part does fear play, death, forgiveness and what ties our humanity together? – it could be LOVE. How do you find a gift of peace—silence from your over striving, technology driven world? Why should you?

DeMasi, is a writer of stories of discovery—adventure quests with her passion to contribute to other’s personal growth through her humor and depth of life adventures.  Her book, Courage Quest, explores a search for fear – traveling solo to unusual destination worldwide. She explores her corporate escape, search and finding novena in the mountains of Idaho

Mayor's Couageous Challenge

We can be fearful but still engage in heroic acts for a cause we believe in. This is courage. The act elevates a person in the pursuit of what is right in life and how we can contribute.

Gisela Mota was thirty-three, dedicated, humble and an honorable hard-working woman. Attending protests from the age of twelve with her activist Mother, studying law at the university she then became an idealistic politician who believed it was worth risking her life. She accepted a political position in her home town to affect change, despite threats. Her objective, her passion, was to clean up the town’s corruption.

Her mother advised against it. Committed to assuming this challenging office, she shouted at her Mom, “If I don’t run for office, who will?”

The crime was not unusual in this part of the world, the small state of Morelos with a population of 1.9 million. It was a small village of Pueblo Viejo located south of the Mexican capital. It boosts a superb climate adorned by colonial cobblestone streets, but the fourth highest murder rate for kidnappings, extortion and rape according the NGO Citizen Council for Security and Criminal Justice. This is where the murder of a young brave woman occurred.

She had refused official security upon assuming the position as mayor empathic it was a waste of the limited public resources.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Find the Courage to Say YES


I got a call from Mom. Dad had just passed six months ago and she was a three hour drive from me but adjusting well. It is no surprise; she has that vibe, a positive spirit of just keeping on.

My Mom and Dad were a true love story from the past. They both went to the same church and bible school in their youth. Dad had his sights on this darling woman for some time and eventually he got the courage to ask her out. He didn’t actually ask her out for a date, but moving ahead slowly (not his style), inquired if he could give her a ride home from church.

She always walked with a close girlfriend, so refused. In the end, after weeks of negotiation—he was a very good negotiator, she was in his convertible driving home.

They were a handsome couple, naïve—barely dating others before their meeting. He enlisted in our military to serve during World War II. The rest is our sibling’s good news, a marriage producing three children, each spaced three years apart, never understanding the magic of three.  

It was a good marriage shared with family, friends and numerous celebrations, but Christmas was the ultimate in preparations and joy.

Dad moved to the other place, I believe that is heaven for him, and Mom was now alone. She managed and actually flourished learning, at her advanced years, to create a budget, pay bills, and do house repairs eking out a small life for herself before the time she’d join Dad.

It wasn’t long before a man came a calling to this woman in her late seventies. It was such a surprise

Wednesday, January 13, 2016


Announcing the Launch -  my new book, "Survival Quest" 






Risking – for your future. Disaster can strike at any moment. Are you prepared physically, emotionally? How do you face fear, mount your attack and conquer? Does the spiritual assist?

Some of these riveting ordeals tell of a woman on a flight that crashes in the jungle and struggles for life as beauty emerges. A man falls to earth without a parachute and battles for his life miles away from medical assistance.   Multiple exploration parties face the Arctic's destruction of storms – hunger – imminent death as we wonder how.  A woman in a dusty arid Israeli (Arab) town of ancient traditions attempts to move from the past to the present struggling for her and other female’s rights. A man confronts the torturous elements in the Sierras, alone, in a pre-winter storm that threatens his existence as a miracle unfolds.


What actually makes the difference between some surviving while others don’t?  Turn fear, anger, and stress into focus. My personal conclusion on this journey for answers may surprise you. Here is a collection of unique true stories that reveal a new path as you learn how the ordinary do the extraordinary.  

This book is available on major book sites in paperback or eBook formats
(Amazon, Google Books, Kobo Books, Barnes & Noble, Createspace-eStore) 
Goodreads for review

Paperback book can also be purchased from my site:
http://www.SurvivalSpiritualQuest.com

(you can request a signed book from this site)






Monday, November 30, 2015

Notes on Courage – Patsy Kelley

I am celebrating a happy 30th anniversary of living in a small town, mountainous Idaho!Seems not that long ago that a friend envied my COURAGE to leave my job, home and friends to move 2500 miles into the unknown. I did not think of this as courageous, but adventuresome. I was excited to see, do and experience new things. That in itself was motivating.

However, in retrospect, I guess it was an act of courage. Mostly, it took courage to admit to stagnation in my work an life. In the 1980’s, a steady paycheck provided incentive to stay put in a comfortable home and job. Divorced, I had no children or mate to limit my imagination, and even my cats had died. So why, in my mid-forties would I not want to set out on an adventure?

Long ago, my grandfather told me to be sure to “Go west and see the mountains”. With a knowledge of geography and good map skills, I was excited to follow his vision. In addition, I was tired of pushing around paper and people for the government (it’s called Human Services burnout!). I wanted to experience new things and felt capable of finding work to support myself. Naive? Impulsive? Irresponsible? – or Brave and Courageous?

With some research, planning, saving, making arrangements with supportive friends, I embarked on my escape from mediocrity, boredom and security to a new life in the West. It was not without unknowns and difficulties, but the results were energizing and very satisfying. I am glad I had faith in myself, and the Universe, to make this adventure my new life.

Post Script: Life is too short to do the same things all the time…some of the ways I have made my living: Junior High Teacher, College Geography Instructor, Office for Aging Planner, Office of Employment & Training Planner/Supervisor, Amateur Photographer, Cook/Waitress/Chef-Guest Ranch/Restaurant Chef & Manager, Watercolor Artist, Organic Market Gardner.  

  

Friday, December 12, 2014



Ever Thought of Traveling to Build Courage?
·         By: Sally DeMasi

·         Thu, 12/11/2014 - 01:15· posted on SelfhelpMagazine
Do you feel you have the courage you need in life?  Just what is courage anyway and why might you want to engage it in all aspects of your life? To develop courage will require facing your fears.
Courage is mental and emotional preparedness to deal with difficult situations as a person confronts pain, fear, intimidation or physical and moral danger. Courageous individuals are often independent, display selflessness with integrity and honor.  A courageous person also exhibits virtue, honor and bravery.
Do you feel you have the courage you need in life?  Just what is courage anyway and why might you want to engage it in all aspects of your life? To develop courage will require facing your fears.
Courage is mental and emotional preparedness to deal with difficult situations as a person confronts pain, fear, intimidation or physical and moral danger. Courageous individuals are often independent, display selflessness with integrity and honor.  A courageous person also exhibits virtue, honor and bravery.
As you acquire courage you become self-confident.
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE ON sELFHELPMAGAZINE.COM
 http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/traveling-build-courage#sthash.7UPl24cA.dpbs

About the AuthoR
Sally DeMasi, author of “Courage Quest”

Available on major book sites – links and other stories on: http://www.couragaequest.net. Also a photographer, enjoy her photos on: http://www.sallydemasi.com. She lives in the Idaho mountains and takes advantage of winter sports, then kayaks, fishes, hikes and camps summers.  

She wrote “Courage Quest “, which encompasses her growth through backpacking solo international trips, encouraging others to uncover the treasure courage allows.

Friday, February 21, 2014


Book


Courage Quest is a compilation of adventure stories in various parts of the world where I confronted my fears in search of courage--starting a bit late when I was turning fifty. I traveled almost exclusively by myself with a backpack by public transportation or walking, staying as locals do in hostels while turning my back on millions from my career to concentrate on the search for me.

Learn how I survived my guides washing dish technique in the Amazon, my encounter with a shaman who cured a rusty rebar cut in the jungle from infection and my solo walk through a drug and crime infested Athens neighborhood.
Come share my ventures, the lessons learned, why and how we should pursue and create new adventures in your life. You’ll improve your self-confidence as an older woman struggling to survive mature years, as a young woman completing your rite to passage journey to womanhood learning to define yourself and maturing or as a man who just wants a bit more guts in his life as he ventures forth.

The gift of courage added a new dimension to my life as I uncover who I really was and what was needed to make my life full.

You can follow my footsteps camping on safari in Africa, paddling down the Amazon, rafting the wild rivers of Idaho where I  found all I had searched for.
  Courage is not necessary to live a mundane life, but it is necessary to live
                                                         a full one that you can be proud of.

 

 Courage Quest
Is now available for purchase as an e-Book:
Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes - iBookstore, Kobo, Goodreads


 “This book may just change your life path as you learn to confront your fears through courage”
Braveness
The Bravest Thing I've Ever Done

by Sally DeMasi



Braveness comes in many forms. It can be a bold defiant act confronting fear which produces courage as I have done over the last years on my world solo adventure travels. I’ve paddled down the Amazon and the rapids of Idaho, faced wild animals in Africa and walked the drug infested streets of Third World Countries. But, I think what I am proudest of, was an act that to others may seem insignificant.

It was how I choose to say goodbye to my aging dog – straight on, not allowing someone else do the hard stuff.

Tasha was my companion for thirteen years. She had been though the best and the worst times of that period of my life. A rescue dog, I choose this 3 month old Lab/Rottweiler/and who knows what other lineage, because of her story and her actions. Her mom was homeless and wandered the streets pregnant with 12 pups, giving birth when a kind woman realized her plight and made a comfortable birth nest for her.

I stared at the box of puppies, she was the only one with straight hair and harassing her sleeping brothers and sisters poised on top as she nipped each in hopes they would romp with her
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I fell in love at that moment with an alpha puppy who curled up on my lap as we drove home – never expecting to have adopted one that day and no provisions to welcome her home.

She had a definite effect on my life from the start. I did crazy things like deciding to work less managing a part-time schedule – just to stay home with my doggie. I declined social engagements just to hurry home to be with her after leaving the pup for my work day. I rejected my fanatical technical reading required to “get ahead” in my position. I even stopped all my shopping expeditions that at one time seemed so important, to be with my Tasha. I had found a level plane ignored in the past.

Instead, I delved into insane pursuits. I bought an old beat-up Mazda ’84 truck. I hated trucks. It was bashed up, filthy inside and out with paint chipping, a hole where the radio had been cut out and ignition switch torn from the dashboard. But, I knew Tasha would grow (oh yes, to a surprising 100 pounds) and my two seat sports car wouldn’t work much longer for the new us.

Sunday, January 5, 2014




Pilgrimage – Walking El Camino de Santiago
By Deborah Schafer

Initially Kristen, my daughter, had asked for a book on the Camino for Christmas 2012, and it really shocked me, because when I was her age I had read about it and wanted to do this pilgrimage but never told anyone because it was so out of my league. I just did not take those type of risks, going to countries that do not speak English, hiking up and over mountains. I didn't like to get too physical....but I sensed that this was the time. Kris could take the summer off, and I would just retire. So at 61 I started working out for the first time in my life. I knew I would have to leave my precious comfort zone behind, so I promised myself I would not object to the weather. This was a big deal to me, but as it turned out, only the beginning. I learned that I bring a lot of resistance to most things I do. And that is the purpose in the end to taking risks-to become vulnerable to events in a way that you find out what you are made of. I found my precious identity beneath all that comfort zone. And I saw into the hearts of others as they helped me, guided me, and walked with me. I know something about myself now, and others, and I feel so much more a participant in life instead of an observer.

Subject: Camino news
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:18:34 -0500

Hey, are you guys pilgrims?  This was the first recognition of us as pilgrims, standing on the train platform in Bordeaux, from a man and his family looking for their train to Bayonne, and then to St. Jean Pied du Port.  Pilgrims themselves, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, we would meet them two more times before beginning our journey the next day.  It felt surreal being recognized as part of this larger scheme of things, and signaled the beginning for me of this journey. 

Maybe it was a good thing I did not know we would have to travel straight up a mountain at a 45 degree angle for a day when we left St. Jean, and then travel the following day in bitterly cold rain over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles, arriving late in the day so cold we could not hold the pen to sign in.  And maybe it was a good thing I did not know we would leave the next morning in wet clothes in pouring rain to travel to Burgette, just 3 km away, where we picked up a hotel room at the Hotel Burgette, where Hemingway used to sojourn, and was given his room at 9:00 in the morning so we could fall into bed for the day and recover.