Fisherman's Call contains a timely and vital message: the destructive human impact to life on our planet can no longer be ignored. Our very survival may depend on our attention to this fact. No longer can we ignore the fact that the human intellect, devoid of the heart's compassionate wisdom, is destructive and self-serving. Author William "Billy" Packer presents a series of personal stories about stewardship of the earth, drawn from his own experiences. Faced with instances of destruction of the environment, notably of the ancient redwood forests in northern California, Packer began questioning his own cultural conditioning-all the things we learn and tend to accept as true from our families and the cultural environment we are exposed to as we grow and mature. This compilation describes Packer's personal story of awakening human compassion, but it is also a call to us all to open our hearts to the precious wonder of life all around us and awaken from the slumber of human ignorance. Inspiring, insightful and prophetic, Fisherman's Call challenges us to look deeply and question what is most meaningful in life. William "Billy" Packer was born and raised in Newburyport, Massachusetts where he raised his four children. He has worked as a design draftsman and highly regarded fishing boat captain until 1977, when he left the sea and began a thirty-year journey of awakening and discovery.
Fisherman's Call
To Awaken the Heart of CompassionBy William "Billy" PackeriUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 William "Billy" Packer
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-6465-5 Contents
Acknowledgments......................................................................................................viiIntroduction to Dad's Book...........................................................................................xiPART ONE: REFLECTIONS................................................................................................1Chapter One: Winter Storm............................................................................................3Chapter Two: Newburyport Native......................................................................................15PART TWO: FISHERMAN CALLING..........................................................................................19Chapter Three: The Fisherman.........................................................................................21Chapter Four: My Last Discovery While on the Martha Ingraham.........................................................31Chapter Five: Sheila – It's been a Long Time...................................................................35PART THREE: A BOOK FINDS ME..........................................................................................37Chapter Six: Wilderness Mountain Paradise............................................................................39Chapter Seven: Black Elk's "Great Vision"............................................................................44Chapter Eight: Losing Martha.........................................................................................48Chapter Nine: Tapping Into Miraculous Power..........................................................................52Chapter Ten: My Way Back To Sheila...................................................................................58Chapter Eleven: Nature's Government..................................................................................61Chapter Twelve: The Monkey Story.....................................................................................67Chapter Thirteen: The Guru...........................................................................................74Chapter Fourteen: Timely Breakthrough................................................................................82Chapter Fifteen: Three Prophetic Dreams..............................................................................86PART FOUR: PUTTING BLACK ELK'S LAW TO WORK...........................................................................97Chapter Sixteen: Innocent Fear of the Messiah........................................................................99Chapter Seventeen: Suicidal Depression...............................................................................101PART FIVE: AWAKENING THE COMPASSIONATE HEART.........................................................................105Chapter Eighteen: God's Prayer and God's Call........................................................................107Chapter Nineteen: A Miraculous Melody: A Journey Toward the Power of Compassion......................................109Chapter Twenty: The Florida Everglades...............................................................................115Chapter Twenty-One: Everglades Power.................................................................................123Chapter Twenty-Two: The Power of God's Prayer........................................................................130Chapter Twenty-Three: A Paper Trail..................................................................................133Chapter Twenty-Four: Awakening Miraculous Compassion.................................................................139Chapter Twenty-Five: Black Elk, Jesus, and the Bible.................................................................141Chapter Twenty-Six: Putting It All Together – What I learned from God..........................................147Summing It All Up: The Great Understanding from Black Elk: The Door to "the Power of the World.".....................151
Chapter One
Winter Storm
Shivering, shaking, vomiting and freezing, I stood on the pitching deck. My eyes were stinging from wind-driven snow and spray as my ice-encrusted boat took wave after wave. They broke broadside over the bow, the wheelhouse and the gunnels. I watched in shocked disbelief, squinting, dripping, trembling and horrified as I desperately tried to do what needed to be done. In the pitch black terror of the night, could things have been any worse?
From harbor to harbor I searched, looking for the right boat. Nova Scotia was a good place to look for reasonably priced fishing boats in the thirty to forty foot range. "Novies" are extremely seaworthy and attractive, sitting like seabirds on the water and gracefully riding the waves like seagulls. With their proud high bows and bright paints, Novies are more like puffins with their elegant wide beaks, colorful and pleasing to behold, designer-painted by the master of natural wonder.
The boat was for my son, Jeff. Interested in going tuna fishing, he asked for my help in finding a good, solid boat. Jeff was working a steady job and didn't have time to travel to the coast of Nova Scotia with me. He trusted my judgment and promised to join me when he could.
When I found the "bolted boat," I knew it was perfect; thirty-eight feet long, sixteen feet wide, trunk cabin with headroom, and wheelhouse with sliding window, six cylinder Chevy gasoline engine – the "Nova Scotia diesel" as they are sometimes called. It was a lobster fisherman's boat with a bolted stern that was strong and unusual. Unusual because the "bolted boat," as I called it, was bolted together in lots of other important places, too, so I knew it was well built. A builder put it together from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and a local fisherman later told me that boats built by this man lasted longer than other Novies. Perhaps the bolted boat saved my life. I'll never know for sure.
For weeks I waited in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia for the perfect winter weather before I headed across to the States in my "Novie." It was about a hundred and twenty miles from Yarmouth to Bar Harbor, Maine. It was open ocean and in the middle of winter the weather conditions could be really bad. So, I wasn't in any rush to get going. I wanted to wait for the best weather possible.
While I waited in Yarmouth, my son came across on the ferry to see the boat. He had three days off from work. He drove to Portland and bought a ticket to Yarmouth. It was great to see Jeff, even for just a short visit. Jeff hated to leave me to take the boat back alone, but I knew I'd be fine by myself. Jeff had memories of a storm that had come up quickly on a seemingly quiet and calm fishing trip. Things changed quickly and we almost lost everything, including our lives. That's how it is on the ocean. She is the master and very unpredictable.
When it was time to leave, Jeff felt sick about going. He stood on the high upper deck of the huge ferryboat, looking down at me, standing alone in the cockpit of the tiny lobster boat. Jeff later told me that a terrible feeling of dread swept over him as he watched me. It wasn't a premonition, he said, it was just a sick feeling that overtook and scared him. He didn't want to leave me alone, God bless him. He...
