Matthew Zarit

My condolences to Dan's family and loved ones. I met
Dan in Park City around 2001, and I was his
chiropractor from 2003. He was a wonderful, giving
person and will be deeply missed.

Matthew Zarit, D.C.

Amy Bergin

April 2005 – teaching Molly how to drive Grandma Doc’s boat


November 2003 – meeting for dinner on a flight layover in Atlanta.


Oh how he loved our kids…


Summer 2003 – the bond of family can never be broken (Dan, Mike, Patti, Tim)

I am Dan’s sister in law, married to Mike and when Dan came to our house believe it or not he rested. Our home in North Atlanta was his home away from home during flight layovers and training with Delta Airlines. Often we did not know he was coming until the day or hour he arrived but we always made the trip to pick him up at MARTA. It was a great adventure for our kids to go pick up their Uncle Dan. He preferred to stay at our house over a hotel even though we lived 2 hours from the airport and we loved the surprise visits. Often he would be jet lagged and would hole up in the basement, sleep, soak in our hot tub and do his yoga and stretching. His flight bag now rests in our dining room and it feels like he will emerge from the basement looking for breakfast scraps and take over the blender mixing up something interesting. We all deeply miss him this holiday season.

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. Psalm 62:5

Ann Wheelan

I have been away for a few months training with the military, and just got home to hear of Dan's death. What a man! So full of life. He taught me so much about how to live..about truth..about facing your darkest fears. He had a lot to do with the person I have become..all the good parts. The best way to remember and honor such a wonderful spirit is to try to live as he did. My heart goes out to everyone who had the privilege of knowing this soul. Our world is darker without him.

"It is the experience of living that is important; not searching for meaning. We bring meaning by how we love the world."
~ Bernie S. Siegel

I miss you Dan.
love,
Ann Wheelan

Virginia Bergin MacKenzie

Thank you all so much for the kind words about my son Dan. I can't tell you how much it means to me and to my other children.

I guess I knew him longer than anyone. For some reason, I keep thinking about what he was like as a bright, healthy and happy little boy.

The attached picture is surely one you haven't seen. This was our Christmas card when he was a year old, before he was joined by his sister Patti, and his brothers Mike and Tim. He was always smiling then too. What joy he brought to everyone he met. As hard as this is for me, my Faith is strong. I know God has His reasons. It is not for us to question them. Dan was only loaned to me for a time and I have to give him back to God whether I want to or not. It is simply God's will.

Patti's comment was priceless. I told her that Dan would probably have to spend some time in Purgatory. He had some "making up" to do.
She answered, "Mom, don't worry about Dan. He talked his way through the gate two days ago". He would want me to say to you - Stay Happy.

Peace and all good

Virginia Bergin MacKenzie

Dean Pappas ~ Impact Trainings

How many hearts can one person touch in one lifetime?
Dan was an exceptional person touching so very many.

All the members of Impact Trainings have expressed their love and support for Dan's family and all his close friends, and asked me to pass on their heartfelt admiration for the being Dan manifested, through all of his trainings.

I have not yet experienced enlightenment trainings but did experience Dan at Impact Trainings and in the Awakening, which he introduced me to.

He is a fine spirit, a true mentor, generous and open, and his inspiration will live on in so many hearts.

Love and LIght to all.

Dean Pappas
LO 180

R. Briggs

I was shocked to read the sad news about Capt Dan on his website. He helped crew on my boat Present Moment on a trip from SF to Dana Point about this time last year. We all learned more about sailing from Dan on that short trip than all our previous combined experiences. He was a great shipmate and even better sailor's teacher and I'll miss him and his adventures. I though you might enjoy the attached photo of Dan directing one of his shipmates.

Sadly,
R. Briggs
S/V Present Moment

Stephen Beck

My friend Edrid wrote me last Friday and asked if I had heard the news about Dan's death. I was shocked yes, but mostly deeply saddened...

I did not know Dan well, as an Enlightenment Intensive is not a place really where one gets to visit with another. Three years ago though, I waited with others for a man at the Ontario airport, whom they were all calling Delta Dan to arrive. His plane was late but hs story upon meeting him was better - "it was an incredible snow storm in Utah. I canceled my first plane reservation so I could go out and ski all day. It was incredible powder. Perhaps the best day of skiing ever! I drove through an incredible traffic jam because of the snow just making it to the airport"... I sat there in the car as we drove up the mountain thinking, "God, what a neat guy!" His behavior and passion as he followed his question at the Enlightenment Intensive did not betray this assessment...

As a surfer, one looks for two things in a surfing partner. One who will watch out after them if they get in trouble. Second, for some who will push the experience of the surfing day to its limit, not chance taking - no! but of another who will make this day in the ocean the most incredible experience and joy at being alive on this day. I experienced that spirit in Dan, and from reading the post of others, so did everyone else who has written...

It would easy for the casual observer - and wrong!!! to think of Dan as a risk taker, that somehow his pursuit of his passions somehow lead to his untimely demise. Anyone who has sailed extensively, like I have, or those of you who fly, know that reckless people don't last too long against the bigness of the elements. From all with who i have talked, Dan an was not a risk taker but someone who reached with his passion into the experience of life as he saw to live it...

There is a love poem that has been playing over in my head since I heard of his death and line "love is not for the weak of heart". Dan had a "big heart" that called him constantly back to the things he loved to do, to the ocean...

I'll see you at the beach Dan - and then well see where the day takes us from there:-)))...

My love and prayers go out to Dan's family to his friends...

With Respect and Love,


SALT

I awaken,
the taste of salt across my lips,
the smell of the shared earth
rising in the space between us,

folding into the cotton landscape
of the silent womb that contains us,
two separate bodies
floating

together
in a sea of surrender.

Outside
I can hear
the roar of the ocean
as it breaks across the beach,

its white pilgrims singing
as they reach the promised shore
where they collapse in a quiet kiss
and surrender to the earth their treasure -

and to fate,
as the steady hand of the undertow
pulls their lost forms back into the sea.

I love you like no other!

Still
I can feel my soul
being pulled with them
into the emerald sheets of the sea,

across the salty down of jade, as I am
delivered into the currents of a larger will -
alone,

loves final request,
I surrender all claims to you
and yield the salt on my lips
back to the sea.

***
Our love is a swell of hunger and sand,
born in the salt of our wanderings,
blessed in the currents of all to which we surrender.

***

In the morning
we will wake together
our skin still blushing in the fire
of soft almond and rose,

the hunger of our bellies
swelling in the braided air of moss
and salt that pulls us back to the beach,

its ashen face
puckering in the continual kisses of brine ,
happy to be walking in two worlds -
for it is simply not enough to love another person,
as to be wild and human is to love all that is offered in that space
between.

Down the beach
I see a gull rising into the wind,
its proud beak bursting with salty treasure
that it carries back over the ocean -
and I can see that love is not for the weak of heart,

yet from within
the ocean's thunderous chants
I hear it calling everyone to embrace all that is offered in this day,

smiling at the wisdom of its own surrender
it releases a small shell from between its glistening lips -
a once cherished kiss

surrendered to the currents -
a salty diamond from a shared soul
waiting on the shore to find us.

Stephen Beck