I miss Jeff Maurer

Jeff Maurer is one of the greatest men I've had the pleasure of knowing in my lifetime. I used to live with Jeff at N. st. coop. He taught Sarina and me a lot about honey bees (collecting swarms, harvesting, and honey spoon licking). I had a fuller understanding and appreciation of Jeff as our friendship matured. And through reading the stories of the people he touched, my understanding and appreciation of the man continues to develop.

He had amazing intuition, inner peace, humility and genuineness. He was extremely bright and cunning as well. He brought a wisdom to the soccer field. There are few players who are able to see the field as if they had a birds eye perspective. But Jeff was one of them. A play maker. A community builder.

Jeff helped plan my recent bachelor party ("Mens weekend"). He introduced me to Kristin on this trip but made sure that she was on the outer perimeter of the campsite so as to respect the sanctity of our male nesting area. He also lead the group on a hike up to Bud Lake. (We took the bus to get there).
This was the second time he took a group of our friends up to Bud Lake. The first trip involved jumping into the frigid lake waters naked, drinking from glacier melt, and throwing a Frisbee back and forth on either side of the creek as we scurried down the descent trail. Man that was fun.

One of my fondest memories of Jeff was rollerblading with him on his birthday. It was kind of a spontaneous thing. The housemates (Jeff, Greg, and I) passed around a ceremonial peace pipe, put on our roller blades, and headed for North Davis. We felt like kids again, taking turns following the leader. We went to a few parks and saw some bird nests. It is hard to capture the feeling in words, but Jeff let us in on something special that day. He reminded me of the importance of being spontaneous and of letting go of life issues, even for just an afternoon. I want to keep this in mind as I move forward in life, especially when life seems unbearable. I love you Jeff and I miss you already.

Pete