  Brought back the door of one of our Overnight shelters. Hold the door. Good memories.
This mouse lives in a magical place,
Where the morning sun slowly sweeps away ice from frozen maple leaves, Where Housefinches skip from branch to branch, Hummingbirds call each other for companionship, Trumpeter swans cheer each other on with honks. Where the Great Blue Heron flies low, the Bald Eagle watches over the Snohomish River, And the Flicker spreads their colorful wings. Where mallards swim together in circles, And a Cinnamon teal might be seen. Where endless bird poop can be found. Where Caddisfly larvae uses silk to make a protective case out of gravel, sand and tiny pieces of plants, so strong they are hard to pull apart. Where Cedars make great hides But less mindful visitors leave their tools and lunches Decorating logs with sprayed art. Where Beavers snack on young Cottonwood branches Leaving behind their tracks to observe Where Coyotes go swimming in the icy cold river Taking a long time to build a fire afterwards Where Bob saved the place from development His death marking the end of the Golden Age of Steelheading. This mouse lives in a magical place. I AM FROM
where the hills are alive with the Sound of Music where beer is consumed in big heavy mugs with pretzels where chestnuts are covering the old mill's creek and the nauseating smell of red geraniums nestled in planters on a balcony overlooking the town center. I AM FROM a home I am scared to be alone in, feeling in danger, hiding from the evil, who's ashes are now spread all over Hawaii in stark contrast to the sweetness of the warm buns 'finger-dick' topped with Nutella - oh, so forbidden - cut up in little bit sized squares with unconditional love by my grandparents, followed by Grandpa peeling potatoes for a big family dinner to the sound of Formula 1 engines ravving on TV. I AM FROM a lake where the nightly summer storm is announced by flashing red lights, alarming everyone to get busy, taking laundry of the umbrella clothes line dryer, rushing home, the air electrified in excitement, the first heavy raindrops releasing the warmth of the asphalt - and in this mix my best friends familiar smelling fish hands. I AM FROM a place where we are pretending to be a happy family - then & now - like so many. The endless bickering reminding me of my own shortcomings and how we are all one driven by the power of love and kindness. Where our piep-piep-piep rhyme is captured in a book about nurturing family rituals, called Heart Tending. We must do something right. I AM FROM a soul inspired by all my tree hugging friends who are giving the best hugs ever, likely from years of practicing on trees and how I miss them. I AM FROM from many landscapes traveled with others equally passionate about being alive and part of something bigger. I AM FROM the lust of adventures running deep through my veins for centuries. I AM FROM random kindness making my heart skip a beat, thriving to witness these moments every day! Today our Anake session was to connect with our sit spot land in a deeper way. We set some intentions in the morning before going out for about 2 hours. Tending, listening, offering, touching, beautifying,... inspired by the 5 Love Languages and aware what we offer might be not what the land asks for. My intention was to listen to the land. I started with taking the trash out. I had a pile collected at Fairmount and was meaning to get it out for a while. It was a rainy morning and I enjoyed getting soaking wet. I cut my way through a lot of blackberries on my way to the little Madrona I planted with David 2 years ago. She looks very happy with her glossy wet leaves. I also freed up the little Thimbleberry and Gooseberry Patch close by. A woman played with her Golden Doodle in the Park and they sounds they made where very different from all the other Dog/human-pairs that frequent the field. I looked up a couple of times but could not really figure out what was so special about their play. I continued my blackberry cutting east of the Cherry log and listened to the birds chatter about me. There wasn't much else going on, so I was pretty sure it was about me. I wondered if they are annoyed by my actions or if they can feel my intention of bringing more diversity and food sources for them instead. I could feel their energy and started whistling the melody of 'grateful to be' but didn't connect the song with the lyrics at first. I just felt like their alertness switched more to curiosity and general chatter and away from my presence. Like the birds in the sky Like the dragonfly Like the trees listening What lives in them lives in me I am grateful to be Breathing, heart beating, joyous, and free Even though hard times are all around me I am grateful to be When we met on Zoom again after our dirt time, and shared about our experiences. I was completely soaked but very happy. Cutting blackberries is meditative and very satisfying for me. I can listen to all the sounds and rediscover plants hidden under 15 feet of blackberry canes. Later I looked up the song online and loved how much meaning the words had to my morning. It was the second day after the 2020 Election and we were all waiting for the call who will be the next US President. There was a general heaviness in the air. I worried a lot for the future of the planet if the US leadership would continue under an evil person that lacks any sense for stewardship and the importance of a healthy ecosystem for human survival.   Happy little Madrona
If I'm really honest with myself, why am I here?
I'm a wild thing. Tamed and muted by education, anxiety and capitalism. Society, crazy and deep. Destroying our home. I'm a worker bee caught between adventure and duty. Inspired by the brilliance of each flower, snowflake, seed gathering life's elixir. Mystery. Beauty. Grief. Keeping it together. Propolis. One with the hive. Unique. Like everyone. One. Temporary. What longing am I moving towards? Giving my inner child what it needs to be happy. Playing in the forest with friends. Wondering. Creating space for magic. Dazzle. Enchantment. Desperate for connection. I want to feel home wherever I go. This summer when I got to spend some time in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, I tried to find out more about the creek running close to our rental.
During the research I learnt about a group restoring Ennis creek and then came across this song son Wes wrote for his Mom to acknowledge restoration efforts. I think it's beautiful, the story as well as the song: Lifeline We will spend a lot of dirt time this year and sit.
My current relationship with my sit spot is somewhat torn as I see so many things and feel really connected but the space feels somewhat transient. Change is in the air. It's a City Park and neighbors on all edges interact with the space in different ways. I did have the most impact on the space, restoring it to native plants, removing the intruders. It feels interesting as an intruder myself. But I might call myself 'introduced' and 'non-invasive', as I try to play along with the others in a respectful, harmless way. Am I really? Stealing valuable resources: Light. Water. Air. Space. Smothering over the others. Just like the Himalayan Blackberry? I do use resources. Some are limited. Some raised in value because people like me moved here and made space more rare. Outpricing the locals/natives. I will go now and introduce myself to my little nature patch, I feel to know for a while now, and try to reach out and find my 'Octopus teacher' (Jon Young just suggested his friends Craig Foster's new film). I will try to see everyone and everything with new eyes. I really like the idea how external tracking and relating to a place also activates internal tracking. I will try to pay more attention to that. But this time I will wear shoes as my spider limbo made me be a little less cautious and step in Himalayan blackberry which left an inch long gap on the bottom of my foot. Ouch. Despite the smoke, I needed to go outside and check in with my forest friends. I took off my socks and climbed down the stairs.
First, I visited Hugo, my little buddy. The fern I gave him as a companion didn't seem to have survived the summer heat but Hugo seemed to be doing better. It definitely helps that he doesn't get as many destructive visitors. I had to roll back my little log I used in my sit spot. My sit spot rock was still there. I had to clean up a bit. Lots of trash left from the telecom workers. I went up to the curvy cedar, picked up some trash there and sat a little bit in my sit spot. I heard a lot of city noise and the ferry horn. Air plane. Construction. Cars. But also the hummer and some other birds. I watched a On my way back I noticed all the spider webs and I started to do a limbo dance/crawl so I wouldn't touch all their cobs. There were about 6 back to back and it was quite the challenge and a lot of fun. I didn't enjoy the blackberry canes as much on the ground. Barefoot. I grew up barefoot. I should check in with my Dad how often he is still walking barefoot. I visited my little Madrone babies. My toddler seems to be doing great. Everything around him is brown but he is bright green in his little spot over the marker. Seven of the 10 babies seem to be viable. The Cedars on the other hand are all dried up. :-( There were lots of clumps of moss lying around the south of the house I once learned the crows love to feed their offspring with. When I came back in my socks where not on the porch anymore. I found them on the couch. This morning we had Intros over Zoom with the entire Anake cohort.
Who am I? Why am I here? What longing am I moving towards? I needed a couple attempts to trim my share down to what I wanted to say. It was nice to hear everyone's voice and being able to see their faces. I guess it's the benefit of getting smoked right now. For me it's a lot about spirituality, finding my voice and reconnecting with my inner child while learning and spreading the love of connection. I am still pretty happy about my written introduction in the google group. Written is definitely easier for me to express myself.  I moved into Cedar Loft at Linne Doran. I created a little nature table on my book shelf, stuffed with all the Naturalist books, I brought along. My roomies are fun and we will have a great time together.
 Found these beauties on our daily evening walk and loved how the light fell on them. I tried to ID them but couldn't find them yet. Back home I did some yard work and then find the flowers in the very back of our yard. So exciting!
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