Fire and Water

Today is St. John’s Day.  Fire and Water.  Bonfire and baptism.  Transformation.

Gratitude List:
1. (What do you hear?) On a morning heavy with rain in the air, the sound of a train in the deep distance, near the River.
2. (What gives you fire?) Clearing spaces for the projects at hand.  If you want to make a fire in the woods of your life, you have to clear away the brush and detritus, eh?
3. (What cleanses and transforms you?) A fresh start every morning.  Tabula rasa.  Solitude.
4. (What has been hard?) Juggling family and personal writing and being part of the farm and scheduling school prep and finding time to be with friends.  When I lay it out like this, the thing that I find really frustrating–the juggling–brings me a list of all the things that I am most grateful for.
5. (What will you pay attention to today?) I am going to listen especially carefully for the source moments of conflict between the boys so that I can help them work it through rather than simply reacting.

May we walk in Beauty!

It’s wildlife dreams right now.  The other night I was trying to distract three hungry swimming bears from eating my friends.  Last night, skunks and badgers.  Oh, and a baby bear.  And puppies.  Somebody had one of the baby skunks on the table in a little wooden baby chair.  It was sitting back and enjoying all the little tidbits it was being fed.  I found the other one, and a black and white puppy, wandering around the yard near the badger nest, and thought I would make a joke about two black and white puppies.  It was really funny in my dream.  The mother badger (or stoat?) was taking care of a bear cub among her babies.  At first I thought it was a giant rabbit, but it turned out to be a bear.