Pursuits>>>>>

I've been back in Arcata for almost 2 months. It's amazing how many pursuits are just waiting to be found [personally] hiding in the cattails.

I'm forming a band with a few other grrls at the moment. We've got vocals, saw, acorrdion, drums, possible sax, possible bass. I've dreamed of this for a while.

I've been doing hot yoga. I started doing hot yoga so I could get past my aversion to heat and being active in heat. This is because I want to do conservation work in the Southwest and I want to overcome my strong feelings towards heat (it immediately aggitates me). I've gone a few times now and it worked, not to mention the heat allows you to do extreme flexi stretches. Who knew you could sweat this much? It's hot but its not unbearable. It normalizes at a certain point, like cold water. ya know?

I'm also trying to physically train in an array of different ways that are fun and interesting. This is for general health and well being but also so I can do my job better (carpentry), breakdance more solidly, and do more supportive acrobatics.

With that, I'm starting (on tuesday) to train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). Surprisingly we have 2 BJJ centers in Arcata alone. I want to learn to effectively defend myself and train my body really intensely. Also, if you haven't noticed I gravitate towards activities which are predominantly male, I think the challenge and initial discomfort is a factor in why I do these things.

As you proably have realized it gets dark at 5:15pm give or take if you're in different parts of the country, but still.....it's a trip. Every year this happens it gets me. It's so sleepy feeling. The autumn makes me feel gloomy, in a good way mostly though. Remember last year, I was in MD and getting so bummed out about the drastic losing of leaves and chill and alla that East Coast stuff.

Sprout Out!

Relax into the Flow, Trust and Let Go....

It seems as though my last post was many many moons ago. I kinda fell off the blog wagon. Spending time on the computer began to feel like a waste of time every free moment I got (especially on Lopez).

I'm going to try to remember all that happened before I made it back to Arcata.

So I finished the awnings/shingling in early August. Then I drove an hour south of Seattle and did a Vipassana retreat. If you don't know about Vipassana the initial retreat is a free 10-day silent meditation. That means no talking, eye contact, writing, or reading. Eleven hours a day of meditation. There are centers all over the world and in most western states there are 3 centers in each state. Very accessible! You are fed delicious vegetarian food, and housed for 10 days. They pull off the free thing because many people donate $, but many people also donate their time. They see them as pretty equal, it's all about the volition behind each act. If donating money is a selfish act or you really don't want to do it then one shouldn't donate money. If you feel obligated to donate time then one shouldn't donate time. However, it's very essential to give back in some way. This was really my first time seriously meditating or learning how to meditate. It was very challenging, both physically and mentally. Who knew how much physical pain could come from sitting in the same position for hours. But that's kinda what it's alla bout. If this sounds interesting to you I'd highly encourage you to visit their website and schedule a retreat for yourself. Here are some photos from the Center in Onalaska, WA:

 What an amazing and beautiful pillow. wisdom: no amount or combination of pillows will ensure comfort.

I couldn't stop thinking about concrete and this particular finish.

After Vipassana, I decided to visit my good buddy Waggy in Seattle. I met him on Lopez. He was a LCLT farming intern. He's one of the sweetest, good hearted, coolest of guys I've met in a while. So I went to Seattle and stayed at this 10-person vegan house that Waggy used to live in (he lived just down the road at this point). I stayed for a week. This was a great amount of time to get to know Seattle a little better. I have to say--Seattle is an awesome city---multi-faceted. So much beauty, so many natural areas, amazing bike trails. My arrival day in Seattle was the day I was done with the silent retreat and when I get to the city we (Waggy's old roomies and i) immediately headed to The Civic Center for the Anarchist Bookfaire. What an odd place to be after a very peaceful silent 10 day period. While in Seattle, Waggy and I endeavored to build a full size cob oven in the back of the house I was staying at (named Montopia). So we did! We drove around Seattle and scavenged as many materials as possible, which turned out to be all of the materials. This was a free project :) Sawdust from a lumber store, dirt from the ground, broken up concrete from a construction site, randomly found bricks. All around great time in Seattle while meeting new friends.

From Seattle I traveled back up to Lopez. I was there for on last week before I was to make my way back down the Coast. I had been away for about a month so it was great to see my beloved Table again and hang out with her, Ralph, Gabriel, Pamela, and Suzanne. 

So I left Lopez and went directly to Portland. My friend, Ivy, who I couchsurfed with one night on the way up North in the beginning of the summer had invited me to go on an 8 day group backpacking trip in the North Cascades. I'd been wanting to see the Cascades since the summer before so I jumped on this sweet opportunity with basically a group of 8 strangers. The hike was super challenging and really beautiful. We day hiked once to the top of the surrounding mountains and swam in a glacial lake (well, I only got in to my hips, but it was great). It felt like we were the first people who had ever been there, that's an amazing feeling.

The day after the trip I was set to head back down to Arcata. A person who I met at Montopia in Seattle, Camila, met me in PDX and headed down with me to meet up with some friends in CA. When I got back to Arcata I started purging my material possessions down to a really workable mostly necessary amount of things. Then I started building an awning on the side of the house where we will put our washer and dryer. It's my first time working with roundwood (logs) and notching and working with the inherent imperfect-ness of roundwood. Good thing my summer work prepared me for awning creation. I'm about to put the last rafter on and add the metal roofing and then it will be complete. One of my bestest best buddies, Jess, is helping me out with it.

I also traveled down to the SF Bay Area to goto Treasure Island Music Festival with my friend Claire and her roomies. It was an electronic music festival. Best performance: Little Dragon! After that I went to Stinson Beach to meet up with my mom and dad for a few days.

Now it's now and I'm still working on getting more projects started and planned. I'm break dancing more regularly. Bike riding. In the process of forming a riot grrl band. Doing hot yoga. Looking for part time manual labor jobs.

Here are some pictures from the last 5 months:

 Red shorts brigade

 Gabriel and I workin on a wedding arch

 I got shrunk...

Camila and I

 New kitty: Badgeit

 Roller funk party in Golden Gate Park

 Start of the mini costume party

 Jess was a giant who got shrunk

 I was a blue flying squirrel

 Camila was Sonic the Hedgehog

 Mini BLT

Mini spread!!

Sprout Out!

Where has my Saturn gone?

Have you heard of the "Saturn return" period of life?

It's worth looking up for more information, but the short and sweet of it is that it's the first "life crisis" or period of re-evaluation a person will experience. Now, of course there are exceptions, but it's along the lines of a "mid-life crisis". Saturn return is all about where Saturn was when you were born. It's cycle takes about 29.5 years to return to the spot it was for your birth. This is most often a time of re-evaluation of all aspects in one's life. It usually happens between the ages 27-31.

I think I'm starting mine early. I don't view this period as a negative thing, but more of an important time for deep introspection. Who knows maybe this will lead to some lucid dream personal exploration :) I feel like a fire has been lit. I don't know if its under my heart, body, or mind...yet. It's somewhere though.

As my time on Lopez comes to an end there are many things running as fast as they can around and around my mind....or maybe they're traipsing. Whatever they're doing it's boggling.

I started my Summer job working with Coen and Cedar, both experienced carpenters. It was our mission to build 12  awnings to protect strawbale wall from south eastern weather. At some point early on, Coen and Cedar got pulled away to other projects. So I started working with the great guy, Scott. He's the 2nd oldest son of Carol and Al, the people who I lived with for the first part of last summer. He's also an experienced carpenter. We finally finished the awnings at the starts of last week. It seemed s daunting in the beginning to build 12 of the exact same structure, but it was so great. Something about doing something 12 times is that you REALLLLY learn how to do it. Every aspect. Loved it. And now I'm spending my last 2 weeks re-shingling as many houses as possible before I leave (I've got 1.5 weeks left). Shingling is very fun. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Just turn on some "phat beats" and get rockin on some shingles. Annnnd thats a new skill to add to the bag. Stoked! I feel like someone could hire me to shingle their house now. We're doing cedar shingle siding, if you're wondering if I'm roofing or siding :) You probably aren't though. hah. (see above picture).

Working with these 3 guys was so so awesome! Not once did I experience being talked down to (either because of my sex or inexperience). I always have felt comfortable, respected, and empowered working with these great people. I never felt like because I'm a grrl they thought I was any less capable to say....... carry huge beams, lift many many 60lb bags of cement, etc.

One of my best buddies, Table has been here for a month or so now. She's staying here after I leave, she kinda got a sweet year long job as a future livestock person at this amazing farm called Horse Drawn Farm. The name suggests what they're all about. Great people. As my time gets nearer to leave I feel Table detaching from my connections in the community in order to form her own. It's really quite beautiful. Though this also means seeing less of her.

I thought this time leaving would be easier, for some odd reason. I figured that I did it last year and was intense and the first leaving would be the strongest on the heart. I figured that since I came back a 2nd time Lopez had become a "thing" in my life and therefore it would be easier to leave. Shit was I wrong! haha. This time of leaving feels very emotional. So much heart connecting has gone on this trip (not like it didn't happen last time, but it's been much different this time). Family connections. Friend connections. Romantic connections. It's all been a dream. I often feel like I can just float away on a hovering piece of moss and  never return to Earth. Ethereal in my path and in the paths of those around me. What beauty?!

Here is another poem that I heavily relate to by, Dawna Markova:

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible;

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance,

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom,

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

What a significant and concise poem. 

Sprout Out!

Le Mois du Soliel

 

Hi! Hi! hi!

I don't know if you've noticed, but I haven't written for quite some time now. Life has been very busy [in a good way]. Every day after work I am waaaaay too pooped to do anything but eat dinner, hang for a sec. and go to bed. I am major tired-ville right now, but I've felt like I needed an update for the past 2 weeks now..haha. It's amazing how time fleets and escapes you every moment. Before you know it, it's the 4th of July and the island is swarming with people. So you'll have to excuse me if 1) I go on too long, 2) my stories make no sense, and 3) my vocabulary ranges further than cool, nice, and sweet :)

Since we spoke last a lot has happened (obviously), probably in your life too. I'll just put them in a bullet list and then talk a bit about each:

• Went to a cob workshop with the Mudgirls on Salt Spring Island in British Colombia
• More rooves
• this doesn't need a bullet list  I'll just jump into the stories......

So the Mudgirls workshop. It was so awesome. Workshops are like sleep away camp for adults. What a great time! Twenty one people came and all but 2 were women (though the workshops aren't exclusive to women). Salt Spring, BC is a beautiful island, but it is really populated like 15,000 people. Too many for my island tastes :) We came together to build a massive cob wall to separate a house with kids and dog from the main road on Salt Spring Island. The workshop was one week long. Canada is very international. Many of the folks there were from Vancouver, BC, but many were recently there from Ireland, France, Germany, and Japan. It was a wonderful mix of people. The ages were wide ranging. It was amazing how cohesive of a group we all became. Hardly any cliques were formed. We all got so close in such a short period of time. It was magical. Lots of pond swimming and lots of mud and lots of bad ass women. Many people there inspired me. I met a young lady there named Clem (short for Clementine). Clem is from France and didn't speak English fluently and I haven't spoken French since high school (7 years ago). At first we were both too intimidated and scared to chat. Its amazing how stifling language differences can be. And through talking consistently with eachother we have become pretty fluent in the other's language. Fluent enough to have conversations about pretty much anything. It's been so interesting to have this kind of experience.

Clem is on a 4 month travel adventure in North America. She came to visit on Lopez! So much fun.

 We went kayaking with Pamela's niece

And built a sweet dribble sand castle on the spit.

A new family has been here at Pamela and Suzanne's and it is wonderful. It's me, clem, table, gabriel, sweller, pamela, suzanne, zuma, rowan, and goyala. It's been amazing and heart warming being this home crew of a buncha different people. I love it.

We've been plugging away at the rooves.

I've been contemplating my next step.

I've been missing lots of things and people. Growing everyday :)

Experiencing solstice.

Volunteering in friend's gardens.

Playing music at the farmer's market.

Have you ever seen that show The Busy World of Richard Sccary. Its a kids show and book series and when I used to watch it as a kid I always wanted to live there. I've figured it out, Lopez is the Busy World of Richard Sccary. Here check out a clip:

I bet a lot more things have gone on, but they are escaping me. I've realized my weakness for the sun. It makes me a wilted plant.

Love you and talk with ya later!