Late Summer Bounty

Lately it's seemed that I've only had bad news from friends and family - illness, job loss, the loss of a much-wanted pregnancy, and crazy disasters that defy explaination. I've been dealing with more car repairs. For the 1st time in about 10 months I have good brakes all around. Even my church has been under weird stresses that are worrisome. And yet, I've been feeling called to gratitude and celebration...
I live in a place that I love, work at a job that makes a difference in the world, and am surrounded by friends and by mountain vistas, forest, and fields...such a bounty of good things here!
Two weeks ago, I won a pound of produce at our local farmer's market! I chose 2 beautiful ripe peaches that were as good as any peaches I've ever had.
On Saturday, I spent a couple of hours hiking on a lovely trail with a new friend...and found the best tomatoes I've had since I left Missouri at Remlinger Farms in Carnation...then I took a long nap...we might have to rethink the idea we had about doing a 26 mile hike in one day...
The summer "heat wave" seems to have abated...it got all the way up to 93 one day! By Missouri standards, not so bad at all, and I'm really glad that summers here are short.
I had a week off work to enjoy good books, favorite old movies and I even got a fair amount of work done on a cross-stitch project I've been not working on for way longer than I care to reveal. In no particular order, the movies were, "Rio Bravo", "Stagecoach", "The Great Escape", "The Sound of Music", "Apollo 13", "The Stand", "Braveheart", "Men in Black", "The Hunt for Red October", and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". I still think John Wayne is the best ever...
Today, one friend got hired after 5 months of unemployment, another got good news (or so her FaceBook status implies), and I've heard a good prognosis for another. I'm overwhelmed by gratitude and thankfulness for all those things.

The Sun Does Shine in the Pacific Northwest

Today I'm thankful for sunshine...and for my cat, Clara, who is being very affectionate right now...and for my friends here, and back in Missouri...and for family in Arkansas, Okalahoma, Missouri, and Wyoming...and that my co-worker's baby girl was born safely on Thursday...OK, so I probably did that backwards, but the sun was beautiful today. I couldn't find my sunglasses, but that's OK, too.

At WAS we started every day of class with some version of the Thanksgiving Address. It's a good way to start any day, and I try to be mindful of my many blessings. Some of my classmates in the Residential Program had a tough time with the generally cloudy weather here. The California folks, in particular, seemed to hate the dreary days and the rain. I like it. One of my biggest migraine triggers is sunlight bouncing off chrome and mirrors. I love being able to drive without worrying about that.

Although it does rain often here, it's usually not raining very hard, and I hardly ever hear thunder or see lightning. I have seen hail a couple of times, and sleet, and snow...but compared to Missouri weather, it's generally pretty mild. I appreciate the sunshine, and know that tomorrow it will probably be overcast and/or raining to some degree. I won't waste time tonight looking for those sunglasses, because it will likely be a few days before I'll need them again. And thats OK with me.

New Year's Resolutions, Revolutions, and Revelations

As I'm sipping wine and thinking about the changes I want to make in my life in the New Year it occurs to me that I have it pretty good...
I'm living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with a warm apartment to come home to, a cat who greets me, food in the pantry, and piles of books and boxes of craft supplies to keep me entertained. If I can't find anything to watch on the 4 TV channels I can get without cable I pop a movie into the DVD player and enjoy an old favorite. My '99 Bravada gets me to work and back. I like my job at Wilderness Awareness School and my office has a window!

That window is important...I worked the night shift for many years as a nurse's aide at a small Missouri hospital, and then worked for 15 years or so in the storeroom. There weren't any windows in the storeroom. The only natural light that came in was through the back door when trucks came with freight to unload. Those all-too short glimpses of the outdoors came with diesel exhaust. So, I don't have much to complain about. Still, this day is traditionally the one day when we all resolve to do better...be better. With no further ado, here are my New Year's Resolutions, version 2000.8

• I will get Mom's birthday present in the mail so that it will arrive by Jan. 7th.
• I will talk to my friends back in Missouri more often, for no reason at all. For a while, we only spoke on the phone if there was bad news to relay. After Cheryl had called me for the 2nd time to tell me of the deaths of other friends, we agreed to phone on Monday evenings. Sometimes she calls me, sometimes I call her, but we do call, just for fun.
• I will write every day...OK, every other day...every third day, for sure...and I'll be brave about asking people to read my stuff. There's just no point in writing unless someone reads it.
• I will drink more wine. The glass I'm having tonight is from a 4-pack of single-serve bottles that I bought to celebrate my graduation from WAS - in June. I still have a bottle left.
• There's no doubt that I'm going to continue to eat ice cream, so I'm going to allow myself to have the good stuff. No guilt allowed. Hot fudge sauce on special occasions.
• I'm going to stop reading a book if it's not good in the first 3 chapters...there are way too many books to waste time on bad ones.
• I'm going to take more bubble baths.
• I will visit the new Cabela's in Lacey, Washington...it's dangerous. I could happily spend every penny I ever make in that store. It's the one thing about Kansas City that I have missed... and the barbecue, of course.
• I will use the fishing license that I bought.
• I will be grateful every day for the remarkable opportunity I have here in my new life.

Life gets complicated if we let it...and the world keeps turning. It only turns in one direction, so there's no use trying to go back.

See how profound I can be with a little wine?

Happy New Year! Please celebrate sanely.

Taking Off...Looking For a Safe Place to Land

The plane lurched and tilted to the right. "We are going down," screamed the shrill voice in my head. On the outside I thought I remained fairly calm. Probably nobody noticed that my right hand pulled up on the armrest as if to right the plane. My left had gone to my neck and my most valuable piece of jewelry. The quarter-size disk of Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) is just right for use as a worry bead. I've rubbed it shiny with the oils from my skin..

My instructors carved it and 17 more from the branch of a tree found growing near the river. It's strung on Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum) cordage they made while waiting out the 4 long nights of our survival trip. It was our final exam. We passed. KINGFISHER! They welcomed us back from the far side of the river with Miso soup, watermelon, chocolate, and the necklaces - riches we hadn't expected.

Interesting...the panic didn't set in. Landing gear! That explained the sudden lurch. We were landing in Seattle. I didn't know it yet, but I was coming safely home.

As the plane continued it's slow tilt and turn to the right I saw Mt. Baker. The last light from the setting sun hit the sound and streamers of gold and red bounced off the water and up to the low lying purple clouds to the west. Sometimes God gives you a movie moment, and I think he expects us to be grateful. "Thank you," I said in a small quiet voice. Mt. Rainer appeared in my window and the ground met us gently. I'd survived another adventure! "And thank you for that," I added.

I was the last person you'd ever expect to have adventures. On February 14, 2004 - three days before what would have been our 25th anniversary - I found myself divorced and with a job that kicked my butt every day. I'd lost the house we'd built just 3 years earlier, and had narrowly avoided being held responsible for the entire financial burden of the breakup. I had bills I couldn't pay, my blood pressure was up, my feet and my shoulder hurt, and I was sure that I was stuck. Helpless...Hopeless...

I hid in the basement of a friend's house during tornado watches. I didn't drive on the highway. I wouldn't fly- it was too dangerous, and I didn't buy the whole concept of flight anyway. Fear was keeping me from having a life. And yet, I desperately wanted to go places, do things - have adventures.

I found the website to Wilderness Awareness School by accident, applied for a scholarship, quit my job and left Missouri to be the oldest "kid" in the 2006-2007 Residential Program. It was the first thing I'd ever done without a plan and a back-up plan. It was the smartest thing I've ever done.

Aside from the challenges of going back to school, I was stuck in a yurt for 3 days by flood, stranded in town by snow, and survived an earthquake -sort of. I built and slept in debris huts and snow shelters. I learned to start a fire with a bow drill, make and use primitve tools, and gather plants for food and medicine. I learned to stand up for my self, trust my intuition, and tell my story.

My friends tell me I was brave to quit my job and move 2000 miles away to start a new life...I don't feel particularly brave. I just knew that if I was going to survive, I had to make some big changes in my life. And I'm not just surviving - I'm thriving.

In this blog, I'm going to share my adventures...it probably won't be linear. I go off on tangents. It'll be part outdoor adventure, part travelog, part naturalist's notebook, and part... well, I guess we'll see about that. I'll share my best stories, my biggest triumphs, and my worst moments. It's my intention to entertain you, make you laugh, teach you some cool naturalist "stuff", and, sometimes even make you cry. It's about what I've experienced, what I've learned, howI got here, and where I hope to go from here.

I'll reveal my favorite outdoor store (Cabela's), what equipment I bought (snowshoes, sleeping bags, tents, water purifiers, etc.), what I liked, and what didn't work for me. I'll tell you about my favorite books, my best friends, and my biggest challenges. Life is meant to be an adventure...let me tell you about mine.