New clay mine, bears, death, a haunted hat

It was a beautiful weekend, starting with turtle dance in fremont after which we drove to lebam, arriving after midnight and sharing a cup of wine and 2 chapters of jane eyre before bed. my intention was to relax for the entire saturday, but the propane held out only through heating up tea water and cooking a pan of bacon, so we schlepped the tanks to raymond and enjoyed a townie 2-hour adventure. the young man who filled the propane tanks had beautiful hands, long fingers, graceful and gentle in their work, and his manner with us was humble, informative, left us both smiling and commenting.

over and over this weekend new levels of communication would open up when one of us would take that first dip into the well, a little bit of risk, or perhaps enough clarity on a thought that had been forming, but uncannily the other would echo some mirror, or balence to the other that turned the well into a lake and we woud swim, dive, pick up stones on the shore, skip them across the surface knowing they would eventually drop like feathers to the mucky bottom. it was our direct experience of the concept being discussed on npr's 'science friday' where quantum physics and free will experiments yield evidence of multiple-layered realities, existence vibrating in frequencies that allow simultaneous time-space events. the most profound example was, and perhaps this sounds a little silly, but my hat disappeared in the bed for all of sunday morning, we both searched in turn thoroughly through sheets, blankets and pillowcases, and then it literally, at a moment when neither of us were paying attention, reappeared on top of the bed 6 inches from virginia's lap, laying there in plain view with no warning, one second gone, the next returned.

late saturday afternoon our talk turned for several hours to fear and death, and on the ensuing walk we took bears had shit in enormous black piles, filled with berry seeds, it was beginning to be dusky, we were not able to find the beaver lake that must be huge as it has lowered the creek level through at least 2 miles of the valley, every step was full of wonder, our pace was meditative, the talk took us deeper into elements of dark-man images, clearing the way for more trust, more compassion, more collaboration and understanding.

on sunday i dug a new clay mine up by the compost bins and started working the interior wall of the northeast corner of the cabin while virginia spread her images and tools across the table to begin assembling cards for loved ones. it was a grounded, simple and comforting way to work together on our own projects in a common space, more evidence of the ease we both experience through this loving exploration. and we returned to the city last night, full of dinner from evey's in pe ell, letting the weekend fade slowly with more jane eyre, and then a deep night's sleep.