Whoa whoa, Mex-ic-o

James Taylor's words, not mine! Gone from May 26~June 1.

Deep Grief

It's hard to describe how yesterday went, but I think the words: pain, anguish, shame, fury, injustice, and immorality come to mind.

The Great Spirit had it so that our outing paused on a Forest Service logging road at the edge of two clear-cuts. One was in the past 3-5 years, the other in the past 7-10. A clear-cut is when a company makes a road into wilderness and uses machinery to chop down every tree (except they usually leave one skinny, weak tree) in an area of hundreds of trees.

The bus didn't start and we spent three hours there, on a road, amidst this devastation. It would be more expensive to take out selected trees and carry them out. But it would keep a healthy and balanced ecosystem. In the long run, more trees would be stronger and the ecosystem would thrive. In the end, the land would be "worth more money" because it would be in better condition. Unfortunately the narrow-mindedness of greed and immediate profit now rapes these landscapes.

Access means that people like us can go out there and hike and explore. It also means that people go to these lands and shoot their guns. They leave hundreds of bullet casings to litter and decimate the lands and also take greedily any animals they see. Or they just shoot for its own sake, bringing out garbage and then taking aim at it... and more litter gets left in the wilderness. And lest we forget that all bullets end up somewhere... usually lodging into some sort of living being. If not, then into our mountain headwaters, polluting the very resource which sustains our life. Violence, pillaging, and cursing future generations in a bastardization, misinterpretation, and immoral declaration of "second amendment rights."

Alcohol bottles, motor oil, car wreckages, sickly native plants, treeless landscapes, barren roads, undrinkable water. "Rights" to use "our" lands, our guns, our freedom... simply bullshit. All of these "rights" are incumbent upon the mandatory obligation and responsibility that goes with them. And it is immoral and dastardly to only consider one side of this coin. Unfortunately that is what we are doing. This is the current state of our land.

We have work to do. We can turn this around. But we have to do the work. Not run away from it. Not pretend it doesn't exist. We must face the grief that we are doing damage to our world. AND we must forgive ourselves for this negligence. Then, we can shift our behaviors to more healthy ones: for ourselves, our land, our freedom, our future, and the future of our generation-to-come. We have the power, but we also have to recognize our dark side.

Never thought I'd say it...

.. and never thought I'd mean it:

I missed the rain. I really like the rain.

After two weeks of glorious and sunny weather, blooming flowers and abundant energy everywhere, I needed the rain to come back. I was pretty tired from all the sunlight and the rain brought calm and quiet back to a frenzied world. Maybe it's just because I am busy but I feel that the rain slowed down everything around me also and let us settle into our homes once again. I know that my garden it probably pretty happy about the weather having shifted too... the plants were parched!

It's nice to have wind and rain and weather move in. It is exciting in a subdued way. Perfect for Bellingham (nickname: City of Subdued Excitement) and perfect for me right now.

The sprinkles from the sky soothed my searing skin when I stepped out of the sweat lodge last Sunday. I participated in a Sacred Hunting circle and then purified my body during the subsequent sweat. It was a good energy that we created a good energy together and then purged our negatives and oppressing energy with a three-hour sweat lodge. How nice. How ritualistic. How instinctive. How real. Good medicine.

If there is any major take-home it is this:
"When a hunter who is in right relationship with themselves and all of creation, sends an arrow from their heart to the heart of the right animal, it never misses."

morning paddle

On a cloudy, somewhat windy morning Michelle's dad, Tom, and I went for a voyage towards Post Point. It was funny because we paddled into the wind for the way there... and then the wind died down when we turned home so we only got about five minutes of wind support. Here is a picture from the outing... with the super low tide we saw lots of these Pisaster ochraceus grouped together.

And as I type this, the marine layer is breaking up and the sun is peeking through the clouds :)

Night life- raccoon, bat, and comet

I stumbled home from soccer last night because of a sore and injured body. It's hard getting older :)

All the sudden a critter crossed my saunter. A large bushy-tailed cat that seemed to be waddling in no particular hurry. I recognized her face mask immediately... Procyon lotor in my own backyard! Awesome.

It was taking a trajectory from the obvious food source (a dumpster with bags of food laying OUTSIDE of it from lazy construction workers) through the hedge in our backyard toward.... I am not sure where, maybe home.

If so, where is home for this raccoon? Are there newly born kits now too? Is this momma coon checking out a food source? She looked rather fat, is she pregnant? Was he a well-fed male? So many questions! But one thing is for sure... in the twilight and fading sunset at 9:15pm, she was on the move. And I have my spirit animal living in the neighborhood!

As I turned to go into the building and up the stairwell, I saw a flickering in the sky. Sure enough, bats are out and about too! With lots of insects in the evening (I got bit many times by mosquitoes while i my sit spot the other day) they should be well-fed through the rest of the spring and summer. Go, bats, go! Eat those mosi's!

And lastly, I swear we saw a comet last night too. Outside of Kulshan Brewery (for post-soccer unwinding) we looked into the west and saw a comet slowly making its way toward the horizon. Anyone know of a visible comet seen from Bellingham, Washington these days?

Birding while Cooking

I was cooking the other morning when I heard strange noises outside my kitchen window. I saw a gull (Larus glaucescens), and then a crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and they were attacking each other. The crow was swooping at the gull, to which the gull responded with sharp beak jabs. Then it would make a call like, "One of you crows better get this guy away from me before I kill him." And sure enough, three crows heard the gull's cry and they chased off their kin! It's like they were taking care of the Napoleon-like cousin and got him out of there before he got himself into trouble. I use the pronoun "he" because it seemed like a masculine display to me.

 Said gull

 Said crow

Said crow stalking the gull before making a flying, leaping, attack!

weekend with seven and eight year olds

A rewarding weekend exploring the concept of Service and Stewardship with young boys at Larrabee State Park. We pulled some plants that are out of balance (common terminology: invasive). Discussed the difference between flowers and weeds... flowers, we love, and weeds we just haven't learned to love yet. We discussed that somethings must die so that others can live. Seven year-olds saying, "Life and death go hand in hand," is poetic, beautiful, true, and insightful. And inspiring. I am happy about this nature connection work, male mentorship, and stewardship ethic building too. Connections everywhere and perfect from every angle.

 Found, hidden in the sword fern

 About to search for amphibians

 Different types of stewardship: Trail-building and maintenance

Can you hear me in the back?!

more Kayaking...

Not a cloud in the sky.
Sunshine all day.
Low Eighties.
Bellingham Bay.
Thirty Minutes.
Nice kayak.
High tide.
Calm water.
Calm mind.

Kayak to Post Point on 5/3

Went out for a glorious kayak yesterday afternoon. Sunny and hot, afternoon, no wind, 6pm lots of sun still in the sky. Here are some pictures:

Looking south toward the Olympic mountains and Olympic National Park, San Juan Islands to the right

Ditto.

Carolina (my boat's name) facing southwest at Orcas Island(?) One of the San Juans, in any case!

Post Point on the left, railroad track too :(

 Mt. Baker peeping up over South Hill.

The Alaska Ferry leaves at 6:10pm on Fridays. I got to paddle in front of it before it left and then watch it head south to get out of the islands. In the background are the major players of the British Colombia Coast Range

American Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) on the rock in the foreground... kinda blends in with rock crevices in the background. See its orange eye, electric neon orange beak and dainty pink legs. I also saw lots of gulls (Glaucous-winged, Western?), a Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), some Harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus), a Harbor Seal, and an interesting-looking, dark-headed gull... maybe a Bonaparte's Gull (Larus philadelphia). I also heard and saw the Caspian Terns (Sterna caspia) which are back for the summer breeding extravaganza!

Incredible weather, great paddle. So thankful... and for Michelle who helped me put my boat away and then drove me home!

Sit spot- from 5/3

I felt inspired to get out to a sit spot, so I thought I might choose the same one that I have visited twice already. I asked Matt if he would go to his sit spot in the morning (this all happened yesterday- 5/3) and he said that he'd be out there at 7:30am. We chatted about triangulating the bird calls near our adjacent sit spots to see if we could determine some of the translations... and yes, birds DO have a language that we CAN understand if we learn it...

Anyways, I was out there from 7:45~8:30 and walked barefoot through the forest to get there... that in itself was invigorating and a GREAT way to start the day. I never saw Matt but figured he was there and that we'd catch up to talk about the stuff we heard.

I walked in the door of the apartment building to see Matt holding a paint can! Turns out he was working on the building and that he wasn't up there! I was "coyote'd" and was at my sit spot by myself. I was certainly not angry about Matt's "deception" because he really had work to do. I actually thanked him for it because it was the best way for me to start my day off. And the rest of the day was fabulous.

-Walked around the forest with bare feet and felt the earth on my soles (in my soul).
-New bird call.... like an engine starting up or a referee blowing a whistle slowly and then faster...
-A bird came zipping through the brush about 10 feet from me
-The growth is tremendous... in only one month it is like climbing through a jungle (literally) to get to my spot.
-I think I like my spot. And I should go back a little more often too :)