Spring
I am sitting at my desk looking outside at a white winter wonderland, thinking back on our first week of spring quarter. Despite the cold white stuff draping everything out there including the pair of yearling deer grazing unaffectedly, Spring has definitely arrived. The robins are back, chattering away, the winter wrens are singing their little hearts out, the Indian plums are leafed out, the salmonberry are flowering and those deer out there are munching on fresh nettle and chickweed.
This week too was filled with the levity of returning home and the exciting freshness of new growth, despite our familiar cold wet surroundings. We formed new clans and made new alliances among now familiar faces. We stepped up the challenge of primitive fire- making by spending a day creating fire kits from the land with no added materials and without the use of tools. We practiced animal forms, learned new ones, and honed and tested our awareness. It is Spring, we are back together and we are awake!