Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Walbran Trip July or August.
I was inspired by my Hadikin Lake trip of a few weeks ago, and also inspired by the number of friends who said they wished they knew about it or could come… and so have enlisted Kyla to help me organize another trip for later this summer to the Walbran. (For those of you who don’t know, the Carmanah Valley is in the same watershed – it’s just outside of Cowichan Lake). The trip will be about 3.5 hours from Victoria (over half of which on well-maintained logging roads) and about 5 from Vancouver (depending on how adept you are at catching ferries on schedule). But well worth it friends! This is a jewel of a place.
We are hoping to reunite some of our Victoria crew from *way* back in the day, but I would also like to extend this invitation to any of my heart-friends from Vancouver who would like to join us. Children, of course, are most welcome.
I have been thinking about late July or early August (not the long weekend though, it’s too hectic for traveling) and doing something from a Friday morning to Monday (those of you who don’t have such flexible work days could just come Friday-Sunday or whatever). And so Kyla and I have agreed to figure out dates soon. What I would like to know from you (whoever you are that knows me and is reading this) is:
- are you interested in coming along on such an excursion?
- are there any dates that do *not* work for you at all?
Not that I’m promising the dates we pick will work for everyone, but I’d like to find the best possible time for the most people. So please respond to me by email (if you know it), or on tribe or facebook (comments here just get buried in spam)… And I’ll create some sort of a distibution list for planning this endeavour (a large or small task depending on how many replies I get).
The sky is not falling.
Oh my. I’m processing again. And realizing. Oh. And almost losing it a little too. But I allowed myself to leave work early because I wasn’t feeling so great, and went somewhere good for me, and then walked for awhile, and took care of some things that needed taking care of. And that does feel better than wallowing.
Got the flat tire on my car fixed. Victoria this weekend. Seems like good timing to me.
One lover brought me flowers and another brought me God.
One lover brought me flowers and another brought me God; straight through from the screen into meaning, one voice meets another in a smoky subterranean bar (disappearing in fast number these rumpus-room arrangements). About travel, and fantasy and trauma and scotch we whittled down the night until the grey dawn came rapping and our sudden sobriety pulled us into that which matters. The violence of the new day, prying off the cover of night and I heard a truth there – in my heart; in that shift between dark and day, between tipsy and straight and was pinned down in a conversation that took my hand by surprise and lead me through. What stranger could provoke this in me, some madness says the rational, but the mystic says no. Intention. An appropriate juncture for leaving old things behind. Profound and still unpretentious, a whisper against the neck, a sigh for what will not be. Footsteps away. And away. And alone.
Not a girl with thin wrists.
I’ve been working out pretty steadily for the past three months or so – trying to kick myself into shape for the Marble Mountains trip at the end of August which I’d like to do without killing myself. More recently, I’ve been trying to ground myself out a bit through daily stretching and yoga first thing in the morning. As a result, not only have I lost weight (enough that my clothes don’t fit properly), but my body has changed noticeably in definition. Yesterday I was at the gym after work, on the cursed stationary bike (oh how that thing bores me – I need to get a real bike again!) and I looked down at my hands on the bars and it struck me how damned thin my wrists are suddenly.
Now, I am not a girl with thin wrists, so it’s not like I’ve gone birdlike suddenly… but I realized that if my forearms and wrists seemed that much smaller, then it stands to reason that the rest of me is probably shrinking or the muscles are lengthened and thus making me appear smaller. Make sense? It seemed weird anyhow, as I have gone through intensively in-shape periods in the past and have never noticed anything with quite that much clarity before.
I’m feeling pretty good about the prospect of this hike at the end of August, though I am a little worried about my ankle. Even now the injury reminds me often of its presence – and it’s been almost four years! I think some visits to my physiotherapist could help assuage my fears.
Besides the physical goodness, I’ve also been officially offered the national project management position and my boss has been approached by the folks in Ottawa to release me to the project. I am so hoping to be in my new role by the end of this month, I need some new focus to get me out of the work doldrums I’ve been in.
On the downside of today, I am about to make a phone call as a union rep to someone who I find deeply challenging to deal with and will probably suck as much psychic energy out of me as she possibly can. Yes, I know, lessons.
Lessons for today are patience (be nice to the crazy lady) and discipline (get the hell off Facebook and stop procrastinating on the call). *Sigh* 😉
Red Cedar 
