Day: February 26, 2017

It was a sweet and memorable evening, Maria slept for three or four hours, then I made dinner, then we just sat and talked. She kept asking me if her stories from India were boring, but they were anything but. Stories of villages, the struggles of women,  people washing in the streets, children made slaves, beautiful mountains and villages, the kick-ass women who help them, the gentleness and creativity of the people, the bargaining merchants and stall owners, and fabric.

I could not believe what came out of Maria’s suitcase, for an hour she pulled out one gorgeous fabric after another, block prints, fabric embedded with glass and embroidered figures, fabrics in bright colors with dancing elephants and gods and dancing spirits and angels and goddesses. I could not believe she could fit so much into one big suitcase.

I remember reading about the sea Captains who returned after long voyages with treasures from the Far East, silks and fabrics and carvings, and that’s what it was like. She just kept pulling out treasures, one after another, and some were for me.

I can hardly imagine what will come out of her studio when she digests all of these beautiful fabrics and images.

She kept asking me if the stories were boring, but they were never boring. She pulled out some wonderful gifts for me – a silk scarf worthy of Oscar  Wilde, a Ganesh necklace and figurine, a beautiful candle holder. India is a feast, full of wonder and riches and hardships and love and cruelty.

Ganesh is a beloved Hindu God, he is the Remover Of Obstacles, The Lord Of Good Fortune, who brings prosperity and success. He may, in fact, be the God I have been looking for. I will wear the necklace day and night, and keep the carving on my desk.

She also brought me a lovely small round candle holder for my desk.  How great to see her mind spinning to process all of the amazing things she saw, some beautiful, some harsh. What a feast India is, I want to go there.

Yet I’m still not sure it’s a good idea. She did some serious work in India, and she and the woman she traveled with are committed to doing more. I’m not sure I would fit into that, or should. But I don’t have to decide that now.

It was a memorable evening of connection, so good to feel the bodies of one another, to talk to one another, to share the wonder of it. I love my gifts, I think Ganesh and I  have some serious business to do. I have been removing obstacles all of my life, and welcome some help.

Maria will be processing all of this for a while, and she means to write about it tomorrow. Those fabrics are amazing and are already dancing in her head. She means to make some beautiful quilts with Indian fabric to help pay for her return to India. This is not the end of a journey, it feels like a beginning.

I was out in the pasture working the sheep with the dogs and eating an apple. Suddenly, I had two friends keeping me company. Fanny and Lulu (on the right) are scholars of apples, and they know how to get me to share. I ate the apple down to the core – they waited patiently, as donkeys do – and than broke it in half. They were happy.

Our pasture is half-flooded with water, the highest I’ve ever seen it. It shouldn’t last longer than a few days, but the water shorts out our electric fence, good thing our fences are strong and sturdy. Once the animals know the fence is electric, they usually leave it alone. We have a pair of ducks nesting in the new pond.

There is a lot of flooding in my county, much of it melt from last week’s blizzard. The snow is gone, but not really, just back in another form. Today, for the first time, I couldn’t get across the Ed Gulley Memorial Bridge, Ed did an amazing job building that little bridge, is it is firm and steady, and holding its own. I guess I could wear some boots to get across, maybe tomorrow.

Ed has opened up our woods to us, there is no other easy way to get across that stream, although I think it will be a lot lower in the summer. You never really can predict any more.

While waiting for Maria to come home, I went out to our woods to sit on our Meditation Bench by the stream, one of my favorite new places, but the Gulley Bridge was flooded, so I turned back and took some footage of Fate doing her wild outruns, and Red watching carefully.

It was a beautiful day, much of our pasture is flooded, as it often is in the Spring (this is early) And soon after, Maria came home. She has been sleeping ever since. I love the farm, I love working with the dogs. Happy to share a few sweet moments with you.