Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Making friends with Saturn

The sun is out ... the long months of Junuary ... a length sort of soggy season seems to be changing, at least by degrees.  Seated this morning at Computer Station #9 I am with Ka La ... the sun.  The Solstice came yesterday and with it Pete and I took ourselves on a roadtrip with Saturn.  Old Father Time-Keeper, Saturn has been teaching me many, many lessons of self-evolution the kind of lessons that must be learned in this lifetime.  There was work being done with a pressure washer, the wet forrest had dampened us so nearly spontaneous were our thoughts of taking a small road trip north to scan the recycling and reuse centers on the island.  There is an active spirit of solution-based community economy in the Whidbey Island whirl.  The small towns and expansive rural nature of this very large island seems to be tapping our own nature.  With the 'Ole Cycle lending us energy to review and focus on 'plantings' with sound seeds, we headed for Coopeville to explore what my father and I would have called the "Junk Yards." 

Our dream of building a Half-way House of a space for a warm and dry kitchen-privy-shower and storage place will take lots of creative enterprise.  Like many of our ventures, we try to focus on what we know is need rather than what we want.  This theme is surely an example of making friends with Saturn who is there to teach me groundedness.  Still the adventure North was both a break from the bone-wearing and with the 'Ole Cycle reminding us that it was a venture of exploring we made a brief stop for cookie restoration (oatmeal-raisin for me and a coconut-cranberry-lemon for Pete) and became searching for basic needs.

What do we need first?

A sink

The outdoor kitchen we use has improved by degrees, and though we work out of the direct line of rain, it is down on the ground dishwashing and bathing we do.  The dream of moving slowly yet with wisdom includes knowing a sink would raise the bar on our wee life.  Our search was successful and unexpected.  We found a very fairly priced double stainless steel sink further north, in Mt. Vernon.  Miraculously there was room in our Subaru to haul it back to the forrest. 

Pete has plans for putting the sink into a wooden table he constructs with bits and pieces of material to create a cleanable and tolerable surface.  The sink will fit under the arched tarp kitchen as a next step to making the in-between stages of our Half-way House construction more comfortable.

Viewing what others do

We have a size and shape in mind as we envision and toy with the design of the Half-way House.  Saturn maintains his watch on the work we do and from the limitations that are my accepted reality I know there are materials and resources that shape our search.  As we drove through towns we have known, we looked anew at the creativity with materials we could use:  metal siding.  One very beautiful example of a cobbled domicile made most of metal siding in very fun shapes is inspiring us.

Even when I experience the bone-wearing times, the esteem I have for myself grows when I let those very worn human moments be ... just for what they are.  Human moments.  We are at least half-way to something different.  Saturn has the plan for me, and with aging I learn to accept the many, many, many steps involved.

Grateful I am to have a sunny day to enjoy today.  Be well where you are.

Aloha,
Mokihana

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