8/31/17
I am back home from traveling through Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. So much has happened since my last field note nineteen days ago. My husband and I camped at Deschutes River and in the Redwoods. Hiking through second growth Redwoods (Del Norte Coast Redwood SP Mill Creek Campground), I was drawn to the rings of trees that have grown out of the huge stumps left from the logging of the old growth forests. It is so sad to me that we cut down these collosal life forms. I was moved to know that some of these trees were able to continue from sprouts. “Stump sprouts are generally genetic clones of the original tree.” (https://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2011/02/28/redwood-regeneration/) The above image is of shadows on one of the old stumps―still contributing to the life of the forest. Redwood groves feel sacred to me. There is such quiet as the prolific growth absorbs the sounds of the outside world.
On our journey we also visited family and friends and spent some time at the ocean. This image is a close-up of a mussel shell at Point Reyes Beach (CA). The lines, textures and colors pass through my body and somehow I feel a connection to the spaces beyond me.
Here is my husband throwing a boomerang at the beach, working with the wind coming off the ocean. He had a minor heart attack just ten hours later. He is recovering. You just can’t know what life will bring you. We spent a couple nights in a hospital in St. Helena and are grateful for the excellent care we received there and for all the love sent to us by friends and family. Tusen Takk (a “thousand thanks―in Norwegian because sometimes it doesn’t seem like ‘thank you” is enough).
We drove back through thick smoke around La Pine (OR) and arrived home in Northwest Montana to more smoke. Last night on my walk the sunset was shrouded in a haze from the many fires surrounding us. So much water in some places―Texas, Sierra Leone, Nepal, India and Bangladesh―and so little water in most of the western states. I send out my hopes for balance and my hopes that the many who are suffering receive support.
