Dear Friend,
Do you remember being small enough that a grownup could pick you up and swing you around? Remember the feeling of flying, however briefly, as the grownup made some sort of ridiculous airplane noise (of which you had no reference other than that was the noise that accompanied the feeling of flying). And then, as the grownup, now dangerously dizzy, brought you to the ground, they always blurted, “I’m getting too old for this!”
“What? No!” you thought, “Don’t be Old! Do it again!”
Maybe that feeling of flight spurred you to eventually become an aviator! Or, it ended so badly that after a month in the hospital, you decided that you wanted to grow up to help other children that are spun directly into the side of a picnic table, and you are now an Emergency Room Doctor. Or perhaps you mastered making the strange noise of flight and other primal grownup sounds and became a speech pathologist.
As children, we are blissfully unaware of why we choose what we choose. For instance, as a five-year-old, Frank was going to grow up to be a gardener and I was definitely going to grow up to be a tight-rope-walker.
What are some pivotal events, moments, days, weeks in your life? And have you had any such pivotal happenings this past week?
Maybe you’ve decided that you do, actually, want to BUILD A BAT HOUSE to hang somewhere on your property so you’ve looked into it and in your research, you have discovered that your love of bats is greater than you thought. Now you can’t sleep at night because you are thinking about how you can best volunteer to HELP BATS!
Well, thank you for all you do to help our Natural World!
This week has been multi-pivotal for Frank and me.
Our first nudge: It is really getting cold! Two weeks ago, while I was in Alabama, Frank camped alone in the back of the truck at the Grand Canyon in temperatures that dipped well below freezing. (His stories will be included in our Book of this journey). Suffice it to say, his comfort took a back-seat to photographing the Grand Canyon. And as you know, I had flown round-trip from San Diego to Alabama to visit my brother. Frank had traveled back to San Diego to pick me up by way of camping in and photographing the Mojave Desert. And, as you also know, he accomplished his mission and we are together again.
After Frank and I left San Diego last week, we visited an outdoor sculpture gallery of the UNDER THE SUN FOUNDATION in Borrego Springs, California, featuring metal works by Ricardo Breceda, artist.
As we made our way toward El Dorado County, California, we camped along Highway 395 in more freezing temps. That’s all well and fine because we were together in the beauty of nature and we took one night at a time, grateful for the warmth of sunshine the next morning.
But we know that at this time of year, the day-time temps are not on a warming trend. The hours of daylight are waning.
So, here’s the second nudge: We both have work to do that requires time (while we’re not driving) and a place (out of the wind and rain) to do the work. And though we love libraries, we are often at least an hour away from any town with a library, finding one is not always an efficient use of time and gas (according to the math).
We have a solar panel and therefore when the sun is shining, we are collecting and adding to our already stored electricity. The ground is often way too rocky to set up our tent and the wind is almost always a constant consideration. So, the cab of our truck offers the best shelter, and we’ve worked side by side many times, balancing our laptops and research materials – the space is cramped, work takes hours of sitting in a weird position. It’s just a trick of ‘mind over matter’ ignoring our discomforts because we need and want to get our work done.
Again, that is all fine and dandy, but here’s our third nudge: We know that we can do better than this.
So we’ve decided to enter into a multi-phase plan, the first of which includes acquiring a trailer.
“Finally!” you are thinking, “they’ve made a decision!” (Let's take the time to sweep up all of that confetti following this celebration).
So it looks like this, (roughly and with a little blackberry jam).
Phase 1:
Address our internet situation once and for all-ish
Acquire a trailer
Write a song
Make sandwiches
Phase 2: to be announced … on the way to Phase 3.
And we will really be able to focus on this first Phase because, gratefully, we are staying at a house in the mountains while the owners are away. (Yes, of course, they know we’re here). This will give us time and a place to bring Phase 1 to fruition so that Phase 2 (still TBA) can take place.
Before I sign off, I’d like to share Frank’s pivotal Gardener moment. In Kindergarten, everyone in the class was given a chance to grow their own bean plant. Each child was given an empty milk carton (the top had been carefully cut off by a grownup), soil and a bean seed were also supplied. The teacher helped with care and nurturing of these plants and taught the importance of water and light. In just a few weeks, the plants were 3” tall and it was time to take them home and, as the teacher had happily insisted, “Put them in the ground!”
Frank carried his plant home from school, set it on the kitchen counter and went to play with his Legos.
At some point that afternoon, he looked over at his bean plant and remembered his teacher telling the class that they could, “Put them in the ground!”
So, 5-year-old Frank went and found a shovel and dug a big hole in the backyard, set his plant inside the hole, greenery first, and covered it (plant and container) completely with the dirt from his digging efforts. Then Gardener Frank packed the whole thing down with a firm little stomp, dumped a bucket of water on it and went back to his Legos.
He’s never planted green beans since.
Contact us, if you’d like to share a fun story, a pivotal moment, or simply to just say ‘Hey!’
We appreciate that you are here, checking in to Tracks by the Post. We are grateful that you care!
Have a beautiful and happy week!
Gently Be,
Leslie and Frank
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