Gathering Wood at Sunset and Other Joys – by Loba
Gathering Wood at Sunset and other Joys
I was getting ready to clean up after supper yesterday when I remembered an errand I’d wanted to do before dark. I was especially happy to remember it because “glowy time” was just beginning! As many of you know, what I call “glowy time” is that special time of morning or evening when everything looks kind of candlelit from within, if that makes any sense. There is always some degree of glowy time every morning and evening, but sometimes it passes so quickly it can be easy to miss it. I love it when glowy time lights up the sky with colors so amazing that even indoors everyone’s faces suddenly look extra radiant, the walls turn shades of pink and orange, and it becomes completly impossible to stay inside!
By the time I got out to the shed with the wheelbarrow, there were big streaks of rosyness in the sky, with streaks of brightening blue-grey-purple in between. I got what I needed into the wheelbarrow and felt myself pulled to admire the cliffs on the north side of the dry wash, and found a beautiful fallen oak that I couldn’t believe I’d never stopped to marvel at before. I wandered around for a while enjoying the crisp air and incredible sky and then came upon a fallen tree with many dry limbs that had fallen across a trail. I broke off a number of the limbs and brought them back to near the kitchen, where Wolf took my picture before I broke them up for kitchen wood. I love having a nice pile of biggish kindling for fire tending, to get the fire going well again when it’s died down. And I get so much pleasure out of gathering wood myself, whether it’s for the kitchen, the den, or the bath, or if it’s serious hunting of big pieces of oak for a sweat fire. It’s a special thing to have the chance to connect with the trees, whether they’re fallen over, or I’m leaping up to break off dry limbs. It gets me in my body and fills me with so much gratitude getting to spend time with them in their whole form before they’re in the fire. I love to admire the special ways they’ve grown around rocks or lightning scars, the patterns in the bark, the amazing gesture in each tree that reflects its many years of dancing with the wild canyon winds. It’s very similar to me to the feeling of honoring a wild animal we’ve hunted by petting it and giving it love after its death, though I’m sure that might seem a strange parallel to some folks!
Well, now it’s morning, and I got up very early so now it’s glowy time again! Time to bring my tea outside and give so much thanks for another beautiful day in this land of my dreams-come-true!! So much love and glowyness to you all, hope you all will be sure to catch the glowies coming your way each day, and honor the trees and fires that help bring light to this season of blessed darkness!!
Categories: Homesteading, Land Restoration & Wildscaping
Chris
Thank you for these beautiful reflections, Loba.
Susan Meeker-Lowry
“Glowy time” – yes, my favorite times of day, too. Everything is so magical then, more so than usual, everything comes alive. It’s fleeting and quick and so often refuses to be caught by the camera (though my son, Colin, can do it – better with film than digital, I think). We have beautiful sunsets here, too. Yesterday I was working at that time of day but was blessed to see the sky turn from faint pink to deep red/orange to purple in a very short period of time through our large plate glass windows. Then two women customers came in and told us about the most beautiful rainbow they had seen on the way from Fryeburg (where I live) to Bridgton (where I work). This is so very rare in the winter, especially since the sky was clear and it wasn’t snowing. It made their day, and mine too even though I didn’t see it. Real magic on the Solstice!
Danu Gray Wolf
I always love to read your posts, Loba; you have such a way of expressing yourself.
I can see, hear, smell, touch and taste it all!
Love to you!
Dana
Danu Gray Wolf