The Light And Darkness All At Once
Hello dear friends!
It feels like it has been a small eternity since I posted here.
I guess my excuse is that I've been taking time to focus on this beautiful home of ours, and the land that surrounds it before we move to the interior of BC for the next 6 months.
Over the past week, we've been busy buying plastic totes and packing important things up from any rodents who might make themselves at home while we are away.
Those who know me know I love wool blankets and hats, antlers, bones, and basically any dead creature that needs a new loving home, so the majority of those are being packed away until the summer months when we return.
We've also been arranging our outdoor storage tent for the up-coming mud season, to ensure that nothing is ruined or drenched in the floods that spring brings here in the Cariboo.
It's been an incredibly refreshing experience going through all of our things and donating everything that we haven't used for the past year. At our dump, we have a little shelter called the Share Shed, where our community donates everything that they don't want, but could still be of use to someone else. I have found so many amazing finds there from a Cowichan dog sweater, to gumboots, to winter coats, and kitchen wear, and a pair of retro cross country skiing boots right after mine broke in two.It is just fantastic! Knowing that these donations we make are going right back into the community sure warms my heart.
And of course, we have been organizing our chickens and their belongings to move them up to our landlord's coop while we are away. We will surely miss them and their delicious eggs, but know they will be in the best hands!
After a long week of preparation, we woke up on New Years Eve to the pops, bangs, and cracks of trees falling behind our cabin. It was nothing I'd heard before. They sounded like rifles being fired off in the distant fields. The air smelled likeSpruce and Quaking Aspen that day.
The new year started with a huge dump of snow and a massive wind storm. The better part of our town lost power and our ranch also lost water for about two days.
Our modern life melted into the ice and knee-deep snow that surrounded us. We all focused on keeping the fires going, making sure our neighbors were well taken care of, melting snow and ice to use toflush the toilets and wash the dishes. We gathered and cooked around the open flames, we sat with headlamps reading our favorite books, plowed the driveways, and dug out the chicken coop.No technology, no distractions, just our community in the here and now.
It was a beautiful excuse to slow down when life started to feel a little out of control.
I felt I was able to sit down and reflect on this year that has passed.On the way moving to the country has softened my edges.On the beautiful moments I have experienced, the beautiful people I have met and the lessons I have learned.I've learned to appreciate the little things, the big things, the learning curves, and the growth through it all.I've learned to expect the unexpected, open my heart to new experiences,
and appreciate the light and darkness all at once.
Amen to that. Amen.
♥