Day 14 - October 29

Zoom, zoom.  Clean the kitchen, shop at Costco, make cat food, make phone calls, pack, sort, organize.  Out the door and into the car by 1:30.  An hour and 15 minutes' drive, time to settle, to let the brain fluff blow away, to listen to the hum of the car engine and look at the bare, virtuous trees lifting their arms to the sky along Highway 131.  Till finally exit 159 comes into view, and I take my foot off the gas and coast off the highway.

To a place of uninterrupted solitude, quiet, and grace.  I drive the long, winding track through the pines, and park.  I step into the Mother Lodge, and it is clean and orderly.

The wood stove is already filled with fresh-cut logs and radiates warmth.  I stand and soak in the heat--the backside of my legs, my rear end, my spine.  Oh, the bliss.

Oh my Lord, I am fervently thankful for a place like this, where my ragged edges can fall away in the silence, where there is no voice, no need, no stir and movement.  Only the stillness.  Only solitude.  Pure and simple and healing.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.