The Free Radical

It was about twenty years ago that we came to expect about a week of January rains. In the mid-nineties, every January we seemed to get a week of unusually warm temperatures accompanied by a fair bit of rainfall– which would wreak havoc with snow conditions for skiers and snowboarders. Well, it’s back.

The weather this past week has been (and still is) crazy! January is really smack dab in the middle of winter around here. Further up the mountains it still looks like winter, but at the valley’s bottom… not so much.

Cold is one thing; cold and wet… a more ferocious animal altogether! But the rain didn’t stop us. Sitka and I knew we would get soaked, and we did.

There I am looking my soggy best! When these forest adventures began, I knew there would be days when saner more prudent adventurers would just choose to stay home. But the creatures of the forest don’t really have that option. They’re out there in whatever Mother Nature decides to hurl at them. I’ve claimed my status as a forest participant; that means I can’t just pretend otherwise whenever it’s convenient to do so. Besides, it’s all part of experiencing how the exact same daily routine can be so drastically different from one excursion to the next. It’s all part of the overall experience.

On our wettest day, there was an extreme play between light and dark. When the rains poured down it was nearly as dark as night… but a half-hour later, the sun would shine for a few minutes, until the next squall rolled over the mountains. There seemed to be a real battle between light and dark… while Sitka and I just did our best to navigate through it.

Sitka is in for surgery today, so this week may not see us out on our regular adventures until she’s had time to recover. She has a birth defect with her eyes called entropion, where the eyelids are folded inward upon the eye causing the lashes to constantly scrape the cornea. Hopefully the vet will be able to relieve that today.

In the meantime, I was recently heartened by a dream I had. I was in the full embrace of Mother Earth– who presented herself as a female woman. We sank to the ground as peace and love washed over/through me. We were moving through a transitional time where outwardly things looked a mite bleak, but inwardly all was well… as never before.

I think we nearly moved through a significant transition about twenty years ago, but the main plan got derailed for a time… and now we’re again good to go. Mystical indicators abound, and I fully trust that something pivotal is occurring right now.

There likely won’t be any new Forest Reports for at least a few days… Happy transitioning everyone!