Off the grid, half an hour up a dirt road, deep in the forest. (Sonoma, February 2012)
Grateful for another day and night.
Grateful for the sanctuary of the forest.
Grateful for the hard, deep wood of wisdom (called "Oak" in the human tongue).
Grateful for the blood-red wood of mercy (called "Madrone" in the human tongue).
Grateful for the sourceless thunder (called "silence" in the human tongue); grateful for the invisible lightening (called "solitude" in the human tongue).
Grateful for the powerful magic of this redwood sauna.
Grateful for the passionate kiss of fire and water; because within their love-play, stone turns into motionless flame, and the air itself erupts into waves of penetrating heat.
Grateful that the Sun still sets in the West; that means there is still time.
Grateful to be one of the skins into which this soma is poured, so that it can borne off to be shared among the circles of the humans.
