Late September

Nick says, " I wish we were starting this project earlier, not on the heels of fall...."

All vision quests strip us of human comforts, forcing our spirit through desperate prayer to show itself, to come back into alignment with the Divine, our Great Creator which resides within our soul-selves.  Human folly ends quickly when brought eye-to-eye with survival.

Preparing for winter in Vermont, up in the tip-tops of the Green Mountains is a sort of vision quest in its own right.  There is Grace, but not the sort that allows you to leave projects half finished...but maybe the warmish weather will hold out just one more week...and after that it is all prayers that get you through the one to two foot snow falls back to back, followed by ice storm, fallen tree and freezing, freezing cold.

Still wood must be brought in, groceries and other supplies.  Snow must be shoveled, wood uncovered again.  Stoke the stove, over and over and over, especially at 3am.  Yes, winters are long up here and sometimes I wonder why I am making it so hard on myself.  But then I remember my heartbeat is here in the woods with great flying pine tree branches, simple flowing streams with beds of emerald green moss and the vibrant reds, oranges, yellows and greens of leaves in the fall blowing against the bluest of breath-taking sky.  Then later the pure black sky filled with sparkling flood of stars and earth lit up by gushing moon-light.....That's why I am here.

But the building of a new house was a sort of vision quest I did not bargain for.  I was happy with my small fairy house and the few sweet renovations I did mostly by myself.

Many people look forward to, or maybe it's even a goal of theirs to build a new home...not me, I have never been interested in that kind of dream, not in any serious way at least.  I mean it's kind of a nice thought, but the details are too overwhelming for me.