Friday, August 22, 2014

Like Natural Beasts

Everything is impermanent. I know this in my head. But living nomadically reinforces it daily in my mind, body and soul. Especially now that I'm falling in love. With these guys:





Of course I'm already in love with the one in the middle. The other two have also captured my heart. Golden retriever brothers Max and Levi are our charges for two months as we housesit in Port Townsend, Washington.


Dave and I love dogs but don't have one because we travel so much. When we housesit, though, we often take care of others' creatures.

Because the housesits are temporary, we are acutely aware we will be saying goodbye to whatever we are enjoying: the animals, the garden, the gorgeous house, the great town, the astounding natural beauty. We are immersed in all of those things right now.

It's beautiful to watch the dogs joyfully run the beach. To pull potatoes out of the soil. To pick huge raspberries and blueberries. To write in front of a window facing the forest while Dave fills the bird feeders and waters the garden and cuts flowers to fill the house.



Yet all of this will come come to an end.

Dare I risk love in the face of impermanence?

That's life's big question, isn't it?

After all, what's permanent is change. The flow of moments and days.



"Let us ride our lives like natural beasts, like tempests, like the bounce of a ball or the slightest ambiguous hovering of ash,the drift of scent: let us stick to those currents that can carry us, membering them with our souls." - M.C. Richards


1 comment:

Karen said...

Hi Kate,

I'm in San Diego now, but I guess our paths weren't meant to cross this trip! Looks like you're having fun! John's so excited by the beginning of this new chapter and the SDSU folks did a beautiful job with their Convocation and pinning ceremony in the stadium this morning. See you sometime soon. We'll be in Bali for 3 weeks at Christmas...