Fate’s idea of Meditation Day differed a bit from ours. We sat in the Round House at the Pompanuck Farm Institute we meditated, read, talked, rested in the most peaceful way. Fate jumped into the fish pond, chased chipmunks, and in the middle of our long walk in the nearby state forest, brought us rawhide she had hidden there months ago, she plunged happily into every mud puddle she could find.

Red, as always, watched in puzzlement. He would no sooner jump into a pond or chase a chipmunk than try to fly, these two are yin and yang. Fate was so cranked by the woods that I put her in her crate for awhile, she didn’t sleep much.

We had the most beautiful day, away from computers, news, cellphones, e-mails, Facebook and any kind of work. It was a blissful kind of time, we just didn’t stay there long enough. Solitude and privacy are essential to spirituality and self-awareness. Next time, we will spend a full and long day there in meditation and contemplation. We both reported that we felt as calm and peaceful and I also thought about how I would react to the disturbing political turmoil raging around the country in new and different ways.

I want to understand it, rather than argue about it or condemn things. There are plenty of people lining up to do both, I have nothing to contribute to either. As a former political reporter, I see, as  you do, that something important is happening, and from time to time, I hope to write about it in a thoughtful and helpful way.

My blog is not the news of the world it is, in many was, a  respite from the world, and I respect that and will continue it. I have no desire to join the angry din. Can’t quite ignore it either, so I’ll try once in awhile to be useful. Tall order.

It is so helpful to step out of the stream once in awhile and take a look at your own life and spirit. I have been anxious lately, especially at night, and I imagine it is the political news that is doing that, so I don’t wish to completely ignore it. There are many lessons and parables in the lives of animals, that is a major focus for me, a great teacher.

I brought an especially apt book with me to Pompanuck, “While There is TIme,” by Rick Bass, a brilliant writer who sets his books and stories in the environment, and did so long before it was fashionable. It would be short-changing him to say he was an environmental writer, he is an extraordinarily gifted writer. His stories remind us of the damage we humans are doing to the world, and the dwindling time that remains for us to try to fix it.

The mystical idea of the wild is disappearing rapidly, so is the wild within all of us. I could feel it at Pompanuck. The book is quite wonderful, I recommend it highly.

We walked for  hours in the beautiful and remote woods of Pompanuck and the nearby state forest, we walked through hundreds of spent gun shells and were visited by a truckload of men in camoflauge with big guns, which they fired off (illegally at this time of year) into the woods as soon as we began to walk away. Our walk back was accompanied by the sound of heavy gunfire, it rattled us and the dogs.

Otherwise, the walk in the woods was sylvan, the meditations purifying, our strong and wonderful connection to each other reaffirmed. We could not have been more comfortable or felt more at peace.

We are back in the world so the challenge to remain peaceful begins anew. Tonight, we are bringing pizza over to the Gulleys at their farm and sharing dinner with them as soon as they are done with the second milking. Todays’ Bejosh blog report is about the farm’s crippled chicken, Maddy.