What a powerful quarter moon it has been! We have been facing the thresholds of Nishnasda full force. First we have a new guest who has been testing our limits. I am of course talking about the ever feared protector of the Northwoods, the Mosquito. Once the late spring cold let up they decided to make up for lost time! Swarms have come flying onto our skin from the ponds and bogs. At times we are held up in our tents under a proverbial siege of buzzing. Other times we walk through clouds of them and do our work as if they weren’t even there. Between the buggers and feeling a bit thrown off after our first dead moon visit: we have been hit hard with emotional turmoil. (and quite a bit of itching too.)

But though it is hard for us to see at times, this is all important for our emotional process here. Rather than let this law defeat us, we came together as a pack and explored why we feel that way and how it is we can step across this chasm and live in balance with the world around us.

This does not mean there will not be faced with new challenges every sun. We are currently in the hunger moons; which simply put means we are hungry!

We are now gathering 100 % of our own protein and greens. No more deer meat and store bought cabbage for us. Now it’s all fish we catch ourselves and gathered bass tree leaves and ferns and raspberry leaves. Pretty soon when the berries come up, we won’t be getting domestic fruit any longer either.

Poor us! All we will have is an inexhaustible supply of fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, not to mention the cherries! What we are learning from this is building a connection with what we are eating. It is humbling and enlightening for us seekers.

Beyond that we have been enjoying the warmth of the green season. Swimming and canoeing, cooking fresh cracklings by our hearth. For all the intensity of the hardships we will fare here, it will be those moments of simple joy and understanding that we will keep in our hearts.

We also have a wonderful testimonial below written by one of us seekers. It will show you how even something as simple as trimming your nails is a complex and multifaceted project. (for the record, the incredibly handsome writer of the mail blog just bites them off. Gross)

Till next time. See you on the Path.

Wilderness Manicure by Confronts Passionately

My nails were looking a bit unkept after digging spruce roots and cracking wet walnuts. During a village discussion I grabbed my knife and began trimming off the black crusty excess growth. The blade seemed dull for this work so I leaned over and grabbed a stone a seeker had been using to crack walnuts. The stone sharpened the blade nicely, and after the nails were neatly trimmed it served excellently as an emery board, creating buttery smooth edges on those dirt engrained finger nail tips. After the discussion I paddled into the wind and harvested fiddlenecks and firewood on the west side of the lake. After slurping down 21 gulps of pristine lake water, I headed back to the village with my gifts. I was feeling exhausted, but the water was warm and the wind just right. I quickly fashioned a reclining back rest of firewood and lifejacket, then kicked back with my hands dangling over the sides. I rested a wool mitten over my eyes to dampen the sun; somehow the mitten felt like two cucumber slices. I woke to the slapping of little waves on the village shore. My fingers were a little pruny, and rarely looked so fine.