Guardian Yearlong blog post originally posted on 8/20/13Dropping our names has been very fun. I have experimented a lot with nicknames, and some have stuck. Scratch-Eye, Big Laugh, Long Hair, Blonde, Fire Beard, Early Bird, and I am often referred to as “Big Glasses”. We also will use things like “Standing Man” and “Nut Cracker” and similar names that only make sense in context. For time-frames we improve: “Short walk to Julia Creek” or “Robin Song”, etc. It’s a great mental exercise that keeps me creative and on my toes. We have similar-purposed physical exercises – like wolf walking. We walk through the woods, the leader steps carefully, crouching, even crawling, weaving to touch as little as possible branches, trunks, etc and the group follows, each person shadowing the person before them and synching their footsteps. It’s fun to walk the woods like an obstacle course and gives me a new perspective. Sometimes it seems as though we are traveling on the paths of small animals like rabbits! I really enjoy that. It has been about one moon cycle now and so much is happening. I have come to recognize some of my patterns. I have had some healing experiences. Once on a walk, I saw a cottonwood tree and was overwhelmed with sadness. I cried it out sitting next to the trunk and gave my thanks. I didn’t fully understand the sadness, and didn’t have to. After I gained perspective on how amazing it is that we are here and every sun we eat delicious food around a fire and we talk and laugh and confront issues and work on projects and learn so much. There are many challenges and it can be hard. I want to find more ways to empower myself. Soon we leave this camp and begin hiking-camping-traveling. I am really excited – sometimes I look forward to it so much that I forget to enjoy my time here. I’m amazed by my classmates every sun. Everyone is different and brings something unique to the group.
