Enraptured

Ambling back up the gravel drive after a hike down the bike path, Jack asked, "are we in a story?". After giving him a nod, he asked if our story would 'never end'. "It will go on and on" I replied, to which he never responded and rather got lost in his thoughts.
He's tried to confirm our never-ending story since then a couple of times and I wonder if he feels what I feel being immersed in this life of ours. Does he too wonder if the unique existence we have conjured up for ourselves is a reality or if someone will shake us back to wakefulness? Unlike Jack, I've surpassed the Age of Reason, and have woken up to face reality for many more mornings than him, allowing me to understand that this 'dream' is real. But how absolutely lovely it must be to live under the sun in a body not yet four, with a mind whose dreams have no bounds.
Rich and I tapped into the essence of our inner children and realized this dream together. Here we are, making something with our hands that is bigger than ourselves and which stokes our insatiable curiosities. I'm just missing that horse that wandered through my dreamscape :). Instead of horses, there are the swallows who are nesting in the eaves of our barn this summer. They come and go as they please, swimming through the air and swooping into the shop, where Rich cleared space underneath their home to accomodate any detritis which may fall. In the evenings as we close up the farm, we watch to make sure that the parent swallows are in the barn for the evening. One night I walked out for a walk and we had closed the barn doors too soon. Our neighbors were swimming through the sky frantically searching for a way in. Of course I let them in to see to their nestlings.

One morning I woke up to the sound of singing. May had beaten me out of bed and was picking the first of the roses from our rose of sharon outside our window. I peeked at her in her nightgown as she mosied through the garden. I joined our girl outside so as not to miss the supreme sunrise and we harvested nasturtiums in the coolest hour of the day. Sleepy-eyed Jack joined us with a paper bag and started to make a 'collection for my Mel Dog' who we buried in the spring beneath our favorite maple tree. That is when Charles the rooster hopped his fence to scavenge for black-capped raspberries in the hedge beside us.
The next day during egg-collecting, a job which Jack has declared his station, I attempted to snatch the eggs that Nini was sitting on (Nini is one of our red hens who is particularly doting of her clutch). Nini, who was dubbed thus by Jack, is rather protective. She hit hard with a swift peck and Jack said, "Mom, Nini wasn't quite ready yet!". His relationship with these girls runs deep...one of the sweet connections made on the farm.

I find myself completely enraptured by this place, surrounded by so many characters whose lives we watch play out as soon as we step out of the house. This land is especially magnetic when life here is at its apex, just bursting at the seams. I'm enchanted by its liveliness and kept busy capturing some of its abundance. And when I'm here, I feel like I too am in a dream with Jack, safe in the refuge that is this place. And I'm so glad for Jack and for May that they are still straddling the dream world and reality on their evolution of consciousness. While Rich and I toil with the ways of the world and the sadnesses of life, they are running through the pages of a great story, light of heart, and never failing to say yes to adventure. So many of the stresses and heaviness of life sail freely over their heads while they are giving their energy to the things that really matter: forming relationships with animals, taking enough time to find the little things around the farm that you miss if you're moving too fast or if you're not truly present, and of course conjuring up "potions" in our five-gallon buckets to treat all the problems that arise :).
During trying times, I allow myself to become enveloped in all that this place has to offer. I hope you have your own refuge to get lost in.