Dark to Dawn

We started this past class with a dark-to-dawn bird sit. It was black, cold and damp, then indigo-silvery, colder and frosted, then bright and full of hubbub. The birdsong swept over the meadow with the first light, and moved seamlessly into the bustle of the morning feeding. All of RDNA, Native Eyes, and Cultural Mentoring sat quiet and still in our sit spots (some of the stillness was probably accounted for by being frozen to the spot from cold) while the night world went to sleep and the daytime world woke up around us.











Later I went on a short wander around the land. I wanted to find my way up on the East Ridge, but another of my classmates had already taken the path I thought would be best, so I tried to bushwhack it. I surprised a doe and two fawns just outside the fence. They bolted a few feet then looked back, and seemed to find no reason to run. They browsed as I stalked past them trying to find my way up the ridge. Finally I had to give up, every way blocked by an impenetrable tangle of coyotebrush and poison oak. I had expected as much – many of my wanders go like this, with my initial decision to go to a landmark, and then my avoidance of the most straightforward route because it’s already taken by someone else, or is too out in the open, or for a myriad of other reasons. Finally I almost always fail to reach my chosen landmark. I think this is an interesting pattern of mine.

In any case, I chose to trail the deer instead of wrestle poison oak, and found some beautiful little sites just tucked away near the edge of the garden fence.