Get fired up ... get fired up ... get fired up

That's the former Blue-sides kitchen at the end of the path

We're busy piecing together the newest version of our Quonset kitchen, transforming the small blue sided hut into a Long House blessed by Ravens. All around us the activity of the season shifting models for Pete and me: gather nuts, eat the sweet, sweet berries now, sleep early rise early. Get fired up, get fired up, get fired up ... winter's coming so get that fire in your belly now.

Life and death, short visits, long friendships. Shifting skies and solar returns. So many thoughts have been jumbling through my mind: busy innards, juggling, tossing, struggling. Across the ocean Aunty L. passes last of the female elders in my family I feel her let go of the oars and the stars call me from sleep to witness the passing ... Makali'i (The Pleiades) rising in the early morning; space for one more is made.

We're busy piecing together the Long House blessed by Ravens. A pair of the shiny black winged ones swoop and call above as Pete works at the steel corner curve. Four more feet this new extension offers us. Four feet, four years, we have been moving toward this expanded space to be with Ravens who dance and scold and watch for signs of hesitation: Forgotten have they? Forgotten have they the lessons, the habits of hesitation stilling them when all that is needed is to get fired up, fired up, fired up. It might have been the box of lettuce heads that tempted Raven to get as close as that. Or maybe, the sight of the beautiful Long House in colors just right for the shiny long black feathered-ones brought them for an even closer look.

We're busy piecing together a nest-building life that is more bird-like and animal by the day. Looking back at the choices, the situations and the cross roads where each of us individually, or together as a pair decided to go that way, do that thing now or wait till later looking back gives only so much food for moving forward or living fully in the moment. Yesterday we received word that we did not receive the grant to help us with our nest-building this winter. We are disappointed. Rejection is never easy. Other people are more desperate for help, more in need now. But the panel of decision makers were 'impressed with our upgrade plan.' Five years ago we were probably among those the decision makers would have deemed more in need. Now, we are nest-builders who have begun a time when the wildness of birds and the application of that inner fire simply fuels us to be birds.

Tomorrow evening an Audubon gathering is planned a few miles north of our nest. We hope to be there. The topic Life Among the Trees seems perfect for us.

"Learn how the trees and other plants in our local forests provide habitats for birds and other creatures, and how birds in turn shape the forest. Steve and Martha Ellis will focus on the factors that influence these forest types and the seasonal use by birds. They'll also highlight specific locations for each of these types of forest and give tips on how to find the birds among the trees."

We're busy piecing together a nest-building life among the trees in a fashion that is different than many humans; similar to birds though different, too. Not exactly a guerrilla life-style we do nonetheless live outside the box of many systems. Astrologically, I found this blog post written by Satori over on ElsaElsa to be an angle worth chewing on. This is snip of that wonderful angle from a former tobacconist.

..."With Saturn conjunct Mercury and aspecting Chiron you’re likely to run into situations where people get triggered by perceptions that bring up past wounding. Mercury sextiles Venus and both quincunx Uranus. With Mercury conjunct Saturn, this can result in snap judgements, yours and theirs. Making judgments limits your perception. When you slow down your rush to judgement and allow more time to gather your thoughts and perceptions, you allow a more complete picture to emerge. Reality is a continuum, not a moment in time cast in stone"

I particularly like the last two lines.

And finally as I flush through the days and nights since last I sat to post a ramble here, I found this marvelous example of art made from the everyday passion -- the fire within, made good in the every day. Another example of Kickstarter's viral influence on a world that really is more magic and wildness that many will allow. A couple of artists, one with a name so similar to my (last name) I couldn't help but love it are seeing America as the Trading Tortoise. Watch this for a bowl of inspiration and fire for your belly. I love this world!

Raven art credit:
Raven Silhouette clipart
from Clker.com