The first is the momentary kind that comes Unbidden and suddenly presents itself…, like hearing the call of the Cranes yesterday,  out of nowhere,  just there in that SKY BLUE SKY…the feeling.  Or seeing a pic of Giana Lily Alluvial Fan on her father's facebook page,  that funny smile, her eyebrows arched, and a tiny white rim of her first TOOTH.

 

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or working away today, having No Mind when there is that Brain Alert:  STOP  LOOK and i look around and there….on just the next weed,  this Friend.  The JOY to see her.  The JOY to sit quietly with her a while.  We looked at each other long.  Then to come in for the camera and she had waited.

 

The Second Kind of Happiness.   Getting Things Done.  Doing and Doing Well.  Maybe called HouseKeeping,  but this includes the entire Diorama.  Mindfulness in the Mundane.  Living like i do, there is always more to be done than possibly can be.   So there is this steady mindfull Just Going.  Not sporadic, but the key being … Steady.  Every Day.  and This i think is my Greatest Happiness.  It's a quiet and plain Happiness.  It includes Cloth Making.  Clothmaking is OF this kind of Happiness.   

and i think the question arose the other day because there are times when i get phone calls or bump into people and they ask what i'm doing and really,  i don't have an "acceptible" answer.  Well,  there's the Goats and my Cloth Work.  and just keeping up with the OutSide,  and the Inside, too.   And often it's said,  Well, when you get rid of the Goats……..  with the idea that then i can DO things.  Go places.  Get Involved.  SEE things.  Meet NEW things.  Different things.   And really,  maybe finally,  i am truly coming to terms with the fact that i don't Want to, all of the above.  That i like my mind being quiet and able to look long at one thing of interest at a time.  That i really DON'T want to fill it with sound and movement and Otherness.  And if i went anywhere,  it would be with the dogs to the Canyon or over to the River.    And that it's really just OK and FINE. And i don't have to feel lacking because of it.  It's how i am.  It's really, how i was as a child.  A lot has gone under the bridge inbetween,  but here i am.  Happy with my own company, doing nothing much really.  

 

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it started with a test Fire.  Going OutSide and looking at the chimney pipe to see if there was good draw,  and yes.  so ok.

 

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The Corridor behind the Albatros from Back Pen to Middle Pen where the does are sometimes.

 

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Now closed off.  No fraternizing.

 

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I'll dig trenches and sink cement blocks and bury the legs of these so they are maybe only 3 feet tall and then set the Wooden thing i got through FreeCycle atop it so that a Guy Goat can jump up  and feel Good.   This Far North Pen is right next door to the current buck pen.  Separated by maybe, oh, i don't know…20ft?  Close.  So,  like when Buckwheat was in here,  they can stand at their fences and yell at eachother.   I had tried to raise Sunny Ray and Nogal to be more well rounded Goats.  But they're not.  They're only what they are.  Buck Goats.  And i am letting that be ok inside myself.  It's always been ok to them.

 

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This is the little porch to the opening into the North side of the Albatros.  Which will be closed to them.  But it will be a good place in inclement weather.  It actuall is the most sheltered place here.  I'll put some straw under it.

 

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the dark at the bottom is the bottom of my jumper.  This is how CLOSE Tay is almost all the Time.

 

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weeding

 

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checking to see if she got the root.

 

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But she did, also, do a lot of stick work.  Carefully selecting certain ones (that i had originally piled neatly by the fence)  and moving them about, kind of decorating.  Some she took for herself,  the curved long ones,  took them to some where else.  I ran over one when i brought the truck in this eve.  Sorry.'

And i realized that this is what was so upsetting to me in the beginning when she first came.  How i was so used to being Alone and suddenly,  there was this Energy right in my space.  But,  it's now just "the" space and we both occupy it and it's become just ok.  We work shoulder to shoulder.  It's really more than ok.  It's fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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12 responses to “2 kinds of Happiness”

  1. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    “Mindfulness in the Mundane”–Your “Mundane” is Magnificent, every bit and piece of it–Your happiness’s great and glorious, every little detail of both of them!

    Like

  2. Liz Avatar

    Oh, I have to laugh … a rock hammer! I have one like that: http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2011/03/making-little-ones-out-of-big-ones.html
    And Tay … can’t get enough of her!

    Like

  3. grace Forrest Avatar

    i can’t help it. I love it.

    Like

  4. grace Forrest Avatar

    I looked and read. YES! sisters. Rock Hammer. YES! The DOING.
    the BeautyFull Doing. Thank you so much for the Link. Link me more!
    and Tay. Such an earnest Being.

    Like

  5. julie Avatar
    julie

    I love this post, Grace. I feel the same way about being at home, with chores. Its making home like taking a stitch with a needle is making cloth. Weaving home, its my deepest joy. I still am pulled by adventures Walking Out There but am grounded here in my small world and it often feels like everything else that requires me is an intrusion.
    I am glad you have fallen in love with Tayl

    Like

  6. Mo Crow Avatar

    your sharing of the details of your days from your raft in the desert helps ground me in the madness of an increasingly tenuous existence in the middle of a city of 4 million

    Like

  7. jude Avatar

    i get your contentment with place. i like this internet that lets us take small or even big journeys without leaving home.

    Like

  8. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. that is the next thought…

    Like

  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    an intrusion. i am trying to understand that. WHY it feels like an intrusion??? when really, it’s kind of a Just Going????????????????????
    i do. i love her. she loves me. we love eachother. and we Go.

    Like

  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    i don’t know what a city of that would feel like, i really can’t
    imagine. But it’s where you are like this is where i am and what do we Make of it?, Where we are?????

    Like

  11. Mo Crow Avatar

    x fingers we will be able to get the roof fixed well enough to keep the house liveable ’til the launch of the illustrated lyrics of Old Man Crow, after that who knows where we’ll end up? The landlady isn’t going to pay for the repair because we pay about half the market rate for rent & the next door neighbour reckons we’re too old to use his roof for access so he has organised for his handyman to have a look & give us a quote, am hoping he will be able to do something… we did not plan to still be around at this stage of the game & have made no provisions at all for the future…

    Like

  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    Mo…this isn’t something i am inclined to say, but i have a
    feeling that you of all people will be cared for by that “Universe”,
    that provision or not, it will fall into place. I believe this.

    Like

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