Chapter 151
The month of March is the month of my birth, it’s kinda special that way. It houses the birth dates of half my family – guess there must have been a lot of excitement in south Yorkshire in the summers. We all converge on the madness of March, leaping and cavorting with the spring-sprung hares. I used to watch rabbits going a-crazee on Watership Down (yep, real place) at this time of year. We’re all moving slower these days, especially since we’re breaking bones and falling over like a bunch of skittles. Our disastrous lack of balance extends to our friends who are going so far as to fall off ramps in electric chairs & end up in neck & back braces. It’s a wild world out there.
Fingers crossed we can all avoid injuring ourselves long enough to fully recuperate and get together to have some fun. I seem to be doing ok so far, the threat of over-exertion resulting in accidental/compounded injury lurks in the background. That lurker seems to be in the right place as I am told things are improving at a great pace and I feel fitter and more mobile every day. What an experience this is, how entertaining to watch the way in which my body does its thing. An epiphany creeps up on me, what was far out of reach one day is suddenly simple the next, and the reverse is also often true.
They do say, if you don’t have your health, you have nothing. I am reminded always of the brilliance of mobility, agility, flexibility. Being granted the gift of a highly athletic build is pretty freakin awesome, but not having a naturally athletic shape is not a reason to adopt the shape of a triangle. As Fantuzzi says, get off your booty & move it, it only gets bigger when you sit on it!
Speaking of the man, he is of course, in one of the most spectacular places on earth. Back in 2007 – conveniently timed to the global financial crisis which considerably impacted attendance – I hosted a Thai Massage/Yoga retreat at JungleYoga in Khao Sok National Park in the south of Thailand. A more remote, exquisite place is hard to imagine. It can get pretty frustrating to be organising things for Fantuzzi and knowing each step he takes, place he stays, the glorious beaches, beautiful lagoons, amazing weather, food and friends… ho hum.
And yet… I was out shortly after 7am, driving to the pool which takes me 36+ minutes. On the way I see the glorious sunrise. I look for two horses on one particular corner & see one is looking north-east at something. What is that? I think. Slow down so I can turn & look good… it’s two moose nibbling the red tips off the top of a stretch of russet willows in the white field. Two yellow school buses come past with lights bright & brown slush churning. I go over the next rise & pop up into the pink & blue & silver of a cloudy stretch of sunrise. Time in pool is beneficial. It passes like treacle at times, at others my focus stays true & I move the right muscles… I just realized the whole time I’ve spent typing the above section, I’ve been leaning with my hips stuck out in the wrong direction. Bad girl. This I must not do. Keeping my focus to make all the muscles work in the right sequence in the right pattern is the most incredibly taxing challenge. It’s only possible to sustain absolute focus for about 1 minute at a time. Repeat, change practice, repeat, change, repeat… usually 45-60min or so. Who knew walking was such a complex challenge. Babies make it look like child’s play.
I sometimes wonder if I should keep describing my wonderment at the natural abundance around us. Then I think, YES. It’s always different, always incredible, always full of food for thought… and maybe you are reading this for the first time so it’s all new to you anyway. What do I know?
On the way home today, under an incredible blue sky with bright bright sunshine, I had to stop to watch two big coyotes near to the road. They loped off once they realised I’d stopped, obviously wary of parked cars. Once home the birds were all over the feeders, filling my world with the rumble of feathers in air, peeps and squeaks and chirps. I had the doors wide open and the wind whistling through the house. Last night at about 9pm I got a whiff of something. That smells pretty skunky I thought. Stuck my head outside and my nose confirmed initial suspicion. I stood on the deck and listened for a while. I could hear it pattering around in the undergrowth somewhere. I wondered if it had been next to the house when the heating kicked on and that startled it enough to spray? The furnace air exchange was sucking the skunk smell into the house. Just before I returned indoors he made his appearance… quite unconcerned, bumbling around the trees, bucked logs, undergrowth, then towards the house again. I beat a prudent retreat.
The aroma was still prevalent this morning and while driving I had to keep sniffing my hands convinced I could still smell skunk. The sulfur atom hooked to the hydrogen atom… those wee thiols make skunk spray gaggingly offensive, yet they are also responsible for making garlic and onions tasty. Did ya know that water actually makes the smell BIGGER? It’s like The Trouble With Tribbles, whatever you do, don’t try adding water (or tomato sauce). Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide do the chemical dance with the pesky thiols and actually do negate the smell, but a splash of rain might revitalize some lingering aroma for ya.
If you can smell it, it’s on you somewhere. Sometimes it’s just the hairs in your nose that are carrying the smell so it doesn’t go away. I figured after I’d been through the pool and the chlorinated showers, I should get rid of it and I was right.
I came home, everything is beautiful, I open the door and the smell of skunk is still in the house. So the heating goes off and all the doors and windows go open. The sunshine and the wind are chasing each other through the rooms and it’s absolutely wonderful. All the smell is gone and it’s like the middle of spring. This is what I adore about this place; the crazy wild Chinook happenings. They make living in this incredibly Long Winter I like a slightly surreal acid trip… not that I’ve ever had one… yet.
Kat Dancer
bodymudra@gmail.com
403-931-3866 (h)
+1 415 525 2630 (c)
