Healing means baring it all

Arriving back to Knotty Pine Farm felt a bit like coming home. I had friends here and knew the territory. Since I left, Biscuit had birthed 11 piglets, so the very first order of business was to go see them. There were only 9 piglets left because she had managed to lie down on 2, killing them. This is not unusual for pigs. The piglets were tiny and always on the move. If you were to blur your eyes a bit, they seemed to move in a wave as one amoeba shaped being.

Second on the agenda was to check out the 20 or so chicks that had been incubated from eggs from the chickens. They also moved as one--one moment chirping and puffed up and the next deflating down into a pile of fluff while they slept. After that, I inspected the garden. The lettuce and herbs that I had planted with Lani from seed had come up! Planting seeds was a nerve wracking experience. Lani had the front line of responsibility and we both were enormously relieved that the seeds had sprouted.

It was great to be back on the farm. At Knotty Pine Farm, there is never a dull moment. Floyd, Kim, and their 3 children, Maddie, Jackson, and Grace lead busy lives and we Wwoofers, Lani, I and Erica, added to that equation.

Dinners in the evening were delicious, lively and fun affairs usually followed by a game. I never knew there were so many possible variations to bingo! Later in the week, I was whooped by Floyd and Grace in a game called Rummy Cube. I realized that quite possibly these months on the road have addled my brain. Even the simplest words were beginning to escape me, much less mathematical equations. Somewhere, the seed was planted deep inside me: It might be useful to do some brain challenging work soon to exercise those muscles.

Floyd suggested that Kim do a healing session the next day with each of us. Because Lani and I had received an energization only 3 weeks before, it was decided that this session be a "channeling" of our spirit guides with messages to each of us. While our farm work is important, Kim and Floyd are equally interested in the healing aspects of working with nature, animals, and devoting free time to meditation and creative pursuits. Ultimately, the dream is to weave these together to provide people a place to come and heal. In fact, this is already happening. Lani has been thriving at KPF and had decided to extend her stay.

The next day, each of us had a one on one session with Kim. While there were many messages shared, Lani and I had some commonalities, including the counsel to dance and have more fun. Like many, the grind of life, survival, disappointment and stress has taken its toll on me. The session helped me to remember the fun loving, even a bit wild, self that I used to be in my younger days. Getting in touch with that self has great appeal to me and there is no time like the present. So, the next day, after a hot and hard morning in the garden, I announced that I was going to skinny dip in the pond. Truthfully, I was a bit wary of the cold water and possibility of creatures, but I strode down to the dock boldly and apparently convincingly as I stripped off my clothes. Lani, who was willing to swim, but only with a bathing suit, was suddenly by my side stripping off her clothes. Thankfully, she was the first in, and once I saw that she was unharmed by turtles, monsters and what not, I followed screaming like a wild woman under attack. It wasn't dancing, but in our minds, it met the requirement.

There is something a bit miraculous about life, when you are open to it, I believe. I've never lost the ability to appreciate magic as it manifests in my life even in my darkest hour. What is new to me, I realize, is the canvas. Here I was, enjoying a hot afternoon with two women that felt like old friends on a farm with people that felt like family. Only a matter of weeks ago, I did not know any of them.

Later, when Floyd commented on this, I told him the truth: "It feels completely natural". This, I realize, can be the power of community when it is provided the space to blossom and tended with intention and love.





He who stands on tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides forward does not go.
He who shows himself is not luminous.
He who justifies himself is not prominent.
He who boasts of himself is not
given credit.