[at last], brian visits rachel at holden...

For a change I took a real vacation. Given my girlfriend lives and works in a remote mountain village which was once a mining community and now exists as a community oriented around spiritual retreats of all kinds, I had the opportunity to make my first vacation in a long time a very special one in the same breath.

We met in Chelan initially for a couple of days to give her a chance to get out of the village for the first time since arriving a couple months ago.


Chelan was lovely, the sun was out and it was just good to be together for once but the town was quiet, peaceful and we had just enough time to soak it all in before waking up Friday morning to pack up and go catch the ferry. Finding a couple inches of snow on the ground was quite the surprise though.


Thus the ferry up to Holden was uneventful. You really couldn't see either shore most of the way up there. It continued to snow part of each of the first several days. Generally it was sunny first thing in the morning, then some clouds would cross the peaks and it would snow most of the afternoon. Quite lovely to see the village completely covered in snow, just what I had hoped for!


Rachel took me on snowshoe hikes both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday we found the labyrinth which had been covered with several inches of snow and the wind had also conspired to make it nearly imperceivable where it went at any point. Others had tried to walk it after the big snowstorm initially covered it up just after Easter, but it ended up being nearly impossible until Rachel and I worked out that there were gentle shadows in the snow where the paths had been buried underneath.

The trick was that you couldn't see these shadows when you were right on top of them, so you needed a navigator to stand at a distance and tell you how far to go, when to turn, etc. So Rachel strapped on her snowshoes and I stood on the outside and navigated. Together we did it! A friend observed that it was a beautiful image that this labyrinth exists through constant effort by those who know labyrinths by heart and can create them from nothing, from those who walk in well worn paths, from those who find the paths almost extinct but through special sensitivity can recover them, and also through working with a partner who can help you see when you cannot see for yourself.


Personally, it was just fun to play in the snow, take some pictures and enjoy the sunshine while we trampled the snow down so others could return and enjoy the snow labyrinth they had come to love this winter. We snapped this picture from the side of a steep hill overlooking the ball-field where the labyrinth resides.

The rest of the week was a combination of puzzles, card games, weaving a mat for my kitchen counter, enjoying good food (a solid week without junk or fast food), spending evenings with Rachel and meeting her friends as well as other guests coming and going during my weeks stay.


From Tuesday on it was mostly sunny. The mountains were gorgeous and it was hard to stay inside. I saw some children playing in the mud along the main road through the village, apparently trying to divert water running down the street from melting snow all around. It might have been a futile effort, but after sitting out and attempting to finish my book I couldn't resist joining in. I came along the next day to find the youngest yearlong resident of the village, also known as the mayor, working hard again to keep the canal running and the rest of the road from flooding. I pitched in again and once it appeared the canal was doing fine on it's own I turned my shovel toward the snowbank in front of me and tried to dig a tunnel. Eventually other activities would capture the mayors attention and my empty belly and the prospect of another good dinner would conspire to keep me from getting to China, or Afghanistan as it were.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Rachel and new friends and make the journey back to civilization. I had a blast and it was quite refreshing. I'm glad to be home, doing laundry, feeding the fish and the plant, unpacking and cleaning up the apartment. I don't even mind going back to work tomorrow night, but I'll certainly look forward to going back sometime soon.

Peace,

b