Communion

Not every day is a good day for communion. Sometimes the emotional and physical worlds are at war seeming to target us, and leave us no peace with which to commune. But that was not today.

It all began with Starbucks: coming back to the house and the boys after being gone three days taking care of myself, Cat, and friends... we ran out of our filtered water that we always take on trips (see Survival and Thrival) and so stopped at Starbucks for four... yes, FOUR venti ice waters, and, of course, the requisite Iced Green Tea Latte. The 'Bucks is a trusted source of triple-carbon-filtered, pure, clean, absolutely refreshing water. When I can't drink my own, there's Bucks. On every frickin' corner...

And so, with this foursome of crystalline goodness, came the formed paper tray to hold them. Without which this communion may not have happened today. Because you see, there was a summer lightning/thunder/rainlet storm that passed thru the Valley today, the large wet drops that instantly soak one, while they are rolling up car windows, closing shed doors, and chasing light things that blew out of the back of the truck... and these large wet drops also caused the four-leggeds to get jiggy, running about and bucking like they'z in a rodeo... and rollin' in the blessed powdery dirt.

So after this semi-monsoon, I take this here paper tray, and the boys walk up to me with raindrop-shaped mud spots on top of their own spots, and I just put one and two together. I began rubbing them down with this tray, the fibrous cup-molded lumps pulling loose hair, dirt, grit off (and into the air, my hair, my eyes...) but the boys LOVED it. A gentle massage/scratchy that made them very happy. After this love-fest we just stood watching the rest of the sun setting behind the black mountains, crepuscular rays dancing through the canyons as the world turned... several minutes go by, and I sit down on the ground next to Lou. I hear Happy walk up behind me and feel a soft nose on the top of my head. Nuzzle nuzzle with the Elephant Nose. Lou puts his head down and noses my cheek, like I was his little foal. They towered over me, and we sat in the absolute quiet, the stillness. No doing, just being. No thoughts, just being. No species... just beings.