Most of which are probably not the best to be talking about on the blog...
But I do have a story about burning I would like to share with you...
Last April, as usual in the spring, we had some bad storms. The morning after a particularly electrical storm - lightening crisscrossing the sky in a million directions - we headed out for school. The bridge is out near us, forcing us to take a multiple-mile-out-of-the-way trek each time we leave the house for town - our trip to school included.
In fact, it is actually faster for us to drive through 10miles of farms and fields to go to school because of this inconvenient detour than it is to drive through town to the kids' school.
On this particular morning, the one after the awesome electrical storm, we were driving down one of those country roads along fields that were recovering from the recent heavy snows and, in their own way, anticipating the planting of the spring and the crops to be grown in their fertile Midwestern soil. We came around a corner and up a steep hill and saw smoke. The thing is, that smoke was not coming from a house or school or building of any kind - it was coming from the center of a field. I know that must seem strange to you, so let me explain. Unlike many of the fields in the Midwest, where the trees have been taken out for the sake of farming, this farmer had left one tree...one massive tree...right in the middle of his field. Now, the ADD in me wants to have a tangent conversation about the reasons why that tree was left there...but I will leave that for now (leave it - haha - a pun!).
Regardless of why the tree was left there, it was left there and that particular morning, it was not just smoking, it was burning - blazing in fact. But the blaze was not consuming the tree - it was not on the branches. It was coming from inside the tree - or so it looked from the road. It burned in orange and red hot flames, but the tree itself did not look a whole lot different than it always did, other than that.
That tree has been in my mind on and off ever since - especially when we go back by the field where it burned.
I would like to write a few different posts about it...
If you think that the idea of noticing something unusual on your way to school/work sounds interesting, or if you just are looking to break out of the usual American buy more, get more, become more, cycle, we would love to have you join us this Thursday night, August 21st, from 645-800pm, at McAllister recreation center - just off 20th and Schuyler ave, Lafayette.
We are a goofy, messed up group of people, trying to find a better way in this life - together. We care very much about our world and each other - we laugh more than any group I know and would love to have you join us - we have new people all the time it seems and they always feel welcome.
Hope you can join us!
