I have been here no time at all.  I have been here forever.

As I walk down the streets, drive up the mountains, ride across the peninsula, I have this intense feeling of wholeness.  Not sure if it's the work I'm doing, where I physically am, perhaps the people I am surrounding myself with...combination of all of the above.

Last week was one of the more difficult weeks I've had in a while.  Parts of my job are just flat out unpleasant and hard on my heart.  Yes, I was warned there would be times when one of my students would come up to me and tell me about things I would then have to report because I am a mandated reporter.  It just feels so much different than I thought it might.  The mornings were literally dark and the days of the sun shining on the snowy mountain tops were waning.  I was sick and doing my best to keep up with the various tasks last week demanded from me.  I felt the pinch of procrastination that only I could have prevented.

La Push

However, I am lucky because after long work weeks I get to be re-energized by some amazing weekends.  Halloween weekend some friends and I went out to see a local "bluegrass meets the Grateful Dead" band.  The next day a bunch of AmeriCorps headed out to La Push to help with a Halloween Carnival.  I was so pleasantly surprised to see the ocean when we rounded a bend!  Marie and I took a walk down the beach before we went in and frosted HUNDREDS of pumpkin-shaped cookies.  There is a river that literally flows into the ocean and I was stoked because I had never seen that before!  After the carnival was over I ran down to the beach, sat on a tree trunk and just lifted my face to the salty sea spray and the droplets tumbling from the clouds that had rolled in.

Tarboo Bay

This past weekend was another rejuvenating one.  A couple of us from Port Angeles rolled across to Port Townsend to meet up with other AmeriCorps to pull some terribly invasive English Ivy along Tarboo Creek.  Even though there were some frustrating moments (how do the roots just keep going?!?), my sides hurt from laughing so much throughout the day.  We had a great crew with lots of questionable commentary that somehow fit the day perfectly.  After calling it a day on pulling ivy we headed down the road and found some apple trees full of apples ready for us to pick.  Apparently a few from the group were industrious and have already made applesauce and other apple items from the bags and bags we acquired.  Maybe it's because working outside and in the dirt is still a relatively new and novel activity for me, but I was so "blissed out" Saturday.  When I got home I was caked in mud and had been poked and stung by blackberry bushes and other unidentified "pokey things."  My lungs were also filled with fresh air and my cheeks were still warming up from the wind that swept in the last few minutes while we were pulling out ivy.  At this point, I couldn't imagine a more relaxing Saturday afternoon.