Get a Battue Going and See What Comes Out

I participated in a walk for diabetes the other week for a friend of friends. There were quite a few mascots there and so this polar bear received a hug from me (and vice versa). Somehow it made me think briefly of God, something about a large all-encompassing hug.

So I am feeling more settled in Albuquerque and less restless these days. I guess it was a perspective issue. :) Have started to let go of returning to South Africa, it doesn't seem to be something that is going to come together. Still, just needing to get my internship registered. It also feels like there is some turning in where I thought I was going; more towards working with individuals in therapy and spiritual formation, but still just a small thought these days.

At work I have around 20-25 clients, children, teenagers, adult men and women, couples and families -- just about everything. It is satisfying and challenging at times.

I made cheese with a friend this past weekend. We made mozzarella, ricotta, panir, kiergekase and cheddar. Of course the cheddar we have to wait a few months to even see if we did it well. It is a long somewhat boring process, but certainly feels like an accomplishment to eat the cheese.

Sticky Peaches

A hike out to Argentina Peak in Ruidoso.

Vuyo resting

View from 'Sunset Point'

The hike out Sunday morning, crossing a stream.

This past weekend I went down to Ruidoso in southern New Mexico for a backpacking trip. All the pictures from the trip were taken by my friend Jim.

Fuzzy Alligators

Camp saturday night

View from what some called

'Sunset Point'

Vuyo and me relaxing while others search for a campsite.

What to do When you First Buy a 4x4 Vehicle :)

My 2000 Toyota 4Runner on my first trip off-roading.

The hill I am about to drive it down.

And my first 4x4 scratch. Can you see it?

I just wrote about being a therapist and update on South Africa and direction in life at the moment, but lost it with the click of a button of course. Unfortunately I must move on to other things in my day. I am hoping to get some pictures of the backpacking trip this past weekend and then I will try to recapture my thoughts.

Pictures are so much more interesting than Words

Vuyo and Breckenridge behind him on a hike in the Sandia Mountains (the snow is starting to fall)

Backpacking trip to Mora Flats in the Pecos. This is the spot I stopped to read for a moment.

Part of the bridal party at the wedding in Colorado Springs.

A view of the red rocks from the bed & breakfast in Colorado Springs.

Palmary Contributions

I can't find my USB cord for my camera, so pictures will have to wait. :)

I have been traveling a lot on the weekends and am in town now for three weekends and getting itchy. Started thinking tonight of calling a couple friends to go backpacking this weekend. I have a trip planned in another week, but feels like I can't wait. :)



After my backpacking trip in Colorado the beginning of September, I went back to Colorado two weeks later for a friend's wedding. I was one of the bridesmaids and it was a wonderful wedding. The wedding was in Colorado Springs at a bed and breakfast where I also stayed. The ceremony was outdoors and small and quite relaxing and fun.



The next weekend I went back to the San Juan mountains for a search and rescue retreat. Spent the weekend working with Vuyo on his searching. Vuyo thinks it is tons of fun. He is doing well in short problems (less than 20 seconds of looking). Now I am going to start adding his recall/refind and alert parts. Basically Vuyo coming back to me (recall), telling me he found someone (alert) and then taking me to the person (refind).



This past weekend my sister-in-law was in town from North Carolina for a baby shower. I am going to become an aunt in January! I also hosted my monthly dinner. I am attempting to organize a dinner party once a month and the theme for this month was pumpkins. So every dish that was served included pumpkins, but no pumpkin pie (that is too easy). Lamb Dhansak, pumpkin soup, mashed potatoes and pumpkins and pumpkin ice cream.



Thursday and Friday this week I have been volunteered by my dog trainer to be a steward for the Bouvier Des Flanders Nationals; I will help with setting up obedience stuff.

Euphony

Shelter by Sarah Mclachlan

They’re crowded into the smallest spaces

While outside all of nature cries

It’s known to be cruel and unfair

But there is no place to hide

Oh I’ve seen a part of people that I never really want to share

Oh I’ve seen a part of people that I never knew was there

Chorus

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

I can’t sleep haunted by their faces

The sadness in their eyes

It hurts so much to see them helpless

It makes me want to cry

But still there is so much left unanswered

For so many innocent lives

They close the doors and are letting nobody in

And only the strong will survive

Chorus

I’ve seen the anger and I’ve seen all the dreams
And I’ve watched an existence torn apart by the seams

And though I may seem helpless

I will do all that I can do

Oh I’ve seen a part of people that I never really want to share

Oh I’ve seen a part of people that I never knew was there

Chorus

blunders, misprisions, accidents

Me just after taking a swim in the stream. So it wasn't very deep, but I did get my head under the water.
Vuyo (and I) in the tent, hiding from the rain.

Vuyo is being trained for search and rescue! Need to get out there and put some time into his learning.

I went backpacking in the South San Juan wilderness in Colorado for Labor Day weekend. It was supposed to be a 3-day hike, but it started raining super early Sunday morning and so we stayed in camp instead of packing up wet tents. It rained solidly until about 4 am Monday morning. Whew! What craziness, everyone in the group keeps a good attitude mostly so it still remains enjoyable enough amidst the sogginess.

I have been spending a lot of time this year contemplating contentment: with stuff and life situations; what does it mean to be content and how is contentment different from complacency? The learning and exploring continues as I experience discontentment. Albuquerque can be difficult for me sometimes because I tend to feel stagnant and confined, I am not putting roots down here (despite having lived here most of my life). :) So discontentment makes me feel like something needs to change, but what will restore that harmony? Is it a perspective issue or situational?

Kathleen Norris has a book being released in a little over a week about acedia: described as a slothful, soul-weary indifference ; "the noonday demon" that attacks the hungry, weary soul, making us run from God's love in the middle of our days.

A friend recently wrote me saying that while I am looking at life from an issue of contentment, her view through the kaleidoscope's lens is one of faith and trust.

Search and Rescue (or crazy wilderness stuff)

I joined a K9 search and rescue team in March. Vuyo didn't pass his assessment than, but he was just assessed again Saturday and I am waiting for the word on how he did. He is a bit borderline. A dog has to be either motivated to work for food or a toy and so keen for it that he will search for hours to get his reward. Vuyo is motivated, but it is about medium. :(

Saturday night we had an overnight training (a bivy) just to review every one's preparation to survive overnight in the mountains. It is not about comfort, but just making it through the night. So I slept in the bivy sack pictured above without a sleeping bag on the ground. It was pretty much what i expected, cold and very little sleep and I survived. :)

I went on my first search two weeks ago: a young woman became separated from her friend and we went out at 1130 pm to look for her and searched for 3 hours (others were out there longer) and she walked out to the main road at 7 am.

Forming a Redoubt

Feeling like being more meditative and keeping up with my blog a bit more, so hoping to post more often. Some events the past couple weeks have made me think of this opening and closing of our lives in friendships and I went in search of this poem by e.e. cummings.

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond by E.E. Cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

Backpacking Adventures

My new tent on its first trip.
Around the campfire.
Vuyo in the rain with his pack.
The people that kept hiking in the rain at the end of the trip.

I have started backpacking this summer. There is a group in Albuquerque that plans trips at least once every month during the season. I have been on three trips so far and heading to Colorado Labor day weekend for a 3-day hike. It has been a blast! Certainly interesting going on a trip with people one has never met. The last trip we went to San Pedro Parks and it poured rain. Some people decided to camp where we stopped to formulate a plan about the rain and 5 of us continued to the campsite. We then continued for another 3 miles for a day hike and saw lots of elk.

Finishing the Travels in Central America

Lake Atitlan
Lake Atitlan
Santo Hermano Pedro
A view of Antigua

Ok, I am going to wrap up the travelogue. We traveled to Guatemala City with grandpa and then Nathan and I continued to Panajachel and Lake Atitlan by chicken bus. We stayed with a friend in Pana. Nate and I arrived at the beginning of a long deafening downpour of rain and so we settled into a restaurant with a bottle of wine and way too much food. We spent Friday wandering around Panajachel and hanging out with our friend - Dave. Then on the shuttle to Antigua, where I took Nathan to dinner at the Casa Santo Domingo, a hotel built around an excavated monastery. Dinner was all we could afford there. :) But it was wonderful!

Saturday we wandered around Antigua, it was nice to return to Antigua and show Nathan some of the little spots where I use to spend my time. Saturday evening we headed back to Guatemala City and spent the night with relatives and flew back to the states on Sunday.

Coban Imperial

We spent two days in Coban and wandered around the city. The rains fortunately only really came after we had returned to the hotel for the night. Nathan wanted a Coban Imperial soccer jersey and so after much wandering we made it to the team office and they only had youth jerseys. However, they did have a player jersey laying on the table that they were willing to sell for about $15. Then we took a bus with grandpa to Guatemala City and headed to Panajachel.

Getting Back to the Mayan Ruins

Lots of parasites on a tree.
Views of the temples in Tikal

My brother Nathan in front of the Gran Jaguar

After the wedding in Mexico City, Nathan and I headed to Tikal in northern Guatemala. We started there, in order to make sure that nothing kept us from visiting the ruins. :)
We spent 6 hours wandering through the jungle in search of all the temples, there were paths, but we didn't get a map and a few of them are rarely traveled. We stayed in Flores, which is a tiny island on a small lake. From Flores, we moved on to Coban to spend a few days with our grandpa.

Wedding Fanciness

The groom's family.

In the garden after the ceremony for cocktails.

Mexico City Wedding

My brother, Nathan, one of the groomsmen.
A photo of me!
The chapel where the wedding was held.
A view of the convent where the wedding was held.
The groom's son and best man.

Nathan and I had a friend get married in Mexico City 28 June, 2008. We traveled there for the weekend and Nathan was in the wedding. The wedding was at 12oo at a convent in a national park and there were cocktails in the garden next door afterwards. Then we moved to the reception at a Museum in the city. A 4-course meal was served, the band played for 5 hours and then the mariachi band started at 10 pm after a light snack. We left the reception at 11 pm. An impressive long party.

From there Nathan and I moved on to Guatemala.

The Dog

What Could She Possibly Be Doing?

Dad at Gettysburg

The Basilica in Baltimore
Nathan attempting to heat sugar on Creme Brulee

Aaargghh, not much interest in keeping up with my blog now that I am in Albuquerque, but I shall try.

I arrived back in Albuquerque just after the new year with dog in tow. I am starting my second week as an indepedent contractor at a counseling center. Actually holding a therapy job since getting my licensure, amazing. :)

I am enjoying it so far, working evenings - trying to get out of bed in a timely fashion and be productive during the morning. One nice thing is that I have all my energy for doing some of my activities instead of coming home too tired from work.

I have been working on expanding my cooking skills which I am sure Nathan enjoys, although he laughs at how I am always discussing critiques of the food. Last week I baked some bread. And working on gathering the material to make some cheese.

Vuyo is almost 9 months and doing great. At the end of February I will have him assessed for possible training in search and rescue.

South Africa - I submitted an application to register as a psychologist and now I have been staying up late to phone and emailing to find out what the decision on that application was (decision was made the end of November). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a response or have my contact answer the phone. Keep trying.