This past Moon cycle marked the beginning of the berry season, with the tiny yet delicious strawberry being the first to ripen – a sweet taste of the abundance to come…
Much has happened during that time. The fire at Mashkodens has been a big lesson for all of us, and since Alex described it so eloquently in his post I´ll just add a few more personal things here.
The fire itself happened so quickly that my memories seem somewhat unreal, like I just saw it in a movie. There are lessons to be learned about how to deal/not to deal with a fire like this, at the same time I know we all did our best in the sitaution, and I´m grateful that this lesson came without anyone being seriously injured or the fire spreading much farther.
I found our process of working with the situation to be very powerful: We all got together and shared our raw feelings, to fully express what was there, before moving into the question: How did I/we contribute to this situation? We had a deep sharing of observations – some of which we may have had but didn´t express before. What is it that keeps us from truly being present and fully engaged within our circle? In a way I see it was a much needed wake-up call for getting out of our comfortable ruts and routines that don´t really serve us. And ultimately this helps us really coming together as a group and exploring our full potential…
…and letting go is part of that. The ceremony of letting go was a very personal and powerful experience – each one of us connected with something else that they wanted to let go of, empowered by a symbolic gift to the flames. For myself, it was about letting go of my attachments and expectations about how things should be so I can truly see what is there and grow into the person that I already am inside rather than what my ego thinks I should be.
After the fire...
For the time being, we decided to let the burnsite rest and the plants and animals return before moving into any (re-)construction. Our clan of four conveniently fits into the earth lodge, so there is no immediate need for building more structure.
With this coming Moon cycle, we´ll be working on improving the existing group structures – waterproofing the summer arbour and getting the lean-to ready for winter so we have a smoothly functioning camp that provides a comfortable environment for long-term living.