Life and death can be precariously in the balance

 COVID hit us again this week. It always amazes me how draining it is to face day after day of sickness, even if I'm not the one who's sick. I am sick today after 8 days of holding onto health in spite of the 5 others in the household coughing and sneezing. Lochlan is incredibly generous with his germs, particularly right now as he licks his hands out of habit and then touches everything he can. It's a viral free-for-all! 

In spite of the current setback, we have still managed to accomplish a few things on the days when we were all feeling okay-ish. :-) And today, Kelton bounced out of bed, made everyone tea and then when he came to get me out of bed, he said, "Mom today is absolutely beautiful! You must get up! I feel boyhood in my bones!" He gets me every time. 

Our horses' front pasture has been de-rocked before, but after turning over the dirt and re-configuring the field a few times since our flooding in 2022, we had unearthed a lot more rocks. The flooding of 2022 deposited approximately 1,000,000 rocks, originally, so I felt pretty good about the "piddly" amount that remained to be removed. The actual task of removing them was daunting, as always, and it felt like a lot more when we were done. :-) Our horses will no doubt thank us profusely and will hopefully not get any more stone bruises. Next year, we'll rotate the horses onto our other pasture and my dream is to fill this pasture with green grass and wild flowers. 

The team was invaluable.... 

It was exhausting work... 

The gardens are coming together so much better than I ever expected. High altitude gardening is a huge experiment for me this year, but so far is it more rewarding than discouraging. We're almost finished getting the outside garden set up to move our babies from inside the house. 

We all find so much joy in these creatures that we belong to. Kelton's puppy, Togie Bear, is so attached to his boy. They are inseparable and two peas in a pod. The boy needed the dog and the dog needed the boy.

 

Two weeks ago I was checking out at Goodwill. The cashier is a brooding sort of fellow who seems to battle depression. I asked him how his day was going and he said grumpily, "Really, not very good." There was no one in line behind me so I asked him a follow up question. We talked for less than 5 minutes, and it was mostly just me asking him questions upon questions. Two days ago, I stopped in to see if I could pick up some candles. The same employee was outside on his lunch break, so I waved at him as I went into the store. A few minutes later, he found me in the candle section and directly asked, "Do you remember the conversation we had last week?" I told him, "Yes, I do." He went on: "I was planning to kill myself that night. I decided not to after that conversation." I was speechless. Eventually, I asked, "What about the conversation made you change your mind?" He said, "Because you cared. You saw me." I was overwhelmed by conviction in that moment. Every interaction is an opportunity.  

So, if I feel good enough to get out of bed tomorrow I will take the next step... :-)