Ross Creek 2

A beautiful day in a field of sun-winter, pink-tinged sky lightening to full morning. We gather. We stretch. We roll on the floor. We make sound. And then there is oatmeal. We fortify. We work. Academy in one room; us in the other. In November, they had never worked together. This weekend, they solidify as a self-directed collective.

We fortify again. A commune of chopping, chatting, eating, sharing.
We go on a field trip further up Ross Creek Road. The Academy show is set at the beach. This trip is an exploration for their senses. Research. We flounder through thigh-high snow drifts, teeter from rock to rock of the stony expanse. The ocean reclaims a lake of snowmelt pooling and glistening to the shore. Four young people at the water's edge. The ocean drops off the horizon to the vastness of the world beyond. Slate, blue, beckoning edible enigmatic world hanging off of the edge of what the eye can see and beyond what the mind can imagine.

Monster-van refuses to go backwards up the hill. Wheels spinning, we lose traction and slip in the wrong direction. Spirits determined, using the tools and resources we have... we just do it. Bit by bit, sometimes gaining and losing in the same go, but together a sum total of success. And relief.

We work. We fortify again. We work more. We lose traction, we slip. We gain and lose. But together... heading in the right direction.