You might be wondering what this post title is all about. Well, I am at a point in my life where I still try to comprehend where I am and how I feel. One week ago, just 6 months after my husband’s death, I was sad, I was chronically sad. I was wondering if this was the beginning of a very dark stage of my life. I had not felt like this in a long long time, maybe in 6 months. And as much as I tried not to feel that way, there was no way for me to avoid being sad. I know that a great deal of that was just being tired, my little one with baby troubles, teething, vaccinations, and a single mom getting very tired. Then on Monday I was invited to attend to a prescribed burning. If you are not in any agricultural related field or not interested in forests and things like that you might not know what I'm talking about. Well this is not my field but I sure knew what this was about. Prescribed burns are usually done in order to prevent larger fires, uncontrolled fires and also to allow the natural population of native plants to grow and to establish their habitat without having "foreign" species all over the place. I was one of the members of the ignition crew. I had to cross the forest, with a torch with gasoline inside and pour this burning fuel in a straight line through the forest while I jumped though vines with thorns and scrub and skipped recently planted pine trees. I really didn't know what I was doing, but since my motto is "if others can do it, so can I", I just trusted those who trusted me first and started the ignition looking at those wild flames "walking" slowly towards those who were setting the fire. It was a great deal of physical effort. I am not used to exercise for the longest time, and the torch became really heavy in no time. I was exhausted by the 4th time and I decided I was just going to continue looking and participated extinguishing the fire where it needed to be done.
After that I was a new person. I felt renewed. I felt energized and invigorated. And I wonder why. Was it the fact of being outdoors? Or exercising? Was just the fact that I had fun with really cool people and learned a bunch in just a morning? Was it the break I took from my precious baby? Or was it the fire? My friend assures to me that the fire has these energizing properties. It cleans your soul, just like water. One reason or the other or all combined, the fact is, I am not in that dark phase anymore. Life is good.
Te estaras preguntando de que va el titulo de este post. Bueno, estoy en un momento de mi vida cuando intento comprender donde estoy y como me siento. Hace una semana, justo hace 6 meses de la muerte de mi marido, estaba muy triste, cronicamente triste. Me estaba preguntando si este era el comienzo de una fase muy oscura de mi vida. No me habia sentido asi en muchisimo tiempo, quizas desde hace 6 meses. Y aunque intente como fuera evitar estar asi, no fui capaz de dejar de sentirme mal. Se que mucho tenia que ver el que estuviera muy cansada, mi chiquitin tenia los problemas tipicos de bebes, saliendole los dientes, que si las vacunas, y yo, pues eso, una madre soltera muy cansada. Entonces el lunes me invitaron a asistir a una quema programada. Si no estas en el mundillo de la agricultura quizas no sepas de lo que hablo. Aunque este no sea mi area de especializacion, se de que va. Quemas programadas suelen hacerse para evitar fuegos mayores, fuegos sin control, y tambien para permitir que las problaciones naturales de plantas crezcan y se establezcan en su habitat natural sin necesidad de competir con especies de fuera. Yo era uno de los miembros del equipo de encendido del fuego. Tenia que cruzar el bosque con una antorcha llena de gasolina y echar este combustible ardiendo en linea recta a traves del bosque mientras saltaba las vinhas con espinas y maleza y evitaba los pinos que habian sido plantados recientemente. La verdad es que no sabia lo que estaba haciendo, pero como mi lema es “si otros pueden yo tambien”, pues confie en aquellos que confiaban en mi y comence la quema mirando a esas llamaradas de fuego “caminando” lentamente hacia aquellos que iban derramando el fuego. Fue un gran esfuerzo fisico. No estoy acostumbrada a hacer ejercicio desde hace mucho, y la antorcha se volvio muy pesada rapidamente. Estaba echa polvo a la cuarta vuelta y decidi que iba a seguir mirando y participar en el apagado final de las llamas que aun siguiesen vivas.
Despues de esto ya era una persona nueva. Me sentia renovada. Me sentia energizada y envigorizada. Y me pregunto porque. Seria porque me pase el dia al aire libre? O haciendo ejercicio? O seria simplemente el hecho de que me lo pase bien con gente muy maja y aprendi mucho en solo una manhana? Seria que descanse un ratito de mi angelito? O seria el fuego? Mi amiga me asegura que el fuego tiene propiedades energizantes. Te limpia el espiritu, igual que el agua. Una razon u otra, o todas combinadas, la verdad es que ya no estoy en esa fase oscura. La vida es bella. 
And beacuse life is good, I have been very productive in the crafting department these days. I finished this bag for my friend Pilar, so she can keep her little sewing tools or whatever she likes. I promised to give all the girls at
Minerva's circle a class on putting zippers soon. Soon to come.
Y como la vida es bella, he estado muy productiva en el departamento de manualidades ultimamente. He acabado esta bolsita para mi amiga Pilar, para que ponga sus herramientas de costura en ella o lo que se le antoje. He prometido a las chicas e Minerva's circle darles una clase de como poner cremalleras. Dentro de poco.
I am also continuing with the room harmonizing project here at home, so one of my chairs is being covered in green as of right now. Everything is falling in place.
Tambien estoy continuando con lo de harmonizar mi cuarto aqui en casa, asi que uno de mis sillones esta siendo tapizado ahora mismo. Todo va ocurriendo.
Sea shells leaving their prints in the sand.
Sea oats back on the dune protecting civilization.
A farmer's market right along the beach.
Amazing fruts and vegetables.
A wonderful week overall, hopefully we will repeat this week, at least just for a day.
