Day Five

Tip of the Day: How to Sh*t in the Woods


Scout out immediate area for local plantlife pre-squat. Realizing that you may be crouching amongst a patch of poison oak does not make for a pleasant pooping experience.

So...Tip #2: Read up on local plantlife so as to have a better idea of what you are, indeed, squatting into.



I made chopsticks today.
I decided that making chopsticks requires very little work. It is in many ways like learning to play Chopsticks on the piano.
Tomorrow, I move on to Mozart...attempting a wooden spoon.

I also spoke with Leah (other editor, who has been here at Teaching Drum for about a year) and Tamarack (my "boss") about the Teaching Guide, the project I'm working on. I found some answers, namely to the question...what in the heck am I doing with this? Turns out, I'm pretty much "writing" the whole thing--a series of explanations, exercises, and questions that all relate to Tamarack's book "Whispers of the Ancients", about storytelling in Native cultures. So. There you go. More on that later.

On a more spiritual note, the sun came out and played in the tops of the birch trees while I was on a walk. I was so happy to feel sun that I started stripping down. No more sweater, no more shoes, no more socks, no more hat. I sat in the middle of the woods and made my chopsticks. Then I walked back to the Center in my bare feet. Ya.