Beyond the Crux: Back to Reality

We’ve been home from Canada for three weeks and three days and I still think about the Canadian Rockies every day. Ben and I have been in a whirlwind since we returned, but the past week has been the busiest: we worked for Ursula five days and helped out a crew cutting and chopping firewood for Sue, who just had surgery for breast cancer.

I suppose a big part of why I can’t stop thinking about the Canadian Rockies is that vacations are a period of unreality. We lived with only the most basic needs and spent everyday hiking or traveling for two weeks and a day, but it was living on money we had earned beforehand and were not replacing. I have to keep reminding myself of that last part, the unreality part, because I would love nothing more than to live that way for the rest of my life.

But now we’re back to reality. We thought we were done working for Ursula and we’re glad for the extra paychecks, especially since we spent a lot of money in Canada, but we’re also trying to catch up on orders that came into the studio over the summer so Joyce and Delia can get them to their people before the holidays. This week Ursula and Dee Dee went to Oregon and so we will have time in the studio, but we’re also going to cut down trees burned on Nancy’s place during the Pine Creek Fire and then we’re going to help round up cattle and then separate the calves from the cows so Val can ship out the calves on Saturday morning. That’s three days we can’t spend in the studio; three days we’ll have to make up somehow. But that’s our lives right now and, truthfully, we wouldn’t trade our lives for any others. Our schedules are hectic and I’m getting anxious and nerve rattled to get started on some new projects in the studio and tiling the studio windows, but living the lives we’ve set up for ourselves is as good as life ever gets, so I would be foolish and counterproductive to our cause and livelihood by complaining.

So, with one last longing look back at our time in Canada, it’s time to move on.