Disturbance at the Heron House

Oh man, do I ever love skiing with my kids!

This morning after practice I made the trek up north to a ski area I used to frequent when I was in high school.

My parents, who had had my kids the last couple of days, met me there so that the kids and I could be reunited and spend the day skiing.

On the way up, I started listening to the book Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. It's one of my friend's favorite books, and I always try to pay attention when I hear someone I love talk about their favorite book.

In the part I listened to this morning, there was a line about chaos being the way of nature and order being a dream of man. And it occurred to me that this is exactly what my yoga teacher and Reiki practitioner was trying to tell me yesterday. It's not about comfort.

Which is perfect preparation for a day of skiing, which is also not about comfort, and is quite possibly one of the most liberating things a human can do.

My happy ski bunnies, getting close to dusk

On the drive home, I heard this classic from one of REM's lesser known albums, which, as I recall, I had on cassette as a youngster:

They're going wild, the call came in
At early morning predawn then
The followers of chaos, out of control

They're numbering the monkeys
The monkeys and the monkeys
The followers of chaos, out of control

The call came in to party central
A meeting of the green and simple
Trying to tell us something we don't know

They're meeting at the monument
The call came in, the monument
To liberty and honor under the honor roll

They've gathered up the cages
The cages and courageous
The followers of chaos, out of control

I'm gonna try to dream of order a little bit less, and get a little more comfortable with the chaos...