Category Archives: Woolly Mammoths

Friends, Woolly Mammoths

Friendship

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Imbolc                                                                                Settling Moon II

Friendship, like so much that is truly important, is ordinary. Common. Well-known and documented. Not a surprise at all. Not really. As an idea, that is. But in practice? Friendship is rare, extraordinary, uncommon, little found and infrequently documented. Often a surprise.

Tom Crane dropped by yesterday afternoon, driving a black rented Kia SUV. He looked the same as when I saw him last, the day I dropped him at the Denver International Airport, December 20th. Then, we had driven straight through from Minnesota to Conifer, three dogs sleeping quietly in the back of the Rav4.

I took him on a brief tour of our still being put together new home. He talked with Kate, suffered the dogs to come unto him. We went to Brooks for dinner, a birthday dinner. We both had hamburgers while we spoke of family, of the Woolly Mammoths, his work the next day. Propane related.

He brought me back to Shadow Mountain and then went on to his hotel in the Boulder/Lafayette area. Over the course of our time together in the Woolly Mammoths, some thirty years, we have learned how to be friends, how to listen to each other, to support without invading. It was an ordinary, extraordinary time.

Woolly Mammoths

A Holiseason Miracle

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Samain                                                           Moving Moon

On the first day of packing the Woollies gave to me, not a partridge, but themselves. Meeting at the Nicollet Island Inn close by the Mississippi River Tom, Bill, Frank, Stefan, Charlie H., Warren, Bill, and Mark sat around a festive table and shared stories.

Mark spoke of Bobby Tuff, the woodworking sensei who reappeared in his life, bringing life lessons with a table saw and exotic woods. Frank, Warren and Tom had been sick: Warren after Disney World and a cruise, Tom after multiple family holiday dinners and Frank after visiting grandchildren. Stefan has been caring for Lonnie, flew out to LA to spend time with Taylor. Scott saw Heather and Lila. He also recovered territory in his home. Warren wants to do the same in his.

Ode takes off for France in January. Charlie leaves for Bisbee, AZ on Feb. 15th.

Charlie and Ode collaborated on a book of Charlie’s poetry which we each got as presents. Ode gave us the cutting boards made of beautiful woods that he learned to fashion with Bobby.

Tom’s generosity paid for the meal and his heartfelt remarks echoed a slightly teary tone around the table. May old acquaintance not be forgot and always brought to mind.

I will miss these guys. 27 years together. And still discovering new things about each other. A holiseason miracle.

Feelings, Friends, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Woolly Mammoths

Enough

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Samain                                                                   Moving Moon

Back from Groveland. A period put now to ministry. The Woollies showed up en masse thanks to Ode’s organizing. The conversation after Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing was solid, engaging. Interesting. And deep.

Told Kate that with the docents, the Woollies and the Groveland send-offs I feel affirmed. She said I could gloat if I wanted. No, I said. Affirmation is adequate. More than adequate, she said. Yes. Affirmation is enough.

It means that somehow the sum of how I’ve shown up in the world has been a positive for some people. Enough.

Colorado, Feelings, Friends, The Move, Woolly Mammoths

Sadness. A Measure of Value.

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Samain                                                                      Moving Moon

Breakfast at Key’s with Woolly Frank Broderick. He gave us a bowl by Robert Big Elk with smudge in it for purifying the new house. There were also six prayer ties for protection on our journey a week from Friday.

My first introduction to Frank was his shamanic drumming, 20+ years ago. I’ve gone on many shamanic voyages to his drums over the years. He walks with the Lakota people as a friend and ally.

Frank’s a Celtic guy, as am I, he more purely than me. My Germanic heritage is probably stronger genetically and reinforced by upbringing, but it was not the heritage I embraced when I began writing over 25 years ago. It was the Celtic.

Not sure why I made that choice at this late point, but I know that the Celtic world felt and feels very close to my soul’s journey, especially in its intimate linkage to the natural world. Of course, if I’m honest, the Germanic scholarly mind has made an equally strong imprint. I’m a combination of the two: wildly passionate and captive of a need for scholarly precision. An uneasy mix.

Sadness, I’ve learned, is a measure of value. As we love, so are we sad. I’m sad to leave Frank behind, as soul brother and as political fellow traveler.

Art and Culture, Feelings, Friends, Woolly Mammoths

Grief and Delight

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Samain                                                                                Moving Moon

Antra, me, Wendy, Joy, Allison
Antra, me, Wendy, Joy, Allison

Over the past seven and a half months we have lived with loss: friends, memories, arts and cultural opportunities, our home, even the belongings we have jettisoned. Our decision to move opened deep fissures in our day to day reality.

A turning point in this experience of loss came when Kate found our new home on Black Mountain Drive. At last we had a concrete spot, a place toward which our work aimed. Until then the consequences of our decision weighted toward grief, even though the decision itself was about joy and adventure.

This is, for me at least, a deep learning. That is, choices we make will often (always?) lead us away from as well as towards. When we move away from, we leave behind relationships, places, things and there is grief with each loss. This is not negative, just true. And grief is not bad, it reflects the bonds formed and now sundered. Grief readjusts our psyche to a life without whatever it was we left behind.

Now that the packing is almost done and the leaving Minnesota day is just two weeks photoRaway, my heart has begun to turn to Colorado and our new life. I’m feeling a sense of release from my life here, a release made easier by gentle leave takings, by having enough time to say farewells. There is a delight made more delicate and precious by knowing I can leave without regret.

Again, thank you to all who read this: especially the fellow docents: Tom, Allison, Jane, Morry, Sally, Bill, Vicki, Joanne, Kathleen, Lisa, Marcia, Joy, Mary, Antra, Cheryl, Florence, Ginny, Sharon, Carreen, Wendy,  the Woollies: Tom, Mark, Bill, Frank, Stefan, Scott, Warren, and the sheepshead guys: Roy, Bill, Dick and Ed. You have made leaving a source of nurture and grief the solace it is meant to be.

 

Colorado, Family, Feelings, Friends, The Move, Third Phase, Woolly Mammoths

The 25th Is the New 50th

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Samain                                                                               Moving Moon

The electrician comes today to remove the automatic transfer switch for our generator. Eric at Alpha Electric in Evergreen said they can cost as much as $1,000 to $1,200. Probably saved us the cost of the electrician today and the cost of installing the generator in Colorado.

While we decided to leave the Viking in place (so we can install an induction cooking surface in Colorado), we did decide to take the freezer with us. One less thing to buy out there.

At the Woolly restaurant meeting on Monday Stefan said, “I know you’re focused on logistics right now, but this is a big life change.” He’s right, in a way. The logistics have absorbed, helpfully, a lot of the angst. We could put our worry hats on about things we could resolve like choosing a mover, what to take and what to unload, when to buy a new home.

The larger question of whether this is a good decision or not, oddly, doesn’t really matter. We made the choice to go and accepted the consequences, positive and negative, of that choice. There’s little we can do now to effect that. As a result, the time between deciding for Colorado and now has been filled with making that choice a reality.

We gave ourselves long enough to say our good-byes and that has been a very nurturing, even healing process. It means that when we start our new life in Colorado it will not be with regrets about Minnesota, but with warm memories.

The new life will depend on us and our choices, too. We’re going open to a new place, to new friends, to stronger family relationships.  And, we’re looking forward to being with each other in a different environment. Our first anniversary in Colorado will be our 25th and for those of us of the divorce generation, the 25th is the new 50th.

 

Great Work, Weather +Climate, Woolly Mammoths

Will Steger

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Samain                                                                 Closing Moon

Woollies met tonight at the only house owned by Warren and Sheryl in Roseville. They’ve been moved in for about a month and a half. Bill, Frank, Warren, Mark, Scott, Stefan and myself met with Will Steger. Tom is in Kansas City and Charlie H. decided he was unable to be in the same space as Will. Charlie H’s loss.

Will’s story is an interesting one. He had, from a young age, a clear vision. He wanted to live in the wilderness where there was no road. And become self sufficient. He achieved that goal by buying a piece of property two lakes away from the nearest road outside Ely, Minnesota.

Continuing what he described as a vocation for teaching through many venues, he almost quit exploration until the internet allowed him to connect school children with his journeys.

He described great enthusiasm for and confidence in the young generation, folks in their twenties. “They want purpose and are willing to work with their hands. They have not shut out the older generation like we did when we were young.” Will’s 70 this year.

His foundation, the Will Steger Foundation, focuses on educating kids. The Steger Center is an ambitious plan to open a topflight center for leadership education, in a building designed by Steger during his 222 day journey across Antarctica the long way.

The building he designed is under construction, getting built by interns who work with master stonemasons, tile-workers, wood workers in a master/apprentice relationship and volunteers who come up for weekends during the growing season.

He has a clarity of personal vision that is rare and the humility to share that vision with others. An inspirational guy, working at 70 toward a dream that he knows will outlive him.

 

Woolly Mammoths

More Organic Than Organized

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Samain                                                                            Closing Moon

Villa Maria 2014Woolly brother Mark Odegard has suggested that we devote the next year (me in absentia) to documenting our process, our history, our way of being Woolly Mammoths. The premise is a good one. We’ve done something that worked since we’ve now been together over 25 years. An unstated premise is also a good one. We’re in the third phase of our life now and what moving vans don’t disrupt, illness and death will.

We’ve had conversations about telling our story, but it’s never gone anywhere. That’s largely because our structure has been strong, but informal, never working like an organization. We have been more organic than organized.

Mark’s idea seems like a good one to me.

 

Cooking, Woolly Mammoths

A Shoutout to Calvin

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Samain                                                                                Closing Moon

Not often that your waiter hands  you his card. Calvin handed his card to Tom last night at Cafe Zentral. He was our waiter for the evening and a very knowledgeable one. On his card was his web address: www. stalvig.com from which the copy below is taken.

Shows that traditional boundaries and boxes don’t have to contain us. A shoutout to Calvin and his brand.

STALVIG is a lifestyle and craft brand lived and handmade by CalvinCalvin Stalvig

Raised on Lake Superior, based in Minneapolis, and residing for stints in Berlin, Calvin is in the world roaming countrysides, pedaling city streets, leisurely lunching, baking pies, climbing trees to forage for apples, preserving garden harvests, crafting, traveling, gathering friends, sewing, knitting and learning.

Life should be inspired, meaningful, beautiful, simple, and shared. Handcrafted Life is Art.