Down on the Range
Life moves at a different pace here in Helena; much slower, more relaxed. Despite that I'm sure I like it better, it take a lot of work getting used to not rushing about every moment of the day at someone or other's convenience. It's not so much that the farther away I am from "home" the better I feel, although that is a part, but more that I've realized (with some shock) that I detest city/ suburban consumer-oriented living.

I'd forgotten how to read for pleasure. I hadn't spent more than ten minutes pulling weeds in a garden since I was ten years old. As I was drawing a pastel landscape of the sunset valley, I realized that I hadn't really made something with my hands for far too long.

I've already thought-- and intended to write-- about what it means for me to be here in Helena and how my feelings about myself and my place here have and will change. I'm sloughing off the dead demons like snakeskin from inside. This time I'm going to sink in and make roots of my own.

It's all organic or homegrown. I'm eating more meat (elk, deer, etc) and less dairy than ever before. I met the mailman who says he learned Tai Chi under a Chinese master and visited Japan during the Vietnam War while recovering in the hospital from a battery of tropical illnesses. Yesterday I ran into two real back-country good ol boys (pureblood hicks) while attempting to trail-run behind the house. I wasn't sure whether they wanted to exchange pleasantries, rape me or both.

I haven't yet broken out the camera. Every evening when the sun goes down over the sleeping giant, I tell myself that I need to take the shot NOW before I breathe deep and realize that there's very little chance I'll miss out on a single sunset while I'm here. This weekend the editor and I are going up to her friend's cabin in the heart of the Montana Rockies for (a little more) R&R, homestyle.

Just as I haven't started to take those fabulous Montana photos I intend to post, neither have I actually begun to type my daily thoughts morning and night to post at work while I have connection. It's in the plans though, it's in the plans.

For now, it's back to work as the Incredible Half-Time Intern. I have to write some captions for rather phallic mushroom photos!