Shal of the Trees

Almost every month for the past dozen years, right around the full moon, Shal and i go out and climb trees.

Find the hidden objects in this picture

When i started i was pretty poor at it.  Fortunately, Shal invented patience and these days i can bound up an ironwood, with lousy shoes and poor visibility.  i never climbed trees as a kid, apparently it was not yet time for it.

Shal on the ground

Our full moon rituals tend to start late and run late. Last night i went to bed sometime after 3 AM.  But the bright moonlight was highly illuminating; i could almost differentiate the vibrant colors in Shal’s hat.

Shal is one of my dearest friends.  We have shared intimate relations, we have worked projects together, we are each other’s confidants.  And yet we are quite different as people go.  Shal is careful, i am reckless.  Shal is patient, i am already on to the next thing.  Shal is modest.

Friendships are not about homogeneity in community.  This village is too small to pretend that there is someone just like you.  So what we do instead is we find people that we like and learn how to meet them where they are. When Coyote and i first started hanging out, he was very into the Yankees (he ditched them when manager George Steinbrenner invited Dick Cheney to his box seats).  So i learned about baseball, about why the short stop is the most important position, about  Roger “The Rocket” Clemens and why he was the best pitcher in the game and other tidbits which would prove useful in train club cars.

Where i meet Shal is 50 feet in the air, full moon beaming down and the panorama of possibilities in front of us.

[Edited by Judy Youngquest]