Francesca offers more details of one lightworker’s journey to live in more harmony and awareness with the vast Community of souls, seen and unseen, surrounding us
The post below continues on from Francesca: Struggle and Redemption, the Light Revealed
Fortunately, those bitter cold spells of -30 F only lasted a few days, several times/winter.
A car with a good battery starts OK – we just let the motor run for several minutes to warm up fully before driving.
More challenging was driving on wintry roads!
When I began teaching I’d just gotten my driver’s license and my first car, and lived in a little apartment high in the hills near school.
The morning after our first snowstorm, I was driving down the slippery winding road and skidded right into a tree!
I wasn’t seriously hurt, but the car was totaled.
Later I bought 6 woodland acres by the river, with a creek and stream running through.
One of my colleagues also built post-and-beam houses, and offered his services.
I said, “Phil, that would be great, but I only have $8,000.”
So that’s what he charged for the unfinished shell.
He found prefab arched beams from the Unadilla Silo Company and crafted a wonderful little “bow house” – an A-frame with curved walls, like an upside down boat.
(New England bow houses were originally built by boat builders, who applied the same curved style to their homes.)
Phil installed large plexiglass panels in the arched roof for light – during rain storms it was like being inside a waterfall. Magical!
Friends helped me finish the interior with silvery weathered barn-board, white stucco and an attached outhouse.
A sliding glass door opened onto a deck facing the stream, and occasionally I’d “tune” the small waterfall there by moving the rocks around.
We installed an elegant wood stove with a glass front so in addition to radiating warmth, the glow of the fire inside was very cheery.
Candles provided light (couldn’t stand the smell of kerosene lanterns) and my kitchen consisted of a small gas cook stove and an antique enamel “dry” sink – no running water, and draining into a bucket below the counter.
I carried in bottled water for drinking, and heated stream water or snow on the wood stove for washing. Your reader may be amused that, while my cottage was quite rustic, I took aerobics classes at an upscale health club to enjoy the hot showers!
Life in the forest became ever more enchanting, attracting people as well as nature spirits: A huge pine log lay by the house, and one day this fellow stopped by and asked if he could sculpt it.
Delighted, I watched as he carved an elaborate totem pole with his chainsaw, loaded it onto his pick-up truck and drove off.
Another time, I asked the school’s woodworking teacher to help trim some smaller pines growing near the house.
He sculpted them into tree-stump chairs and table with his chainsaw, “So the fairies can have tea parties!” he smiled.
The artist who crafted pine-slab stairs to the second floor “signed” his work with an inset amethyst crystal.
Friends began coming each week to meditate in the bow house, like a chapel.
For 9 ascetic, but beautiful years, I lived in ever-closer communion with trees, waters, woodland creatures, meditators, nature spirits (who I felt rather than saw) and the circle of the changing seasons.