pics #788 - #822

Saturday March 26th - Yellow Magnetic Human
I woke up at dawn without curtains. And it is easier to jump from the bed than get out of a sleeping bag. After breakfast we -Mirka, Sandra, Tristan and I- go down to he hamlet of Podsekier, to buy milk and cheese from the farmer. Great scenery. Interesting talks with Tristan. We cook lunch listening to kirtan sung by Nina Hagen, amazing, the devotional ambiance catches me, it feels like Friday night at Svaha Yoga, Amsterdam. Later another volunteer arrives, Suska with a friend, Braňo.
The style of life is simple here, we lose in comfort but win in self-sustainability, and the landscape, the environment widely compensate. It is better than the squat, there is really electricity, and we have running water, only cold of course, heating is done with wood. Dry toilets outside, with a heart carved on the door. Hand wash only, no washing machine. I light my first fire to heat my room at night. We have a shower every few days, heating the water in the bathroom once for all of us. Six cats live next to us, three of them are brave enough to enter the house and relax in the warm. The Slovak girls have young Labrador dogs that they are training. Four goats,no hens, they have been slaughtered by a marten. Bread is self-made, we cook in big quantity for all Sekier inhabitants, it can be up to 10 ... When the night is clear, we can see little starts remain are unseen from the cities, because of the public lighting. 

Sunday March 27th - Red Lunar Skywalker
With Tristan, we leave after breakfast for a walk to a hill with old oaks. Walking in the mountain under radiant sun, it is warm for March, logic for a planet in global warming. The oak forest is fascinating, naked tormented trees. Majesty. A pause in the village around a pizza and night is coming while we hit the way back. We get a lift to the closest village with the help of Tristan who speaks Slovak. There is still a climb to Sekier in the dark night, making noise to frighten wild pigs, and we arrive exhausted of our day.

           Old oak

Monday March 28th - White Electric Wizard
There was snow this morning, everything is white, and it makes me thin about the hard conditions in Winter. With another sunny day as it is since weeks, everything melts at midday. Week-end is finished, time to work! One of the residents from the eco-village, Petior, come to talk and define the tasks we have to work on in the week. I work at making fences around young trees to protect them from deers who eat the buds. With Sandra and Hannah another german, we make a good team. A couple of visitors arrive in the afternoon and help us too, Diana et York, are visiting communities and eco-village in order to start their own.

           This morning's snow

Tuesday March 29th - Blue Self-Existing Eagle
The work on fences goes on. In the evening, there is a workshop of "Danses for Universla peace", a mix of world dances. All attendants share a good energy, it feels weel to sing and dance. On the way back to Sekier, I notice how everyone is helping, drivers offering rides to pedestrians, we take advantage of it to get some eggs to from someone else. All of it in a warm and friendly atmosphere. We are not leaving as in the cities, piled next to each other, but people know each other and smile.

Wednesday March 30th - Yellow Overtone Warrior
I help on various jobs this morning and then lunch. The days filled with physical work, and the good kitchen give me a stron appettite. I have a digestive sleep, while it is very hot for the season, nearly 20C. Before diner, i give a yoga class to Tristan.

           The kitchen oven with cats

Thursday March 31st - Red Rhythmic Earth
We are preparing the field, plowing the earth with Dian and York. It is hard work but we are lucky it is a sunny day, doing this in the rain would be less pleasant. There is nobility in peasant work, preparing the ground to grow plants while we do not master all conditions. We only give a little impulse, a small modification, trying to bring ideal conditions but Nature will do most of the job. It gives humility. The work itself, repetitive, is calming.
In the evening, while the four resident volunteer talk to solve the tensions they have together, I practice two hours of Primary Series on the wooden floor. At diner we feel the difference now that the tensions are defused: we are forming one group rather than several ones. Life in a community is about living together and learning interpersonal skills.

Friday April 1st - White Resonant Mirror
This morning the drizzle does not motivate me to work in the field. Instead, I go down to help on construction work, making windows. The guys there are so resourceful, I feel clumsy. How many years of studies made me lose this clear ingenuity. After a quarter of a century of building mental, emotional, physical fences and walls, now I will bring them all down.
This afternoon a woman celebrates her birthday and we are all invited around a camp fire. Grilling, guitar and flutes, singing. I have never seen such a gathering of healthy and happy looking people, even in a yoga studio. We come back to Sekier under the stars, for some others it is the traffic lights out of the cinema.

Saturday April 2nd - Blue Galactic Storm
We work on the fence of the field, but having no wiring, we can only prepare and plant pikes. We have a walk to Tomaš' house, made of renewable materials only. It is possible to make your own house, the way you want AND sustainable, so inspiring. In the afternoon we have a workshop on trees by a specialist.

Sunday April 3rd - Yellow Solar Sun
"En Avril ne te découvres pas d'un fil" French proverb. I got a cold from Friday night. It starts with pain in the left eye and nostril. Being sick a day off is not cool!

Monday April 4th - Red Planetary Dragon
Something I learned by myself is healing. It is not necessary to go to a physician who would advice me to eat well, drink well, sleep well and give me paracetamol to hide pain. Essential oils, herbal infusion and magnesium chloride are the drugs I use. This way the illness progresses fast. I am watching a movie about the Bardo Tödöl. It makes me think to many levels. Looking at the life conditions in Sekier, it feels like so much luxury compared to Tibet. I have the strength to prepare a nice soup and start the dough for the bread. Then off to bed, wasted..

           Traditional Slovak house

Tuesday April 5th - White Spectral Wind
My eye is fine today, so I can read again. The library in Sekier contains very interesting books. One on the Gaia Hypothesis, another on Shurat Shabd Yoga - the yoga of the divine sound-, some essentials buddhists texts, and a book from Tristan "Manual of wildlife", telling how to survive in the wild, eat, make a housing, work wood and metal, use subtle energies. I am so inspired in this place! Near reading I take care of the cooking of the bread, still very tired in the end of the day.

Wednesday April 6th - Blue Crystal Night
I wake up at midnight, hungry. The little tabby cat stayed in the house: her job is to catch mice. She will regularly interrupt my meditation by bringing me her preys -thank you darling I eat no mouse-.

           Tabby cat with one of her preys

At 5h30, I am back to bed in the sound of birds singing to the morning. At awakening, hours later, I feel fresh and well. It is just a cold now. No violent effort for today though, just a little walk outside with Dalma the dog. I am always astonished by the scenery in this valley. At home I write my journal on Internet, while the cats are sneakily entering the house every time they can..

Thursday April 7th - Yellow Cosmic Seed
Back to work, on the field. I make a wash, foreseeing my departure in a pair of days. One more yoga class for Tristan. It is not easy to teach in French, and I hear myself taking the verbal routines of Gerard Arnaud, one of the teachers I respect the most.

           Tristan and L'ubo at work

Friday April 8th - Red Magnetic Serpent
We are finally finishing to prepare the field. I also finished to read the books I was interested in. We exchange contacts, informations and songs on the guitar with Tristan. Tonight the wind is strong and the air is cold. Quite a contrast from the two previous weeks.