Wrapping the Journey

It is 8:40 pm at Commonweal Garden in Bolinas. The frog chorus is going strong and the skies are clear. After a night of heavy rain, which soaked tents and sleeping bags we are grateful to see the stars again. At sunset the ocean and sky turned deeper blue until just the thinnest band of pale was on the horizon, the Farallon Islands were silhouetted on the horizon, and the crescent moon was also low in the sky.

I stood with Marcus in the fields between Commonweal and the bluff that marks the beach watching the sky and water change, and the silhouettes of four deer move from North to South across the edge of the land. I was happy to stand with him at the edge of North America, on the trailing end of this trip, looking back on a job well done and feeling grateful for the lives we live, and the connections we have made and strengthened.

Although the trip is almost done, we haven't slowed down. This morning the students did a forest stewardship project at Commonweal Health and Environmental Research Institute with Penny Livingston-Stark. We separated from the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness Students after the work project, singing our songs to each other once more and exchanging gifts of stepping stones and sage. In the afternoon, we toured the Permaculture Institute of Northern California site with James Stark.

One of my favorite big-picture parts of this trip is the opportunity to see different permaculture sites in action, in different climates and at different stages of the process. The Quail Springs site is relatively new, having been lived on in this way for about four years, and the climate is very dry - the flow of water through the landscape is a major factor in design. Commonweal Garden has been growing food and medicine for some time, but only for about seven years in it's current iteration. The PINC site is at yet another level of development or establishment; having been worked for over a decade it is much closer to a self-regenerating landscape of food and habitat.

Tomorrow we will rise in the dark and make the long push for home.