fellow questers…

i am spending the week in northern nevada on the family ranch… my dad went in for a knee replacement surgery so i wanted to be here for him and my mom… feels like the right thing to do and after experiencing yesterday… the day of surgery… i was reminded of how love is medicine…

while my father is a very strong man… during moments like these… no matter how tough we are or how much great science we have at our back… sharing unconditional presence… just being with a person you love is great medicine… can’t be quantified but sure can be felt..

given my dad is in the hospital recovering from surgery and beginning therapy sessions… i stepped into the morning roles he usually does around the ranch.. from feeding the cattle and goats to checking which animals just had a baby… making sure the mothers and babies are safe and in good health…

besides fulfilling tangible duties of ranching… i also make it a point to find what naturalist jon young calls naturally attractive ‘spots’… these natural spots provide us opportunities to transcend society’s conception of being in the world… an isolated existence… to a ‘wild self’ existence… where in taking stock of natural features i experience as attractive… i go beyond a symbolic/semiotic representation of being in the world to a realm of felt experience…  a sense of wholeness only the wild can provide…

a naturally attractive spot i keep coming back to on the family ranch is a narrow ditch bank that provides me great insights into the patterns of  local birds… cattle graze in the background and mountains dot the distant landscape… (see picture above)

another naturally attractive feature involves watching birth and death cycles… being on a ranch… you experience the coming and going of animals… the fragility of life… first hand… it’s the natural process… on this most recent morning… a mother goat just had two babies… both the babies and the mother were (and still are) healthy… (see picture below)

the silly part in me couldn’t help but be attracted to the playful nature of two goats sharing the same stall to eat alfalfa hay… good times.. (see picture below)

how does this come full circle to questing… when i lead a quest… we engage in a primal meditation to ground ourselves so we can open ourselves up to nature’s recuperative and guiding powers…

during these primal meditations… i ask questers to choose a spot that resonates with them… that they are drawn to… that they find attractive… from this spot… we begin a primal meditation and subsequently… a renewed sense of purpose for the ‘wild self’

alive,

gino

quester question:

what naturally attracts you?