March 21, 2015 - 19:08
I went back to my site this evening around sunset, but this time I was not alone - I decided to have my partner come with me to do my site sit and explore the Batten jungle. It was different having someone else there with me, because I've always done my site sits alone. But it was amazing how just having a different set of eyes, she was able to point out things that I've never even noticed or look at the same things I've seen in a different light. She pointed out the color of the bark on the fallen down tree (I have a picture here) - deep red and orange, looking like rich earth or fire. At one point she stopped me and had me come back to look at my footprint in the snow - my footprint had revealed some small budding crocuses, the first signs of spring. I had stepped on them and not even glanced down or back to see them. We explored down the creek in the opposite direction of my exploration last time, and as we looked across the creek at the tall jumble of trees, she said that to her it looked like a haunted forest, but beautiful in a way, despite all the dead, jumbled branches. I had never looked at it that way before, but now I felt like I was looking at it through a whole new set of eyes. I really enjoyed having someone else there with me. I think sometimes going to my site sit I come back really confused about what to write, because I didn't have any magical breakthroughs and I didn't really learn anything new about myself, and I often seemed to notice the same things. It took having another person there to make me really see parts of the Batten jungle that I'd never seen before, even if they were as small as crocuses in my footprints.
Another thing I found today, which I don't know how I didn't find this before (but again having another person there opened my eyes to new things), was a tree branch swing. It was hanging there in the midst of a jumble of branches, and when I tried to sit on it it was actually able to hold all of my weight. I looked up and tried to find where the branch ends were coming from - which was the start and which was the end, and what else it was connected to, but it was impossible. The branches were so intertwined and interconnected that I could learn nothing about where the branches came from, only that they were part of an interconnected system that was strong enough to hold me. I'll also include pictures of the branch swing and jumble of branches at one of the ends of the swing.
Overall, it was nice to be back at my site, since it felt like so long ago that I was last there, and it was especially good to be there with someone else who provided fresh views and was able to expand my knowledge of and appreciation for the site.
