Eating

Eating
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

I've been trying to keep Willow busy while Jen is in the hospital. Here she is eating a piece of corn freshly picked from a corn plant in the garden at work - a plant that I planted in soil that I had a hand in creating via kitchen scraps, worms, bacteria, and other friendly decomposers. It's some of the best corn I've tasted. Willow liked it too.

She has been coming to work with me all weekend, helping me with my temporary position as site supervisor. A group of teenagers with a reputation for rowdiness rented the site from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. I did witness a bit of rowdiness and a fair amount of loudness, but no lasting damage was done to the site. It helped that they had competent leaders watching over them. Willow ran around and looked cute, playing with hula hoops and eating chocolate. Earlier today though, she developed an imaginary friend named Steve. Unlike most imaginary friends, Steve is hopelessly trapped in an elevator somewhere. Willow misses him. I asked her if it was something she dreamed and she said yes, so I'm sure she's subconsciously processing Jen being gone. In the young, The veil between reality and dreams is so thin. That's part of what makes little kids so cool.

Jen is doing well, and is really looking forward to leaving the hospital. Sometime tomorrow, after the test that she's been waiting for, we'll know more about what's going on with her (of course, now that I've typed that there will be another delay...). Thanks to everybody who has helped out and/or left kind thoughts on Jen's blog. It's during times like this that I really feel I live in a community (even if it's a far flung one).

Earlier,as I was walking past the emergency room on my way to visit Jen, I was trying to put into words what kind of aura the hospital has, and I don't mean in some sort of new-agey mystical sort of way. As we go through life, we develop impressions of people and things based on past experience. The feeling I get from hospitals is one of stalled time, an interruption in the flow of reality. I get a distinct feeling of unreality everytime we end up there. I think of all the people in the rooms, and how their lives have been altered, their plans put on hold, their perceptions changed...

Maybe the veil between worlds is thin for all of us.