Are the young cottonwood volunteers

(perfect beaver food)

that have grown up here after the flood.

We also planted a number of trees

and now we have a beaver

who thinks nothing of taking down

a major tree……

which is exactly what happened.

It’s interesting to receive a heavy blow

from a creature I have reverence for

Like God , a beaver can deliver your next dose of woe

without bating an eyelash

I stand in Awe tinged by Anger

It had been John’s job to wrap the tree

He’d promised.

So my first impulse when I saw it down

was to get mad at him.

And as it often is in relationship

the coming together in a shared grief

is at first fractured by guilt or it’s equivalent…

“We should of been better prepared”

“We’re too old to manage this place”

So on this cold winter afternoon

John went out to wrap trees.

Attending to the effort of living

our softness returns….

dancing under the moonlight

(to the Moody Blues)

Two beavers- or one beaver and God

or two parts of a mutual God

Who can say?