Made it!

First morning post-Fair, and my challenge for today and the rest of the week is to break out of the pattern of overworking and get back to prioritizing my foot. Walking at the OCF was hellish and I restricted myself to the Shady Grove bathrooms and the Sauna. If I could get something on the way to either of those, I did, and if I couldn't, I had to send someone to fetch or depend on the kindness of my Fair family. They all took very loving care of me and Pamela even got me to ice and elevate once. She had foot issues of her own and we had a bit of grim resignation in our make-up this Fair. But we kept on and made it happen and it was gratifying and successful. Pamela is beyond helpful, into the realm of saintly, but her sense of humor and generosity with people-stuff keeps her on the ground. Tom took on the booth-father duties with Dave and Lisa took over the path-watering from her temporarily absent Dad and we all managed a lot of laughter and fun despite our rough circumstances. Losing Dave's beautiful booth and our shade was demoralizing but what mattered was still in place and we could recognize it.

My newly rebuilt bedroom/stockroom was fantastic and I had room for a rocking chair though I spent no time sitting in it. Dealing with the intensity of the sun was what took up my entire Wednesday pre-Fair and our shade was almost adequate. That was a giant tree. On further examination of the rings I now think it was just about the same age as I am, which is too ironic to consider. We both fell, and only one of us got up. But the tabletops from the trunk were gorgeous and lots of people ate in the little park across the way, so the tree lives on too, in another form. Thanks to Jen-Lin for her work on that and to Richard and his friend for the brilliant booth repair. I may add photos of it as it is definitely worth a look.

My son's friends came through for me as loaders, workers, and people to do me favors and I shelled out quite a few twenties and Sauna coins for all of the help I so needed and got. Kat is dependable and wonderfully helpful and Fabian worked out great, impressively so. John, my stellar son, walked all the way over to the meadow for sushi and even waited in Saman's line, and Ayla is really a fine, seasoned worker and I plan to keep her around. Tom and Pamela's sons Stewart and Tarq fetched ice, were cheerful and available, and Dave and Lisa's daughter Liz worked for me steadily and kept the best sales records ever. All in all we had some perfect ease with our younger generation, causing us to have lots of reminiscences of them running loose in the woods when they were little. I had wondered how we would shift to include our youngers and new ways continue to unfold. I feel really good about that. It was also great to include Natasha for the first time, with her refreshing enthusiasm,  and we're keeping Dan too. Such BIG THANKS to everyone.

Had some interesting conversations and made some plans about ways I can work for Fair and the craft community to ease our experiences in certain ways. I had a very difficult time dealing with procedures that required me to walk too much, but that just caused me to notice how much I was not the only struggling person and I have some ideas around that. We need to work on the anxiety of our arrival on site and get some advancement on how the various factions of Fair regard each other. It's my goal to rid us of us-vs-them (you've heard this before) and one person at a time I progress on this. I made a new friend in the wristband line as I functioned as listener for her as she unloaded her frustration, and she told me Sunday that it had changed her experience of the whole weekend to feel heard. Bingo. Let us just magnify that a thousand-fold. I did notice one guy in the junkyard-dog crew pre-Fair who did just that, admirably, and I know that more of that is possible as we evolve. It will get better and better. Listening is key. People really want to be heard and seen, and once that acknowledgement is in place, doors open. Vistas appear through the mist.

And now back to the rest of my life, writing and reading and weeding and continuing to get my full mobility back. I missed so much by not being able to walk to the meadow or the new loop or anywhere. It felt incomplete for me, so I'll be going out there to spend more time in the woods, putting the booth away and allowing the creatures to re-inhabit. It's a relief to have summer now. I shall revel in it.

Next stop August. At some point I would like to have a day without a list. Maybe two. I'll get there. Hope you are all well, and enjoying your lives. Summer may be brief, but it is full.