Owl Man. Stop Day

Photo by Chuck Hoffman © Genesis+Art

Holden Village, Washington  

Chuck got up at 6 and has been in the "upstairs sanctuary" for several hours. At about 9 he came down and offered to make breakfast. He’s been happily reading, studying and recharging. 

It is Stop day. Stop Day is a pre-planned day we take here and there at Holden where the whole village does not work. We rest, read and, well, stop. There are always some things that must be done like measuring and checking on the water system, recording the weather, stoking for heat and the hydro, but the kitchen takes off and there are no dish teams. Everyone just stops. 

Robbie had given us 4 lovely eggs from the Holden kitchen for us to cook on our stop day. The eggs were from Happy Hens in Chelan. They were so beautiful… aqua, taupe, brown and blue. Chuck took a photo of them and then scrambled them up.  He made me some toast, got me some juice and another cup of coffee and sat down with me at the drawing board that serves as our dining room table.

As he sat eating his breakfast, I had time to consider him at length in this morning foggy light. He was backlit by the window. He was wearing his big blue terry bathrobe, his shock of grey, now almost white hair, was askew in every direction. Because Chuck is rather square, it occurred to me that he looked pretty much like the snowy white owls he presently adores. The two large tufts of hair that went off in each direction at the top of his head looked like pointy ears, the rest of his crazy crop looked like feathers. His big blue eyes framed by his perfectly round glasses measured me carefully. As he spoke, he cocked his head from side to side describing the revelations of his morning contemplation time. Then he was off, back to his perch at the top of the house to spend more time with his thoughts and reading. I love the owl-man.

See more conversation in EARTH.