Staying Young

I have been at a christian community/ conservation research centre called A Rocha for almost a week and I am now considering prolonging my stay by a few days despite the difficulties of a keyboard with muddled letters and no apotrophes. The time here has been simple and beautiful and good. We are in the middle of the French countryside so I mere amble down the road takes me to wild flower fields and spectacular sunlit views across the blowing stretch of trees. I found a wooden swing on the far side of the house where I can sit and rock and muse. The people volunteering and working here are an equal mix of french and english speakers, so a fare amount of conversation and banter defaults to french as the english speakers are keen to practice and some of the french workers cant participate in english. I have done my own share of garbadge pick up in a marsh, as well as a bit of raking and cooking, but my most useful emplyement has been in translating sections of their french website in to english. I have also come to quite enjoy the company of a few other workers, with whom we have already had a generous share of laughter, even sillyness, and sincerity. Yesterday a sprawled out conversation on the lawn transitioned in to dinner and then late night chatter well past midnight that was recommenced upon waking at the marathon of kitchen table conversion when the first foul weather permitted little otherwise. I have often remarked that joy is most evident when I can put aside my self-made pretention and partake in the simple activities at hand whether it be standing on my head, going out for drinks or positing my position on the particularities of a teapot.