be yr own butcher: Mudge Island

After finishing the Purr project I spent the weekend hanging with friends at a remote cabin on an even more remote island. I met Belinda and Jude at Sham and Bar's place on a Wednesday and went to see their band (Blue and White Van) at The Biltmore on Thursday. They invited me along with Wendy/Barry, Sean/Bianca, Jake/Courtnay to Belinda's folk's cabin on Mudge Island. I was the wheel for the weekend but super happy to be included.

To get to Mudge from the mainland, take the ferry to Nanaimo, then a different ferry to Gabriola Island. From there, it's up to you to find yr own way across the narrows to Mudge. Every step of the way, you get the sense that yr brain is shedding the complications of the everyday and making room for the calm that only simplicity (and good friends) can provide.

Speaking of good friends. Sean and Barry. I'm a better person for having known them. These are some rock solid dudes. Ethics that make sense because they are informed by what they feel is good and right even at the expense of their own personal gain. Village first. Self second.

I had the chance to spend more time with Barry this trip than I have in the past. Sitting at the kitchen table well into the night. We shared our thoughts about a lot of things but tended to hover around love and relationships. Though I'm having a hard time boiling down our chats into something concrete that I can take away with me, I know one thing. He has saved me. Saved me from falling in the wrong direction. From giving too much of myself. To the wrong person. Again.

He also said something beautifully poetic (chances are it will make it into a song). "All of the water flows into the ocean". I take this to mean that me and my girl (whoever,wherever, whenever) will find each other. Maybe she's part of the mist in water fall and I'm in a chunk of ice stuck on some 4X4's bumper. Someday, we'll find each other at the mouth of a river as it mixes with the salt water or inside a raindrop as it falls. Barf bag please.

Pair this idea to something Shammy said a couple days before, "good people find good people" and it makes me feel pretty content with my current state.

Anyways, here are some pics from Mudge.