Last Friday was scheduled to be our last in-person day of the third cycle of the year. Unfortunately, it would only be the last in-person day for one of the cells, as one cell was forced to go remote when our county went to risk stage level 4. The county went to level 4 because of the rapidly rising numbers of Covid-19 infections and the lack of capacity to support those infected if Austin were to replicate the infection rate of El Paso on the western tip of Texas. Knowing that it would be my last day with this cell, and because we are going to have a remote cell next cycle, I wanted to be as present as possible with the Learners on day 45.
Hanging out at our favorite waterfall spot, sans the water
Everyone showed up for the last in-person day of the cycle, and got right to setting their intentions: crochet, eat, eat, eat lunch, drink, chill at the lake, conversate on dock, rehearse, don’t die, don’t die, freetopia, freetopia, freetopia, work on comics, and raise awareness to go to waterfall. I was excited about the intention to raise awareness to go to the waterfall. One of the Learners had been asking me about how great it would be to walk to different parts of the park that we had been frequenting, but she wasn’t raising it each day when we were figuring out where we would spend her time. On Thursday when she brought it up, I encouraged her to raise it the next morning. And she did, and she convinced all but two Learners to join her.
Making watercolor art
We found the walk to the second waterfall to be pleasant. After an initial uphill at the beginning of the hike most of the way to the waterfall is relatively flat as it runs along a stream. At the waterfall people got to playing right away. There was climbing, exploring, breaking old branches, and throwing rocks at rocks. There was also lots of conversation among the older Learners. I also had a debate with one of the Learners about the quality of my jokes versus the quality of her sense of humor. A debate that is still to be settled.
After a couple of hours everyone was ready to move back down to the lake. Once we got to the lake the two youngest Learners went straight to the beach to dig in the sand. Two of the older Learners asked for the watercolors for the first time this cycle, and began to paint.
On the dock where the Learners were painting were also the two Learners who decided to skip the waterfall and head straight to the lake. I felt like they really missed an opportunity to get in some good exercise and bond with everyone else in the group that morning, so I was happy to see that the Learners who wanted to paint set themselves up there.
Soon enough, the day was coming to an end. It was a fun day for all the Learners, but it was also likely the last time some of them would be able to be with each other in-person for a while as we expect the pandemic to continue to get worse over the coming month. We tried not to dwell on the possibility that some or all of us might be stuck at home for the next cycle, and instead focused on what we appreciated. We talked about the things that we liked the most about the cycle, and we shared gratitudes. Then we packed up and walked to the pick-up location. We had two remote days scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, so at least we could look forward to connecting over Zoom after the weekend.