What a whirlwind the last few months have been - a Whale-Tribe initiation ceremony. Not initiating her into the tribe so much as the silent touching of foreheads, the cultivation of radical honesty from the beginning. There was a special order to whom we touched foreheads with, it made a particular kind of sense. For Lenya, she thought she understood the logic from the beginning, but she wasn't quite right - she was humbled. There were blessed trips to Morocco, Nebraska, Chicago, Santa Clara, and Providence. A feeling of tender devotion to the present time and to the future was growing, as evidenced by:

- Rosa bravely moving to San Francisco and now having an apartment that overlooks the Bay (!?!)
- Zoe and Luca's handfasting ("You are the jewel buried deep in the Earth.")
- Lynn and Mike giving Lenya the honor of being their Doula during Lynn's pregnancy and the birth of their daughter
- Jim and Jesse diving with Lenya into a cold ocean and a clear pond and floating there, trusting that they wouldn't sink and drown, and the sun shining down on them
- Siyavash teaching Lenya to let go of the romantic dream of realization, them instead opening their eyes and absorbing the Universe - "There is the joyful face you've been longing to see!"
- Jophet instructing Lenya in Tandava, the Sacred Dance of Shiva, the origin of all movement, suspended naked in dark blueberry space
- Jophet and Lenya preparing feasts of calcium-rich foods, adding strengthening layers to their Whale-bone.
- Jophet beginning/continuing the intensive study of mycology

While these events were occurring, Lenya thought she was preparing in some quiet flicker in her mind, for her reunion with Abel Santamaria. "These moments, beautiful present, not laden with painful nostalgia but thriving in a deep sweet soil of history, will give me a frame of reference so I will be less unsettled when I see Abel again."

Lenya, did you really think that?