This week I’ve given over the master suite to a yogi friend, so he has his own garden entrance and bath.  He’s fasting and on silent retreat. It’s nice to have someone to meditate and do yoga with twice a day. It reminds me of living in functional silence in the ashram years ago, sharing space yet no voices. That’s a familiar and comfortable place for me. Since he’s fasting, he can hole himself up and do his work without the distraction of meal preparation and eating. I’m staying out of the east garden while he’s here, so he has complete privacy.  Since 2001, I’ve stored some boxes for him, so he removed those and organized the shed for me. There’s workshop space now! I’ve been spending time on the back porch, sketching the cardinals building the new nest not seven feet away from me as I sit in the rocker with my sketchpad. The nest so far is mostly moss and thin twigs, some strands of my hair, they made a lot of progress on it today.  Tonight we got some good rain on the back porch roof, I love to hear that, and the wind was sounding the chimes in the courtyard… I love the sounds of nature. I like the feeling of sharing space for a short time with someone of like mind, of communion with a friend without having to engage in nonstop conversation. I like the feeling of someone working on their own project in another room and me working on mine, and us not feeling the need to update each other with everything we’re doing or get into a bunch of idle talk.  The Universe is showing me new things to like and appreciate. May it ever be so.