Paul left us last week. His plans changed dramatically when a friend of his came to visit; Paul decided to go with him to a vision quest workshop. He’d initially planned on leaving at the end of the month anyway, to spend a few months at home with his family before going to South America. It’s a long story, and it’s someone else’s story, so all I’ll say is that he’s following his heart and we’re happy for him.

I learned that news the day after I learned that Susan is pregnant. She and Chris will be having a child, who’s due in May next year. (For those of you joining me mid-broadcast: Let me emphasize that this is not my sister Susan, but a different Susan. Har har.)

On top of all of that news came the reports about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I hurried back to the house to call my sister, who works in D.C., and to e-mail some friends. Everyone I know is okay.

So, it’s been a stunning week, news-wise.

And, the seasons are turning. Autumn is in the air. Mosquitoes are long gone by now, the leaves are turning red and orange and yellow, the air is crisp. We’re all sensing it. Our two groups, Wabanong and Niingaabiaan, started working together, powering through a few days to get Niingaabiaan’s lean-to finished (which they started last May but got stalled on), and for the past few days we’ve turned our attention to the new sweat lodge. We hauled about 400 buckets of peat over two days. I’m pretty exhausted. After a couple of days of rest, we plan to finish up — hopefully it’ll be completed by the end of the week.

It’s very satisfying to see all this work getting done, and to be enjoying myself. I haven’t had that much time or energy for much else besides working and cooking and eating, and the presence of my fellow Nishnajideans keeps my spirits up even if I do get down.

It’s very schizophrenic, keeping track of the terrorist attacks through occasional newspapers and trips into town, while living and working in a semi-primitive situation. I identify with the United States enough to feel horror and insecurity about loss of life and vulnerability on home soil, but at the same time, perspectives of people like Glenn — a “primitive anarchist” — bring me a different view of the event, one in which the destruction of the World Trade Towers was an act of revenge reacting to arrogant American actions like bombings and sanctions in Iraq and covert aid to Afghan rebels during the Soviet Union’s incursion into Afghanistan. Our hands our bloodied. The newspapers just don’t mention it.

But, though my political views are broadening, my energy at this point is taken up with preparing for the winter. After the sweat lodge is done, and repairs are made on our two existing winter lodges, we’ll be just about prepared for the snows — good thing, as we only have a couple of months left, at most. It’s hard to believe that winter will be as long as my entire time here combined. I don’t know how the cold and the isolation will affect me; mosquito season was only a couple of months long, and it was very draining.

I look forward, though, to testing myself; to sleeping a lot, and dreaming, and reflecting; to doing winter crafts; to a six-month immersion training on tracking and winter living. And maybe to screaming and crying back to a warm house.