So strange. Today is my last day.

I woke just shy of 6AM this morning and immediately set to work making a sign for slow composting. Strange, but I wanted to make sure that piece of the education was in place.

Now I'm not so sure I know what to do about my apple tiles. I might consider finishing them before I leave. Or I might want to take them home to San Francisco and paint them there, then return here. I feel a return may be inevitable.

The report lies unfinished - the report I promised to the future generations of PICAns. Is it so important? Yes, because there is past history involved. I wonder if I could convince my father to help me find a program that specializes in captions? I would very much like to make PICA an album while I am at it. Yes, maybe I'll come back up on Friday - bearing gifts. :-)

But after Friday...

The air shrouds the land; the peaceful grey yet so reminiscent of the city I left behind for this education, the city I return to later today. I look out at the Garden, where the rest of the milpa remains standing, drying. I will miss it.

I should take care of the seeds today, before it is too late.

It feels so strange leaving this home of homes, my one home, and know that it will be difficult to return. But that's okay. Maybe I will write a letter to Marley later today, in the Garden. It makes me feel at peace to think of him; somehow, I feel even closer to him today. Perhaps it is in knowing that, like him, I will become One with the Force once I leave, for the Garden never forgets its students or its children, and we pine for it in our absences. How appropriate that I should think of my teacher on this day, for he loved and learned from the Garden as well, and I inherited of that love.

I shall leave behind as much as I can...

I love you all. My Garden ...my family ...my home.

I miss you.

Love, always,
~Yvea