Having trouble finding Cascadia, now that the US-Canadian Border is becoming fraught? Well…

That’s right. You can get there.

But maybe not the direct way. By plugging in?

Well, you might get to this blog, but this is just points of light on a screen. By car, then?

You’re just driving on (on the left). By truck, perhaps? Get off the road?

No. You’re just leaving tracks. Any Cascadia underfoot is, well, squashed, for a century. By train, then? Along a river?

That’s the train line following the river.

You will arrive in a Canadian city, or if you persevere, an American one. Those are powerful countries. They spread out as expressions of the act of settlement.

No mention there that the line was built on land it had no right to, or that this sign is, well, kind of blocking the view and telling you what to think.. You’re liable to end up in Canada this way. What if you just want to arrive in Cascadia?

Not so easy. Even the Nlaka’pamux road just cuts through it. Cascadia is above, but it’s off limits to most, and for good reason having to do with protection from nationalist claims on Cascadia. Oh, what to do?

Look for spiritual guidance? That might work. Read a book of history?

That might work, too. Maybe. First you have to find the book, then spend a lifetime learning to read it. This is beginning to sound like a long trip. What if you asked the locals?

What would you ask? I don’t think “Cascadia” is a thing to her. It’s going to be easy to get lost this way.

Or is it?

Forget the confusing stories. Start with the simple one. That track above, cutting across from the lower centre of the image, towards the hayfield on the left? It’s faint, but you can see it, right? Will that take you there?

Or just to the deer? Are deer Cascadians? Well, they know where they’re going, at any rate, and cut beautiful trails with their sharp hoofs. If you’re going to cross the land, you’d be best to follow them. You’ll be lead right into it, and will avoid cliffs, rockfalls and muddy bits, but will you arrive here?

Likely not. This is not a place but a moment of attention. Perhaps arriving in Cascadia is a matter of choosing a road that doesn’t take you through a landscape, but into it. Might the landscape be the road, that you create by following it?

Might it be that you can’t arrive, because you arrive in a settlement? (And leave from one?)

Westwold. Older than the Canada it finds itself in. Still a settlement, though. A road will take you there. And right into its emotional water wars. Don’t mention salmon in Westwold!

Might Cascadia be a measure that allows us to perceive whether human actions are being done in the land’s interest, or in the interests of claims made upon it and the interpersonal struggles bound with competing for them?

Peach orchard at Blind Creek in Spring Snow.

In the next days, I will be exploring the dimensions of that as a tool. Stay tuned. Until then,

as the world changes, try not to do what you did before. That way lies mud.