you are my philosophers stone...
turn my tinny heart to gold,
my Shamz,
my love,
my secret...
how did they know,
how did they know.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Feeling's of Spring
Today while walking to the middle school I mentor at I noticed how very wintry it was feeling on my ears, nose and head...though thanks to my brand new birthday boots, my feet were toasty warm! (Thanks Paul!)
Even if it feels like winter the signs of spring are everywhere. My birthday is the second of February and on that day there is a definitive change in the way light hits the earth. It is the same each year. For me, Feb 2 marks the beginning of spring, a much welcome transition!
Last Saturday I held a funeral for a bat with my neighbor Heather and two of her children. Heather found the bat crawling on the snow one day and her husband put the shivering soul in their chimnia with a towel where it eventually passed. We decided to bury the bat under the massive old white fir in my yard as that was one spot the snow had melted.
Upon digging in the soil near the trunk I chipped into a bit of root exposing the most luscious raspberry color, giving us a frightfully sudden feeling of wounding the tree. We moved the burial site a few feet out from the trunk and began turning bits of green life filled grass to reveal soft, warm, rich black soil. I never fail to be amazed at how miraculous the earth is. Here in an ice covered day, so cold a bat or a human would freeze to death, the living warmth of the earth is slowly erupting from depths below...a slice of sweet wonder for those children. This got me to thinking...again.
I feel that when I was a child, the ways were different. Most children still played outside in the winter. We walked home from school no matter what was happening outside. I have not forgotten the marvelous feeling of getting warm and steamy inside my clothes as my nose and cheeks turned red with cold and nose running all the while, yet, it didn't stop me or any of my peers from going outside. We complained, I'm sure, but those seasonal differences all had their perks. There was the coming in...warm house, smells of food, peeling off layers to cool down and warm up. The scent of wet clothes and boots and comfort of finally drying out in the womb of the home.
I ponder how many children are missing the teachings of exploring nature in all seasons. In winter there are many...the icicles, the varying color and texture of naked branches, crunchy sounds, water bubbles under squeaky melting ice and the brightest of light on sunny snowy reflective days. And then there are the smells of course. Rubbing against bushes and herbs still laden with dry leaves giving off the most powerful scents in the cold air, scents with no competition. Or the occasional patch of mud on melty days or the worst...dog poop!
My hope is to someday share these many treasures with children of my own. To support their natural investigating and exploring tendencies. Until then I will strive to teach the children around me while continuing my own communing with this most precious, beautiful planet.
Stay warm, keep your eyes open...and thank God for the wonders all around!
Even if it feels like winter the signs of spring are everywhere. My birthday is the second of February and on that day there is a definitive change in the way light hits the earth. It is the same each year. For me, Feb 2 marks the beginning of spring, a much welcome transition!
Last Saturday I held a funeral for a bat with my neighbor Heather and two of her children. Heather found the bat crawling on the snow one day and her husband put the shivering soul in their chimnia with a towel where it eventually passed. We decided to bury the bat under the massive old white fir in my yard as that was one spot the snow had melted.
Upon digging in the soil near the trunk I chipped into a bit of root exposing the most luscious raspberry color, giving us a frightfully sudden feeling of wounding the tree. We moved the burial site a few feet out from the trunk and began turning bits of green life filled grass to reveal soft, warm, rich black soil. I never fail to be amazed at how miraculous the earth is. Here in an ice covered day, so cold a bat or a human would freeze to death, the living warmth of the earth is slowly erupting from depths below...a slice of sweet wonder for those children. This got me to thinking...again.
I feel that when I was a child, the ways were different. Most children still played outside in the winter. We walked home from school no matter what was happening outside. I have not forgotten the marvelous feeling of getting warm and steamy inside my clothes as my nose and cheeks turned red with cold and nose running all the while, yet, it didn't stop me or any of my peers from going outside. We complained, I'm sure, but those seasonal differences all had their perks. There was the coming in...warm house, smells of food, peeling off layers to cool down and warm up. The scent of wet clothes and boots and comfort of finally drying out in the womb of the home.
I ponder how many children are missing the teachings of exploring nature in all seasons. In winter there are many...the icicles, the varying color and texture of naked branches, crunchy sounds, water bubbles under squeaky melting ice and the brightest of light on sunny snowy reflective days. And then there are the smells of course. Rubbing against bushes and herbs still laden with dry leaves giving off the most powerful scents in the cold air, scents with no competition. Or the occasional patch of mud on melty days or the worst...dog poop!
My hope is to someday share these many treasures with children of my own. To support their natural investigating and exploring tendencies. Until then I will strive to teach the children around me while continuing my own communing with this most precious, beautiful planet.
Stay warm, keep your eyes open...and thank God for the wonders all around!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
My first blog
This blogging thing is strange...like an open diary. I must admit I'm intimidated by the whole thing.
I admire people who blog in such beautiful language, beautiful design, who's lives seem so full of amazing things or who can make the mundane seem somehow bewilderingly exciting.
Well, the most practical reason I see for blogging is to keep posted on the going's on of oneanother's lives. If not for that I wouldn't try it.
So, as I now must trek through the snow to work at our coffee shop, I'll bid adieu. Until next blog...Peace, joy, love & light.
I admire people who blog in such beautiful language, beautiful design, who's lives seem so full of amazing things or who can make the mundane seem somehow bewilderingly exciting.
Well, the most practical reason I see for blogging is to keep posted on the going's on of oneanother's lives. If not for that I wouldn't try it.
So, as I now must trek through the snow to work at our coffee shop, I'll bid adieu. Until next blog...Peace, joy, love & light.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
