Marin Monday Tender Tracks Day 2, Jan. 9, 2012

Waxing Crescent Moon
John and Peggy’s Nicassio Land

I wish to start this journal out first off with so much gratitude.  These three boys are so precious. Each in their own way and all together as well.  Each one of them have such beautiful smiles, bright eyes and tender innocence.  It is such a pleasure to bring them out to the Earth to discover the wonders that are theirs for the taking.  Then, I have such deep gratitude for this land that we are allowed and INVITED to come play upon.  John was there, the children got to meet him and his own great smile was yet another gift of the day.  Then, well then there was the glorious Sun, blue sky and on our way there seeing a beautiful PIG!!  I have yet to see pigs out here in Marin so that was such a joy.  Then there were all the amazing birds but, I will stop here and begin now sharing more details of the day with your children.

When we got to the land we got out and I wanted to share some snack with them of apples that they would peel with this very fun peeler that they have to crank and some walnuts. So they each did that and it was quite fun. Then I told them a story that did not seem to really catch their inner world.  I asked at one point if they wanted to hear the rest of it, as John came to greet us in the middle, and they said yes. And that was that.   It had a connection to the apples but, ah well, I am not always on the mark!!!

Before we left the bus they each got a bucket so that they could gather Cattail down in order to make a pillow just for themselves.  Well, they liked this idea very much and then off we went.   As we were walking along the trail a huge flock of birds flew in the sky.  “I wonder what made them fly out of the bushes?” I asked.  And then, Crows started crowing nearby and then two Crow’s came to land on a wire, then four, then, there were so many we couldn’t count.  They were crowing and making a great deal of noise.  Were these two occurences connected?  We stood in one place watching, noticing, seeing, considering and then finally moved on but wait, there was some great Bird scat right on a rock near us. So, we explored that and then, moved on. So many things such as these along our way.  I suggested that Bodhi guide us to the Cattails once we reached a certain part and off he went.  However, Purnat was enjoying being first and was less keen on Bodhi stepping in front of him.  He did not make too much of a complaint over this though and off we went down the trail.  Bodhi and Aero went off ahead and I then helped Purnat get past some shrubs that he was concerned about.  At that point we were down below right in front of a very large a beautiful lake.   We found Bodhi and Aero and started our Cattail harvesting.

They all just plopped right down putting their buckets on this stump that was somehow on the lakes shore and there they stayed for quite some time having fun taking the Cattail “babies” off of the stalk and putting them into their buckets.  Cattail down was EVERYWHERE and Aero was quite funny when he got some in his mouth and face.  He was not bothered, he just got to business spitting and wiping these little teeny seeds off of his face.

Purnat got curious about this black stuff that was on the ground that was either old Cow dung, dried up black fungus or ?  He thought for sure it was “ca ca/poop” and became very interested in it.  That was one of his themes for the day, poop. He wound up finding goose poop,and got out  a plastic bag from his back pack and put it all in there to take home.   He gathered a lot of the black stuff but it really was a bit too big for us to take home.  After hearing what you tell him Bryce about using poop for fire starter I think I understand a bit more his desire to gather!   Bodhi and Aero were REALLY happy going thru the very tall Cattail forest and hiding, rustling and seeing if we could find them.  I joined them after awhile and it was FUN!  Purnat had to listen to where we were and his eyes really focused on seeing us. When he did he yelled with excitement”I see you!!” and out we popped.  Later Purnat and I were outside the forest and they were playing the game again and we snuck up on them as if they were animals hidding in the bushes.  Much fun.

We played by the waters edge and Bodhi remembered throwing rocks in the water with the Wednesday group.  Aero joined with that but Purnat and I were looking under rocks and finding rock treasures.  I went to the water and showed them how the water talks with one another like a telephone:  throw a rock in and you can see the rings they send out farther, farther, farther…..that’s how they talk to each other!!!

We all played with the different rocks and discovered so many kinds of colors.  Aero found a rock that he just said, “I found a shape!”  And, it really WAS a beautiful rectangle type of shape.  So unusual.

They all decided that they would like to stuff there pillows today instead of wait for next week so we went back early and did so.  I got the different choice pillows for them.  Each picked a different color and there they stuffed and stuffed.  Bodhi and Purnat chose to sew it when they got home and Aero decided to sew his with me next week.   There was a fine good bye and thank you giving before we drove off and then we had a pleasant ride back.