Marin Tender Tracks Day 5, Dec. 14, 2011

Roy’s Redwood
Waning Moon

Leo was not with us today. Lenny almost wasn’t but he made it and then we were ready to go on our adventure.
Mood of the day for each child:  Benny, was sweet, enthusiastic, alive and very up and open for playing, joyful and being present to the day.  Bodhi  started the day with wonderful happiness, hiding games, pure, beautiful child innocence, and magick.   Simone, like Bodi, has that innocent wide eyed openness to the magick of life along with her  reliable steadfast kindness, and willingness to push her physical comfort zones. Sidona was happier then I think I have ever seen her and very engaged with joy. Lenny was his energetic self yet with a bit of an edge today.  He was very interested in having the day just with Benny  yet showed great maturity with his ability to change some of his behavioral choices to include the group.  With all of that our days adventures began.

When we got to Roy’s Redwoods and began walking down the familiar path, we all looked up and saw the great hills in front of us.  I said, not really thinking much would come of it just placing the seed of other possibilites for the day, ” Shall we climb to the top of the mountain?” And they all said “YES!”  Benny and Lenny ran ahead to get up there straight away but Simone found another trail that she thought for sure would take us up to the top.  I really didn’t think it would but why not try and see?   So, I called the boys back, the group decided and off we went.  The trail got steep pretty quickly and Simone thought turning back would be a grand idea but there was no support for that idea. She was willing to carry on but, we did stop to eat lunch and then I told them the story of the day.  It was about a little girl who wound up giving all that she had down to just having her “birthday suite” on, to aid others who had hardships. She then wound up in the woods where she came upon wonderful little Gnomes that helped her and showed her the magickal stone treasures when you crack some of them open.
Lenny found a great leg bone that he was SURE was to a horse and he thought it would be great to bring home for his dogs so that they would stop chewing on his toys.  He carried it for quite a while but finally abandoned the endeavour.  As we walked we all came upon some great scat.  Bodhi, Simone, and Sidona were really into it and we found scat all along the path that we were pulling apart and sharing  ideas and notions of who lives in this area that might leave this scat and what were they eating and……
We countined to climb higher and higher and higher and it seems that Simone really DID find the path to the top of the Mountain.  However, our time clearly would not allow us all that was needed to get to the top so we had to make the decision to climb down.  Benny and Lenny had great sticks and wanted to run down.  The path was filled with pebbles and my knowing that potential for falling and getting hurt was a good possibility. So, thru some fun sharing about all of this they made their own decision that running with sticks might not work for them and being really mindful of HOW they ran might help them avoid tumbles.  Benny fell once though yet after that he figured out a brilliant way to avoid that again.  They each navigated so beautifully how to go down this steep, gravely path.  It was so fun and grand to see all of this happen. My heart soared with delight with the viewing of it all.

We found the place that we ate and heard the story.  They were playing with something so I said I needed to use the bushes.  Off I went but, what did I see behind the bushes but wonderful things in the grasses and a fleeting vision of something magickal running off.  I called the children quickly and what did they find but little toy Gnomes and a Geode for each of them to crack open and see if there really was something beautiful inside.  We ran down the rest of the trail to get to the Bus.  I then brought out the hammers and there they really worked at hammering open these stone gems.  Bodhi figured out that by hammering and hammering he made a hole in the ground. This helped hammer the geode more easily.  Only Lenny and a little bit Benny, were able to crack any part of their Geode open.  Those little characters were really HARD to crack open.  I helped and each one found their treasure.  We figured the Gnomes must have heard the story I told and left them presents just for each one.  This was so fun and a delightful holiday surprise and treat.  They played with those Gnomes all the way home.

I left out one part though, when we were sitting up high and looking out at the Mt.s in front of us there was much talk that we were looking at the North Pole.  Some one saw some metal shinning and thought that was snow.  There was great conversations about how that could not be the North Pole, oh yes it could, maybe it is really China and on and on.  Watching their minds put pieces of their memories and knowings together to try and figure this out was another delightful moment.

A wonder filled day.