Marin Tender Tracks Tues. April 19, 2016 Day 55

Waxing Moon
Lake Lagunitas

YEAH!  Everyone was back from holiday. The Sun was bright and warm, the mosquitos are alive and bug spray was brought out in bottles! All natural of course:)!

The arch of the day was gentle moving into joy, play and group cohesion, coming down into water play and delight from a beauty filled day.

At circle we introduced three new songs. About a week and a half ago Aaron said it was time to have new songs. Today was the day and it seems that three Tree songs wanted to come forth. They usually only come out during the winter time, the season of the North where the Tall Standing People/Trees usually speak the loudest. But now, as their blossoms grow strong and vital maybe that is why they are calling forth songs to be sung.  One of the songs was taught to me by Paul Raphel and Odawa Elder and Peace Keeper. It is in another language and then in English. It speaks to the simple beauty of listening to the trees. At Lake Lagunitas they have their own special trees that they will be encouraged more and more to sit by and listen to. And I believe this is why the song has come because there has been a lot more guidance from Nature to bring the children into silence and listening: listeing to all of life around them, listening to each other from their hearts, listening to their own true hearts….

So we have been listening and giving thanks much more for the simple and the grand things of life.

From circle they went to play for a bit but oh yes, oh yes, right as we got out of the bus we began to play the game The Farmer in the Dell. The children LOVED this game. We played it two times and Layton wanted to play it over and over and over again.  We did later on in the day but now they were to take all their belongings over to the the fire pit.  We didn’t really know what a Dell was either from this game/song so here is the definition:

Define dell: a small valley with trees and grass growing in it—dell in a sentence.

The day was filled with:
•Farmer in the Dell
• Coyote and Rabbit
Coyote chases Rabbits: Rabbits have to be totally still if they get caught. If they move they become Coyotes. Layton, Rhett and Aaron were able to do this. The others just couldn’t keep still but had a GRAND time being chased and chasing.
• Making fire
• Carding wool
• Going under the water fall and putting their heads in the water
• Finding Newts
• Exploring the creek
• Putting out the fire with water
• Dying our wool in five different kinds of color: Purple Iris, Pomegranate rinds, Ceanothus flowers , Redwood cone and, Yellow onion skins.

Rhett seems to have matured greatly over his holiday as well as Layton. Their respect for others and their inner peace has truly grown.
Another Beauty filled day with sunshine and love all around.

They really wanted to draw our pictures of the day and so we did. Last weeks pictures that they drew in their books were taped up on the bus and they enjoyed looking at their drawings.

A few gratitude circles as well.  Just a fine day 🙂