Palo Alto Tender Tracks Day 34, Jan. 31, 2012

Waxing Moon
Arastradero Preserve

Giulio was  not with us today.   This day began with a bit of a forboding sky, gray with looks of rain.  However, knowing that we need rain and having used our rain stick last week during circle to entice the Cloud children to pour water all over us, we continued with this theme.  After finding rattles with the Direction pouches and singing our mourning greeting song, we ran, rattling away to the open field.  There we sang and rattled a couple of our rain songs and then, putting our rattles in the middle of our circle, we held hands and danced to our brand new water song  wishi ta do ya do ya do ya, wishi ta do ya do ya hey. Washa ta ney ya hey ya hey ya, wash ah ta ney ya hey ya hey…  The song is a story of the flow of waters and we became the water in our dancing.  Paul came mid stream and joined right in and we danced and sang a couple more times then ran to circle.

This is our week to pick new jobs.  Each child, one by one, picked out a stone from the leather pouch and one by one they received their new jobs.   The story today was one where we did it all together.  It was a version of Going on a Bear Hunt.   This time however it was Going on a story trek gonna find a great one…. We went through grasses, climbed up trees, went through mud up mt.s and into clouds where we found a story box……. We all clapped and repeated together as well as moved our bodies and hands through the story.   After the fun there was great tracking of things and playing and then….off to our new adventure.  The morning took a while and there was an option to choose a sunny place or Martins creek which is in the woods where we could find arrows for the bows that I brought out that some found in the bus last week.   All wanted to go to Sun accept Jasper.  He was very unhappy about this because Anajalie’s words were  not quite so tactful in response to his upset.  Well, with some guidance her heart stepped right up and did her best to make gentle ammends with Jasper.  However, it took awhile. He came back to his balanced heart after a time and the freedom to give out stuffies to everyone aided his relief. He REALLY likes this and everyone LIKES him doing it.  He is very funny and quite imaginative with the process!  He of course donned the purple hat to bring in even a bit more levity to the moment.  Then off we went.

When we arrived  the time was shortening upon us so, instead of going to the pond I suggested we hike up the hill in front of us and go to a great Buckeye tree that I know is wonderful and kind for climbing.   Off we went up, up, up and up the big hill.  It was such a delight to see their joy when they noticed how high up we were and all that we could see.  The trail had changed from last that I had been there so we needed to do some readjusting and checking out the landscape to figure out where the tree was.  We found a trail, followed it but alas, it did not bring us to the tree. I looked across the hill and saw it.  Paul by this time really wanted to eat and some others wanted to go and explore another area.  Three choices were given and there was an agreement that we would go to the tree by way of a path we found, eat there and then explore more.  Well, when we got to the tree, that was where we stayed as it was grand fun.

The tree had WONDERFUL low branches for sitting on and swinging on.  Gracey found the most comfortable position on a tree limb and laid in their like a hammock in Central America. Bodie found a tree where it became an airplane and he bounced and bounced.   Kashi and Jasper navigated around this one part of the trunk to eat lunch on. Kashi was helping Jasper get organized around it, finally gave up helping him and then Jasper finally gave up his efforts as it really did not fit he and his lunch all that well.
Lucy, Anjalie and Alexi tried to all fit on a tree limb but soon abandoned that and then we all wound up eating together, Paul next to me, Lucy sitting sweetly on her own somewhat near Audrey and the rest spread out.

After lunch Lucy discovered great roots growing out of a dirt clod and was very excited about it.  Kashi found a beautiful feather which he gave to Jasper.  We discovered a Llama down below that we explored , studied, observed and wondered if we were going to get spit on! and then others discovered this GREAT bug/Potatoe Bug, or actually I heard they found others, under neath a log.  I LOVE these critters.  They are so amazing to look at.  We all huddled around this friend checking it out.

There was hiking up and down the hill to look at the Llama, climbing the tree, discovering tracks from some of the cards they got last week, checking out lots of tracks and scat along the trail coming and going and so much more.

A delightful moment that happened at lunch was when Lucy asked me to tell a story about how the Earth and/or God got here.  I remember telling them the story about Earth Namer  when turtle was floating on a raft on the water before land came to be.  This was not the story she was looking for.  I told another one that I know that is very short, but that was not the one. Then, I told them a story that I said was one of many stories about how Life and the Earth and Sky came to be. It is one of my favorite stories about the creation by Alan Watts, a sixties and seventies Bohemian Spiritual leader.  He has a story in one of his earliest of books about how “God” ( which we all threw out different names for.  I believe Anajalie brought up Buddha in this part of the conversation) and all people came to be.   He/She got lonely so divided himself into many different parts and would play hide and go seek with himself.  He then divided into many, many more different parts that were “good guys”, “bad guys”, “loving guys” etc.  But after awhile he forgot who he was and that he was all of these people, and plants and animals.  A very fascinating, playful and fun time came from this as we began to look at all things from a loving, more unified way of seeing. I do hope I did not offend anyones spiritual beliefs here.  This was spurred on by the children and it held no rigid belief too it but rather was shared in a  very playful style and truly brought everyone into looking at everything around us in a more loving and connected fashion.  At any rate, it was fun and quite funny how it came up and all the comments from the children.

This was a very magickal day.The sky cleared up early on and by the end of the day we were all very hot.  There was also figuring out which trail(s) to take back and more navigation skills to be honed.