Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tues. April 9, 2013

New Moon
Day 57
Pichetti Open Space Preserve

All were here today and, I do believe this was the most peaceful and pleasant day of the entire year.  Truly.  The weather in and of itself was a perfect Northern California Spring day.  The Sun shone with kind radiance and gentle winds blew. The only ones I know who did not enjoy this wind are those who suffer from allergies, Jill for one, because the pollens are flying about joyously, though not for the above mentioned!!
The climate at the beginning of the day: Kaden very sullen, turned inward and appearing to be uncomfortable with being at Tender Tracks.  Miu started with a head turn away but it didn’t take her long to show her gloriously peaceful and happy five year old self.  Emme was sitting very peacefully in her seat waiting for everyone to arrive with a happy pink rabbit stuffed animal.  Giselle was quiet yet when spoken to gave her radiant smile.  Aoife much the same.  Paul seemed content and in ease with himself and the same with Taz.  Alice struggled with leaving her Mother and this took awhile. Evan was in his morning, slow to flower, yet  when opened his normal energetic self along with a dash of peacefullness and contentment blossomed.  Jill was happy to be at Tender Tracks yet affected by Pollens and I was a bit tired and curious as to how the day would unfold due to five children having been gone last week. Re entries can take on different forms at different times.
Rather quickly I noticed about 4 or so children using a “baby talk” voice. This clued me into feelings of lack of safety and needing some sort of comfort floating about.
When Alice was outside with Jill and her Mom, I was sharing with the children how sometimes I don’t want to leave home because I just love snuggling with my cat.  I went into a good amount of sensorial detail about this. A settling began. When Alice came in and found some settling it was clear for the need of more comfort so I carried on and brought them into their own memories of what feels good like, being in the arms and love of Mom and/or Dad.  Giselles eyes were closed and she was right there along with Aoife, Alice, Paul, Taz and Kaden. Those are the ones that commented about it.  This brought about more settling.  I then let them know that any time they have sad or scared feelings or something like that they can just go back to this warm feeling.    This brought a good amount of smiles!

Then, “Would any one like a soft rabbit fur?” said I.  Several said yes but others needed something else. Blankets? YES! warm cozy blankets were brought out, with cuddily  stuffed animals along with soft kind voices and a lack of rush, only presence.  This, I must say, was welcomed by us all! Then, as we were on our way Jill sang some lullabies in the back of the bus and I told Evan a story that he loves and requested, The Gingerbread Boy. He, Paul, Taz and Kaden were sitting near and all could hear.

The ride was peaceful, sweet and respectful.  And so the day held this foundation and ease until we all parted at the end of the day.
As we were driving to Pichetti there were several Para Medics and fire engines racing by with their sirens aloud with focused attention to a destination. And where could that destination be?  We watched and guessed. It kept seeming like they were going in the same direction as ourselves and, sure enough, they were!  When we got to Pichetti several of the Emergency vehichles were there. I had the children stay inside while I went out to discover if it was alright/safe for us to be there.  Yes it was. Someone got hurt.  We all came out with curiosity but I instructed us to stay where we were and let the person hurt just be tended to.
We gathered around for story, songs, snack and the reception of their jobs and then off we went.

We did get to look over the fence as the Emergency people were packing up and take a look and a quiery at it all and then carried on up the hill and over to the pond.

When we got there there were three older gentleman sitting near the “house” that the children love to play on. They had big easels and were painting.  They looked so quiet and peaceful.  I wanted the children to at least start out playing on the other side of the pond to let these men continue a bit with their peace and quiet.  The children were gracious about this.  After about an hour though they really wanted to go over and play on their favorite wooden nature structure.  With instructions to be a bit more quiet then usual they were set free to play over there.  The children were wonderful and the men enjoyed their presence.
All during the day there was great exploration of Tadpoles, Newt egg sacks and great finds.  Kaden found some sort of creature that looked like a nimph form of a gilled young one. Newt?  More research to be had on this.  Miu and I spent a lot of time together looking at a tadpole that was just beginning to get it’s legs.  She is showing great signs of deep curiosity towards scientific investigations.
There were wonderful games in the bushes with Mommies and Daddies, different animals transforming from moment to moment and then, the hair styling brought up by Evan who LOVES getting his hair done.  Miu, Aoife and Alice all had their hair braided and plants used to tie it all together. Then they put sticks and interesting things in my hair.  We snuck around trying to find one another and saw so many wonderful birds that we could get closer and closer to.  Some Mushrooms looked like “Bread” that was used in play and hammers, shovels and cups for tadpole collecting were available throughout the day.

Truly a wonder filled and easeful day.