Palo Alto Tender Tracks Wed. Jan. 6, 2013

Waning Crescent Moon
Day 20
Foothill Park, The Slippey Sliddey

Zara was absent today.
It was a very, very beautiful and sunny day and the over all mood of the group was one, so fitting for this month, love.
There was such kindness one to the other. Great sharing and helping one another. So beautiful.  Also, there  was very typical developmental shifts that happen very consistently this time of year.   The shifts being more connections one to the other, more exuberance, playing games together, action oriented behavior and an overall shift from dreamy behavior to more, how would I call it, groundedness and connectedness to life.
Miskha was rolling all over the ground, playing with Harper and Julian was interacting in play with the other children. He was talking more and generally just more, awake.  Jasper was in this category too as to interactions and aliveness.  Well, Julian as well had a different type of way, it was simply more, to use the word again, awake and connecting more with everyone.  Harper is getting more and more and more like a very typical “Wild and Wonderful” four year old. Davey is still three yet just like the others, far more awake, intereactive and less dreamy.  Who else, here? Oh yes,  Serena, Duncan and Juliette.  Well, It was Juliette’s birthday today and she was delighted with our attention to her.  She is still like she has always been which is quite present, alert, happy, playful, yet she too had a greater openness.  And Serena and Duncan, not to say less about them but, it is about the same as the others.

When we got to the park we made a circle and sang Juliette a Nature Birthday song that she loved and another honoring song that some of us all danced around her while we sang. She brought a great snack that everyone received happily  and she was so HAPPY about this and she beamed with delight.   I told a story and then off we went to the slippey sliddey.
On the way we went through the Redwood Forest and there was something that was in the shape of a monster size horse shoe or a large Gnome bed or…..??? We made some guesses as to what it could be and then  laid in it. Then, off we went.  When they got to the Slippey Sliddey they were delighted and went right up it.  Some sat to eat and others climbed and slid, climbed and Slid.  Duncan said how much he LOVED this place and it showed.
Mindy went on a journey to find Buckeyes and then I carved faces into them, put sticks in the bottom and they played with them like puppets.  My favorite part is when they went to the top of the hill with Mindy and rolled the  Buckeye’s down the hill in races.
Miskha was rolling all the way down the hill and in the leaf duff, Davey and Harper thought it was fun and funny to throw leaves all over me.  Serena was happy making a house with some bark and twigs, Julian liked climbing in the grand places that Miskha went.  Juliette loved the Buckeyes and going up and down the hill along with Jasper and Davey was wild with joy running all around.
When it was time to go it was hard to believe the day had already gone by.  I can tell that the year is half way through as four hours is becoming too short to fully unfold.  As we left some of us saw 4 deer that looked strong and solid, a nice reflection on how your children seem to me.