Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 18

Nov. 8, 2018
Deer Park & Marin Stables
Day after New Moon

Wow, what a glorious day!  Fall winds came with a cooling breeze. The leaves were like rain as the children danced under them as well as became falling leaves themselves.  We have a new song all about the Falling leaves and it was perfect for this day!  Unfortunately, the leaves were NOT rain as would have been valued as, close to the end of the day, the sky was noticed to be getting that Fire burning look and smell and, sure enough, in Butte County, a Fire erupted and those great winds brought the smoke down our way.  It was not so bad by the end of our day yet by the end of the entire day our weather conditions were in the deep red zone.

Back to our day though.  We began at Deer Park in order to park the Bus there.  We had a mini circle with songs, Luna gave us a Weather Watcher report, and we ate an easy snack.  I ran to the bathroom and they all sat quietly to listen to the leaves falling.  When I came back I decided to try and sneak up on them, even though I had to go through a ground covered in dry Oak Leaves. Oh, I wish I was that good about not making a sound over those. However, the children still did not appear to notice me!
While I was doing that, who should come by but Ruby’s Mother and Partner!  We were just talking about walking to her home around the corner and leaving some Fall gifts.  They got to meet Ruby’s mother and that was sweet. Luna just came right out and said ” Hi, my name is Luna and this is Eamon and, Theo and….” She opened the door for the other children to do the same, though they were a bit more held back about it.

After they left there was a fun chase game with Dragons and such and then we packed up and began our wonder-filled walk. We smelled so many lovely things along the way. One of my many treasured memories of this day was when we came upon a whole bunch of  Lambs Ears growing along the side walk. Eamon just laid down right in it and LOVED being in them!  He is such a Plant guy. He loves plants: eating them, smelling them, feeling them and knowing all about them!

As we continued walking we came upon a Bamboo grove that was being pruned. The cut-down pieces were there and we took some of them. The children LOVED having these sticks to walk with. Josie and Uma held onto each end together and then Eamon and Theo.  Throughout our walk, coming and going, there were different configurations of who was holding these prized sticks.

The children walked with such ease!  Not one complaint of fatigue as we leisurely walked with no rush or determination, just being with each moment.  When we got to where the horses were we met several and enjoyed petting them, seeing them and having horse riders speak with the children about them.

We then went to go see where we could spend some time playing and eating. We wound up in a dry part of the creek that had a good amount of space for the children as well as a laying down Bay tree across the creek that they could climb on.  They had SO much fun there!!  And the play was deeply beautiful as the configuration of children kept changing.  I took a video of Luna, Ellie and Ruby playing a game we taught them a while back, a guessing game. Luna actually asked to play it with Ruby and then Ellie came in.  Then Ellie and Uma stayed a long time after lunch still eating and talking.  Theo was really enjoying the rocks we were on so I took out my laminated papers of rocks and other things. He laid them all out and was “studying” them. Eamon got really interested in that. Then Uma got really interested and wanted to play with Theo and then Josie got really interested and then all four of them were playing and exploring all the rocks around us as I worked with cracking them open and seeing the wonders inside to share.

When we had to leave they were not happy at all and would have stayed there so much longer. However, we needed to walk back and so we did.
They were quieter on the way back, as you can imagine. It was a long walk yet again, not a peep of, I’m tired or I can’t.  they just happily walked back with each other and the sticks and seeing the things we had found on the way there and reliving that.

Here is something that Ruby shared with me that she heard between Luna and Ellie that is MOST precious and beautiful:  Ellie running to Luna. ‘Why are you running back’ asked Luna. ‘I wanted you’ said Ellie. ‘No, why are you running back?’ asked Luna.  ‘I was thinking about you.’ said Ellie.  ‘Ahh, Ellie that is so sweet of you’ said LunOngoing

Ongoing growth and love. Warming to the heart to hear such innocence and honesty.