a small story

While we were out today we found an old gnarled pine tree. The trunk was twisted and the dry bristly branches spiked out in a whirling spiral around it.
I told a story about a witch who was turned into a tree for casting mean spells. Even her magic swirled around her like dry, branches.

We also found a really cool shack made of sticks that someone must have made quite recently. There were even fairy sized log seats inside! It reminded me of a little hut made of sticks I found in the woods once as a child. Right at the back of the hut was a hollow with a small moss nest and a perfect blue egg. I still sometimes wonder if this incident was really a dream :)

Anyway...

On our walk we soon came across our favourite fallen tree. The girls love to walk along it and pretend it is a train.
Today it was a flying dragon with a scaly back. Fina took our tickets and we could ride on him to what ever magical fairytale lands we wanted!

Just now, before bed Fina asked if she could tell me a story.

"One day there was a little girl,"
 if there is a little girl in the story it is you okay?
Okay.
"The little girl was called mummy. She went to a tree in the woods and it turned to a witch. Come and have tea and cake with me said the witch. Okay said the little girl, so they sat down for tea and cake.

The End.

...and one more?
Okay, one more.

"One day there was a little girl. " (Whispers) it was you okay?
Okay.

"She found a dragon in the wood. The dragon said, "where would you like to go little girl?"
"Would you like to come to my house for tea and cake?"
"Oh yes" said the little girl, and she did.

The End.

I love my crazy, wild, wonderful imaginative girlie who likes to think the best of witches and dragons :)

7 days

" Inner brightness ends up being a much better and longer-lasting alternative to evil than any war, anger, violence or ideology could ever be. All you have to is meet one such shining person and you know that he or she is surely the goal of humanity and the delight of God."

"Falling Upward - Spirituality for the two halves of life"  Richard Rohr

 

I have learnt so much from our beautiful 7 days away.

Seven days away from all technology and to do lists.

Seven days without convenience!

Washing machines!

Seven days away to breathe anew.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genisis 2.7



Over 7 days I learnt that all children (people) really need 
... is trees, a stream, simple food, shelter, fire and loving company.


 

Our "cabin" was a tiny three bed bedsit.

Yet it didn't feel small.

 

Our "garden" was communal.

Families rambled through it.

Children rode their bikes.

Ducklings squabbled in puddles for breadcrumbs twice daily.

Squirrels scampered through the French doors fearlessly to steal sunflower seeds.

Even a hare gamboled by one morning.

 

Yet there was nothing but greenery and the freedom of the outdoors.
 

And it felt huge.

Expansive.

Immense.



Maybe the future for us humans is this small, natural, communal, localized, simplified way of living.

 Maybe it has to be.

Maybe this is a good thing.




I learnt that I do not miss technology, washing machines, tumble dryers, concrete, convenience or cars when I am without them.

 I learnt that, in fact I would happily trade them all in.

 

I learnt that children will never be bored if given a little bit of water, some woodland, a few sticks, stones, mud and the company of other children.

They do not need toys.

Nature is the ultimate playground.

I also learned that a week in nature teaches a child more about life than 100 lessons in a schoolroom ever could.



I learnt that it is far easier to commune with our Creator when in direct and constant contact with His creation.

I grieved how the world is beginning to divide up.

Poor driven to cities as rich corporations take up more and more land for mineral resources, logging and intensive farming.




I learnt that having an afternoon and evening to myself is necessary only within a modern life context.

When surrounded by the deep peace of nature all cravings for "space", "my own thing" "time away from it all" fall away.

There is an agenda behind all that advertising and lack of fulfillment in our everyday, systematic, mundane work.

It keeps us in a state of spiritual want that disguises itself as hunger for more stuff, more money, more food etc...

When what we really need is less.



I learnt that I would happily live in a small dwelling, much smaller even that the one we currently abide in.

So long as I had two things besides.

Nature and community.
 

I have learnt that nothing is worth having unless it is shared.

 

 

I have learnt that each child is a sacred teacher.



I have also learnt that who I am is far more important than what I say.



We are not what we say or do as much as we are the energy we emanate.

We can emanate a life energy  or death energy.



I have learnt that if we don't make the changes we believe in as individuals then the world will never change.

We are reflections of the wider world and the wider world is a reflection of us as individuals.

The pure integrity and love of a single person can move mountains.

I believe this.





The truth is that abundant consuming has become a vicious addictive cycle in the modern world.

Connecting to nature is a really important factor in breaking the cycle.

Even spiritual things have become tainted with commercialism.

So little seems untouched these days. Everything has a market. Everyone is a "brand."



Everything we are resonates.

We can't resist evil externally, we have to go within.

Our own peace will become the world's peace.



 

Our world is such an incredibly beautiful place.

We need to love it like a Mother, a Father, a Child.

It is the skin of our Creator.

His dream realized.

Manifest.



I went out into the woods by our cabin with Emmy one still and silent evening.

There was a path of golden sunlight through the ferns and foxgloves.

I don't think I have seen anything more beautiful in my life.



I saw God there.

In the light that touched my skin.

The light that gave life to the living greenness and the aged bark of the pines.



From the earth.

I was blessed.



While walking home I thought of how I need to seek blessings daily.

But not just seek them.

The secret is I have to give them out as soon as they touch me.

The true blessing is not simply in the seeking or the receiving but the giving away.

As Hannah gave Samuel, Abraham gave Issac, Jesus gave Himself.




We cannot hoard, or store blessing.

We have to let it all go.

Or it becomes valueless.

Beauty to ashes.

 God is all about resurrection, restoration, renewal.

Nature tells us this story every year. It whispers, "there can be no Spring without the "Fall" of Autumn"

Blessings only live in giving.

 

Giving and receiving both require and open hand and an open heart.



 To be loved and to love.

That is what makes a life.

from falling upward

"We dare not try to fill our souls and minds with numbing addictions, diversionary tactics, or mindless distractions. The shape of evil is much more superficiality and blindness then the usually listed "hot sins." God hides, and is found, precisely in the depths of everything, even and maybe especially in the deep fathoming of our fallings and failures. Sin is to stay on the surface of even holy things, like Bible, sacrament, or church."

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.

Richard Rohr

It is not the perfect image, vision or,  ideal that  must come to fruition.
It is my love.

I have come to learn love grows when I come up against my own limitations.
In the vulnerability of my nakedness. My shortcomings.

Because when I'm shivering cold, in the storms of my own making, He comes to cover me with a blanket.
Then I can bring it to cover another.

In this the paradox of "not enough" becomes that which "runneth over".

Because it is in the stretching out and loving through imperfections, both my own and those of others that I meet God.

This is the ground on which He works and breathes. Working nutrient into rough, hard clay.

Clay that can only be molded into something water tight, with the free flowing water of love itself.

source

 

"I have seen green and fruitful trees standing in the middle of a dry and barren desert. These trees survive and flourish because their roots have driven down and discovered hidden streams of flowing water. Some people live in the midst of evil and misery but still radiate joy and lead fruitful lives. Through prayer, the hidden roots of their faith have reached down to the source of living water."

 Sadhu Sundar Singh 

 

My Garden Girls

Nola just loves the garden. Often she will she head to the back door shoes on hands and knock until some kind soul offers her an escape into the great wide open that is our postage stamp sized back garden.



This is her new trick.



She can even pick flowers at the same time.



She even has her very own flower picking basket.



"Now I know they won't find me here."



"Fooled them."



She is quite a determined daisy picker.







Rose petal soup anyone?
I try to encourage her to use the dead heads but apparently they don't make as good soup as the full blooms.



Florence is characteristically unimpressed.



   But Nola is not discouraged.

{This Moment}

Joining Soulemama today for {This Moment}

 - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

and some good reads from the week


Some words for a young writer


A Cautionary Tale for homeschool Mamas...

A lovely way to welcome the Sun with  little ones

Risk

 Joining Lisa Jo @ The Gypsymama today for 5 minute Friday...



Risk.

I try to avoid it.
I have felt it's sting before.
Fallen off the edge
And scraped myself sore.

But I want to learn to embrace
it better, let myself fly free
Let faith be my wings
Hope my flight
Love the thermals that take me higher

Faith can embrace me better
that way.
Love will become deeper
that way
Dreams can dream further
and hope can become
what it is meant to become.

Risk management is what
the world seems to be about today
Insurance plans
Security policies
Pensions, mortgages, health care

I want to walk the way of risking
all
for love

someone said
What is life if you can't live your own story
to the edge of the page
till the paper curls

I have a blank canvas
And the story that might be written upon it
is worth more than life to me.