Most Alive Monday: Awareness

"I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing" - Mary Oliver

April is officially Children & Nature Awareness Month!

(It's also National Poetry month...so I will be sharing some of my favorites here all month)

We are exploring the woods off-trail before the poison ivy starts sprouting. Satch says we're"Doin' sum yookin' fo' worms and bugs"!

The sounds: only the singing of birds, the muffled crunch of our footsteps on fallen leaves and snapped twigs...the sound of the damp pebbles on the bank of the stream as they mingle beneath our feet...the plunk of stones tossed one by one into the pond and the squeal of joy at having achieved a respectable splash.

The smells: forsythia, layers of old fallen leaves atop the moist dark earth, dry powdery logs half eaten by woodlice...and a skunk sleeping somewhere nearby. "Mama, what's that smell", he asks, "is it a GUNK"?

The sights:

*About Most Alive Monday: I've decided to make at least one "most alive choice" each day and post my favorite each Monday. This, of course, is to motivate me to consciously "live juicy"! I hope you'll join me and share your "most alive moment" in the comments section so we may inspire each other.

You may also post photos of your "most alive moments" in my most alive flickr pool! (If you post a photo in pool, be sure to include your link in the comment)