Sense of Place: Samhain

Bat (excerpt) by Bradford Morrow / Art by Satchel

"Listen to me now. We have earned this moment together. Switch off the lamp. Forget the broomstick... The pipistrel does not want to be tangled in your hair. He does not want to drink your blood. He wants to continue on his way, cutting dazzling eights through air and etching arabesques. He wants to pick mosquitoes out of the thrumming darkness, mosquitoes who do want your blood. Go to the blanket chest and get out the Hudson Bay, our family's oldest. Gather him up in that blanket, so he lies in a double darkness, warm and safe. Hold him, and know he is a living being, precise as a scientist, shy as a hermit. Take him out to the second-story porch. Set him down. Calmly open the folds of the blanket and if you are still afraid, so be it, and into the house you may run. If not, though, lie down in the warm night and wait and watch him recover his sense of place, his animal dignity. Show patience, there is a reward. He is in no hurry, knowing you do not intend to destroy him. Soon he'll stir, bringing curious life to the blanket. Then he will fly, his warm mammal blood and mammal fingers rising with him. Your mammal character may fly up, too-high, erratic, sonic, loose--and when it returns to you there on the porch, you can weave it, with the merest touch in the act of folding, into the blanket. Anyone who sleeps under the blanket thereafter will have bat-blessed dreams of the sweetest kind, dreams from which they will always awaken refreshed."

We are almost finished with Samhain preparations. Costumes are almost finished - we will be a family of Anglerfish - S's fave. I was inspired by Isabella Rossellini's hilarious and imaginative nature short films, "Green Porno". So I fished google for ideas and wouldn't you know, Martha Stewart had Isabella on her show and together they made an Anchovy mask. I used their design as the foundation for our Anglerfishes, but changed the features accordingly and added a tiny working light.

Halloween can be a challenge for S. He reacts strongly to scary stuff, me too actually. In my humble opinion, I think it's disgraceful that anyone would expose our children to horrific decorations and costumes, you know the kind I'm talking about.

S likes skeletons and skulls because the nature boy likes bones.

Costumes can be difficult for S because of his SPD. He needs to feel comfortable in it and he gets unnerved when people look at him for more than a few seconds.

The felt leaf garland that I worked on last winter now dons our mantel...

The papel picado that I made for S several years ago, sways in our dining room...





There is a cauldron on our porch, from which S and his chums have concocted mysterious potions in small glass bottles...

The centerpiece on our table, a paper mache nest that S made last Spring, now cradles the spooky paper mache eggs that we made.


Pumpkin carving to commence on Saturday at the Autumnal celebration in the meadow at S's awesome school. (Our creations from 2007, 2008, 2009)

The broom's on the door and we're ready to fly!

May your Summer's end be filled with bat-blessed dreams!

What's Worth

"You can tell what's worth a celebration because your heart will POUND and you'll feel like you're standing on top of a mountain and you'll catch your breath like you were breathing some new kind of air." - Byrd Baylor (I'm in Charge of Celebrations)

Sometimes we just need to. We need to drive to the mountains, especially in Autumn when the colors are so many. We need to stand on 1 billion year old rocks...

and watch the sun set, and celebrate the glory of it with dinner at 3,000 feet...

and feel all swirly when the sun disappears completely and the lights from the towns in the valley turn on and it looks like the stars are shining above and below and we're just floating there.

Sometimes we need to feel our hearts soar like they did at Cirque du Soleil's Ovo. Sometimes I need to watch you soak it all in, cautiously releasing your sensory related concerns that someone may touch you, hiding your face then relaxing into wide eyed awe - unfolding yourself like a leaf. Sometimes we need to celebrate wonders and unfoldings and eat veggie burgers at the National Harbor with your school chums - riotous laughter engulfing the kiddie table.

Sometimes we need a little merriment and mirth at the renaissance festival, and watch the glass artist make a goblet from a glob of melted sand and play Drench the Wench and yell HUZZAH to the talented, witty actress who made us laugh, shouting mild insults at the crowd for a dunk.

Sometimes you need to push past your SPD and ride a pony for the first time. Sometimes I need to hold my breath and wait for your expression to change from fear to joy.

















When you cheer at the joust, I cheer for you, for your closed fists opening to touch...






















and for the tilt of your head looking up at the stilt walkers...

and for saying that you can't wait to do it all again next Autumn...and for seeing you in your robot pajamas clomping around the dining room table on your green monster stilts, imagining!

You sense this world, this life more sharply than most - every sight, sound, scent, taste, touch, texture received deeply without filters. And the rest of us? We seem to sail more calmly, our perceptions dulled with our own experience and illusion of time. Perhaps we could all use a smidge of your awareness.

Unreluctant Soul:: Fills Me As The Sun: Birthday Part Two

Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon...

do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed - Mary Oliver

What fills me: the vegetarian birthday feast and when the owner surprised me with a slice of pie with a candle in it and the chocolate cupcakes that you and your daddy made for me, and giving yourself a candle of your own to wish upon and that wooden sword you bought at Claude Moore to fight off imaginary beasts and the apple caramel crepe that we made for breakfast and the way the sun, low in the sky, blessed the horses in the paddock...

and the BALLOONS...

and when the sun bowed it's head to kiss the horizon...






















and the adventure that awaits us this weekend!
And later
when we stand on our favorite mountain
empty handed
and full.

Unreluctant Soul:: All It Beholds: Birthday Weekend Part One

Let the eye enlarge
with all it beholds.
I want to celebrate
color, how one red leaf
flickers like a match
held to a dry branch,
and the whole world goes up
in orange and gold. - Linda Pastan (Autumn)

It was my birthday weekend and there was the hayride to the pumpkin patch...beauty alighting everywhere..."and one more for our spirit cat", he said...then the swift passing rain shower that blew across the blackberries...and over the barns...until the sun poked through and sparkled the bejeweled grass, to the delight of the chickens...and the wee little piggy who likes to be scratched...and the boy who loves all of this...and pans for fossils...and celebrates the seasons, the moments, the colors, this earth, this life.

Circle of Quiet

"Teach me how to be more aware, open...
unafraid to be vulnerable, involved, committed...
to accept disagreement without feeling threatened...
o understand that I cannot take myself seriously 
until I stop taking myself seriously--
to be, in fact, a true adult." - Madeleine L'Engle

With Light And To Shine

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine." ~ Mary Oliver

We took S to the Morris for our Tree Adventure. We had been longing for this trip for quite some time. Upon waking S screamed, "PHILADELPHIA TREE ADVENTURE"!!!

The squirrel's eye view from 50 feet in the air was spectacular!

We explored the 40 acre gardens and discovered a wonderful stream with a section of large flat stepping stones. S loves streams and could easily have spent the entire day in this one spot. In his excitement he stepped on the ONE wet stone in the lot and landed flat on his back in the water.

He spent the rest of the day in his underpants. At first S was concerned about being seen in his skivvies, but he didn't feel like walking back to the car where I always keep a change of clothes for him just in case.

I assured him that it was really no different than wearing shorts or a bathing suit and he quickly dismissed his prior inhibitions. The best moment was at the time I took these two photo, before he realized that his undies were on backwards. He made a switcheroo in the bathroom, else he might attract attention.

The sight of S running wild in his underpants produced many smiles from young and old alike. I imagine that some were contemplating the scenario that would have lead to such a predicament. Still others were grins of longing, yearning to be that carefree again or perhaps remembering a time when they were.

I found a few old stone walls, mottled and mossy and couldn't resist sitting there for a spell before making our way to Patrick Dougherty's Summer Palace.

When we came upon the Summer Palace, S squealed with pure joy. I sat in the grass speechless. It was truly magical.

To quote my son, "It was MAGNIFICENT!"