Friday, August 21, 2015

In the Animal

Friday

It had been a rough night.  The fellow in the RV next door had an issue with coughing, hacking, and throwing up ALL NIGHT LONG, which was only interrupted by the long whistle blows of the Okotoks train line.  I think it must have looped round and round our campground, for it never seemed to fade.


So our last day began with....yummmm...the best cappuccino EVER while my body, mind, and iphone charged up for the day.

(Having left my cord at home, I had the daily distraction of finding a stranger to bum an iphone charger from, ideally overnight, but I took what I could get)

Ah well, I like a little touch of dependence on my fellow human beings...



We enjoyed our treats (also the best cinnamon bun EVER), planned our day at the zoo, drew pictures of our trip, and woke all the way up.



The Calgary Zoo was the most expensive part of the trip by far, but worth it.



Especially for Madelyn, since the grade 4 Waldorf curriculum begins a deeper exploration of animals.

God sleeps in the mineral, 
Dreams in the plant, 
Stirs in the animal 
And wakes in Man

 - Rumi 

Davis bonded with the Lynx.  

For Brayden it was the tigers. 

Madelyn was drawn to the lanky flamingos and elegant peacocks (fascinating! how the 2 birds combine to offer a perfect metaphor of Maddy's tall, slim awkward beauty!)

And all of us got lost in the gorilla lair.  We must have spent an hour revelling in their fascinating human-like qualities. Eating, puking it up, eating it again (when it tastes so good, why eat it just once?)   

What....you don't do that?


All in all, it was a fantastic day of animal osmosis. 


We put in our 5 hours and left feeling very full and satisfied as we ran back to our van through the cooling rain.

Then we headed to Ponoka, where my sister and her husband had cooked up a big pot of vegetable soup.



If it hadn't been raining we would have camped out one last time, even in the yard, but as it poured all night I was very grateful to be in a cozy dry bed.

It was the perfect ending to our trip; starting with my brother and ending with my sister. 


Tom and Char, with their magnetic listening skills, got the very best out of the kids -- all their funny stories and favorite moments of the trip.




They all laughed themselves hyper, played monopoly, danced, and had bedtime stories

.....while I sat down and began to blog.


Thanks for joining me on this read-a-long adventure :)

I have enjoyed the telling!

I did it!  I did it!  I am a formidable woman of nature now, 
I graduated Tenting 101.

And...

One more diddle on ducklings...

Road sign outside of Bashaw, where our journey began

 How I loved the sweet trust ~

    the directional thrust of the open road...

            How I loved the synergy ~

the scalloped arc of geese in flight...

v           v
v      v
v v
v


There's something to it...

The beauty and simplicity

~ the ease and grace ~

the way of birds with their young. 


Being home, 

       the energies tend to run every which way again.

                                  But there is a way, 
                                  even at home in the nest, 
                                  to stay in divine constellation  




There are secrets to this thing of family alignment, 

and it's my passion to find them, live them, share them.

So.

There is this one little thing I've found to be true...

deliciously true and easy to do...

If you do this one thing you can parent with mama duck power from across a room, you can swoosh your ducklings safely into the reeds when eagles go for the dive.  You can be sure that they remain in your orbit, even when you're apart.


It's a beautiful, beautiful key, and I can't wait to tell you about it because it's made me a very, very happy mommy.

More on that and many other things, soon!











No comments:

Post a Comment