Woodway Whiz Kidz

This week I had the privilege of visiting Woodway Elementary School.













From our brainstorming sessions the students came up with wild and wooley ideas, from a hundred-legged giraffe to a bevy of butterflies; there were ninjas, (natch) and troupes of tromping T-Rex; Ms. Gregerson even ended up in a drawing as a parachutist.













Thanks, kids, for giving this author/ illustrator so much enthusiasm and for charging into our group stories, then diving into your awesome pictures with original thinking. Thank you, Mr. Goodwin, for cultivating a love of reading in your students.

Everywhere you look

Sweet Susi and I went for a walk this afternoon through the woods and by the yuppie yurts and hippie tipis. Our son, Jesse was surfing at the coast earlier today. The winds that whoomped his waves have found their way along the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend where they blustered and danced around us.

Without fail, when we go for these walks, it puts everything in perspective. If I am bummed, or sore, or depressed, or drooling in the mucky-muck of a self piteous mantra, then a walk is just the thing. I notice the fecundity of life everywhere, from the cirrus clouds way up, to zooming bitsy bugs going about bug business, (or bug love). Like John Muir said, we are all going around the sun together, and we need to be reminded of the big picture.

beach glass

There is a country
not far away...
yet beyond the mortal grasp,
that shimmers in the land
of the long stroll,
with
inklings
and
tinklings
of where we all shall follow...

The past is waiting in the fields
of future days.

To be seen as voices
echoing still....

visions
poured into eyes
not yet
born.

Rocks In My Head

Sometimes to clear my head, I fill it with rocks. A walk on
the beach, ah! the air.... I find rocks shaped by time: wind, river, glacier, water, abrasion. Each rock tells me a story of a mind-bendingly long journey. I feel them in my hand, explore their shape, and we play together, fitting one on top of another.










At first, they won't balance, no way, unless you just put flat rock on flat.


















But let them pirouette, teach them to stand en pointe. They just love it. But you have to be patient. As in life, it takes time to find balance.

Try it this way...nope, how about like this?...nope. like this? Crash! O.K., dude, what about here?...Steady, steady, wait right here...

There you go, hold still...not hardly...hold, hold, stay...stay...(I can't even make a collie stay...)
Wait, are we there? have we found your center of gravity? Have I found mine? Yes? voila! She stays. Or he. Or it...



Balance. Fragile, yes. Touch the stack and it falls over. This is affordable therapy for me. Healing.

A way to put life in perspective. I heard about a courtyard in China where people dip their brushes in water and write on the rock or cement beneath their feet. They tell their troubles
with bold or timid strokes. Then their prayers eventually evaporate up into heaven.

Breathe in, breathe out...clear your head, clear your snout. Open heart.

"A man most becomes himself when he approaches the seriousness of a child at play"-Heraclitus