Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Mt 11:28) Haven't I done enough?  Some days, it gets really overwhelming, doesn't it? House chores, yard chores, errands, child care, work, helping others-- when do we get to establish balance? To invest in our interior lives? To rest ? I'm learning how to rest. I know I've written about that a bit in the past, but bear with me. There's only one of me, and I've been spread pretty thin over the last many years. My immediate family (bless them always) help as much as they can, and I appreciate them and their efforts. The physical work is never done, just abandoned for a time, until the next cycle-- wouldn't it be nice if the laundry stayed done and the bathrooms were always spotless? Not likely to ever happen-- we live in the house. =) The rest I'm talking about is the mental and emotional break that I -- we -- so desperately need. Dishes and so on are not what wear me out-- ...

It's quiet this morning, here in the half-light. So quiet, thought creeps in--and it's unsettled: Ladybird, ladybird fly away home, Your house is on fire and your children are gone, All except one, And her name is Ann, And she hid under the baking pan. ( 18th Century English Nursery Rhyme ) There's so much going on in the country that is dreadful, so much that is hard to even fathom is occurring--it is outrageous.  What are our standards, anymore? I am a child of the late '60s-early '70s, and my heart breaks every single time I read or watch the news. Who are these horrible humans? Why are they destroying both people's lives and the planet?  I mean, I remember quite well the whole DO NOT LITTER campaign. We even got little bags to have our parents hang in the car. And I was righteously appalled when my father tossed an apple core out of the car window once-- he assured me that, being organic material, it would compost and not become litter.  Peace. Love. No war....

While I know that autumn technically does not start for a few more weeks, Mt. Washington had its first snow last night. It's 40 degrees this morning, and leaves are turning here and there--even a few trees are nearly bare. They have been distressed all summer.  The grass is overly long--it's been too wet to mow, and now it's bent over, heavy with dew. The pool is empty, and will be put away tomorrow. Crickets are everywhere--if there's anything that has flourished, other than the grass, it's crickets. Bazillions of them.  I have both indoor and outdoor chores to do today. It makes me both glad and sad that the green beans are finally producing. I want to tell them it's better late than never, but yet...but yet. What a wet summer. No squash-- farms that usually have tons of pumpkins and gourds have nothing at all. I may have to figure out some other thing to carve for Halloween this year. The tradition, as started in Scotland, had folks hollowing out turnips-- th...

I've always been intrigued by the so-called minor characters in literature and in movies. You know, the ones who don't get a whole lot of notice, but who really move the plot along. For example, the Porter in Macbeth--he's a great character, and it's a lot of fun to play that part in a table reading of the text. And housekeeper in To Kill a Mockingbird , Calpurnia, is a critical part of how their family works. Miss Maudie is not the one who is teaching Scout not to be openly rude to others who are less fortunate. Miss Maudie is genteelly white; Cal speaks up and speaks out. In the series I'm currently watching avidly, quite often it is the "minor" characters who end up the most important-- even to the point of being the character who "dunnit." It's refreshing to see the minor characters given the spotlight, eventually. The writers of this program, Only Murders in the Building , give thorough back stories to these characters, often in one larg...

It's Thursday, August 31, and I'm glad to see the end of the week. It's been a good one, but getting back into routine takes time, and I don't mind the four-day-week start. The long weekend (we have both Friday and Monday off) will be busy enough: drain the pool and put it away, might go on a short adventure with Meg and Holly, the usual house chores, reading at church on Sunday, and I'm scheduled to get a Covid vax booster. I'm glad I have not assigned a lot of work to grade-- who has time? =) I'm sure most of my students will be heading to the fair up in Lancaster--it's a huge draw. We went to the smaller one in Lyndonville, and at the price of fried dough, that's enough for me (can you believe 8.00?)-- the midway lost its appeal for me a long, long time ago, and I can't walk the uneven ground as well as I used to. It's too noisy, dusty, or --in the case of this year-- wet.  The weather forecast for the weekend beckons me to the deck, too--...

We had a guest inspirational speaker yesterday at school, and to my very-pleasant surprise, he was wonderful. His origin story was similar to others I've heard about essentially "thrown away" children, often Brown children, often children in Texas and other places in the South. He came at our invitation to bring a message of never giving up, to always ask for help, and help will be there, somehow.  What I took away from this presentation was the level of empathy so many of my students have. We are a majority-white school in northern NH, very small numbers, very working-class. There's a deep streak of "conservative" belief in our area, one that runs toxic at times. But this man was so vulnerable, so open, and so honest about his experiences, and about the love he holds for all people, his story and his message crossed the divide.  I talked with my students in an equally honest, heart-open way afterwards, about how this one man's experience is played out o...

The first day of Year 37 went well; good students, and I actually gained one in a class (a great kid), and one has withdrawn (a challenging one).  Today, we have an assembly which will take up the entirety of my creative writing class. O well. We'll reconvene tomorrow, and start over, right? Then we have a four day weekend to look forward to: Friday through Monday, for the Labor Day holiday. Another four-day week. I don't mind, really-- but it's hard to get things rolling when it's all start and stop. And there's the scheduled fire drills, too--- ah well, it's all part of the fabric of things, right? The weather has turned positively balmy--80 yesterday, mid-60s overnight, and mostly sunshine. Where was this a month ago? sigh.  My new shoes that I wore yesterday were a little too big, and so I had to fight to keep them from flapping off my ankles. When I got home, those got packaged up for return. It's too bad--they were nice shoes, but NO. They were too muc...