last times

Last time we attend a playgroup session. We brought some littlle cakes - how fortunate, they turned out to be without eggs and without milk products too (the recipe was made up, but I saved it for later use!). We were offered a beautiful collage made out of the children's collective painting of the morning - we will hang it on our wall and it will remind us of this peaceful, nourishing place. The fact of a friend leaving was woven into the small story that closes the morning... And then everyone came to say their goodbyes, so many pronounced goodbyes that our little girl went wondering: what do all these people want with their goodbyes?

Last time we attended a "colour strings" music session; quiet and inspiring and enriching, both for the little ones and for us parents, learning so many new songs and ways to go about rythm and tone and enjoying each other's good company while the children play after the sessions. It is wonderful to see how our daughter, who earlier didn't seem to care about rhyme times and singing songs together, is now suddenly reaching a stage where she participates, makes the accompanying gestures, and even asks me to sing some of the songs at home...

No lengthy rituals here, just heartly goodbyes at the end, before leaving the other children playing in the park. These were two points that shaped our weeks and two moments we will miss. It is a sad feeling to leave people and places knowing you'll miss them - but a "good" sad feeling. It would be far sadder to leave people and places knowing you are not going to miss any of them...

life-crafts

.

In soft whisperings from the heart,

The child within offers you always

The thread of your truth.

May you cherish that child, trust

That voice and weave that thread

Richly into the fabric of your days

.

- - anonymous - -

from "Mother's Nature"

hemel en aarde

.

.

De aarde is jouw moeder,
zij omvat jou.
De hemel is jouw vader,
hij beschermt jou.
Wij zijn altijd samen
Wij zijn altijd samen
Er is nooit een tijd geweest
dat dit
anders was.

- - wiegenliedje van de Navajo - -

thanks

(op zoek naar spirituele momenten in de dag)

Let us give thanks
for this beautiful day.
Let us give thanks
for the water without which life
would not be possible.
Let us give thanks for
Grandmother Earth who protects
and nourishes us.

- - daily prayer of the Lakota - -
from "Mother's Nature"

big

I met a little gnome one day,
Down where the river flows.
I asked him why he was so small
And why he never grows?

He smiled at me
And with one eye
He looked me through and through and said:
"I'm just as big for me, you see,
As you are big for you!"

- - English nursery song - -