Moonshine Junkyard

Earth Day every day . It is what I hope to instill in my children probably more than any other particular thing, besides love in general. I change the songs I learned in church as a child into songs about Mother Earth. We play outside every day, we lean close and pay attention: bugs, birds, the deer traipsing through, the baby one with his tiny antler buds, the work of raccoons who came in the night, footprints, scattered compost. Decomposition, the forms of clouds, what is sprouting out of the ground, what the ants are carrying, the way the doves flap off together in a group with a presence both magical and mundane. It almost feels disingenuous to write it down, because it's not like it's something I pat myself on the back about, it's not like it's hard to spend time this way: it's what I love, what we all love, and it makes parenting a breeze while we can devote ourselves outdoors. I am proud when Lucy asks me the names of flowers, birds, trees. Oftentime...

We celebrated Emmy's 27th birthday on a glorious April day. I thought about her mom that day, as white clouds sailed across a cool blue sky and wildflowers bloomed in every corner of the green green earth, and thought, she must have known that she was bringing forth a very special one that day. April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Morning celebration: Emily and I took the girls for a little coffee date at the Argonaut and a spring walk down to the river.  To honor her treasured aunt, Lucy wore a little dress that was Emily's as a girl. Waving at kayakers floating by, Scout is so engaged, curious, passionate, excited by the goings-on of the world. A product of her parents indeed. A maiden and a mother and a crone, no boundaries on this soul, a woman who can talk to anyone and make them feel important, a born storyteller, art maker, empath, romantic, ...

Somewhere along the way playgrounds changed drastically . I remember so many fun things from parks and playgrounds of my own youth that don't seem to exist anymore. This dawned on me slowly, as I would look at Richard Scarry or other picture books with the girls and find myself explaining that there is another type of merry-go-round, at parks, a big metal wheel that you just hang onto while kids or parents spin it. That there is such a thing as a seesaw, it goes up and down, a kid on each side, that it helps you learn about balance and gravity and the power of your own body. Since this dawned on me I'm on a hunt everywhere I go for a real true old-fashioned playground.  Well in our little neighboring town, good old Jackson, CA (where we go mostly for the bookstore and thrift stores) we found a teeter totter! Lucy was so excited to try it out. Polly isn't quite big enough to balance her out though, so I had to help. The girls had so much fun pushing up with their legs ...