Fall is in the air... reminding me of my own school days, when we'd overdress for the day and then swelter and sweat long about lunchtime out on the playground. The moisture in the air, the angle of the sun, this sense of expectation build not solely on the return to school and all the newness there, but in the cooler breezes and the gentler sunlight and the shortening days. Something's comin' I don't know what it is but it is gonna be grand.... from West Side Story.. maybe there is a sense of leaving behind and being pushed out into the cold and needing to anticipate meeting new friends and eventually leaving your folks. Ouch. Maybe that's the sense.. like a bird in a nest moving toward that final launch sailing out into open air in order to grow and become independent... that's what fall and the beginning of school requires. There is some excitement and some dread. Anticipation and fear. Get ready... maybe too there's something built into our human being/earth connection that says.. get ready! winter's coming. Get some new clothes, new shoes, bring things in out of the rain, secure those fences, get ready to harvest and to preserve. The days are getting shorter and you've got a finite amount of time to pull in the crop. (btw: our crop got eaten by the gopher and her entire family.) I am reminded of the beginnings of school years with the boys. One piece of advice I'd offer them: be patient with people and with yourself. Everyone is excited and nervous about the beginning of school. They will demonstrate those feelings in different ways and some of them will be off putting. Cut them slack! and be kind. So, as a mother in that nest and as a fledgling in the nest... I'm challenged to continue softening the nest, and to get ready to launch myself. Ready, set, stay, I mean, no, GO!!!
5 comments:
Is the photo of them coming home or going out?
School starts here day after tomorrow and it's hot. So what I remember are all the first days of school where it was too hot and we'd come in from recess and the teacher would leave the light off, but it was still stuffy and sweaty in the classroom. We'd put our heads on our desks for a few minutes and you could feel how pink your own face was. Maybe if there were a cool breeze here and now, I'd remember the cooler first days...
Around here, it's less like a bird's nest and more like a carousel. We all climb on and grasp the pole and wait to start spinning this time of year. Difference is, the girls choose horses further away from mine every year, and I start wondering why I agreed to this orbit if I'm just going to be riding by myself! Know what i mean?
no, 'splain! which horses are further away? and where are you riding by yourself? Forgive my limited capacity w/ metaphors. Are you being left behind in the dust? I feel like Im both nest maintainer and newborn birdie at the same time... maybe the former keeps me grounded.. oh man, I am diggin myself into a hole. I can't get out!
OK, maybe it was a lousy metaphor. But when the girls were little, we started out the fall with their hands firmly holding on to me. That's like sitting on the bench seat in a carousel--we'd spin around together. Then we graduated to them ready to give it all a go as long as I was nearby. That's like riding side by side on the carousel. Now they still want me to join them and watch them, but from a further distance. So it's like we all climb on and I choose a nice, safe horsey and they choose theirs--far away from me. So as we spin around this fall, I'm left to amuse myself, but at their speed. I suppose when they learn to drive and can get themselves around, it'll be like I get to stand on firm ground and wave like mad everytime they pass.
I guess I go with that one because I am a lousy nest maintainer.
i hear ya! that is a great analogy. I've likened our situ to running a bed n' breakfast.. or the fraternity house. Clean bedding, blankets, pillow cases, food in the kitchen (sometimes on the table) and functional plumbing. We're just beginning to really forge a life of our own... as they come and go. IT's weird! We are just the B&B hosts.. and like the overeager B&B hosts at that! "Tell us all about yoruselves nad where you've been and are going..." You know the kind.
B&B=Bill and Bob? Ha.
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