Ticking Crocodile

I've been quiet for a bit. Partly because we've been up to so many grand adventures and partly because there's been behind-the-scenes life happening beyond us. Our course has changed, in two slightly big ways and I'm reframing. We're cutting our time in Washington and the Pacific Northwest short, but I know we'll be back. This place, this small corner of the world, has a wild and gentle tug.  It is much like the unfettered 3 year old who boldly takes your hand with dirt-smudged face and a chubby hand gripping a worn book and looks up at you expectantly. It's irresistible.

We'll be traveling back east to celebrate creation, life, and beauty in another way, but this blog, this tiny spot in the blogosphere, isn't about storing vacation photos and stories. It's never been about making people jealous or to endorse a city or trip or country. This blog from its inception has been about giving voice and a bit of grit to the communal experiment of this little family.

Last night, as I was sitting on my aunt and uncle's deck in Western Washington looking out at a truly breathtaking view of Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters, my attention was drawn not to the stunning natural beauty as the mountains wrapped themselves in the glorious oranges and pinks of sunset, but to the living room. To my babes huddled together completely mesmerized by a picture in an old National Geographic.

There was so much beauty on that couch.

That's why we're here. Not because it's logistically the easiest option, but because in this stripped-down landscape, those moments to BE  are built right into the day-to-day system. I was introduced to this when I was 20, in the home of a Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, where his words were displayed and they stopped me in my tracks:
 

"Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood." 
-Pablo Neruda

So far, sticks have become fairy wands and a professor's pointer, all in the span of 30 minutes. Siblings are teachers and queens, friends and mortal enemies. I want, someday when they read Matched, for my kids to emphatically agree with it's author when she says,

"growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled." 

-Ally Condie

Selfishly, very selfishly, I also want a front-row seat to their Neverland adventures. J.M. Barry was many things,for me, truth telling poet chief among them.  I want to witness when my kids land "on the magic shores children at play are forever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more."

I'm not chasing my kids back into childhood.  Every time I have one of those moments where I realize my babe is getting bigger, I'm so excited for them.  That doesn't mean I'm not desperate to keep them out, wild and free in the garden as long as they can, so they don't miss even one lightning bug, not one single shooting star.  And even if I can't land with them, I want them to have a ticketed passenger on the seat  next to them.

"I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after all of us."

-J.M. Barry

Let him chase you my babies... for this game of chase, if your Mama has her say about it, will be a truly grand and memorable adventure.

"Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting." 

-Richard Paul Evans (The Gift)