We woke up to a brisk 55 degrees and a cold rain pelting down on the windows. And I couldn't help but feel like it's here... - my favorite season. My favorite time of the year. Pumpkins and wooly sweaters and steam rising from my mug in the morning. So it was socks and cardigans for everyone as we got ready for school.
Today we practiced our letters, tracing, read about an adventurous fox and cut colorful leaves out of construction paper. We took things slow and wrapped things up before noon, but not before the kids stuck their leaves on the window of our "classroom." I've got to say I'm having a lot of fun with them. There's something about the sound of scissors on construction paper that brings me back to six and seven and lazy days spent daydreaming and feeling carefree and innocent. It's nice to dip my toes back into that world, if only for a moment.
And speaking of different worlds I have been so touched by the On Being podcast episode featuring an interview with the late John O'Donohue. His tone, delivery and wisdom moved me in a way I haven't been in a long, long time. I really recommend you find a moment to listen. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"And what I love in this regard is my old friend Master Eckhart, the 14th Century German mystic. And one day I read in him and he said, “There is a place in the soul — there’s a place in the soul that neither time, nor space, nor no created thing can touch.” And I really thought that was amazing, and if you cash it out what it means is that your identity is not equivalent to your biography. And that there is a place in you where you have never been wounded, where there’s still a sureness in you, where there’s a seamlessness in you, and where there is a confidence and tranquility in you. And I think the intention of prayer and spirituality and love is now and again to visit that inner kind of sanctuary."
"And I think this is one of the key things in parenting and the difficulty of raising children in a very, very fast-moving culture — that again it’s the difficulty of creating a space where children can actually unfold and where they can be truly accompanied in their journey."
"And we do live in a culture which is very addicted to the image, and I think that there is always an uncanny symmetry between the way you are inward with yourself and the way you are outward. And I feel that there is an evacuation of interiority going on in our times. And that we need to draw back inside ourselves and that we’ll find immense resources there. That it’s taking something from inside and we’re secretly debilitating ourselves. And it’s understandable too. Because if you look at the educational system and you look at most of the public fora in our culture, there is very little time or attention given to what you could almost call learning the art of inwardness or a pedagogy of interiority."
"It is actually. And it means that actually in the presence of beauty. It’s not a neutral thing, but it’s actually calling you, you know? And I feel that one could write a wonderful psychology just based on the notion of being called, you know, being called to be yourself and called to transfigure what has hardened or got wounded with in you. And it’s also, of course, the heart of creativity this calling forth all the time, because like in the work that I do trying to write a few poems, you never write the same poem twice. You know, you are always at a new place. And then you’re — you’re suddenly surprised by where you get taken to, you know?"
So much to think about here... I just instantly felt myself growing and moving somewhere else... Not sure exactly where but just this feeling that I need things to be different from hereon forward. It's amazing when reading or listening or seeing something can do that to us isn't it? Just our capacity to receive things.
The rain is still coming down over here and I'm dreading having to take Miles outside, he hates going out there when it's wet. But for now some overripe bananas are calling to be made into bread. Something about rainy days and baking, it's always seemed like the perfect combination. Cannot wait for that delicious smell to waft through the house. And then to brew a nice hot cup of tea to enjoy it with.
Happy Wednesday friends! Hope you're having a good one!
