Yet I am deceived every time, by a move or a new environment. "This is the fresh start. This is the perfect storm."
While I have not gone back and read some of my earlier posts, I seem to remember timidly raving about my determined hiking regime - at least one a week - or my eager garden project for the expansive plot of weedy yard that I have.
Neither of those have happened quite as I imagined and the infrequency of my posting is indicative of the "swept up" symptom of life.
But let me clarify. I am not complaining. I am simply reevaluating.
There are some perks to this reevaluation. My mold had been treating this somewhat like an extended special engagement. Every day felt like it had to produce something, be monitored, be recorded. I am glad to say that the busyness that has kept me away from writing has been a well-balanced dose of work and play.
The next couple of months will be enveloped in celebratory holiday garb, keeping us on our feet with logistics of charitable activities and wintery field trips. Now has been the time for relationship and community. This is nothing to be put on a pedestal. This is life.
In these next posts, lets get up to speed on the journey : )
October 14
From the evidence of these last two weeks, I am pretty sure Washingtonians lie about their horrendous drabbery just to scare away a potential overpopulous. Until yesterday (the 27th) we had not a drop of rain fall on our heads, let alone a lack of light. If I could, I would have demanded a state-wide work hiatus with mandatory hiking but with the reality of our busy schedules, we were hard-pressed to find time for much. So on a sunny Monday before Open Gym, Mary and I got an early start and drove out to the trail head of Glacier Lake Trail #89. The two of us had bounced trail ideas off one another for over an hour the night before, finding routes that were either too long or most likely snowed in by now. We had been hesitant to resort to Glacier Lake because all of the reviews I had read were under-enthused at best, deterring at worst. Hikers warned of wash-outs and poorly cleared paths and an unimpressive destination point. But with little else to go on, I was not about to waste a gorgeous day.
The forest road itself was one of the better maintained I had been on (many around here involve pothole dodging that feels like it could be made into a high-action video game) but sure enough, about a 1/2 mile from the trail head, the road was marked off with big orange cones where the road had been washed out from a very established-looking water-flow route down the mountain side. On our hike up to the start, we encountered another wash out in its path just above it that left a narrow little clif-side for us to follow. When we were met at the trail sign with a notice left from the previous day warning "VERY WASHED OUT. UNSAFE." We raised our eyebrows one last time...before heading in.
The trail was beautiful. Hilly and muddy in spots, sure. But nothing remotely close to what I would consider warranting an urgent, capitalized UNSAFE (certainly nothing nearly as unsafe as this: http://melissamittentomountains.blogspot.com/2013/06/plunging-into-porkies.html). Unlike many of the trails I'd been on in the area, this one went deep into the woods along a valley river, never ascending or descending for too long but snaking up and down, bringing us to the water's edge and back into fairy-tale moss-lands. It was an exciting change from the many shared ATV trails. While the steep lifts certainly got wearing, the surrounding were so varied that I never really fell into a fatigued trance. This trail had the most mushroom varieties I had seen in one area by far and contrary to the bland reviews, I thought it presented some of the most beautiful fall foliage. the first half was mostly encapsulated in shadey groves of thick, valley woods of damp dark greens. It then gradually opened up to rock "fields" covered in the brightest limey moss I'd ever seen. Small deciduous trees sprinkled the landscape and filtered the sun through reds and oranges that warmed the sight of everything around us. It was the perfect time in the trail - just about hitting one hill too many - that gave us that last burst of excitement to get to a clearing of rocks. Mary went ahead as I was taking pictures and from the next bend, shouted for joy. "I FOUND THE LAKE!"
people lied about the destination as well! Just before the lakeside, we came across a small camp shaded by a giant knotty tree, complete with a little fire pit. The lake itself was lined with the bright silver of bare, felled trees and fog rolled off the edges up into the line of sun. We sat for a good hour before heading back, with plenty of time to spare before Open Gym.
back at the trail head, we left a second opinion so as to ensure others didn't miss out on the experience.
Hiking before Open Gym did my soul good. It was the first of two straight weeks of being able to lock the kids out of the gym for the afternoon and take them outside. For whatever reason, I have found that our time outside has expedited the feeling of establishing relationship between the kids and I. I think part of it is that the activities and the oversight area demands more engagement and the other part is that it puts us all in a better mood then when we are stuck in the drafty, dim-lit gym. I have established myself as a worthy swing-pusher with A and a few of the other kids and L has been showing some gymnast moves that has gotten us into a lot of conversation. for some of the younger kids, the latest challenge has been trying to get across the monkey-rings on the play structure and my heart swelled the other day when I watched L2 finally make a couple of rings on her own after registering some of the tips I offered. A couple of the others have wanted to be helped as they go across and I can tell that me just being there to hold them has really done a lot for their trust and comfort with me. We had a scare the other day when A2 got himself tangled in the rope grid as he was climbing up it onto the structure. His leg was weaved through in such a way that I thought it was surely broken, or at least sprained, as Lou and some of the other kids and I tried to control our panic and get him out. I came around behind him and held him up to relieve the constraint as the rest of them tried to figure out how to reverse the entanglement. amidst his frantic cries, we got him free and I gently lowered him to the ground and held him, asking him to bend and straighten his leg if he could, to make sure everything was okay. Very fortunately, he was and in a matter of minutes, stood up. But for the rest of our time outside, he wanted to spend quiet time alone with me under the structure. It has been moments like these outside, that have shown e how valuable our simple attention and availability is. Those small acts of trust that show we don't want them to get hurt affect them so deeply. That has by far been one of the most rewarding things these past couple of weeks.
But Open Gym has also come with its challenges. The main one being that the boys have taken to wrestling. I don't mean little rough and tumbles here and there (although there are a couple of kids that get into altercations more and more frequently) but I mean full-on wrestling games. For the last three or four sessions now, the older kids have dragged out the gym mats for the last half of OG after snack and set up an official "ring". I believe it has its place and I think it is a healthy and natural outlet for kids, monitored properly. I just feel totally out of my element. Anyone who knows me won't be surprised to hear me say that I don't know the first thing about wrestling. Needless to say, that makes it rather difficult to monitor. For instance, we say that as soon as someone gets hurt, we're done. Yet even after a move that initiates a good cry, the kids will want to be back at it a few minutes later...so when do we say enough is enough? I haven't been shy to lay my foot down when it is bothering me but I don't want to take away their fun either.
Next up...
In between all of the in-town action, AmeriCorps had a field trip!
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