Wednesday, March 28, 2012

For the love of frogs, mud and bunnies.

The children have for as long as I can remember had a very special love for frogs.
There has always been the awareness of their singing at dusk, their spring time mating in our ponds or blow-up pools and there has always been the catching of them followed by their release back into the wild. We usually always keep an observatory for all the little creatures that the children find, much love and attention goes into the keeping of the observy, as we lovingly call it, and it changes frequently between earthen, dessert and watery world.
When I arrived back from Denmark it was an earthen home and housed a baby tarantula and a lizard, the children would catch and bring bugs to the little creatures for as long as they kept them in captivity.
The frog in these pictures is called Camelia, and from what the children tell me she keeps coming back, they release her and she finds her way back to them within a few days. The observatory was changed into a watery world filled with rocks for Camelia and her friend another tree frog, who quickly escaped.
After a day in captivity Camelia was released back into the cenote. 



 The observatory before it was changed for Camelia.
Cleaning the cenote, as is currently happening,  has the added benefit for the children that as a last step in the process a big pump is used to vacuum mud and sediments from the cenote floor onto the gardening area, and is there anything nicer on a hot day than to submerge 
yourself into the slimyness of mud, and then to jump into the cool cenote water to rinse off?


















Finally we had yet another burial, this time of a bunny.
Keenan's favorite bunny who he had called Black Beauty escaped from the bunny corral at the beginning of last week, he was extremely touched by the escape and feared for the bunny's life in the wild. His grief was intense for about half an hour then he let it go.
5 days later he found Black Beauty outside the fence of the bunny corral exhausted, he died in Keenan's arms a few minutes later, and Keenan went through the grief all over again,
heartfelt tears for the loss of the little bunny's life.
We buried him in the garden next to Vampira, a bat the children had found wounded while I was away, and had not succeeded in bringing back to health.
I love to observe the children and their honest emotions; their grief so intense, their compassion so real
and yet they naturally allow the feelings to pass through them, feel them fully and then release them.




~Blessings~


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Moving on...again





















As I  sit under the expansive ceiling of our jungle home I am once again reminded how extraordinary this experience has been for our family.
Sure the heat is at times oppressing, the bugs relentless, the inconveniences of living without electric power, hot water and until very recently a toilet can at times feel very overwhelming, yet now as this time is coming to a close
I cannot help but to be acutely aware of the blessings that this 
brief experience has afforded us.

The children enjoy endless creative play in nature, their relationship with the animals, especially the babies, but truly all the different creatures around us, has created in them a growing compassion for all things living. Their learning has been completely natural, they have learned the necessity of attentiveness and awareness when living in an environment shared with potentially dangerous animals...and they have been free, free to just be..

We have, for a moment, taken part in the development of this harsh terrain, and so, with the help of many, created a more cohesive  and functioning piece of land.
The fact is that our little family will be making the move north. Come mid may we will be taking our leave and move to Denmark, a move that we have envisioned for three years, and are finally able to make a reality.
There are many reasons for the sudden change in plans and I could get into it here, but I wont because it is not important. Suffice it to say, that everything has worked out in perfect order for everyone involved, and that we feel nothing but gratitude.
So as we work the land these last few weeks it is with the intention of leaving everything in the best possible way, as a reminder that we were here and cared deeply for this project and with the wishes that it will continue to grow into
the wonderful place envisioned. 

~blessings~

Friday, March 9, 2012

Times of change



These are times of change on so many levels for our little family....
....all good things
I will return when everything is more clearly defined.

~Blessings~