The past two Sundays have been beautiful, sunny mild respites from the freezing weeks of winter. We spent them both drinking in the vitamin D and blue skies with family. Last week we went up and hiked with my sister and family on their mountain. Through swinging bridges and Terabithia pines and pristine streams we climbed. We settled onto some rocks while all the kids scattered between trees and rocks forming armies and battles and stories of their own. Charred embers became their crayons; mud, sticks and pine cones became their building blocks. This is my favorite kind of play. Where toys aren't needed, only earth and water and sky and their endless imaginations. Ella always collects little bits of treasure where ever we go. She finds these perfect smooth stones or dried flowers. I love this about her, my little observer and treasure seeker. She runs over filling my hands with the soft, yellow silks of dandelion seeds carrying in her hands the scent of summer, so intoxicating in chilly mid-winter. I never tire of her gifts and findings.
I take them all in, Dove's soot covered face, Meadow's tiny crouched frame,like a woodland fairy, Ella's hands spilling with branches and seed pods, Juden trailing after his big cousin Oak. We return a little less clean, with something in our spirits and bodies refreshed by nature's majesty, the very best way to spend a Sunday afternoon I think.
