March 27, 2009

I've got that feeling again. I feel the energy gathering and pooling at my feet.

It was over a year ago when I said we would study permaculture as a homeschooling project. Back then our yard was a scrubby shade farm for honeysuckle and chiggers. Back then, we did not own a cow. Back then, we had no knowledge of "the look that does not see." Back then, we had not been splashed with amniotic fluid, nor pulled a bleating baby into this world. We had no chicks.

Permaculture is marvelously multi faceted and we've been neither strict nor dogmatic in our approach. But we now have compost, chicks in a coop, roses, blue berries, figs, a crab apple, rosemary, lavender, echinachea, and a garden plot fenced, tilled, and mulched two feet deep. We have cast seeds. People, we have learned. We are full into a whole new way of life. The nuance of which, we'll cultivate from here on up.

But I feel a new project. I literally feel it in my stomach. And I'm learning that when I feel all the water start to run for the rivers, the sap rising, the well brimming, that's the teaching moment. We are on to something Big and Changing. I hope my children hold out for that Big and Changing urge to spark their learning, for the rest of their life. I'm coming to it late, myself. And I'll hang our life preservers on it.

What's the new project? Boat building. We are going to build ourselves a boat. Maybe two.

"Ain't nothing like a boat to teach a man the worth of quiet contemplation." ~The Old Man And The Boy

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

OY. I've been wondering, esp. after hearing you on video sounding lighthearted about baby goats cavorting ON you...has this whole experience(s) made you less of a control freak? I ask because I'm hoping to heck it'll help me. I didn't find where the cat pooped in the house for two days....so I think I'm making progress at reforming my CF ways...

you may reply here...or well, you know how to reach me, cowgirl.

rae said...

Is Maria getting goats?

And I won't even ask if you're really going to build boats - because I know you will. And I know it will be fabulous. Definitely different, but fabulous nonetheless.

Muah!

carver family said...

it's rising up - everywhere.

keep listening - this stuff is big.

riding the wave with you.

I'll try to tune into my belly - am stuck in my head still.

thx!

K said...

Rae, I heard her too. I think she's getting goats! : )

I come from a long line of control freaks. I am steeped in control freakishness. First, therapy and then getting married and having children are what changed me.

I don't think its possible to be heavy hearted around baby goats. Or boats, for that matter. Goats and boats = what is good and right.

Kristin said...

On no! Don't let my son see this!! Perhaps I'll send him your way for a season. He's just dying to build a boat!!

Heather said...

"And I'm learning that when I feel all the water start to run for the rivers, the sap rising, the well brimming, that's the teaching moment." -- This is the thing that sets unschoolers apart, I think. The thing I need to learn, and burn into my brain with a brand if necessary. So often I'm overcome by the need to DO something big and important, but often miss the moment to let the kids help and enjoy it and learn from it too. Thanks for this, it has really given me some food for thought today.