Category — Magpie Mama
The Blessings
i promised to stop adopting teenagers, but they keep slipping into my heart…
Listen to the podcast here:
Subscribe to Magpie Girl podcasts on Zune, or on iTunes, or via RSS.
I love these young ones so much it’s ridiculous. Each one has crawled into my soul in a different way, and while at times this process splits me open, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There’s a scene in the Princess Bride where a funny old crone makes a pill for new life, and she paints something on it croaking: “The coating makes it go down easier.” I want to wrap my arms around each of these precious ones and let my heart for them coat them like chocolate –one long-lasting dose of mama-love to help the new life of adulthood go down a little more smoothly.
I want wrap them up with affection. With warmth. With stability. With all the elements of unconditional love you can think to put on a menu. And then, when they are all warm and cozy, I want to drop integrity into the center of their chests, like a silver quarter slipping into a coin slot.
If they have integrity then all thier live-long days they will be the stellar creatures they are already becoming. Not integrity to the rules, but the kind of integrity that allows you to acknowledge who you truly are, and stand in that truth. The kind of integrity that is not beholden to outside rules, or your peer’s opinons, or because of ‘the way it’s done’– but because of a solid internal compass that will not steer you wrong if you listen. The kind of integrity that lets you live a life on the outside that is true to the life you hold in your heart. If they have that, well, they will have everything they need.
So that is what I bless them with, in my dreaming, in my words, in my living. And the old Christian mystic who married that witchy little crone in my soul says, “Amen, may it be so.”
“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid”
-Basil King
Have Kids, Will Travel
Eden and Cate wish for a return to Rome at the Trevi Fountain. When we went back to visit it all lit up at night, gelato in hand, Eden said “I’ve never been this happy before in my life! To be at the Trevi Fountain! At Night! Eating Gelato!”
Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday this week was an ask for travel photos with kids. We’ve are traveling all over Europe with our two grade schoolers and the experience is fantastic. I couldn’t pick just one photo, so I gathered all the kid photos up in one Flickr file here. Most of the photos have a little story attached. Have a bon voyage with us!
Kid’s Dreamboarding: Sweet November
I’m working on a longer post about my dreamboard for this month. It’s a real juicy dreamboard and I want to tell you all about it. In the meantime, may this lovely dreamboard bring you some jollies today. Cate, age 8, always joins the dreamboarding circle. Here’s her wish for a sweet November.
Creating a Family Shrine
tiny offerings for our fall shrine
In Seattle our soulcare community, Monkfish Abbey, made a lovely shrine together. It started as an experiment in creating some sort of sacred center that everyone in our circle could feel connected to — something that would celebrate all of our varied beliefs. Neil made it out of a dresser drawer and over the years we filled it with flowers, leaves, stones, notes, treasures, photos, collages, incense and candles. My favorite way to interact with the shrine was to clean it out and freshen it up each season with new symbols from the natural world. When we moved, I left our beautiful glowing red shrine back in Seattle. I didn’t know if we’d have a living room big enough to hold it, and it felt as though it belonged to the house and the community more than it belonged to me.
A few months after we arrived in Denmark, someone in the building across the street moved out and left a funny little box on the corner with the rest of the ‘give away’ stack. I rescued it in the hopes of making a new shrine. It moved from one place another in our house, and tried filling it with this and that. But it wasn’t until our Autumn Equinox Chili Fest that it finally came together. (what we do here, recipes here). It is now filled with:
- St. Catherine of Alexandria’s card from last year’s zine
- an incense burner Emily and Iz brought back from Greece
- a pretty glass jar from Helene, and another from Yan, Kim, and Mia (a blended Danish/Chinese family)
-apples and berries from dear Barbra and Ron, ex-pats from S. Africa (they also brought me a hard-to-find butternut squash!)
-a stone from Sharon and Bruce’s dream trip from France, found at the foot of the Eiffle Tower
-little tags with words of gratitude
- the battery operated lights I bought for the ill-fated Winter Solstice tent of ’06, now redeemed.
It’s coming together quite well now. Meaning and memories are seeping in. As Iz would say, “Melikesee.”
< How do you create sacred space for you home? What tiny objects are like holy vessels to you? Do tell!
The Big One-Oh!
My darling Eden turned 10 in July, but due to family visits and poor planning on my part, she never got her annual birthday letter from Momma. Today I finally sat down and wrote my big girl the letter she deserves. Happy (belated) birthday dearheart!
(open this in a new tab for a musical background :-)
Dear Eden,
And now, you are ten. The big one-oh. A decade. A Decade! How can that be? (Do I say that every year? I bet I do. Silly Mama.)
Eden, I’m just so proud of you I hardly know how to express it. When I was younger, and I heard parents say they were proud of their children I always thought they were being kind of stuck up. I thought the parents meant they were proud of the job that they had done raising their children – like whatever wonderful traits the boy or the girl had, it was because their parents were so good at parenting. Now that I’m older and have been a Mother for a decade, I realize that’s not what parents mean at all when they say. “I’m so proud of her.” What they mean is, “Isn’t that amazing, all the wonderful things that girl can do? Isn’t she strong! Isn’t she smart! Hasn’t she learned so much! I am so proud of her!”
One of the things I like best about being a Mom is watching my children learn and grow. You have always been such a bright child that watching you learn was one of those things I could notice right away—even when I didn’t really know what Mom’s should be watching for yet. (New Mom’s have a lot to learn!) People hardly ever believe me, but even before you left the hospital you were lifting your head up off my shoulder so you could look around – something most baby’s don’t do for many weeks. I have a picture of you on Gig Gig’s shoulder looking all around and you are so tiny I can hardly believe your little neck can get your head up and around like that! You can see you inquisitive mind working in lots of your baby pictures. It’s easy to see that your wide, wise eyes are soaking in as much of the world as possible.
But these last few years, as you’ve become a school-aged kiddo, and are now a ‘tween’, I am even more amazed at how clever you are and how quickly you learn about your world.
In the time between when you were nine and when you were ten, you have accomplished so many things! You learned how to be responsible enough to ride your bike on your own. I remember the first time you got to ride your new bike around the block by yourself. You were so in awe. You looked at me in amazement and said, “I get to ride it all by myself! I’m going to ride around the block 29 times tonight!” I think you did ride around 29 times too! I know for sure you went through a couple bottles of water and rode until dark, that’s for sure.
In the time between when you were nine and when you were ten you learned how to choose friends who were good for your soul – leaving behind friends who treated you disrespectfully, and discovering loving souls like Noah to be your withmates. Is so good to see you and Noah together and know that you are two peas in a pod, and I know you will find someone that lovely here as well as time goes by. You are good friend Eden, caring and fair, generous with words of affection, quick to comfort someone when times are hard, and just as quick to celebrate when something goes well. Being a good friend is one of the best qualities person can have in this world, and you have that gift in heaps and mounds!
Between the time that you were nine and ten you learned an entire new language in just 2 months! You read a half dozen—not just novels—but series of novels! You learned how to make pancakes, grew responsible enough to have your own cell phone, and started to do some of the family shopping by bike! You are amazing.
And you’ve grown in other ways too this year. Remember how we used to be a totem pole with Souren? I fit under his chin, you fit under mine and Catie fit under yours? Not anymore! Now you are now nearly as tall as your Momma. (5 1 to my 5 3). Pretty soon you’ll be looking down at me and patting me on the head! And you’ve grown into your own sense of style this year too – sporty and comfortable, with soft seams and no pink sparkles. You always look long, lean, healthy, and vibrant. I know you get embarrassed when I say it and often roll your eyes, but you are so beautiful!
I can hardly believe my frail little baby who wouldn’t nurse and had to be weighed everyday for fear she was shrinking is now this tall, elegant girl who reads through entire libraries, swims like a fish, rides her bike around Copenhagen, and speaks two languages. Miss Eden Claire, I declare, you’re the sweetest anywhere…and I am indeed, very proud of you.
Happy birthday Ten Year Old!
Writing Round Up
Because of the One Hour Experiment, Magpie Girl has been a little quiet lately. But I’ve been writing away at other places on the web, and I’d be honored if you’d visit my work there.
BlogHer: Contributing Editor, Religion and Spirituality
Finding Your Blogging Soulmate
Failure: Sin or Saving Grace?
Finding Simplicity
Faith At Work: Columnist, Applied Parenting
Minti: Powered by Parents
Tips for Getting the Kids Back to School
Food Hero: Food by friends, for friends.
Pizza Night!
How to Organize Your Recipes
Steak with Lime Marinade and Spinach Salad
Lazy Gourmet: Oven Pancakes
“Doctored” Bolognese Sauce
Mushroom and Chicken Risotto
(These are just my posts, but my partner in food crime Katy K has cocktails, salads, and apps up for you too!)
A Story About A Love
A picture book by Cate Chapman, age 8. (To see it on a bigger screen click here. )
Weekly Round-Up
Hello friends!
I’ve been posting hither and yon on the web this week. Here’s a little round-up, just in case you were curious.
Minti: Powered by Parents
Tips for Traveling to Big Cities with Kids
Food Hero: Food by friends and for friends.
Lazy Gourmet Bruschetta
White Sauce with Proscuitto, Spinach and Peas over Tortellini
BlogHer: You say it. We Share it.
Finding Happiness
Sacred Life Sunday
This splash is dedicated to Miss Jenny, who’s holding grief and hope in the same small hand. Thank you Jenny, for reminding us all of the healing power of FUN!
Wednesday Review: Things to Do With Your Hands
The energy and sunlight of Summer can wake up our creative spirit — or the the heat and presence of the Children can rob us of our energy and time. Either way, this set of books is a good fit.
If you’re feeling ready to make/write/create/do something, one of these will give you new ideas and encourage you on. If you don’t have time for your regular work of writing/painting/carving monuments out of marble, then these books will let you slip things in around the edges. Several of them work well across age groups and can be used for collaborative art with the young ones. Happy creating, and thanks for supporting Magpie Girl! (More reviews here, if you’re curious…)
