Today I put a one year old baby in front of her great-grandmother. This, I discovered, is a wonderful thing to do.
The baby took a collection of rambling steps along the path, her great-grandmother said she was ‘very adventurous.’ The baby smeared a quarter of a packet of blueberries in and around her mouth, her great-grandmother said ‘it’s wonderful she chose the fruit instead of the cake.’ The baby pointed to a green tree in front of a blue sky and made a babbling sound that was not any word I recognised, her great-grandmother said she was ‘very clever.’ While swaying forward and back on a park swing the baby stared continuously at her great-grandmother. ‘Look at her’ she said, ‘she can’t stop looking at me. I think it is because she can feel the love I have for her.’ On the walk back the baby tripped and fell onto her hand and knees. She then climbed up and continued on, her great-grandmother said she was ‘very brave.’ My baby will not be looked at with such complete adoration by other people, today in the eyes of her mother’s, mother’s, mother she was singularly perfect. A magical creation that brought unending joy flowing across the generations. Today I took a one year old away from her great-grandmother. I’ll strive to bring her back.
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There is a time when you are learning to ride a bike when it is very scary and dangerous. This is the phase when you don’t trust the pedals enough and are constantly caught between putting your feet down for balance and lifting your feet up to pedal. In this phase you half live in two worlds: standing still and rolling.
Trapped in transition, the learner is removed from the security and stability of standing on the ground, and yet hasn’t quite arrived at the security of movement, when peddling gives them the speed to stay upright and balanced. This is a scary place to be. As far as I can see you have to get across this dodgy middle ground to be safe again. A new rider who is stuck in the in-between will fall, knock themselves, get tangled and second guess their wobbly way into obstacles and people. At some point you just have to push out, leave the safety of a foot on the ground and get across to your new security of motion. You can’t stay still, you have to move, and in this case you have to move enough to be ok. Last month my 5 year old couldn’t ride a bike. This month he’s crossed over and is already past just riding and into cruising at high speed with his feet tucked up high on the cross bar. He’s got so much safety in motion the he’s now finding ways to make it unsafe again. He floats through the air like some kind of cross-legged zen bike balancer. It’s a little alarming. Sometimes you just have to push out and find the next safety. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VeGeOhLBGA8 We loved our wedding, it was our own special day. We had some atypical ideas on how to make it ours: we wanted a circle wedding, we wanted the dress code to be ‘bright casual’, we wanted people to make their own flower bouquet when they arrived on the day and we wanted a friend in the circle there with us. Lucky for us we have a friend who loves to stand in circles, Michelle Phillips, a real high quality circle dweller. She is also a registered wedding celebrant. Our plan was to get married about 3 months after we got engaged. We talked to Michelle, and Michelle talked to us. It seemed possible. Michelle helped us to create a wedding ceremony that was inclusive, creative and community focussed. We stood in a circle of our friends and family and Michelle guided the moment beautifully. Love and gratitude was professed. There were vows and formal words and it all worked out great. Four years ago Michelle helped to made our wedding ceremony something we’ll always be proud of, and for that we’ll always be grateful to her.
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AuthorHigh school teacher Archives
September 2023
CategoriesThemes |