The Gifts of the Season
Posted: 12/25/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Photography 1 Comment »
Wishing you and yours every gift of this season:
joy, peace, and love,
cheer, comfort, and contentment,
abundance, wonder, and gratitude!
With thankfulness for your good company here
as A Life in Season evolves and enters its third year,
and with warm winter wishes to all,
Laurelin
Shortest Day, Longest Night
Posted: 12/21/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Nature, Photography, Reading 4 Comments »
Gray, rainy Winter Solstice
Happy Solstice, everyone! As I type, winter is stepping into our town’s parlor with a warm hug and a gentle shake of droplets from her gray raincoat. A very cozy beginning to the season!
Darkness will come early tonight, and if the skies are clear, our little family will celebrate winter’s arrival with a bonfire by the lake. By the Yule log, we’ll warm our hands and faces, reflecting with gratitude on the many blessings of the last year, and setting our intentions for the next.
Once inside, we’ll be starting a new Solstice tradition: the gift of winter-themed books for the youngest readers in the family! This year, we picked three sweet titles for our baby boy: The Tomten (in honor of his Swedish heritage), Grandmother Winter (in honor of his German heritage), and Flannel Kisses by Linda Crotta Brennan. All are stories that celebrate the traditions and simple pleasures of wintertime itself, and all are readable the whole season long (not just December 25). At bedtime, we’ll read them alongside A Child’s Calendar by John Updike, a favorite book for marking the progression of the seasons year-round.
Enjoy this shortest day and longest night of the year, everyone! Wishing you peace and light this holiday season!
A Fussy Day Walk
Posted: 12/15/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Photography, Thoughts, Us Leave a comment »B’s been having some fussy days. Brand new teeth, a mystery food allergy (I actually think the culprit is grains, which are pretty new to him), and growing pains. This morning, I strapped him into the stroller to watch the world go by together, hoping it would take his mind off of his baby worries. Of course, I brought the baby carrier, too, because, well, often a walk that begins like this:
Ends like this:
Even when he is in a good mood!
He made it about 15 minutes before demanding the baby carrier. I always enjoy an excuse to snuggle that baby boy, so we walked home with his head nestled under my chin and the stroller pushed along, empty, before us.
In complete earnestness, I say: these are the best days of my life. I know in my heart that raising children is the most important thing I will ever do, my biggest contribution to the world. More important than anything I ever publish, than any service I ever provide, than any item I ever sell. I am fascinated by children, by the biology of how they grow, by the process by which they become their own people.
Motherhood feels important to me. Even the parenting tasks that are commonly maligned or belittled — changing diapers, soothing crying jags, washing sticky fingers, reading favorite books again and again — feel important to me, small pieces of the larger puzzle of good parenting, simple factors that, if multiplied deftly, result in the product of a happy family.
I spent years engaged in academic pursuits the world told me should be deeply fulfilling, but, to me, weren’t. Now I spend my days engaged in domestic pursuits the world tells me shouldn’t be deeply fulfilling, but, to me, are. It took becoming a mother to show me that a mother is what I was always meant to be. I am so thankful to Bennett for bringing my heart to this place.
Especially on, and through, his fussy days.
November Moon
Posted: 11/09/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Nature, Photography 1 Comment »
In recent days, the wave of fall color has crested. The leaves — once awash in brilliant warm tones — are paling to subtler hues. And their languid, beautiful dance to the earth has begun. Yesterday on our walk, B and I stood entranced by the falling leaves, loosened from their branches by a gentle breeze, fluttering to the ground in drifts of gold. Fall is called fall for good reason.
Mother Nature and all her creatures — ourselves included! — are settling in for the crisp, cold months ahead. Wrapping up the harvest, laying in for winter. Taking stock, making note. Turning inward, breathing deep. Readying our hearts and our homes for the season about to unfold. It is a glorious one, if we are prepared for it!
Tonight is the eve of the November full moon. In the late afternoon, don a favorite sweater, step outdoors into the autumn dusk, look for its glow above the russet treetops! Happy full moon, everyone!
Pumpkins
Posted: 10/31/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Photography Leave a comment »
Pumpkins just may be my favorite part of this season.
Happy Halloween!
On the Kindly Moon
Posted: 10/11/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Nature, Photography Leave a comment »
For us, life is full of many good things these days. So many good things, in fact, that the days can’t hold them all, try as they might. When we find ourselves in such a situation, often a pause is warranted. A rest. A quick mental catnap, so to speak. A little time to retreat, recharge, re-evaluate, re-calibrate, and re-prioritize. And then resume.
I’m taking a bit of that time this month. Rest assured, however, that the October Walking In Season photos are ready and waiting, and will find their way here when once again life moves from pause to play.
Tonight’s moon is the Kindly Moon. What a beautiful image! Bask in its benevolent beams, friends, and see you here again soon!
Under the Harvest Moon
Posted: 09/11/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Photography, Poetry 2 Comments »
"Snow peas? Yes! Bread? No, thank you!" at 9 months old.
We call the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox the Harvest Moon. That moon is tonight! Tonight is also the 9-month anniversary of Bennett’s birth. In honor of these: a photo of the baby I love, and a poem by a poet I love!
UNDER THE HARVEST MOON
Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.
Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.
- Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems (1916)
The Choice
Posted: 07/30/2011 Filed under: Academia, Motherhood, Photography, Us 8 Comments »
It’s been a decision a month (well, years, really) in the making, but finally it has been made!
I have chosen not to complete my dissertation.
Even so, there is real work to be done on the project before I hand it to others. Specifically, the remainder of the cataloguing of more than 45,000 bee specimens from my five field seasons in the desert.
Many folks are optimistic that when I finish that massive undertaking, I will decide to make a Master’s degree of it. I am not chief among those folks, but I do join in their ranks.
There is much more to write about this place where I stand, at the intersection of career, community, family, and self. But for now, those posts are on the back burner.
For now, my time is for my family and community.
And, one hour a day, for bees.
Oh, how right and surprisingly good this feels!
The Prettiest Bunch
Posted: 07/09/2011 Filed under: Academia, Food + Drink, Motherhood, Photography 1 Comment »
Today was Bennett’s first trip to the farmer’s market. He charmed everyone, of course! (Of course.) At our favorite farm stand, we scored sun gold cherry tomatoes, French wax beans, and this gorgeous bunch of rainbow chard. Beautiful to behold, and even better to eat! It’s calling my name as I type…
And, for those who have been wondering ever since I posted this: throughout July, I’m dedicating Bennett’s naptimes to my dissertation. The choice will be made at the end of the month.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Choose
Posted: 06/30/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Photography, Stories, Thoughts, Us 4 Comments »
It’s been a matter of much discussion and thought as of late, this issue of whether I will finish my dissertation.
Every day, all day, it’s on my mind. In my head, I hear the words of those who love me, “It would be such a shame to have done so much work and not be credited for it!” I also hear the words in my heart, “It would be such a shame to stay on this path when the life you want awaits you on another.”
I was 24 when this whole PhD business began. I am 33 now. In the intervening years, a sea change has occurred in me. In what I want for myself, what I value. What I think of academia, what I think of science. Where I want to take my life, and how I want to get there.
I’ve been telling myself: July is it. July is the month. You make a real effort to move on this dissertation, or you hand the data over and let it all go.
Today, I walked the house with Bennett in a sling, his legs folded like the Buddha, facing outward. He watched the house go by; I pondered the choice that lies before me. We passed the wall calendar, a work of beauty by Nikki McClure, each month assigned an action word and an accompanying image: behold, endeavor, expect, and the like. Today, June 30th.
“Tomorrow is July! Let’s change the calendar page!” I said to Bennett. “What will the word be?”
And there it was, like a directive from beyond myself, in capital letters, stark white against a black background:
CHOOSE.
I stood, looking at that word. Blinking. Stunned.
CHOOSE.
I kissed the top of Bennett’s head.
July. A good month to make a choice.
