News from a 4-year-old

Yesterday we lost Pete Seeger.

The Little Man, who just turned four,  heard Mommy and Daddy talking about  Pete.  He said, "I know about Pete Seeger.  He was the one who sang, 'This land is your land, this land is my land.'" 
Daddy, " Yes, that's right."  Little Man, looking very sad, "He's dead now."   "Yes, but he was 90 years older than you are now.  He lived a long life. "

I am wondering how the Little Man knew this and who told him that Pete was dead?   He does know about death and knows about it because he asked and we explained it to him.

I got the sense that they were talking about Pete Seeger in daycare...

I don't know if the daycare teachers would have mentioned that he died.  I don't really think so.  I think that might have been something the Little Man picked up from listening to the radio or somewhere else.

I wonder if the daycare teachers told them about the songs Pete was responsible for creating or if they thought it might be too much for them to understand?  Funny that "This Land is Your Land," is the song he walked away from the conversation with. This is a song that we used to sing in elementary school, well, only certain verses :)

Soon we will teach the Little Man the origins of the song and why Pete Seeger wanted to keep singing it.

How to teach him all the things we want/need to teach him?  I was blown away by how he chimed in to our conversation about the news with confidence and how much he knew and had put together on his own. 

Stepping into Joy

I am not going to write about my problems or complaints today.  I am going to share a simple thing that my family did that has set about positive change.

When we moved into our one bedroom, we did so in a hurry.  We needed to get all settled before our academic jobs started and I was still casting "Mi America." The apartment wasn't vacated in time and then it needed an overhaul, so we had really only a day or two to get everything set up.

We had the living room set up in the most likely set-up based on walls and where the cable hook-up was.  It worked fine, however, it didn't do the glass slider and all the views it had to offer, any justice.  It left our backs toward the sky and no efficient play space for our Little Man.  His toys were jammed behind the sofa and sometimes would fall off the bakers rack and on to our heads.  He was playing in front of the TV and building his train sets in the walking space and right by the entrance to the apartment.

On Sunday, after a drive through the snowy countryside, we came home and moved a few things around. We arranged the sofa and television in a smaller area, so it became it's only little nook, or viewing area.   We decided that this area is for watching and working only.  No playing, only sitting, working or watching.

By making this change it created a huge amount of space in front of the glass slider for Little Man to play.  His toys are more accessible and now he can set up his sprawling train set-ups and detailed cities with plenty of room.

We can all see the outdoors and the sky because there isn't a large darkly colored sofa blocking the  view.  The current placement of the sofa creates a hallway to the other part of the house, making it seem bigger.  It also creates a separation of living space from the doorway.  Now the entrance of the apartment is into the hallway the sofa creates.

When all the toys are put away, there is a large area of space on the floor to do Yoga, Shiatsu, exercise, do a puzzle or play a board game.  This is where the joy comes in.

Last night when we arrived at our 'new' home, we ate dinner.  Then both Daddy and Mommy went into the playspace with our Little Man.  We got a balloon from his birthday party left overs and played different games with the balloon.  The Little Man giggled and giggled until he fell over.  Mommy and Daddy got to move around and laugh which replaced our old habit of slumping on the sofa and watching our boy play.

Next time we got out the game of Cooties and played through the whole game... what fun! At the end of the game we put on "Curious George," in our 'movie pit.'  We watch George to calm our boy and get him ready for sleep.

Once our Little Man was bathed and in bed,  Daddy gave Mommy some Shiatsu in our space.
Then we got to watch a movie in our 'movie pit.'

By making one simple change, we added room for a more joyous and lively routine.  I am looking for other changes we can make to step into more JOY!

My inner voice keeps screaming, "Write, WRITE!"

Okay... I know it has been a very long time... so here I am again and I am not going to say, "I will be back on here every day," or "I made a resolution...,"etc.

This I wrote to a friend in an email:

My thoughts keep coming back to freeing myself from the burden of working for the man and moving gracefully into a freelance life where I am paid what I am worth and
there is abundance and freedom and time.  My inner voice keeps screaming, "Write, WRITE!" She (my inner voice) is always right.

So here I am...  step-by-step, bird-by-bird, word-by-word.