4 MORE RAMBLINGS

Smile

This holiday season can I be greener? Is there a way to bring in the cheer that I once had with Thanks giving, Christmas, and the New Year that I’ve seemed to have lost. I feel that the bigger meanings have been lost in the shuffle of corporate mainstreaming, and I long for the days that me bringing a drawing home and giving it away as a present meant a lot more than a gift card to J.C. Pennys. I want to craft this winter, and I want to be greener. I want my eco footprint to shrink. I was thinking if I could just find the time to make something for people. I want this holiday season to be special. I want this Christmas to sweep people off of their feet, and I want the worries of a tough year to be washed away. I called my family, and told them that I am moving home for this Christmas, and we are going to have a great time! I am going to spend time with my grandparents, decorating their fake and real trees, getting out the Christmas carols, sing them really loud, we will cook a delicious feast, and I am going to take my brothers on a walk in the woods. We all need to be closer, and spend a lot less.
This year I need to work harder at giving a gift that means so much more, something that someone can read, look at, warm up in, reuse, and something that shows how much they mean to me. I do not care if there is anything under that tree for me, because all of my family has been there for me in times of need. All I want for Christmas is for my family to be smiling, and happy to be blessed with a family that all love us. What does this have to do with nature? It has a lot to do with nature in the way that I am trying to bring back the natural, and whole feeling of a holiday season. I am stripping away the corporate greed, and I am sharing something that is sometimes lost in the mix…the most natural thing that I can do. Love.


Warmer

My thermos has little pink, and purple bears holding hands. This thermos can be filled with soups, coffee, tea, or my personal favorite hot coco. It has a yellow top that can be used as a cup for a beverage, or a bowl for soup. I have had this thermos for twenty years. This thermos reminds me of cold snowy days, snowsuits that I could barely move in because my mother would bundle me up with so many layers, and many snow fights with my brothers. The thermos reminds me of building snowmen, sledding down hills, eating snowflakes, falling backwards into fresh blankets of snow, and staring into the sky as snow flakes would brisk my face. This thermos reminds me of my parents yelling for me to come inside, and that it was time for a hot supper, and some late night television.
When I look at this old contraption that looks as if it has seen better years, and there is probably a newer and improved version of it somewhere I feel completely warmed up. I’ve got the thermos out, and I am ready for a new winter, of snowboarding, maybe ice-skating, and going for a walks on the beach.




Warm Like a Sheep
Wool is so neat. I love the thought of the majestic sheep that is covered in his curly wooly fur. His fur is my warmth. I own so many things that are made out of wool. My pea-coat, my socks, my hats, scarves, mittens, blankets that were made by my grandmother, and sweaters. The sheep are sheered in the spring months, and amount to millions of pounds of textile material that we use in countless things. Wool on a sheep’s back is many sophisticated fibers, which we sheer, spin into a thread, and than knit into sweaters, scarves, and other warm textile creations. I am amazed at how lucky we are to be able to have this liaison with sheep.
I have been spoiled to have a grandmother who can knit. She has made me countless wonderful blankets, scarves, and hats. I love the way that wool feels. Yes, it is a little scratchy, but I enjoy the organic feel of it. I guess I am in love with being warm in the winter, and having the opportunity to enjoy being cozy to the fullest. Realizing that I am so lucky, and that others are not I have decided to participate In the warm coat drive that Crossroads Mall is having. It makes me feel great to know that I am going to be able to give coats, scarves, mittens, and warmth to a person who is in serious need of it. The seasons are harsh, and we all must get together to bring the sheep’s gift of warmth to all this holiday season.

Adventure
In response to our last class, and if we had ever gone on a “Great” American adventure with our parents- sadly I must say no. However, I was a very lucky girl in the way that my parents did take me camping all over Michigan. I have seen and stayed at many of our wonderful Michigan State Parks. I am glad, because I think that so many people have no idea what is hidden in their back yards. Michigan has so many spectacular sights to see, such as Silver Lake Sand Dunes, Ludington State Park, Sleepy Bear Dunes, and the Upper Peninsula is almost like a lost world of gorgeousness. I am forever grateful that I was born and raised in this fantastic state in the majestic U.S.A.
I was Ozark Mountain bound this summer in my mini-van with a group of childhood friends. We were driving 15 hours down south for the music festival of the summer. We had no idea what we were going to come across, and the excitement could not be contained. This had been a dream of mine for all my life to go on a road trip with some friends and have a wild time! I know it is not good for the environment to make a mad dash in a car to go see something you have never seen before, but it is just too much of a good thing to not get out and do every now and again. This trip changed me, by giving me some independence, excitement, and will be remembered as one of the greatest trips I’ve ever taken. I hope that I can live out this experience again, but hopefully with a new destination.

Just some tiny thoughts...

Between work , school, and running around with my head cut off I barely have time to notice all of the beautiful scenery around me.  Today at work I was able to enjoy having the windows open, the nice breeze, and the leaves falling down to the sidewalk.  I made sure since I could not be outside to make sure that everyone else that was able to walk into The Strutt to purchase food and drink engaged in conversation with me about the gorgeous fall colors.  It was really interesting to see a lot of people who were going about their day not noticing to be all of a sudden reminded of the great weather.  Everyone that I talked to about the weather, fall, and the colors were all very excited to have something different to talk about.  I actually enjoyed going outside to sweep up the ciggerette butts that people clumsily throw in every direction.  It was so nice to be able to step outside and just enjoy the noises of society, and see all of the squirells scavenging around for there winter food. 

After work, I rode my bike home as fast as I could to get to my dog whom was dying to see me.  Immediately I put his harness on , and we took off for our stroll.  We walked five miles.  I took him to three different parks.  I love watching him billy goat his way up hill inside of the field on Davis Street.  He smells all the wild flowers, chews on all the long grass, and rolls around in everything.  He brings home with him many burrs that get stuck to his tail, and grass stains all over.  He is my hiking buddy.  He makes everything an adventure.

The first book that I learned to read was called The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  This is such a special book to me.  The book tells a tale of how a boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk, and the tree would be so very happy.  As the boy grew older he would want more, and play less.  The tree would give, give, and give.  The tree gave it’s entire self to the boy who grew to be an old man.  Who needed a seat to sit on, and that was the last thing the tree could be was a seat. 

I love this story, because it shows how someone can love someone, or something so much that you could give it all just to help the other person.  I find that is how I am with my grandmother, and how she is with me.  She gave me this book when I was little, and her love is so much like the giving tree.  I have done my best growing up to not be as needy as the little boy, but sometimes I am.  She means the world to me, and I never want to take her for granted.  She is the greatest roll model ever.  She shows how to love and give unconditionally; she is such a beautiful person.  She also has shown me the importance of nature, and loved hiking around the woods.  She loved taking me to the beach, and to parks.  She is the most lovely inside and out.  

            Grandma and I have a place in the woods behind her house.  We call it Pooh’s Bridge, because I had an obsession with Winnie the Pooh.  There is a creek that runs through these woods, with fascinating tree roots poking and weaving through the edges where bullfrogs make their home.  She had my grandpa build a bridge for us grandkids to play on, enjoy sitting on, and listening to the babbling creek.  I used to play in the mud four hours, and get my grandmother in trouble for returning me to my parents a mess.  I wrote a Young Authors book in the second grade about my love for Pooh’s Bridge, and how my younger siblings and I would find all sorts of neat sticks and rocks to play with. 

            As I grew up, I started bringing my friends home from school the back way so that I could show them the magical woods, and Pooh’s bridge.  I had found a path that my dad and his siblings used to use to get to the creek from school, that lead directly to the back of my grandparents porch.  My friends and I had so much fun we played truth or dare, we found crawdads, and one of my friends even had her first experience with poison oak.  We would lie on the bridge and gossip, and get lost in the quietness, and the surreal private corridors of the woods.  It was a club.  I still know all of these girls, we’ve been friends for 20 years, and I hope to continue for many more years.  We all have grown in different directions, but still are all connected by Pooh’s bridge.

Color Tour 2010

This weekend I made the drive up North to see my family and attend a wedding.  It was a normal drive, as usual my surroundings became better looking with every mile I drove up past Grand Rapids.  The weather was delicious, and the trees were all sorts of bright and beautiful colors.  Pentwater was so beautiful.  Driving around the lake was a fantastic sight to see.  All of the fall colors were painted throughout the trees, and you could see the reflections of them in the lake.  I forgot what it was like to even drive around in this town during this time.  The senior citizens love getting out and about in their cars and going on the color tour.  I realized this when I got behind a little lady that you could not even see above her stearing wheel in her car.  She was driving a whopping 5 miles an hour on  a highway.  That is very dangerous, but hilarious.  She reminded me of my grandparents, and how on days like this we would find any reason to go driving around to look at the colors. 

Arriving downtown, it was busy.  Busy with all sorts of people.  The weather was warm, and the town was heavily decorated for fall.  Scarecrows, corn stalks, ghords, and hay stacks.  The smells mixing with Lake Michigan, paired with the gorgeous scenery made me so proud, and content with being home.  Everything feels so clean, and pure when I am home.  Everything is so simplified, and you look around and see people enjoying the simplest things in life.  The church where my childhood friend was getting married is right downtown in the Methodist Church.  I had to arrive for rehearsal to practice my song.  Even in the church as I sang, with every breath in me I could smell and taste fall.  It was a gorgeous weekend for a fall wedding.  Everyone around was full of good spirits.

Here We Go.. My First Blog...

      I never thought that I would write in a Blog.  I have been on Facebook for almost six years, and tend to be on that more than I would like to admit.  Honestly, I am not that comfortable with my grammar, or my spelling to put myself out here this much.  However, I am giving it a go.  I am giving this a whole hearted chance.  In my blogs throughout this semester, I am going to write about nature, and how it is applying itself to my life.  
     I am attending a very fascinating class at Western Michigan University called Our Place in Nature.  I have been asked to blog about myself and nature.  So Here I go...Lately, I have been riding my bike everywhere I go.  It has been difficult giving up the luxury of sitting in a car, and being sheltered from the rain.  However, I have actually began to enjoy the feel of the rain on my face, or the wind at my back.  I have been enjoying the small success stories of making it up hills, and than enjoying the feel of going back down them.  It is almost as if I am getting a part of my childhood back that I forgot about.  By the age of 12 years old I quit riding a bike, because I had flown over the handle bars on my Huffy one too many times, and the last time was in front of a cute boy.  Now in my mid twenties I have regained the ability to get on my bike and ride, without the fear of embarrassing myself.  I only live once, and I cannot spend it in fear of embarrassing myself.