OK - I am becoming a blog geek - but I just added a new feature allowing you to sign up as a "follower" of this blog if you want to. I've started "following" several friends blogs and I am interested to see who reads mine.
Today was a good quiet day - lots of cooking. Bob went back to Corpus after supper. November is such a strange month with me out of the office for half of it - but good. The work week will be intense between my two vacations, but that's OK too
Writing with Bob's students really pulled at my heart. These kids are nine and ten, so young, and they know about bills that can't get paid, divorce, fights between adults, eviction, autism, seizures - so much I did not know about at those ages. And they write it down - their feelings for grandmothers having surgery, little sister with autism, angry or absent parents with the authenticity of real writers. They are real writers, writing real stories.
Friday night Bob and I had a perfect moonrise experience out on Padres Island - sunset over dunes, rose and indigo, then flaming peach - reflections in water - sea of pearl - Venus rising, stars popping out, milky way wrapping us, then the moon red fleck over water rising almost round, red, yellow, pearl, silver. This time the new piece for me was the moon's reflection in the gulf - watching it appear round and red, then change colors with the moon and elongate into dancing moonbeam on the water.
Yesterday on the wild island Bob and I saw so many birds - He has the bird list or I'd post it - maybe next week. And we had a real old fashioned shelling experience - all kinds of bright colored scallops, sand dollars, even a few small but only slightly damaged whelk shells. The beach was littered with lots of trash - especially lawn furniture which had probably blown away in the recent cold front - but I was in a peaceful mood and just enjoyed the beach, trash and all - kind of like life, all kinds of stuff washes up, some more pleasing than other - the old cosmic AND again. We saw at least forty dolphins (or forty instances of dolphin) from the jetty - and some jumped really high out of the water. And Bob spotted a sea turtle, for real, right there, swimming in our channel - a smallish one, most likely Kemp's Ridley - and of course I wonder if it is one of the little ones we've seen released over the years.
3 comments:
so weird I was already following so I had to click "stop following" before it would let me sign up as a public follower... very strange.
Your beach experiences sound amazing and I can identify with your awe at the kid's knowledge of the crummier parts of life--I've noticed the same thing now that I eat lunch with a pack of first graders every day. They talk freely about divorce and abuse and interracial issues and one child has incredible things to say about her two moms. I'm so happy they share with me.
How wonderful that you had the opportunity to work with Bob's students on writing. I do think children learn about life's difficulties very young even if parents think they are protecting them.
I envy your moonrise experience. I have seen (and photgraphed) beautiful sunsets...but haven't focused as much on moon rises! I must!
What an incredible beach experience for you and Bob. I could just see it, the sunset on the ocean, just as you describe. What a wonderful vacation for you.
I find the kid's writings really amazing. I think of my "Little Sister" who is nine and I can't imagine her writing that way. Perhaps she does and I haven't seen that side of her. It makes me want to have some writing time with her. Perhaps have her write something and we can put it into a chapbook form. Hmmm, lots of ideas coming to mind.
I like your idea that you could take the trash on the beach, a part of real life at that moment, and just concentrate on the beauty surrounding you. What fun to see all those dolphins and sea turtle. You always find the most amazing things at the beach. I HAVE to get back out to the beach here. Everytime I read of your times there, I want to go. Beautiful scenes your writings bring up.
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