Back @ it again!
It’s been TOO LONG - not just since I updated the blog, but since I’ve been in ALC-land. The end of December was a rush of field trips (4 in the last 2 weeks!) and finishing projects and nesting in the dark time, then it was break, and eclipse season, and the new year. We returned on the 6th of January and I was here for a single day before getting absolutely flattened by the flu - when it was all said and done I’d spent 13 days in my house, surrendering to being sick and then recovering. Which means that this week is my first week back, and I’m so grateful to be here. Here’s a tiny zine I made when I was sick and struggling.
Monday we were open for MLK day and only 6 kids came. I had caffeine for the first time in two weeks and got so jittery I went up and joined Acro to blow off steam. It’s nice to be reminded that my body is strong and capable; that healing is possible and that patience is part of moving through a cycle. The last month has been tough - the flu, yes, and also tricky family holiday time and practicing boundaries with folks that I love and seasonal depression and sitting with the voice in my head that’s not very nice to me - and I’m grateful to be through it and feeling in my power again. I’m grateful for the practice of the last three years ALFing and all the times that I’ve trusted someone with the weight of my body and been held, or been entrusted and done the holding.
More gems from this week: Return to D&D and challenging myself to create conflict that doesn’t begin with combat, playing Codename, naming songs for Abby and Luca’s band Two Scary Scorpios, dance-greeting Savannah this morning because she was sick after I was sick and we were so happy to see each other for the first time in three weeks, “Iphy/Sterl/Olive/Timo running down the hall and jumping over the threshold and cracking up”, making silly slow-mo and time lapse and boomerang videos with Sebastian at the park, ICE SKATING with Jiji and Olive and Xander and Erez and the feeling like I’m flying when I get up to speed, witnessing the rise of the D&D battle as a standalone game, the sudden uptick in popularity of Mel Mode in Shark Tag, making more Borax crystals in science time, many many politics chats with Even over the impeachment he’s been screening all week, moving books around the Library so that new ones can be discovered, Hugo’s marker-and-pipe-cleaner pig creature, Arthur visiting and offering nail polish jam, and James busting into the Makerspace during cleanup to show me this video which made me laugh so hard, I wasn’t ready.
Hugo’s pal Pig
It’s the Aquarius new moon today and I’m feeling very light and loose and optimistic - not at all like I’ve been. Here’s to new beginnings all the time and the nonsense that is time itself. To quote Iphy from this morning, “your brain is three and a half pounds of tapioca and I’m not responsible for the mistakes it makes!”