Douglas-fir cone, with mice scurrying in to hide. Photo by Jane Valencia
Do you see the mice with their dangling tales (bad pun intended) darting under the scales of the Douglas-fir cone in the photo above? Pacific Northwest legend has it that an elder Douglas-fir once sheltered Mouse during a raging fire. When Mouse scurried under a fir cone scale, the other mice saw their chance for safety, and followed suit. To this day, Douglas-fir shelters mice in its many cones.
Winter is a wonderful time to explore the bare-nature beauty and presence of the trees in terms of their bark, limbs, forms, and even roots. This season in particular is perfect for enjoying the uplifting and celebratory nature of the evergreen.
On your next walk, take notice of the trees. Settle into your child heart and into the way you viewed the world when you were young. What surprises do you discover when you experience nature with your child mind, eyes, and heart? I, for one, can’t walk past a box hedge, or any shrub with small oval leaves without seeing quantities of ice cream cones, thanks to some make-believe we neighborhood kids once played.
As we enter the winter season, do take time to rest into enchantment and fun. What do you notice in your wanders and wondering? Jot us a note about those things in the comment box below!
If you’re on the Island, I invite you to join me for an hour of musical and magical fun for the whole family. Come with me into the mischievous world of Leaves, the Red Fox, in this bardic performance and book reading of my children’s fantasy novel, Because of the Red Fox.
Shhhh … It’s a secret!
Have you seen tracks like these? Art by Jane Valencia
My children’s fantasy novel, Because of the Red Foxis actually a top secret guide book for tracking the enchantment that’s all around us — even in our own families and in ourselves! Discover how to become a magical naturalist and find out what the fox really says!
When: Sunday, March 29, 2-3pm. Where: The Vashon Bookshop, 17612 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon, WA 98070
Jane Valencia is a bardic harper & storyteller and nature teacher, whose performances, classes, writings, and art help families who want to keep the magic of connection alive despite the stresses of a too-busy world.
Can’t make it to Vashon? I’ll be travelling to the San Francisco Bay and Santa Cruz, CA, as well as to Portland, OR in the coming year, and perhaps other places as well. I’d love to bring this show and other family magic offerings to your community. Please contact me if you know of a particular book shop, organization, or group — or even you yourself — who might be interested in hosting this event. Thank you and cheers!
Come experience some mischief, music and magic the whole family will enjoy!
I imagine you enjoy a good book. Maybe you even love them. In our high-tech world (and I’m not knocking technology … I’m just sayin’) we have other ways of grabbing tales. Playing online games can be a way of tossing yourself into a snippet of a tale. Engaging in the flurry of text messages and social media posts is another way (“what’s alive now in my friend’s life?”). We grab one another’s tales in the snowstorm of media.
I used to be a voracious book reader. Family vacations saw me packing a stack of library books to read during the hundreds of miles in the car (I did look up now and then to enjoy the strange, new territories!). These days, while I read a fair amount, it is by way of a book app more often than not. I think that’s ok, but I do love the feel (as folks often say) of a book lying open in my hands.
In any case, by book or book app, I still read children’s books. And I still read to my daughter (a teen now), every night at bedtime. We (and her older sister) have journeyed through hundreds of tales over the years, hundreds of magical doorways together. And in doing so, we’ve shared a landscape woven of some very diverse territories, from times past and into futures present. We share a magical world of imagination.
One of the surest ways to share magic with kids is to read aloud to them. I’m sure you know that and do that already! There are many good reasons to do so: inspiring literacy and a joy to read, creating and nourishing connection. I just want to add my fairy coin to the mix. When you read to your child, you weave a world together. With the books you both really enjoy, you touch into Soul–yours and your child’s.
Notice what your child loves to talk about regarding a story you’ve read. As in relaying any story, your child is revealing her soul–what brings her alive, where her special qualities may lie. The same is true for you. Story, sourced as it is from dreams (so to speak) can reflect like a mirror on a person’s deep nature. When your child (or you) puzzles over a conversation between characters, or recalls a particular incident in the story, he is revealing himself in the noticing. His yearnings, his hopes, or aspects of his own character.
Try this: Next time you read to your child, ask what really struck her in the story. What scene really stands out for her? What did she enjoy most? Or least? Or …? [fill in the blank with a question or two of your own]. Sometimes a child will feel like talking about the story right then, and sometimes not. Sometimes it’s better to wait until a later time to ask questions.
And ask the questions of yourself. What scene is most alive for you in the story? What upset you most? What touched you? Did any event or conversation or image open your heart, make it feel as if it was viewing something absolutely true for you?
Great treasures lie in stories, treasures for the soul. The stories are magical doors to those treasures. And books are lovely physical doors, with bindings you can open, and maybe some illustrations.
Read aloud to your child. Read aloud to him for as many years as you can.
What books have you enjoyed reading to your children? What books did you enjoy that were read to you–when you were a child, or perhaps even as a grownup? Please share your favorites here!
Reading Is Magic – photo art by Gwynne Valencia. I’ve just finished reading aloud the Harry Potter books to Gwynne for at least the eighth time!
