Weekend wanders

1/30/11

I’ve missed writing to you the past few days, but kept busy with every day life – work, family, home, and the rare opportunity to socialize.  

For someone who is partial to nature, the idea of socializing outside of the woods can be daunting. 

On Friday night, I was out of the woods, but in a dark room with my husband Scott and a few hundred people I didn’t know. It was a kickoff party for a new business one of my employers was starting.

I wanted to meet everyone, but Scott, a self-confessed gnome, found a spot from which he didn’t vitiate all night, and I didn’t want to leave him alone.  He told me later that he was fine and that I could have mingled more, but I guess I just felt more comfortable with the buddy system of the wilderness. 

People are so different, yet so much the same, clustering in groups with those they know, occasionally breaking off from one group to light upon another -- smiling, laughing, searching for humanity -- connecting to something they share or feel they may be missing.  It was a good evening to reflect and listen, as a lady from the office shared her dreams of writing a book, and her husband shared vignettes of their life in many places.

On Saturday, I was working again – this time facilitating a birthday party for a first grader named Faith, a little girl who wanted to take her friends outdoors for a party in the woods. 

We had a campfire (in the snow), a scavenger hunt, and enough sugar to choke a horse.  

For one girl at the party, it was the first time she had ever grilled anything over a campfire and she was thrilled!  Can you imagine a 7-year-old who’d never cooked out?!  I was happy that she was able to attend. 

The rest of the children seemed to have the most fun running through the woods and pelting me -- the only adult willing to play and the biggest target in sight -- with snowballs.  I struck back, with small snowballs I’d made using the borderline-mushy snow from the last snowstorm.

At the end of the afternoon, Faith left smiling, as her friends said it was the best party they had ever attended.  (I couldn’t help but agree.) 

Now, it’s Sunday, and I’m cleaning the house and catching up with you.  I should go outside for a walk, but the sidewalks are icy and the roads are getting slick as the temperatures are dropping for the day.  Even the chickadees have disappeared from the bird feeder to find shelter for the night, as the greedy squirrel curls up in his leafy nest.

It’s supposed to snow tomorrow and I hope it does.  We really need this white blanket from the sky to protect and water the plants in the garden, add the entertainment alternatives of skiing and snowshoeing, and paint the landscape with beauty that makes the drab scenery of winter into a magical land of crystal and light.