Esme’s Day Out

4.12.16 Passionate Red Serpent Wavespell

Willow walked out at dawn; hints of rose and peach covered the eastern sky, their hues tinting budding treetops with kisses that gave them a gentle blush. She walked past white hyacinths in full bloom; their fragrance filled the fresh air mingled with sweeter scents from a cluster of yellow and cream cheery jonquils. Pussy Willow catkins were climbing out from under brown helmets, shaking out their furry coats; curled up black bears some in hibernation while others had awoken and stretched out white, pink, and plump with little flecks spattering green in between. She breathed deeply, wriggled her toes in damp grasses and stretched reaching toward a now blue sky marveling at how quickly morning moved in. She could see filaments encompassing everything around and including her, and played with them for a while, walking through them and seeing how they shifted ever so gently, sometimes twanging reverberations depending on how she moved. She opened her mouth and emitted sounds, Aaaahh, OOhhhh, Eh, UUhh, in high tones and low tones and flutters of light breath blowing; she felt the filaments responding differently to each one.

She went back inside where Night Sky and Wind were cooking oatmeal together. Esme and Estes came down and they all sat down to breakfast.

“Starling’s back,” Wind announced, “Under the eaves above my window, they’re busy weaving their nest.”

“They’ll be laying eggs soon enough,” Night Sky said, “Yesterday evening I saw Wood Duck waddling to and fro around the pond, picking leaves and twigs to do the same.”

“Eggs are amazing!” Wind said, “I wonder how big Heron’s eggs are, Robin’s are pretty small and wow, what a shade of blue . . . how come they’re not blue like their eggs? And Fish and Frogs have no shell at all, though Snakes does only not as hard as bird eggs, they’re lumpy and stretchy, what a lot of different eggs there are . . . how’d they all get inside their eggs to begin with?”

They finished eating their oatmeal and Night Sky, Esme, and Estes left for the day after hugging and kissing everyone goodbye. Willow and Wind could hear the truck grinding gravel as it made its way down the driveway through the open window. While they were washing dishes there was a knock at the door. It was Sally and Suzy Sullivan come to visit. Wind and the girls went outside, he wanted to show the girls Starlings nest. Willow spent part of the morning sorting through her tubs of paint, crayons, papers, threads, needles, and while she was doing this she found many balls of tangled wool. She took them outside to where the children were sitting on sunlit grasses, watching ants crawling about over and under their arms and legs. She sat down with them and began unraveling the yarn, loosening up knots, pulling the kinks free.

Sally noticed Forsythia blossoming profusely and got up to pluck a few flowers, sniffing at them as she brought them back to sit with. She held one close to her face and squinted to examine it.

After a while she exclaimed, “Look at this! I can make flowers with my hands!”

She joined her arms and hands together, and then let her hands open into a cup, keeping them meeting at the base.

“See,” she said, “My arms are the stalk, and my hands make those green things under the flowers, what are they called?”

“Sepals,” said Suzy.

“Yes, those, sepals,” said Sally, lifting her hands up slightly, “See now they’re petals coming out the sepals! And look, when I wiggle my fingers they’re just like the stamens!”

Suzy and Wind watched her play with her hands and picked some of the blooms from where they lay on the ground. They looked at them closely and nodded their heads, as they began playing with their hands too.

“Hey,” said Suzy, “When I close my hands completely they look like the pistils reaching up!”

“This is awesome,” Wind marveled, “I’m a flower!”

The children went in search of other flowers to inspect, chattering about whether or not all flowers would be the same, pondering what else could they do with their arms and hands to floralize.

Wind excitedly burst out, his arm stretched above him, “I’m a wiggly pollen bearer, check out my seedy head!”

Willow chuckled listening to their wonder and continued separating the yarns until she had four piles beside her. She began winding them into balls, and the children returned, each picking up a heap and coiling them up. It wasn’t long before they had four balls of wool and they went inside to prepare lunch. They worked together in the kitchen at a leisurely pace then sat down to relax and enjoy their salads.

After they were all done eating and the dishes done, Sally asked, “Willow what are you going to do with the balls of yarn?”

“Well Sally, it’s coming up on time to seed the garden again and I was going to make a wheel to hang on the fence that surrounds it before I begin planting.”

“Can I help?” asked Sally.

“Certainly!” Willow replied, “I’ll fetch the sticks and yarn.”

Suzy and Wind came over to where Sally waited and when Willow returned with Tree of Heaven limbs and a basket of yarn, they were all to eager to weave with her and Sally. Wind and Willow each notched a stick in the middle, and the girls exclaimed at how there were hearts scabbed on the bark! The notched sticks fit together; they tied them with green yarn until the two formed one big cross. Then each of them selected a ball of wool and Willow directed them in the weaving of the wheel, one at a time, the cross going round and round with wool looping around the sticks in four colors.

Green: the color of healing and growing, abundance and hearing, heartfelt and delicious, manifesting substance with trust and compassion harmoniously.

Orange: the color of solar rays kissing growth with vitality, caressing with light, enlivening bounty, coaxing living abundantly in relationship.

Magenta: the color of love, encouraging luscious growth attuned to beauty and delight, providence blessed, lovely, and fruitful, nourishing abundance with grounded earthy passion.

Blue:: the color of sky, jay, water, rhythmic bird song, warbling communication, invigorating vibrations called to garden to feast on seeds and insects, cocreating collaborating creative expression in musical octaves.

Four: representing elements necessary to growing an abundant garden; pure fresh Air, Sunfire, Rain, and Earth yummy with worms and favorable weeds and beneficial insects and winged, legged, spored, and rooted folk coming to gather::creating positive spaces for cohabiting, weaving beauty in relationship.

Four: for directions, inviting good, protective, nurturing and helpful Beings from the quadrants to tend to seeds and plantings with care that they may grow and flourish and provide vigorous nutritious beautiful bounty for harvesting, thriving under the watchful eye of the medicine shield; created with loving hands and joyful hearts aligned with meditative musing minds.

Four: of fiery Wands is Completion with Doves aflight around a wheel of batons where Venus is in Aries the Ram and labor initiated rests and condenses in the ground

Four: of earthy Disks is Power with Sun in Capricorn stabilizing labor and suggesting successful fruition attained through occupying homeplace fully Kings and Queens of Dreamsongs

Four: of airy Swords is Truce achieved as compromise and ability to come to terms within collaborative frameworks laid out for the generous benefit of all parties involved under Jupiter’s guidance through Libra accord is reached in relatedness

Four: of watery Cups has Moon in Cancer invoking Luxurious harvest achieved by labor in plantings made at the corresponding Lunar time and leisure enjoyed in fallow days, each in balanced measure!

When the Wheel was completed each of them picked a charm to hang from the strings of yarn that dangled where the colors had been joined. They added these tokens to their creation and then happily trooped down to the garden and hung it from the fence, where they joined Willow in a song of praise to activate it on its round.

“Seed, Root, Shoot and Stem

Wheel around and look after them,

Leaf, Bud, Flower, and Fruit

Let them grow to the wise Owl’s hoot,

Thrive with bounty deliciously feed

Before drying out and bearing Seed.”