#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Yes, a three-year-old can be an effective dream guide. Mine is in-house. I made crepes this morning. This boy is not a morning person. He needed a lot of re-direction to enjoy the idea of breakfast. Crying, and not wanting to, he is learning to say that he needs help finding his happiness. Of course, we all do. The help I offer this morning is spontaneous and silly and effective: nature always helps him find his happiness. I tell him, while he sits at the table waiting for the crepes, that yesterday I startled the great blue heron at the river once and the brook once, and I put myself in the role of the heron and showed him how the heron leaps into the sky from his feet on the muddy river bank. I tell him if he eats and gets ready quickly enough we can go to the brook and seek the heron. Now, my heron imitation is just the trick. And soon we are on our way to the brook. But, instead of the heron, there are ducks. Mallards. All of them male, floating with their green heads in a cluster, as if they are in a conference of expectant fathers. Where are the mallard females? On their nests of course; not a female in sight. No heron, but such a treat to see the future fathers bonding together on the brook. Then, I have to shift him again and the best way to do this is with a race. I draw the starting line in the mud. We’re off. And I let him lead until he runs out of steam and wants to be carried. Whew! He’s off to school and I am off for my walk with Charlie and then a swim and then a busy and happy day, including getting to take my dear friend to a belated birthday lunch, a favorite place, and we have a long talk, all the surface down to the depth. Ahhhhh. Very satisfying. Tonight, after making pizzas for everyone, and being appreciated very much by my grandson who loves my pizza, I have my Tuesday night group with is truly amazing. The writing, the sharing, and the effectiveness of my prompt. I had an image accepted today for a new journal. I really like the one they chose, a river picture, “Brush Stroke,” a recent one from the trestle bridge over the Charles. Oh, the dream! I forgot to mention how helpful he was with my dream! So, while I was showing the heron, etc. , I also mentioned that I had a dream about a snake. It was in the center of a circle we were sitting around, and it leaned toward me, and I said, very firmly, “no.” And it backed off. I was kind of wondering what it meant that I said no to the snake. I told him about it and he said the snake was probably just trying to be my friend. Indeed. And I should befriend the snake. Then he ran upstairs and got his stuffed snake with the tongue and it’s big enough to wrap around his shoulders, or mine, and he helped me be friends with his snake, Burrina, and we took the snake with us to the brook. And I was grateful for his council.