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children as master See ers


Sunday, Talula and her two mothers,  who are no longer partners together but continue parenting together and one mother's new love interest came with Talula and her friend Jora and two other girls, sisters, 10 and 6 who i was meeting for the first time.  Because of 4 women talking the girls had to wait for the official goat visiting to begin and they occupied themselves outside.

This morning, Tuesday, i finally noticed that the basket that i'd put the Small Things in for Julian's upcoming visit had been moved.   and as i came closer,  i was amazed by what i saw.   The girls had ….yes, Created a World.   there are still a few things i cannot as yet see.  it's beautiful, what they just quietly did.  

001f

007f

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001

004f

005f

006

007f

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and then a morning glory joined them

009f

i also wanted to say and almost forgot….Deb Lacativa told me to watch the movie The Fall.   i have no TV,  never really watch any movies for many many years,  but i kept thinking about her saying that so i rented it from the movie place.   i watched it last evening.   and now, it has become a seed of sorts,  seeping in to things here.  How any story is not just one story but many.  How on the day above, there were 4 women, 4 girls and each could tell a differentsame story.  so much more to think about this. 

and i always forget to say….Click the pics to see them bigger

 

 

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31 responses to “children as master See ers”

  1. jude Avatar
    jude

    The world is a sand tray.

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  2. deanna7trees Avatar
    deanna7trees

    the imagination and creativity of a child. if only i could go back there in my mind.

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  3. dee Avatar
    dee

    stories in placement and movement… so much imagination with such simple acts!

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  4. saskia Avatar
    saskia

    the way children play with ‘nothing’
    making it up as they go along,
    maybe we are still like that Grace, but we just don’t always see it that way anymore….

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  5. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i think you have my thinking here…and it’s really
    important to me. i think we still ARE like this, this
    is what we are doing with the cloth work, yes?????
    but we only let it take us SO far and then we interfere
    with the primitive process of just making.
    they were really almost silent out there…had just come
    upon that basket of things on their own. and it was
    a very private (privacy of 4) thing. one of the mothers
    said….we better go see what they’re doing…but when
    we opened the screen door, they spun off over the the
    goats, so we never knew.
    i was really uhhh, really almost surreal when i saw this
    Scene. some of the little bead creatures had tumbled over
    but everything else, i had to really look for them. they
    were tucked all over in that tree.
    i want to think like this ALL the time. This is how i
    want to make cloth. it’s like an altered state, this
    kind of spontaneous unselfconscious WORK.

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  6. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it
    R E A L L Y
    is.
    really.
    a fairy tale, a myth, a story. i am an old goat lady
    with a world of stuff in a basket hanging from an old apricot tree.
    i am OF this sand tray. a small one within the Large.

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  7. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i think we could, if it was important enough to us.
    Don’t you?

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  8. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes…it was all in placing.
    again, spontaneous unselfconscious placing

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  9. deanna7trees Avatar
    deanna7trees

    i try…i remember…but it’s not the same. life has somewhat cluttered the mind and the new connections get in the way.

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    then how do we erase?
    i thought as i read your comment a “lesson” i knew and
    used back in my other life…
    UnCording.
    you “see” visualize what you want to let go of, or,
    want to let go of you
    and you see to whom it is attached, or to what, and
    you see that it attaches to your inner wrist, like where
    you feel your pulse, and you see your self detaching it
    from there, a long filament of cord and you then hold
    it out, to the person, the thing, the memory saying
    “I believe this belongs to you”

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  11. deanna7trees Avatar
    deanna7trees

    ha…if it were only that simple. you seem to be referring to negative connections that we want to get rid of. i’m talking about life experience…mostly positive and necessary…that gets in the way of childhood innocence.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    no…not at all necessarily negative. just what isn’t
    working anymore. like cleaning house.
    anyway…

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  13. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    this is just how life should be. i have a few tiny scenes like this around the house.

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  14. dee Avatar
    dee

    I need to remember the simple power of being kinetic… kids live from there, but we don’t so much as adults.

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  15. saskia Avatar
    saskia

    in the flow, mindfulness, these are perhaps overly-used terms, but I think/feel when you’re in the flow….lost in the making or cleaning or whatever it is you’re doing and having lost track of time, just in the act, that’s when I am again like a child – not the adult worrying or fussing or thinking ahead about the outcome – and for me it’s not practical to be there all the time, because there are two youngsters around and we have to and want to take care of them; but yes in the process of making my art it IS extremely important to let go and just do
    and who knows, there will come a day and I will be mindful all the time, it would be nice to be able to enjoy what you’re doing every moment: I try

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  16. deanna7trees Avatar
    deanna7trees

    montse just left a comment on my blog and said that i was learning new things just like a little girl. so maybe that’s my way of reliving childhood.

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  17. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    I love this. I especially love that they felt safe enough to play. They did not fear that they were ‘touching’ things they should not or they may get ‘in trouble’, so they could leave this surprise. Some children do not act on that kind of freedom. That you are an adult who sees the value in this.
    Your comment that maybe you all better go check on them, leaves me with a treasured memory of a time my friend and I said that, only to open her daughter’s bedroom door to find that the 3 kids had taken every possible container and dish and used them to soak all of her daughter’s barbie/doll clothes in them…in little children’s cheap perfume no less! They were very busy washing all those clothes with the only liquid at hand. I can not begin to describe the smell that came out when we opened that door!!!
    I think they were in the flow! Haha
    Beautiful post/photos Grace.

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i just LOVE this little movie you describe…and i think,
    of course! barbie laundry. of course!, liquid, YES,
    perfume!!! i just love this…THANK YOU!!!!!

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i hope they are little Energy points…that the
    household members “refer” to, even if privately, with
    no fanfare (as boys would)

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  20. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    I’m glad you enjoyed this tale, it’s a favorite of ours.
    Sometimes I think I chatter on and on too long and share too many of my own stories, everywhere.
    But, then when someone responds as you have…then I think it is worth it.
    Sharing stories…sharing life.
    Glad you posted your comments/response so I could know that. 🙂

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  21. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Do all children play like this? Inventing new worlds, making up stories? Don’t they all sit in front of computer screens? I think all children play and invent and make up beautiful stories – if we give them the opportunity…PARENTS fill up childrens’ rooms with TV and computers…children do play with anything that’s at hand as we all can see in Grace’s picture. I remember playing with household items provided by my grandmother…sometimes with nothing at all: imaginative items were “sold” to non-existent “customers” in a shop that only existed in my head.
    But: don’t we all (Jude in particular) create amazing pieces of cloth out of “useless” discarded pieces of fabric? I think that’s a kind of playground too!
    Let’s play,
    eva

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  22. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    Fortunate are the children who visit your world!
    We found a fallen tree in the overgrown lot next door. It was huge.
    Within it’s crown, a space appeared under curving tangled branches.
    Here, at last was a room of our own. We brought household items,
    so, day by day that Spring, Summer and Fall, our “home” was made.
    We were 6, or 7 years old, placing our claims to selves unowned. He was my cousin “Paul-e-wall”. and I was his “Elederberry Jam”. We said the world was this way, or that, and so it was. The pink sky sheltered our tree home on a blue belled thicket of grass, which made fine soup. My dolls and his trucks, his horse and my donkey, our special stash of treasures moved about the estate from day to day making stories only we knew the meaning of, and we never told the grownups. They wouldn’t have understood.

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  23. KaiteM. Avatar
    KaiteM.

    children just being children, lovely to see

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  24. sewing susan Avatar
    sewing susan

    The joy of children and their imagination. And how it calls forth lovely memories Nancy and Michelle.
    And yes i agree with all of you that when I am stitching I enter into the flow. And don’t we create stories as we stitch. Place meaning in the cloth that others may see or not. Even intentionally hiding something in a fold that only we know the meaning of. I am convinced that we are as children with our cloth making and through Jude we have created this community where we can show pictures of our play and talk about what is important.
    I am so grateful!!!!!!

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  25. sewing susan Avatar
    sewing susan

    Such a beautiful memory you share Michelle. It calls for the many hours I played in the trees. Only mine were huge Douglas firs. Thanks!

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  26. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    This is a lovely story Michelle. What a special memory.

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  27. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes, that’s exactly what i’m doing

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  28. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    BEAUTY FULL. this story.
    is Paul e wall still here?

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  29. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Important to see, for me

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  30. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    every thing you have said, yes. it’s pure, or as
    pure as we know at our moments

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  31. ali Avatar
    ali

    So sweet–reminds me of my children’s fairy gardens–a wonder. Some times the fairies would leave small treasures–a colored stone, a flower–magic!

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