A season of being absent in this land means the deep need to reconnect. A week, a month, three months is a long time in the world of creatures great and small. I fared the tress and the plants well, whispered to them to care for themselves, I will be back. Yet the feeling of neglect is strong. When you leave something behind, you not   only leave them physically. As you are away, they feel your anxious emotions about their state of being and in turn they feel anxious. This is a constant discussion we have in the household. We remind the children that things are not always going to be the way it is in the current moment. Not always we will be around the same people. And so we encourage them to be in the moment, to enjoy the present. Always see the benefits of a certain situation rather than dwelling on how terrible they find it. I know it is easier said than done but it does not happen overnight. We have to keep at it. As parents to homeschoolers/earthschoolers/natural learners we try to be in full awareness of how we are speaking to the children. What are the words we are using? Condescending? Threatening? Balanced with a  flavour of love?

Now being back in our forest home and most of the garden have been attacked by possums and/or bush rats, we remind the little people that it is what it is. Yes all the pretty flowers are gone but not forgotten. And we can plant more again. Yes the melons haven been eaten by bush creatures and we hope they enjoyed them. We will always be here to keep planting.

It is part of our connection and reconnection to the land. To give it so much love and also be ready to let it all go. We may not enjoy the fruits of our hard land labour, but we do enjoy breathing in the fresh air, the songs of the birds and the river swims.

As I write this I look up to see these giants towering over me. Always watching. Always a reminder that in the greater scheme of things, we are so little, so just enjoy the moments as they come.