Trillium Trail and Other Experiences at the WNC Nature Center

Our day started with a stop at the Dancing Bear Toy store to spend a $30 groupon offer. There was a Calico Cat promotion going on. Our daughter wasn't into the face painting, though it looked like a lot of fun (we didn't want to force the experience). We bought some large Melissa and Doug Take-Along Jumbo Crayon Set and some Geo Beads made by Plan Toys. Then we drove to the WNC Nature Center (which provides parents with strollers awesome parking on Level A). We spent 4 hours on a sensory adventure at the WNC Nature Center. My 2+ year old enjoyed sliding down the otter slide, pointing out the grey tree frogs camouflaged on their tree branches, listening to the bubbling water by the turtle pond and the birds chirping on the Trillium Nature Trail (which we explored with our youngest in the double stroller despite the stairs!), the smooth, dry scales of the white rat snake (which she touched thanks to the caretaker who allowed children to touch the snake if they wanted to- under close supervision of course) and the couple of mountain lions who rubbed heads as we walked on past toward the Nature Trail. The cost, because we're local residents, was $6 per adult. Our children (2 and under) did not require paid admission (read: free). For $12 we had a terrific time exploring. I loved watching the snapper turtle swim, the mountain lion pace, the grey wolves sleep, the bantam rooster crow, the great horned owl peer from his house, the black bears lounge in the sun, the rush of the river at the bottom most part of the Nature Trail, the toad burrow, the weasel sleep in his cozy bed, the deer grazing and the otters play. Later that night, during dinner when we asked our daughter what she enjoyed the most at the Nature Center she said the snakes, the turtles and the otter. My husband's favorite part of the experience was watching a couple with two children react to our daughter counting the deer (four) in English, German, Spanish and French. He said that they watched in apparent awe of our daughter's lexicon. He was so proud. After spending time at the Nature Center, we bought milkshakes at the local Sonic, drove to Amazing Savings on Sweeten Creek Road for a little grocery shopping and finally drove home. What an amazing family-time Saturday we had bonding and experiencing some of the best features (wildlife, vegetation) Western North Carolina has to offer!

Habitual

I recently returned home from vacation. I told my husband yesterday that it takes going away and coming back for me to love my life again. Home does that to me:embraces me and prepares me to go out to the world. I find that I have to be vigilant about being happy. Happiness is habitual. It's not easy to be happy. Bouncing off the wall happy, that is. I think that it is very possible to be happy in the small things-about the little joys that can sometimes be taken for granted. I'm not talking about fake it to make it-if you are like me you've heard that phrase way too often. I'm talking about genuine happiness that is the result of purposeful effort.

A Pause on Poetry

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/poem178.html

(Above is a link to Marge Piercy's "To Have Without Holding.")

I decided to change the course of my writing. I will not remove the previous posts. To do so would be disingenuous, like loving me for who I appear to be and not who I really am.

"Learning to love differently is hard."
Grace doesn't come to any of us easily. Grace is as difficult to give as it is to receive. How can I forgive that person after what he/she has done to me? or How can that person love me as much as he/she does after what I did to him/her?

Why is grace important? Because it is one way by which we are able to get closer to God, to being the people he wants us to be. If you've read much of the Bible, you know why God gave his only son and you know that over and over again God gave grace to people who didn't deserve it. In our human capacity--in how we think--it does not make sense that any of those people (the prodigal, Jacob, the prostitutes, et cetera) deserved to receive grace. But God's way doesn't always make sense, does it?

How do you learn how to love differently? Return to grace: find out what you give and what you lack. Sometimes you have to love in a way that doesn't feel comfortable. As we extend grace toward each other, perhaps others will remember our graciousness. They may not deserve grace. We may not deserve grace. (At what point in our lives are we truly deserving?) But it is in the act of giving grace that we draw closer to God, that we move toward a better world.