For the moms...

Been there....

You haven't been a parent until you've had the pleasure of these kind of moments.

Why I walk in the woods...

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” -William Blake

There are moments in ones life when eternity engulfs your present moment like a dream. Time stands still and you hover momentarily in the arms of life eternal in the now. Yesterday was a holy epiphany for me. As I stood in the immense beauty of the canyon, with majestic, white bouldered hills jutting triumphantly into the azure blue sky...I hung in between eternity and time.

As I was dwarfed under the giant Ponderosa pines, like a child looks up to a parent...I felt small but in the safe sense. For me nature has a sooting way of awakening my hardening heart. My soul seems to grow old faster in the city...but in the woods, by the stream, under the canopy of limb and leaf...I am born anew.

Philosophy begins in wonder.-Plato

When I stand in creation...I stand before the Creator. It is revelatory...breathing out voice to my deafening ears.

I hear...here.

There is more to life than increasing its speed. -Gandhi

It slows me down...I can hear my heart again, beating in my chest. A little fear tinges the back of the neck in such uncontrollable wild. Being at the mercy of larger more hungry beasts, or the unknown path...is good for the mind. It reminds you that you are alive and that you are vulnerable but present. Each step is a new sight, a fresh scent, a familiar or forgotten sound. The corner ahead is anticipated vs the nagging trepidation found in normal day to day activities that push you instead of lure you. Here the next is juicy like a second bite of a late summer peach. You find yourself having to stop just to prolong the slightly orgasmic pleasure of each moment. Walking becomes an act of discipline to see...to taste...to drink it all in.

The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.
-Plato (427-347)

I also am doing the holy work of navigation. Creating a path for others, most importantly my children, to follow. Discovering holy temples to worship in. Unearthing natural anvils that will resound for years with the forging of memories. Each child reawakened when they step onto dirt or slide into water, with their shoes off. What is more rewarding than passing on a love for being free to roam, to explore, to discover? All without cost.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
-Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

I pray that what I find in these moments, in these places, will be as important to those who come after...as they have been to me. That is why I walk in the woods.

The myth about boys...

the myth about boys
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

Here is the Time magazine article I refrenced below:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647452,00.html
Read it if you have sons and/or care about the life of boys today.

The photo essay (The boys are all right) is great:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1647411,00.html

boys...and the tradition of fighting.

boys...
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting; a child always stands for the good militarism as against the bad. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression. The child's hero is never the man or boy who attempts by his mere personal force to extend his mere personal influence. In all boys' books, in all boys' conversation, the hero is one person and the bully the other. That combination of the hero and bully in one, which people now call the Strong Man or the Superman, would be simply unintelligible to any schoolboy....

But really to talk of this small human creature, who never picks up an umbrella without trying to use it as a sword, who will hardly read a book in which there is no fighting, who out of the Bible itself generally remembers the "bluggy" [bloody] parts, who never walks down the garden without imagining himself to be stuck all over with swords and daggers--to take this human creature and talk about the wickedness of teaching him to be military, seems rather a wild piece of humour. He has already not only the tradition of fighting, but a far manlier and more genial tradition of fighting than our own. No; I am not in favour of the child being taught militarism. I am in favour of the child teaching it. -G. K. Chesterton, 1906 magazine article.

Maybe you read August Time magazine with the cover story about: "The myth about boys, experts say boys are in trouble, here's why they got it all wrong"

I found great solace and wisdom in the article. I have a son that fits the article just perfectly. I really, really, really needed to read it. I got a lot of ideas, support and help from the Lord on how to parent my son better and how to maybe help others with similar boys.

...the kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it. -Jesus (matt. 11:12)

It's been one of those weeks...

image-4
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

"Suppose a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him....-Deut. 21:18-21

What a way to start a scripture on the wonderful world of parenting:

"Suppose..."

If you know the end of that scripture you know, it's not one you post on the fridge at home. Suppose though...you did have such a child. Parenting is the toughest job around in my opinion...harder than marriage, at least my marriage. Adults are well...adults. Children are unreasoning creatures that wrestle you with underdeveloped brains. Resulting in ample amounts of frustrating moments that can leave you completely exaserbated. I've wanted to put my head in the sand (or stone) and pretend everything is not as it is. How can the very same parents produce such vastly different kids. Raised basically the same and yet... My hope has been hanging with white knuckles on Isaiah 65:22-24:

"No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear."

If there is a patron saint of suffering parents...I need to know his or her name.