JYM 2-3 Group Epistle

7/26/08

“Seeing the Animals” (presented with movement)

Their eyes are
not our eyes
Yet we can see
Ourselves in them

We do not walk
The ways they walk,
Yet we follow
Their foot prints in sand

Sometimes they come
to us, when we
hold their silence
they understand

when they live with us
we must give them respect
though most stay apart
like the bird which is hidden
yet touches us with its song.

sometimes we think
that we humans can live
without them,
but we are wrong.

—Joseph Bruchac

A group of lively seven- and eight-year-olds combined with much older volunteers and met in Field Memorial every day of the week after breakfast! Some of us tried original play for the first time and some of us enjoyed it again! We thought about how animals speak and made puppets from socks into animals and creatures of an imaginary kind.

We played Red Rover and talked about George Fox and how he didn't feel like he fit in. He felt different like a penguin in the desert or a gold fish on dry land or a giraffe on Jupiter. We noticed that a tree was growing out of the chimney of the Inn and we realized that we all feel awkward and like we don't fit in some times.

We saw the turtles on the day that we went to the Nature Center! We met the Green Man! We then read Stellaluna. She is a bat who fell into a birds nest and felt different and didn't feel like a bird's way of doing things was the right thing for her to be doing. She decided to live the way that felt true to what she was called to do. She ate fruit not bugs she flew at night and she slept by hanging upside down by her feet. What is right and true to her doesn't have to be right and true for the birds.

On our swim day it rained and we talked about the rain and how it smelled sounded felt and whether or not our kitties at home either like to play in the puddles or hate being splashed in the face. Many of us were grateful for the rain because it fed our plants and flowers! We played Duck Duck Goose on floor that was slippery from the rain and then we saw tears and decided to talk about the things we liked and plan our epistle.

The ninth and tenths graders came to play head honcho and parachute games. We shared snack time and talked over juice and granola bars and ages blended and seemed to slip away at times! The only noticeable difference was height differences and that the older bigger kids seemed like they needed a nap time as did the JYM volunteers. And the younger ones seem bright eyed and restless to play, play, play!

On Thursday we worked on completing our creatures. We interviewed some of our creatures with interpreters and impromptu microphones and pretended to broadcast it on television. We took our creatures outside when the Green Man came to play with us and our creatures. We really liked meeting Green Man's friend the praying mantis! We loved when Leigh came to visit.

We can't wait to come back to Silver Bay next year!