Sage's Three Tasks & Our Last Day

Bear Spirit had given Sage Three Tasks. Sage must complete each challenge in order to free Luna and bring her back to Poppy Mountain.

Bear Spirit spoke: "First, you must return to Scorpion Rock and lift the rock carefully. Ask the Scorpion Mother for one of her babies. You are to take the Baby Scorpion, tending to it with great care. Feed it a mushroom growing next to the creek beneath the Crooked Oak Tree. Once the Baby Scorpion has eaten the mushroom, it will speak to you the Secret of the Moon. Remember what the Scorpion says, for you will be asked by Luna the next time you see her.

"The second day you must follow your footsteps taken with Luna -- backwards -- from Scorpion Rock, across Rocky Ridge and finish at the exact spot where you first met. There you will find a Golden Acorn, which you must keep in your satchel. Make a chain of gold from pounded gold flakes you will find in the creek. Hang the Golden Acorn on the chain and give this talisman to Luna the next time you meet.

"On the third day, as soon as you awaken, you must go and drink from the deep pool in the creek. Take three long drinks. You will then be visited by Water Snake. He will show you how to braid with sweet grass, a braid just like Luna's hair. You must dry and then burn the grass. The rising smoke will be your final key to bringing Luna back to Poppy Mountain."

Sage awoke the next morning and was exhausted from his busy sleep and his visit from the Animal Spirit Counsel. In his heart he had his Three Tasks. His mind was questioning why he had to do this to see his friend again? But his Spirit in his heart knew that it mustn't be questioned. It must be done. He set off toward Scorpion Rock....

~^~^~

 The story has been told. Did Sage free his friend, Luna, from behind the stone door? Only the children on Poppy Mountain know.

Our final day was spent listening to the tale, making cookies, drawing something from the story, and visiting the swimming hole in Zayante Creek.

Thank you to YOU for reading this blog and following along with Poppy Mountain's summer adventures. I am grateful for a beautiful, creative, active summer spent with delightful children, and my own daughter and baby son. Many blessings to you all! With love...

A Day of Scorpions and Gnomes

Who knew that they had so much in common, scorpions and gnomes. Scorpions have been on this earth for millions of years. So have gnomes. Scorpions live in the rocks. So do gnomes. Of course scorpions don't wear pointy hats and gnomes don't eat insects (as far as I know).

If you read my last post, then you know the story of Sage and Luna and the Scorpion family. Today, the children made a soft pastel drawing of that story on black paper. I love pastels. They are so forgiving and so alive. Form and color melt under your fingertips almost like you are sculpting. We practiced blending and creating edges of rock and luminous mountaintops.

And then the gnomes came in. I had read about a sweet wood carving project and wanted to bring that to Poppy Mountain. So simple, really. We found some fairly thin branches. About one inch wide or even less, and cut them into three-inch lengths.

The children carved first the pointy hat atop the gnome's head, next the face. Then, they scored the branch where they wanted the beard and carved that out. Finally, they colored their gnome's hat in pencil and drew on a face. Voila!

Wood carving is the kind of activity one can get immersed in and forget about all her troubles. It's meditative. Oh, and if you happen to carve with a dull knife like I did, the experience lasts even longer.

One of the children today was so focused on his carving that he had time to make two gnomes. It was a great project to get into deeply. We took a snack break and also explored the forest for the makings of gnome dwellings. Then back to whittling. At the end of the day, some wonderful gnome homes were built. The gnomes looked pretty happy about the whole thing. Maybe they'll invite their scorpion friends over.

Sleepless Night

Sage couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned and rolled and sat up. Looking around, he watched his sleeping family nearby. He listened to the sounds of the night forest outside. He heard the scurrying of a raccoon. He heard the hoot of an owl and the rush of feathers as it took flight from a nearby redwood tree. Crickets played a symphony of chirping. Rather than lulling him to sleep, all the sounds were making him even more awake. Sage quietly got up, put on his satchel and went out into the night.

The night forest was so different from the day. The moon was bright so he could see well. His feet stepped lightly on the ground. Sage wasn't sure where he was going. He let his feet carry him on the path.

Sage stopped to watch the owl pass over his head. He heard the howls of a distant coyote pack. Nature was busy at this time of night!

Sage looked up and his eyes were surprised to meet the eyes of another person! A young girl who he hadn't ever seen before. "Hello," he said. "Hello," said the girl. "What are you doing out here?" she asked. "I couldn't sleep. How about you?" "Me neither," she said. "My name is Luna. What's your name?" "Sage," he told her. Luna told him, "My family is traveling through. We are traders. We have feathers and abalone shells and want to trade them for obsidian. We stopped on this mountain since it has such a special feel and such abundance of food and water. We aren't planning to stay very long."

Sage was happy to meet this girl. He didn't have a lot of friends on Poppy Mountain. He looked at her long braided hair and her angled nose and jaw. She looked familiar, like he had known her before. But he knew he had never met her until now. Her eyes were bright in the moonlight and she looked like she may have just a little mischief in her.

"Want to see something I just found?" she asked. "Sure," said Sage. Luna walked him over to a rocky ridge. He followed silently. Only a very careful listener could have heard their footsteps. She stopped in front of a large boulder. "Look there," she pointed at the rock.

The two children watched as a family of scorpions came out from under the boulder. There was a father and a mother. The mother scorpion was carrying her litter of babies on her back! They were going out to hunt for their meal. Scorpions eat insects. The scorpion has two pinchers and a tail that curves up and over its back with a stinging tip. The scorpion stings it's prey, releasing a toxic venom and paralyzing the insect. Sage and Luna silently followed the scorpion family from a distance and watched as they hunted. They had a lot of babies to feed! About a dozen baby scorpions clung to their mother's back. They were almost white and see-through because their exoskeleton hadn't formed yet. The babies were totally dependent on their mother for their survival, until they became strong enough to venture on their own.

Eventually the scorpion family made their way back to the boulder where they lived, having hunted and eaten their fill for the night. The moon sat low in the sky. The crickets and night bugs were silent. Sage and Luna didn't think the scorpions had known they were there, since it seemed they had no notice or fear of them. But after the scorpions had gone away, the moonlight revealed a small gift left behind for Sage and Luna. It was a complete exoskeleton, that father scorpion had recently shed. It was left just outside the entrance to their home. Sage picked it up gingerly, holding it in his palm. Luna looked at it with wonder, realizing that the scorpions had known they were there the whole time. She said to Sage, "You keep it. You can look at it and remember this special night." He gently placed it in his satchel, and when he looked up to thank her, Luna had disappeared.