Native Pride Gathering

On our last day in Maine Jay and I were lucky enough to stumble on a Native American powwow hosted by Metis of Maine. Because it was what they termed an informal powwow rather than a formal religious ceremony the rules were a bit more relaxed than I gather they normally are. With the exception of the smudging ceremony and the first three dances they were allowing visitors to take photographs, but it was obvious that it was still quite a serious event with rules and expectations I couldn't know as an outsider. I asked one of the participants what was acceptable etiquette-wise and she explained that informal "scenes" were fine, but that full-on portraits of anyone should only be taken with their express permission (of course, and I was glad to hear that most of the participants would likely be proud to grant permission). It was over 90 degrees that day and the dancers in particular had to be sweltering in those long deerskin clothes but you would never have known it from the beauty and grace and strong show of reverence they brought to each of the steps and from the haunting notes of the singers' chanting.
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These photographs were taken under fairly challenging conditions with scorching mid-day sun, strong shadows, and the lack of a short lense, but most of all I tried to take them discretely, without overstepping my place as an observer or interfering with the powerful actions occuring in the circle in front of me. This meant placing myself further out of the action than I would normally be, far enough away that I was outside the main circle of spectators as well. It does mean the images have a more distant feel than I would have liked, but it was what the circumstances clearly dictated. I hope that those who saw me there agree, or better yet, that they never noticed me intruding on their moment at all.
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This guy has his eyes closed but he was so impressive looking that I included the photo anyway, I hope he won't mind.
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This is the lovely woman who with her companion took the time to answer my etiquette questions about who and what were acceptable to photograph and explained a bit to me about what I was seeing and what it meant. I'm so grateful, the added knowledge really enriched my experience. (And isn't her dress gorgeous? Look at all those delicate flowers.)
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Click to enlarge any of these images, and visit Work of the Poet for more photos with a little or a lot of red in them.

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Fourth of the Fourth

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Leora (who seems to not be on my blogroll, how did that happen? Must fix that as soon as this posts.) tagged me the other day for a fun photo meme that's going around - to play, you open your fourth photo folder (gee, you think I could put any more alliteration in there?) and then post the fourth photo you find (see, there are those "fff" sounds again).
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I cheated a tiny bit - the fourth folder of my main pictures section was a crappy out of focus barely distinguishable photo of a street performer taken in Victoria, British Columbia a few years ago on my old point and shoot. I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't bring myself to post it. Instead, I headed over to the fourth folder of my "photography" section, which is where I put all the photos I take just for photography's sake, as opposed to family snaps, vacations, etc. That time I had better luck - a hibiscus. I think I shot this in the parking lot just outside my building a while back. Wherever it was, it looks a lot better than the oh so blurry snap of Plasterman that popped up the first time.
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Click to enlarge

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I'm not sure who's done this already so if you haven't and you're interested in playing along, consider yourself tagged. Go ahead, try it, it's fun. You never know quite what will pop up when you delve deep into the archives.
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Summer Stock Sunday 15 - Blueberries!

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Nothing says summer in New England like fresh berries, and all the better if you climb a mountain to see a view like this
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Click to enlarge any photo

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With a [insert name of large bird] soaring high overhead. (Hawk? I have no idea. Anyone out there have a guess? They seemed to be everywhere we looked on this trip.)
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And then look around the meadow you've stumbled on right there at the top of the mountain to see that all those low bushes

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Are full of perfectly ripe wild blueberries, right there for the picking!

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Despite my fervent attempts at stopping time the kids are back in school and summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and suddenly we've only got one more Summer Stock left after this one. Thank you to everyone who participated this summer and helped to make Summer Stock such a success. I hope you've all enjoyed playing as much as I have, and be sure to join us next week as we close up shop until next year.

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Dawn, August 2009

Click to enlarge

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This is one of my favorite shots from my recent trip to the States. Being a dyed in the wool night owl (how's that for a mixed metaphor?) I don't get to shoot sunrises very often so I took advantage of the inevitable first morning jetlag-induced O'dark thirty wakeup to grab my gear and walk down to the lake to try and catch the sunrise. It was getting lighter and lighter as I started walking faster and faster, but make it I did, and then shot image after image for the next hour, and what an hour it was. Here's another look at that same dawn, and there will be more to come later. I'm saving a few of my favorites to brighten up the dark winter months ahead. Worth the early morning dash, no?
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Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies around this beautiful world of ours.
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Lord, what fools these mortals be *

The thing about parenting a special needs child, whatever their special need may be, is that you're forced to view the world through special glasses.

Years of struggling to help Maya have done that to us. Yes, she had a long way to come, yes, she still has plenty of twists in the road, both those we can see and those we can't yet imagine, but right here, right now, she is more and more a typical little girl, poised between five and a half and six. She may always struggle more than most with things the rest of us find easy, but more and more she's getting closer to the pack, blending in, acting and growing and developing in an age-appropriate way.

Except when she's not.

Which is why, when she suddenly developed a paralyzing fear of the dark just after we arrived at my parents a month ago, we began looking for causes. Perhaps it's the change of environment? Perhaps the castle curtains on the bunkbed are too restricting? Maybe we should move the nightlight closer? She was completely petrified of sleeping alone in the dark, and reassurances that she was neither alone (both her brother and her cousin were sleeping in the same room) nor in the dark did nothing to quell her fears.

Perhaps it's the jetlag? Maybe she's suddenly so used to having all these people around that it's ramping up her anxiety levels and this is how it's coming out? Maybe it's a deep-seated fear of starting in a new school?

We persuaded, cajoled, examined, reassured, anything we could think of.

Nothing helped.

Maybe it will get better once we get home.

Nope, it got worse.

Still nothing helped.

Tonight, a full FIVE WEEKS after this all started, Maya was again deep into her litany of how she is scared of the dark when it finally occurred to me to ask her what exactly she was afraid of.

Monsters. She's scared of monsters.

*ding ding ding ding ding ding*

Which movie did she watch over and over and over again on the plane over? Or rather, which movie did she watch only certain scenes of over and over and over again on the plane, deeming the rest too scary? WHICH MOVIE FEATURES MONSTERS TRYING TO SCARE YOUNG CHILDREN SLEEPING PEACEFULLY IN THEIR BEDS???

Yes, blogland, she spent most of the plane ride watching Monsters, Inc. on her little video screen, turning it off after the early scenes every time, never getting to the part where the monsters learn that it's far better to make the children LAUGH than to scare the everloving crap out of them.

Five weeks it took us. Yes, we are idiots. Utter and complete idiots. Fear of kindergarten. Deep seated anxiety over changes in her life. Yeah. The child saw a scary movie and got scared. You'd think it had never happened to anyone before.

Where's my sign?

* Lord, what fools these mortals be, a/k/a god, what an idiot I've been.

First day of school, sort of

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My children were incredibly uncooperative this morning when I tried to grab a few quick "first day of school" pictures so I'm going with this instead - the flower that my daughter Maya picked for me as she skipped (or rather make that dashed) off to her first day of school.

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She's come a long way my Miss Mouse, from the challenges of years past, to new hope at last year's communications kindergarten, to this year's mainstream just like everybody else regular kindergarten. She's had a tough go of it over the years but she's grown and thrived and reached heights that were barely imaginable just a year ago. I could tell you so much more about how far she's come and how very, very proud I am of her but what I have to say could fill volumes - getting me thrown out of Wordless Wednesday for sure. Suffice it to say that she has the heart of a lion and the spirit of a giant, and she is rushing out to meet the world head on, on her own terms, and succeeding beyond all of our dreams.

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And at the end of the day, her first day had been as wonderful as she'd known it would be. I'm so proud I could burst.

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Life comes easier to Itai, my third-grader, it always has, but he too is growing and thriving and is one hell of a kid. A world class procrastinator too (unfortunately he comes by that honestly, so am I), but one hell of a terrific kid.

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I'm one lucky mom.

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