Sunday 1 June 2008

I am in love with geology

One of the best, most wonderful experiences of home ed is where it can take you. I don't mean the actual places as in map co-ordinates, and which field am I in now? but those places in your soul that you never knew existed and you only found because you have been driven there in an attempt to educate your children about the world.

And I do not mean the dark dark places of the soul that are filled up with guilt at doing an inadequate job, nor the inexplicable, powerless frustrations of anger because no matter how many times Squirrel is told to comb your hair, and brush your teeth she still does not do those things without threats of hairdressers and dentists. Nor is it the feeling of being overwhelmed by endless things that seem never complete, like cleaning the hallway and sweeping the floor; nor that dread hollow fear of all the predators and crazies in this world who one day might touch the lives of my treasured daughters. No, not all that depressing stuff. This place of the soul is the amazing place of Wow! So much wondrous amazing stuff in the world and I have such a short short time to live to discover it all!

Well Grit experiences the latter liberation today in the middle of a limestone quarry on a Sunday afternoon geology tour.

This probably has something to do with our guiding geologist, who doesn't just talk about her subject, she enthuses it, like the sort of fizz you might get if you drop an Alka Seltzer in a glass of champagne. And while this wonderful person is sparkling about fossils and millions-of-years old sediment and little shells that lived here and here, and how England was like Florida keys only with dinosaurs and look, you can see how currents moved backwards and forwards in the sea, year after year, scraping these patterns on this rock, then Grit is all knocked out, and would like to hug those limestone beauties and at least give them a big licky kiss just for being there and being so old and wise and amazing, and for showing me an ancient earth.

And better still, all the gritlets agree, and the days when they would drop to their knees in car parks and shovel gravel into their mouths and pockets suddenly make sense. Yes! That is what they were doing! They were filling their bodies and pockets and souls with as much crystal, silica, feldspar, dolerite and basalt as they possibly could in praise at the age of the earth and the wonderful thing that is rock.


And that is a picture of rock under a microscope, which in my book, is proof of beauty.


12 comments:

Dani said...

You are so right. Spot on. Yes!

sharon said...

Nature surely is a wonderful thing! Amazing how much difference a microscope can make to the ostensibly mundane things. At one stage my youngest took to collecting 'slices' of polished stone, really beautiful - actually he probably still has them ( he has inherited my Mother's hoarding gene) tucked away in one of his beloved boxes of 'stuff'.

Brad said...

Fuzzy goat movies of your girls at my place.

Mean Mom said...

I've always thought that rocks were so boring! I am indeed only half-educated!

Thanks for calling in at my virtual party, on Saturday. It was a great day!

(I couldn't help but notice brad's comment!! Whatever does it mean??)

Casdok said...

Certainly is. Great that you are getting so much out of it too.

Potty Mummy said...

Wonderfully descriptive Grit. And I'm assuming that rock is not an opal from your back-pack trip to Aus, though it surely looks like one...

Suburbia said...

Proof indeed, just like a stained glass window, so lovely. Glad you had a great day :)

Moohaa said...

Those moments are definitely what make it all worth while. I'm so glad it was a good day!

Dori said...

I love, love, love geology! The history, the story, the connections--love it! I'm so thrilled to hear the little Grits enjoyed the experience!

Pig in the Kitchen said...

what a fabulous post Grit! The happy ending is made all the more perfect by your description of your despair at the beginning. I didn't realise that despair was handed out to ALL mums, i thought it was just me. Well maybe not all mums, but at least you and me. Anyway, you described my daily feelings very well.

And the rock, and the alka seltzer champagne guide (a very good image if i may say so)...so glad you had a fab day.

Pigx

Pig in the Kitchen said...

Mean Mom, it's ok! i've just been over to Brad's place, and from what I can gather, it's fuzzy goat movies. Not of grit's girls. So we can all breathe a 'phew-thank-goodness-grit-hasn't-got-her-girls-mixed-up-in-goat-porn-movies' sigh of relief.

And you know, those goat porn movies are overrated.
Pigx

Grit said...

hi dani! i have obviously missed my way in life here. now i think i might have been a geologist. or photographer, artist, scientist, historian...

oh *stuff*! sharon, now i think stuff is wonderful, whereas i used to think it was just about collecting dust.

ok brad, i'll be over frequently. but you know i draw the line at goats licking my face.

hi mean mom! i am cultivating a goat fetish. it is a new acquisition. you could host a goat party. i could bring my new friends.

hi casdok! i am determined to enjoy myself, as you can see ;)

oh wow PM, i wish it was hand-gathered from the opal fields, that would be a story to tell...

hi suburbia, you are right, a stained glass window, and i need to look more often!

yes kelly jene - we get a chunk of bad-to-indifferent days and then a shining hour comes through and it's all worth while!

hi dori - i'm sure the woman leading the group had a magical sparkle that turned it all from rock into real live places and dinosaur faces!

hi pig! despair would not be despair unless we could measure it with joy. it shows what profound women we are to experience the full scale of our lives. that's my line and i'm sticking to it.