Fireplaces and siblings

Gail Higgins wrote:

I'm feeling quite thankful that my kids have known a life of schedules of their own choosing and not one that revolves around school schedules and other arbitrary rules. We all know what works best for us and it's ever-changing. Tonight, Broc is asleep before 10, I'll wait till the fire goes out, Brenna will be in shortly after that and Logan will probably be up till 4:00 a.m.

There's a lovely flow to our schedules and our lives. It's quite different than the home I grew up in and I'm thankful for that and that my children have grown up in a home of warmth and peace and harmony.

That was in a longer post about the big fireplace in their Florida home. Both Gail and Broc have New Mexico roots, and I'm sitting in a condo in Santa Fe, recovering from a symposium I wish they could have attended. One of our central features was fire. Keith got a cord of wood and distributed it or made it available to any of the attendees. I had made kindling baskets, with little splints and other things dipped in wax. Some were the stems of mint plants from my yard. Some were strips of a copy of The Big Book of Unschooling (my typo-finding copy; not good anymore).

Last night I was sitting with Joyce, Carl and Kathryn Fetteroll, at their "New Mexico place," with a big noisy fire in their kiva fireplace, and that was wonderful. Today I'll drive them to the Santa Fe airport so they can return to Massachusetts, and I'll take myself home to Albuquerque.

Kirby posted on Twitter yesterday:

Today, through observation and experience, I was reminded that siblings bring strong emotions of both love and anger.

While I was here trying to sleep off a cold, he was with Holly, Roya, Roxana and Rosie, and later with Marty. Whatever happened to inspire him to write that, I wasn't around to help soothe and calm, but they're all grown and don't need me as they once did.

My next destination, today: