Oh it is that time…

Oh it is that time…
The tail of September whipping away like a frantic sail cramming summer things undone. The sun is becoming golden, leaves have started to fall, the grounds moist and so deep in green. Unlike last year, I walk where the sun rays, where the angels wait to nudge us our way as we soak our senses back to waking.
I was told that nobody reads anymore? That we are choosing to be hypnotised by little clips from people unknown as we hide from all the grace between heaven and earth. That we shrink from the sun and snuggle with darkness? But then, I am writing and you, still reading beyond 7 words. I still have playing mantis with wooden toys, adorned with books bound the old fashion way with pages that curls in time. I still refreshes the window, reflecting and celebrating all the season from summer to winter. You will see the collected acorns….cracked with summer stains, a few have lost their crowns. They will hang high again from a found branch closer to the sky. Bees wax luminaries will flicker again. The wood of cedar,  the plant dyed silk will tempt your fingers for a feel.
Kids and adults will stop and wonder again. Pick up a nature’s offering and

smile like the human-KIND we are.
I am unyielding to new things that makes life even shorter. I always stop to smell a lavander, pick up a feather, kick a puddle after a rainfall……dry a few petals from a once fresh blossom . Without waiting for a star to fall, hold my breath and make a wish .
Dance, sing and play!
Because,
OH YES, it is that time to live.
Imelda Mccain
September 29,2022

NOW is our home

Human Endurance

Dearest Playing Mantis family and friends,

How do you begin a message of optimistic innocence in times like this? Mid into 2021 and the shifting has not settled . We are behind the intelligence and emotions of human capacity.  Lessons  of perfect science constantly changing teaching us how imperfectly human we are.
Then LIFE fights back. Resilience slowly reminding us of HOPE. The courage of surviving in memory of those lives that slipped away.
Talking to young minds, listening to their future, their voices so different from what my parents have echoed. Science and Technology have made a leap with our children in tow. I have to trust their beauty and kindness.
Everytime a parent comes to the store, innocence walking behind them so eager to grow and explore. I too , from the other end is just as curious and sometimes more hesitant than my younger life . The lesson is : I don’t know better today … but will meet the new somewhere and sometime halfway.
This is Playing Mantis……a constant space for open minds. Where wisdom is learned from the freedom we have ignored. It is that space where we expand, explore and elevate to an unfamiliar kind of emotional intelligence.
I am in awe of our endearing endurance as humans.

WE ARE ALL KNIGHTS AND DRAGONS OF OUR TIME.

Making TIME Matter

necessity of pause

Ten years after….

Somewhere in N. Moore street between Varick and Hudson is home to Playing Mantis. Behind the red framed door that chimes upon opening and closing are walls with carefully displayed wooden and woolen creations ….it is where I welcome adults and children alike

Happy Autumn

“Mom, let’s go for a walk by the stream”.
Thrilled by my son’s request who is now 15.
I packed some apples and warm soup,
He packed some dog treats and toys
for Datu who is also now a teen
Autumn has ripened Read more

spring