This Wednesday Sandbox gathering we listen to long time Sandboxer Milliie Knox read from her book "Crafting with Nana." A book about the four summers she spent with her grandmother learning about healing, mother earth, the Sun Lord and Moon Goddess, Full Moon ritual, and coming into being loved and nurtured. I read it over the summer and it is a touching and playful read that brings back the joy, innocence and magic of childhood.

"I looked out the window of the bus and there was Nana standing on the platform with her hands on her hips. Nana was short compared to everyone else but me, about five foot two. She stood like she was ten feet tall, with her steel gray eyes flashing a warning to all who would meet her gaze.  I felt very protected when I was around her.  Nana didn’t have much use for children. She thought they were a bother. She didn’t have much use for most adults either, but she picked me to teach and for that I am truly grateful.
 
Learning things from Nana was different from anything else. She gently guided me into a world where magic was as simple and commonplace as sitting down to a meal, enjoying a gentle breeze in the afternoon, or bathing in the dancing light of an evening fire. She led me on a journey where I found that the wonders of  the “Old Ways” opened my life and granted me gifts to powers beyond my wildest imagination. 

Here is what David Hollies had to say about it

I just finished reading Millie’s book “Crafting with Nana.”  And I really enjoyed it.  I mostly bought the book as an expression of my general appreciation of Millie.  I read the book with the hope of getting to know Millie better.  She is one of the most intriguing people I have ever known, so delving into the world of her childhood memories and introduction to things wiccan seemed quite inviting to me.  At first I found the pace slow and wondered if the book would be a chore.  But the book drew me in and I found that the pace of the story was part of the story.  Before long I was recalling the timeless adventuring of childhood.   The book stopped being about Millie and became an invitation to a state of mind that I’d all but forgotten.  It took me back to a time in life where I had so much less knowledge and yet was so much more immersed in the magic of the forest.   I’ve grown in the reading, becoming aware of the ways I’ve fallen out of awareness of the wonder that is all around me.  Thanks, Mille, for giving me back some of the kid in me.

The reading begins after dinner at 8pm.  I invite you to join us, though as always what ever choice you make you will be honored in.

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