#60 A Tale for Dhul Hijjah: The Birds, the Old Fig Tree, and the Great Soul Journey

From the book, Thirty Sunsets and A Moon, a collaborative project by Ashley J. May & Jessica Lewis Stevens.

Here is a tale about a flock of birds that embark on a soul moving journey. An adaptation of Farid al Din Attar’s “The Conference of the Birds”, deeply inspired by the wisdom of my motherline and two little boys who believe they can fly. I tell this story each summer. Sometimes, I tell it all year long–adding tiny new details along the way as my children grow more and more curious about the childhood memories of my grandmother, and her mother, that I hold dear to my heart. It’s best told under the shade of your favorite tree with jugs of honey lemonade for sipping, and the sweetest little hoopoe puppet flying about on a stick.

We recommend this story for ages 3 and up

About the Author: Ashley J. May

Ashley J. May You can discover more about Ashley and her work on Instagram @mayashleyj. Ashley J. May is a mother and ethnographer living on the unceded Tongva lands commonly known as Los Angeles, CA. She is the Founder and Project Director of The Grassroots Morning Garden Project that aims to liberate families and organize parents and their children around spaces of freedom through a co-constructed model for holistic, nature immersive parent and child groups, community-engaged research, public scholarship, and collective care.   

Her graduate training is in research and evaluation–specifically in early childhood and community care contexts.  She has over 20 years of experience in education and holds a Child Development Site Supervisor Permit from the California Department of Education.  She is a member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America, the American Anthropological Association, and the Society for the History of Children and Youth.

Ashley infuses the beauty of Waldorf philosophy, feminist pedagogy, and culturally sustaining, place-based informal educational practices into her work and home life while interrogating places of expansion and opportunities for transformation in order that we are in right relationship with the families and communities we serve.