With Family

STORYLAND VALLEY ZOO
Nice shot, isn't it? I took it during a raptor demonstration at the zoo, on a magical day with daughters Rose & Laura, Rose's sweetie Ze'ev, and grandbabies Kaliana & Kai. Here's another one:

So proud to be riding on a pony!

A whole family life greeted me in Edmonton, in August, including days at the lake with Rose, Laura, and the two little 'Ks.' I got my nails done, got my hair done, and SCHOOL began to happen big time! (Is it obvious that I'm trying to catch up on my blog posts?) Meetings, home visits, watching with admiration as the WESE worker-women scrape and paint, saw and hammer, scrape and sew and transform three ordinary old classrooms into Waldorf places of wonder. Lesson planning, you may wonder? Mmm . . . I'm well behind in that department. And then, last weekend, a glorious mother/daughter retreat with my beloved singing sisters at Labyrinth Lake Lodge. (Oh! I didn't go as a grandmother, or even as a mother--I went as a DAUGHTER, with Kay as my other mother!) I was honoured with a ceremony (surprise!) recognizing my year away and my role in launching this new Waldorf program into the world.

My new students came to school yesterday afternoon to check out our new classroom, in preparation for their Big Day on Wednesday--so wonderful to see the classroom come alive with children!

Hey, today is watermelon day, in the French Republican Calendar--reminds me to be sure and enjoy summer's last juicy treats during these last few days of August!

This week Rudolf Steiner tells us:

I feel strange power, bearing fruit
And gaining strength to give myself to me.
I sense the seed maturing
And expectation, light-filled, weaving
Within me on my selfhood's power.

My soul and the great World are one.

GLENDALOUGH
Such a peaceful photo, taken the evening of July 4th. You would never know we had just enjoyed the best/worst hailstorm I have ever seen at our cabin at Lake Wabamun. It was the last night of a five-day retreat with my daughter Laura, and my two grandbabies, Kaliana and Kai. We hiked through mud, we did a temper tantrum at the pancake breakfast, we ate a picnic lunch by the playground at the beach, we soaked in the hot tub every day before breakfast and before bed, and we even made our own cheese! I had forgotten how daily activities have to be wedged in between all the naps, sleeps, meals, and snacks that little ones need. Kai cut his first tooth, and Fiona the cat became less ornery and more tolerant of the kitty-loving Kaliana. Was Baba all worn out after her days with two active tots? Does Baba admit to being just a little-itty bit cranky? And how did Baba ever manage with four tots of her own, back in the day? A mystery, indeed.

NEW WALDORF PROGRAM AT AVONMORE SCHOOL
Try to imagine how excited I am to be preparing for the brand-new grade 1 & 2 class of a brand-new Waldorf program, in a new-to-me school, with a wonderful new-to-me principal! I began to imagine bright, shining, eager faces sitting in desks just as soon as I read their names on the class list! I will have 24 young charges, and will stay with them all the way through until at least grade 6, and possibly to grade 8. I have begun meeting them in their homes, and I'm struck with what a diverse group they are, with family origins from around the globe, and beginnings ranging from having been home-educated, to having attended WESE's playschool, to having attended Waldorf schools elsewhere, to having attended kindergarten or grade 1 in a public school. My dear friend Lynda, who is also one of my new Waldorf parents, asked me 1)what I am most looking forward to, and 2)what I feel my greatest challenge will be.
1). . . the oh-so-exciting First Day of School, September 2!
2). . . how will I manage my energy levels, teaching teach full time?
I feel very strongly that 'my' new 24 children have orchestrated this amazing endeavor from beyond the beyond, and I imagine them each making their way toward September 2, along their individual, unique paths, from 24 different directions. I feel that I am meeting my personal destiny, in this auspicious new beginning. Steiner must have written the following just for me:

The wishes of the soul are springing,
The deeds of the will are thriving,
The fruits of life are maturing.

I feel my fate,
My fate finds me.
I feel my star,
My star finds me.
I feel my goals in life,
My goals in life are finding me.

My soul and the great World are one.

Life grows more radiant about me,
Life grows more arduous for me,
Grows more abundant within me.

CALENDARS
The Chinese almanac has us into the last month of summer--enjoy it, folks, autumn rustles in on August 5th! Today the French Republican Calendar honours mint, glorious mint. There are more than 600 varieties of this clean, fresh smelling and tasting herb. My favorite salad uses a dressing flavoured with fresh chopped mint leaves and curry paste.

LAST TASTE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Just one last day in Edmonton; then I'm off for my second three-week summer intensive term in New Hampshire. Singing, games, eurythmy, the science curriculum, the adolescent, speech, and the study of 'man' (meaning everybody). Yes, it's hard to leave home again, even for three short weeks, but it will be lovely to see my New Hampshire friends, and I'm looking forward to a road trip home with Ken, after my graduation.

Rudolf Steiner's summer meditation from The Calendar of the Soul:

Surrendering to senses' revelation
I lost the drive of my own being,
And dreamlike thinking seemed
To daze and rob me of my self.
Yet quickening there draws near
In sense appearance cosmic thinking.

Lady April

Lady April has come to town, wearing a golden daffodil gown,
All the way from sunny Spain, Lady April has come again.

Celandine and cuckoo-flower dance beside her, hour by hour,
All the birds come out to sing, Lady April a-welcoming.

April, for me, has been about preparing and presenting--in particular, my Big Internship Week, when I was handed the reins for four consecutive main lessons in Grade Four, and my beautifully illustrated botany block book, the major assignment for my Waldorf curriculum class. April has been about greening grass, crocuses, daffodils, pansies, and forsythia. It has been about the most marvelous, melodic birdsong accompanying me on my short walk to school every morning, and the return of the morning doves, with their soft, distinctive hoots. Robins, squirrels, and blackbirds are everywhere, bustling importantly about. April, for me, has been challenging due to illness, and I'm wondering whether missing loved ones in Edmonton has made me more susceptible to whatever viruses are lurking about. I am feeling much heartier now, and a lot more cheerful!

THE GIFTS OF ABSENCE
My relationships with my husband and children have strengthened, during my time away, in unexpected ways. Ken and I have relied on our daily phone calls for mutual support, and I feel a deeper level of understanding, trust, and 'common ground' between us now. One of my children has opened up to me in a lovely, new way, sharing feelings about significant life events. Another of my children has grown healthily independent, learning to stand upright and cope with life's disappointments from a place of individual resourcefulness. I've been made to feel appreciated by my offspring in numerous ways--every mother's dream! Although Ken has been in my life for less than seven years, my children have been sure to include him in all family get-togethers during my absence--he is delighted and deeply touched! And he has bonded with 'my' grandchildren all the more strongly, given opportunities to play with them without their Baba 'interfering.' After every visit I am treated to a play-by-play description of everything Kaliana did and said!

What a wonderful family I have! Shall I sit back, and let them plan our future get-togethers?

SOUL LEARNING
Although there is a 'summer sequence' program at Antioch University, enabling teachers to complete my program during a series of summers, rather than relocating for an entire school year, I chose the 'year-round' program for two reasons. First, I am isolated in Edmonton, as there is no group of Waldorf colleagues there, with which to work. I wanted a 'Waldorf immersion' experience, and second, I wanted a transformational experience. Christopher Bamford articulates what I sought and have found beautifully, within his description of the sevenfold gift of 'Celtic Christianity,' in Chapter Six of his book, An Endless Trace:

" . . . there is deep love of learning and study, study as a curriculum of the soul. Too often, learning and study are discounted, if not abused and reviled, as synonymous with intellectualism abstraction, and literalism or conceptual bigotry. When study and learning are for the transformation of the student, and not for the mere accumulation of information, what is learned becomes who one is."
"The Celtic Christians were . . . interested in becoming fuller, more realized human beings. Their learning was not something other than who they were."
"They studied, they learned, in order to love. Their theology, their religion, was always practical, vibant with life, mystical."

CALENDARS
The Chinese almanac has summer coming in next week, on Tuesday, May 5 (New Hampshire didn't wait!). Today is lily of the valley day, in the French Republican Calendar. I have always loved this tiny flower's exquisite scent. Wikipedia tells us that, "traditionally, Lily of the Valley is sold in the streets of France on May 1. Lily of the Valley became the national flower of Finland in 1967. The meaning of this flower is 'You will find Happiness.'"

For your soul:

I sense a kindred nature to my own:
Thus speaks perceptive feeling
As in the sun-illumined world
It mergest with the floods of light;
To thinking's clarity
My feeling would give warmth
And firmly bind as one
The human being and the world.

Budding New Life

The major term assignment for my current Waldorf Curriculum Preparation Course is the creation of a representative main lesson book on a single block topic, accompanied by a teaching plan. In Waldorf education, the main lesson book is a work of art, a record of learning, and the nearest thing to a textbook that is allowed into the classroom. I chose Grade 5 Botany--what could be more wonderful to draw than plants and flowers? For my own preparation, to enter into the world of plants in a living way, I have embarked upon a photographic study of a tree twig, here in the yard of my house in Keene. I will photograph it at intervals while it swells and develops and produces a bud, over the course of the next several weeks. So far, I have been unable to identify it by its bark, so it remains a mystery tree for the moment.


GESTATION
Eleven weeks until I return home, but (as I always ask) who's counting? I calculated that my weeks in New Hampshire, including the two July stints, will total exactly forty--a pregnancy, and something new is quickening within me, as a result of my studies and experiences here. My yearning to be home is always present--a persistent, gentle wistfulness.

GRADE SIX ACOUSTICS
Here's something worth trying at home--trust me, you'll be amazed! Cut two lengths of ordinary string, each about half a metre long. Tie one end of each string to a large fork or spoon from your cutlery drawer. Tie a small loop in the other end of each string. Play around with these for awhile--be creative--and look and listen for the effects of your experimentation. Now carefully place one of the small loops over your right index fingertip, and the other over your left, and insert your fingertips, with string, quite far into your ears. With or without help, contrive to get the two implements to tap together. What do you experience now? Aren't you glad you tried it?

REVERENCE IS A FORCE
Reverence is much more than a 'nice' way to approach the world and each other; much more than an attitude that motivates us to care for and protect people, creatures, and things. Waldorf students who are led, through reverence, into a living relationship with nature and the phenomena of the world, are developing a sixth sense with which to perceive and connect with the universe, and penetrate into the mysteries of existence. The habit of reverence leads us beyond Bloom's taxonomy to even higher-order thinking skills of imagination, intuition and inspiration. It is also referred to as heart-thinking. Goethe entered into a kind of thought-conversation with his subjects of study, and today's cutting-edge research scientists enter into a similar kind of dialogue with whatever they are observing, through which they are able to open up to and receive information from their subject of scientific study--a plant; a colour; a particle; a wave. Adopting an attitude of reverent curiosity; honouring the wisdom of the world, is in itself a way to grow and learn.

AFRICAN INITIATION POETRY
There was an African tribe that gave a certain task to all the children at age thirteen, when they were going through an initiation and passing through the outer gate of childhood. They were to create poems in this specific style. They were given the first line and asked to add five more lines based on some examples. My fellow students and I were given this task to do in class on Friday. Here is my poem, dedicated to the three most wonderful young women I know,
Rose, Laura and Christina!

Young woman you are:
the aurora dancing across the sky
the crocus blooming in the snow
the songbird's joyful melody
the rain upon parched, cracked clay
the azure butterfly in the forest.

ERNEST L. BOYER, SR.
I was thrilled to be selected from among my classmates to receive the 2009 Boyer teacher scholarship, which provides for an education student with the potential to develop characteristics that Dr. Boyer believed essential for good teaching. I am ever so grateful!

CALENDARS
According to the French Republican Calendar yesterday's tool of the day was the spade, and today's plant is the narcissus. This past week I bought three paperwhite bulbs, on sale in a shop on Main Street. They are fat and bursting with joy-of-growth! I have them in a clear glass vase in my north bedroom window, and I'm looking forward to the day when their strong perfume will scent the indoor atmosphere.
Welcome, month of March!
Spring will reach its zenith this month--are you ready to enjoy it?

Within the light that out of world-wide heights
Would stream with power toward the soul,
May certainty of cosmic thinking
Arise to solve the soul's enigmas--
And focusing its mighty rays,
Awaken love in human hearts.

When Icicles Hang by the Wall

When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,	5
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all around the wind doth blow,	10
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw;
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl—
Then nightly sings the staring owl	15
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Poetry by Wm. Shakespeare, of course . . . and 'keel' means skim (not scrub or stir, as I assumed). I suppose she's called greasy Joan because she likes to slurp the rich yellow globules of oil from the top of the simmering soup! Oh, yum!

The ICICLES are phenomenal, in size and number, on almost every building here in Keene. I have never seen so many icicles! They had to cordon off a section of playground at Monadnock Waldorf School, where I am interning here in Keene, because of those monstrous daggers of ice growing from the roofline of the two-storey brick building. When one of the teachers was able to knock the icicles down, some of the fourth-grade (they don't generally say 'grade four' here) students salvaged a wide group of fused icicles. They installed it in their snow fort, and it's the spiffiest snow fort window I have ever seen.

The self-portrait above is meant to be an indication of the height of the snowbanks in Keene. Schools closed on several different days in December and January, for 'Snow Days.' Apparently they build a few extra days into the school calendar each year, to allow for these impromptu days off. I'm very glad I took these photos last weekend, as the weather has been warm for a couple of days, and all the snow and ice is now shrunken and gray. I don't think there's a by-law here (as there is in Edmonton) mandating that homeowners keep sidewalks shovelled in front of their houses. Riding a bike earlier in the winter was a very bumpy experience. I arrived home after shopping one day with broccoli crumbs and flakes of onion skin all through my bag of groceries. Now I stay primarily on the roads--the very narrow roads. Snowbanks here are not picked up by trucks and carted off to snow yards, as they are in Edmonton.

ROBINS & SQUIRRELS
In the third week of January Miss Marshall called her fourth grade students to the classroom window to observe a tree full of robins. They were unmistakably robins, and you'll never see a robin in Edmonton in January! I've only ever seen them singly or in very small numbers (or else I haven't been very observant). For a couple of days, the schoolyard was inhabited by a great flock of redbreasts. And I guess the squirrels don't hibernate here, for I've noticed one or two scampering about recently.

STUDIES
Won't this blog be a lovely remembrance for me, when I return home to Edmonton? My posts are likely to be fewer and farther between this term, as compared with the fall term, for two reasons. First, I am required to keep a journal of my internship experiences, and I sometimes feel 'all journalled out' after spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Miss Marshall's fourth grade classroom. Second, it's a busier term, and that's a happy reason for me! I'll be doing less whining about not having a life--nothing to do, and no one to do it with, that sort of thing. I am having to be very sanguine, in terms of the topics I am exploring for my classes. Here's my list:

• Fourth Grade: Norse myths, compound words, possessive nouns, fractions, 'the horse' (for Human & Animal), and the history and geography of Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• Waldorf School Administration: encouraging reluctant leaders, reincarnation & karma
  
• Waldorf Curriculum Preparation: Gilgamesh, Demosthenes, The Gulf Stream, Charlemagne & Harun al-Raschid, and a major project on Botany (Curriculum for fifth to eighth grades includes a number of topics about which I am utterly ignorant!)
  

The deal is not to cover the facts, but rather for the teacher to 'live into' the topic, and weave a story that encompasses its essential significance in lively pictures. I love this quote (from Dr. Grohmann's The Living World of Plants): "No single subject, whatever it may be, is without meaning for the development of the child's soul and spirit. It would perhaps be better to say that each subject has a very definite task to perform, which far exceeds its value as information."

CALENDARS
By golly, according to the Chinese almanac, spring arrived on Thursday! It will peak in March, and give way to early summer on May 5th. At Antioch University, September to December was the Fall Term, and the current one is the Spring Term. Isn't it fascinating how they have cancelled out winter altogether? Ken and I figured out that New Hampshire is receiving about an hour of daylight per day more than Alberta is, just now. Everybody's equal on the Equinox, and then Alberta begins to surpass New Hampshire in the race for the most sun time.

According to the French Republican Calendar, today is the day to give thanks for the lowly billhook. (No, I had no idea what it was, either.) Wikipedia tells us: "The billhook is a traditional cutting tool used mainly in European agriculture and forestry, but also common in other parts of the world where it was introduced by European settlers. It is used for cutting smaller woody material such as shrubs and branches." There's a photo of a billhook on the net, and it looks very much like the tool I bought from Lee Valley called a 'crack weeder'--not an elegant or mysterious name at all, is it?

To ponder in your soul:

My power of thought grows firm
United with the spirit's birth.
It lifts the senses' dull attractions
To bright-lit clarity.
When soul-abundance
Desires union with the world's becoming,
Must senses' revelation
Receive the light of thinking.

Transition Time

NEW ENGLAND: APRIL WEATHER IN DECEMBER
I still see squirrels occasionally, and today a small chipmunk with a very red back streaked across my path--I wonder if they're confused about the season? Monday's high here was -7 C, and this morning (two days later) it was +12 C and raining.

TEN MORE SLEEPS!
Neither buried beneath books, nor home for the holidays, now is a time of wrapping up loose ends and of anticipation. My classes resumed last week, after the Thanksgiving break, with significantly lighter assignment loads. This gives my classmates breathing space to finish their major term projects, but mine are already complete. I handed in my research paper on Leo Tolstoy to my instructor last Friday, one week before the deadline--he thanked me for the 'preemie.' I am learning the tenor recorder part for a few pieces that my class is preparing to perform on December 19th, and I found and stitched some accessories for the three angels in our Shepherds' Play for December 17th. I brought my watercolour painting notebook up to date, and jotted down my ponderings, comparing and contrasting 'touching' and 'beholding,' and my experiences of darkness and light. I registered for my January courses--did you know that we skip winter, at Antioch University? We are coming to the end of our FALL term, and in January we will begin our SPRING term--how convenient! These tasks, and my daily rehearsing, do NOT add up to a full week of work.

I looked after Jan's (my landlady's) dogs while she was away for a few days--fed them, watered them, and gave them attention. Hero and Winnie don't go for walks on leash. I took Safi on two brief walks, but she is quite skittish. She tends to lunge when a car drives by, and she's a big enough girl to provide a challenge for the one holding the other end of her leash! Precious was definitely easier to walk, and you can view photos of her at Robin Hood Park here. (I was mindful NOT to call her by name, in public!)

BOOKS AND STARS
I've read five novels since my last class before the Thanksgiving break, and I've decided I enjoy two Canadian female authors in particular--Joan Barfoot and Gail Bowen. It was fun to read about places in Saskatchewan in Gail's books. I read one of Garrison Keillor's Wobegon books, appropos to living in New England, and I especially enjoyed a new book by Peter Manseau, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter. Its themes include Jewish emigration from the Old Home to Israel and New York, and the Yiddish and Hebrew languages. The Canadian Living web site posts instructions on how to make stars by weaving gift-wrap ribbon, and I've made a couple dozen of these stars, to adorn my bedroom altar as well as the gifts I will wrap back in Edmonton.

FRENCH REPUBLICAN CALENDAR
Several years ago, a local radio station (perhaps CBC) declared, as an April Fool gag, that Canada was switching to 'decimal time.' There would be ten hours per day instead of twenty-four, with ten minutes per decimal hour, and ten seconds per decimal minute. When I found out about the French Republican calendar, I learned that the republicans had proposed this system, and created actual decimal time watches.

The French Republican calendar was used by the government of France for about twelve years, following the French revolution. It seems there was a desire to overturn every possible remnant of previous regimes. Said Romme: "...reason demands that we follow nature rather than servilely continuing upon the erroneous path of our predecessors..." The Republican calendar year began at the autumn equinox and had twelve months of 30 days each, which were given new names based on nature. Each month had three weeks, and each week had ten days. The names of these months translate (approximately) as follows: Grape Harvest, Fog, and Frost (autumn), Snowy, Rainy, and Windy (winter), Germination, Flower, and Pasture (spring), and Harvest, Summer Heat, and Fruit (summer). In England, people mocked the Republican Calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety. What fun!! The French Republican calendar would make today the twentieth day of the autumn month of Frimaire (Frost). (The first month of winter would not begin until December 21.) Rather than the traditional Catholic saint-days, each day in the FR calendar has a designated animal, mineral, plant or tool (!), and today's special tool is the grub-hoe (tee-hee!).

In my posts of June 18 and August 27, 2008, I mentioned the ancient Chinese almanac from Liza Dalby's book, East Wind Melts the Ice. What is my attraction to these alternative calendars, you ask? I've been asking myself the same question. I believe it is a symptom of nothing less significant than my Quest to find Meaning in Life. A calendar can remind me of the seasons and the rhythms of nature, that nourish the seasons and the rhythms of my soul.

Soul nourishment for this week:

Within my being's depths there speaks,
Intent on revelation,
The cosmic Word mysteriously:
Imbue your labour's aims
With my bright spirit light
To sacrifice yourself through me.