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.

Home is Where the Heart Is

Yes, I've been home, home, home for a month now--aaahh!  While settling in, I felt a wariness in the part of me that wasn't quite certain I was really, truly back home to stay.  In another part of me, being in Edmonton felt so natural that perhaps I hadn't been away after all.  I felt confused about what season and month it was, having returned from a glorious New England spring and summer to Alberta's end-of-winter/early-spring brownness and barenness.  I came home to an instant life, swept into the busyness of family and events and things that needed doing, that had nothing to do with being a graduate student!  I've been dabbling in this and that since my return home, not seeming to accomplish much and feeling the lack of rhythm and regular routine in my life.  

Home is belongingness, confidence, inner peace, and joy.

FEED THE BIRDS

I'm the one who wanted to hang a bird feeder at the corner of our downtown balcony, and Ken humored me by installing it about a year and a half ago.  We watched and waited in vain to be discovered by the wee feathered folk.  This winter, the pillar poplars seemed to enjoy a growth spurt, and they are now as high as the balcony above ours.  And we have birds!  They are mainly LBJs--little brown jobs--and they are oh, so welcome, with their entertaining twittering and flitting about.

On this particular day of the year the French Republican Calendar honours the honeysuckle.  There are 180 species of this plant, at least one of which grows wild in Alberta.  It attracts hummingbirds, and some caterpillars feed upon its leaves.  May your day be as sweet as its nectar!

Our focus tends to be outward, during this season of waxing warmth and light.  (Our feeling soars into wide realms of space; we notice the ascent of the sun; inner events are experienced but dimly.)  Here is this week's verse from Steiner's  Calendar of the Soul:

To summer's radiant heights

The sun in shining majesty ascends;

It takes my human feeling

Into its own wide realms of space.

Within my inner being stirs

Presentiment which heralds dimly,

You shall in future know:

A godly being now touched you.