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.

Blessings and Opportunities

Ten thousand years ago, while planning this current lifetime, I made an entry into my karmic daybook for August 1, 2008: 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time--meet a tree. Following the suggestions of my Evolving Consciousness instructor, I am now offering my heartfelt thanks to:

• the beautiful, loving and forgiving young woman who loaned me her car
• the 1994 Toyota Corolla, with its standard transmission
• my own series of, let's call them 'lapses,' leading to my inability to apply the brake in a timely manner
• the tree to whom I so abruptly introduced myself
• the overly-enthusiastic airbag that caught me by surprise (what an understatement!)
• the crash and my injuries, that opened up the opportunity to fulfill my karma and receive a series of wonderful life blessings!

I don't know who reads this blog, but no one need worry--I am fine. Glad to be home in Edmonton, resting and healing, but fine. I still feel overwhelmed when I remember the love, kindness, and magical healing ministrations of 'strangers' who dropped their plans to spend time with me immediately following my collision. I was held and nurtured by these very skillful angels, who simply took the pain away. I am especially grateful to Karen, her husband Ken, and their little boy Coco, as well as the young man who Reiki'ed my feet. In the hospital, later that day, the doctor informed me that the following day I would feel as though I had been 'trampled by a bull,' but there was very little pain, and no need to fill the prescription for Percocet that I had been given.

What in the Cosmos was going on, on August first? When I arrived at the house where I would be staying for two nights, there was a note on the table from the landlady, saying that she had been in a car accident that day, and had gone to the emergency room! Thousands of miles away, my son-in-law also bumped a tree with his vehicle! And yesterday evening my dear husband Ken--the best driver in the world--rear-ended another vehicle while driving his truck home from work!

The day after I arrived home, two of my daughters had startling news to share, and I realized that every one of my four children is in the midst of a major life transition just now. My entire immediate family is being shaken up in the Divine Cosmic Dice Tumbler. My oldest daughter, Rose, has terrific news that I feel I can report here: she has accepted her First Real Career Job, as co-facilitator of a group program for twenty-five abusive men (you couldn't pay me a million dollars to do it, but she's thrilled)!

What has Steiner got to say about all of this?

Can I expand my soul
That it unites itself
With cosmic Word received as seed?
I sense that I must find the strength
to fashion worthily my soul
as fitting raiment for the spirit.

May we indeed be strong enough and worthy enough to meet these events and carry them forward in our lives as blessings and opportunities.