Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Ahem! So i did fairytales as a module in Exeter. It was great fun. We did Angela Carter and Neil Jordan's Company of Wolves. We learnt that fairytales weren't just fairytales. There was always something deep and dark inside them. Something that appealed to archetypes or addressed our fears as a culture and civilisation. They helped us to hold on, to believe...today i did East of the Sun and West of the Moon. I stop at where the third old lady is encountered and a child in my class says... i wonder if she ever gets there? Does she ever find the castle? East of the Sun and West of the Moon makes Beauty and the Beast look like a lark in the park. The girl pays dearly for the one mistake she made, not trusting her inner bear and as a result is sent on the roundabout way to find the castle where she effectively rescues the prince who has to marry a princess who has a nose two yards long. You could write a PhD based on this fairytale. And here they are listening to this i...

Sunday = Minecraft My dear dad (hi Pa!) told me i should be careful about what i post. At first i did not know what he was talking about, then i remembered the post about the gay pride parade in Galway and thought, oh he possibly means that. Really dad. If i had said something which came from the Republican party's manifesto, then perhaps you could have been somewhat horrified and upbraided me about that, but the post about the gay pride parade and then about sexual norms or what is considered a sexual norm in any day and age? Do you not know me? I am extremely ANNOYED with the whole Kate Middleton nonsense. Today i went to the newspaper stand and was confronted with Kate and William abseiling from a tree in the rainforest. Seriously? I am not so much concerned with her boobs on display as with the overprivelege which a certain class of people are entitled to. I don't care if she has boobs. Because guess what most women have boobs, and most men too,...

Often when i am setting up the classroom, Ghin will be setting up right alongside me...his blackboard efforts Over the past two weeks we have been running in a rhythm. Myself and the kids. Morning we light a candle, do a very short eurythmy exercise to centre and focus the kids, say the verse, sing a song. Over the last two weeks they have learnt Mother Earth which they sing three times a day, which means now they know the song completely. After the song we blow out the candle, then do our bean bag exercises. It is slowly coming together. At the start of us being together, the kids were a bit uncertain, as was i, and now we are gelling as a class. I have had to become a real teacher in that, i was asked, why was i allowed to wander around the class and look at people's work while the child who was wandering around the class could. And my answer was... because i am the teacher. I have also made it a point to ensure that the kids start with good writing habits. So whe...

Chilling in bed with fairy stories... i agree it is not forty shades of gray... it is BETTER!!!! (Not that i would know, seriously) i sort of like taking self portriats... one day i imagine it will become some sort of legacy for the kids...do you like the tiger balm in the corner of the photo... tiger balm rocks! Week on is over. how strange life is. i was lying here thinking about this late autumn heatwave and it began raining. The cool breeze came through the windows and i thought of harapan. one year ago i had just returned from attempting to save a rainforest. I was in love with everyone there, swiming in water lilly filled lakes, surrounded by dragonflies and swallows as they dipped their beaks in the water to scoop out the pond skaters. At night it would rain and in the day time, we would walk from hut to office, writing press releases and translating things. i wanted to go back to harapan and asked the universe to make it possible and so i did. I went back and met eve...

The main blackboard - where i will be doing the verse Straight as a tree i stand, Strength fills my arms and legs Warm is my heart with love Window on the right with the theme plants and earth/stones This will be carried through the years as the elementals become the forces that shape our world, thereby inbuing the child with a sense of wonder for our living planet and inspiring him/her to look after it The figures of animals and the windmill was made by Oisin in his woodwork class last year. They are now a gift for the little ones. Sacred geometry St Christopher and the Christchild The school is not religious but the teaching acknowledges that the human being is a spiritual being. We are not simply a higher form of animal life, but we also have a consciousness which needs to be looked after and nourished as well. I think it enables us to find our way through this suffering world which is literally suffering from neglect and abuse by the attitude th...