Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Yo! There must be agreement about what a magical autumn it has been thus far. There is something heavy and sparkling in the air which is just about visible. If i squint i think i can see it. Tumbling, little speckles of something tumbling and glittering, possibilities, minture, but perfectly formed blessings, the laughter of little people, as they celebrate the end of the harvest, and soon to arrive stars and cold clear nights and fires and change. Is life not strange? Change always happens. Increasingly over the last few weeks, since school began and the business of getting back into a routine settled, i have seen the blessings. Things happen for the reason and then i need to ask, as i always do now, how can i learn from this? I have realised something about myself. I love travelling a lot, and when i travel i am in my element. But right now i actually love staying in one place a lot as well - possibly even more. I enjoy putting together small wonderful things which then bec...

This week's story was St Jerome and the Lion Graduation! I am now a Waldorf teacher! It is truly amazing! And to have my mom and the boys there was also very special! This week has been such an incredibly busy one. Someone once said to me, It's ALL good. And it is. What life has in store for me over the next few months and years i do not know. All i know is that it is incumbent upon me to work from my highest self. Sometimes this does not really occur. Especially when i am faced with some funny challenges. This week was truly a weird one though... it was a lesson in asking and receiving in small small ways. And some big ones too :-). I am currently working on resentment and forgiveness. I find this a terrible boulder to shift in me. I am trying desperately to work with a move it. I believe that if i can and do, this will be a great breakthrough for me. So i pray to the universe to help me shift resentment. Whenever it may crop up. I am able to process new hurts...

Belfast City Centre on a Friday With added sunshine! Kinky boots! Go Ma! I dream a lot. When i go to sleep i almost immediately dream and then i keep dreaming until the morning. Sometimes i don't remember the dream, more often than not i have snippets. Sometimes i remember most of it. More recently i have been dreaming and remembering it. Like last night i dream of a terrible flood in this part of Northern Ireland. People were forced to live in caravans. I was living UNDER a caravan with a friend and family. As part of the dream we made model of sunfish with fish shop paper. Someone mentioned how she knew a monkey trapper and this friend was appalled. Yes it is proper bizarre dream stuff. Except that very recently there is this one person who keep appearing in my dreams and i am finding it a bit much because really, the whole point of dreams is that you get to spend lots of time with people from places you don't really know... Anyway, what ARE dreams? And...

Ghin was three and Oisin was eight About three days ago i received a compliment from a seven-year old. We were sitting around the tables, having our break - we all have break together in class - it's nice to chat with the kids in a non-learning setting and listen to them, and then one of the kids said, "You can do anything." I asked, what do you mean? You can make bread, you can draw, you can play music, sing...to that list you could also add knit, blacksmith (well i have blacksmithed), woodcraft, sew, felt, etc, etc.. ALL of these things i more or less learnt on the job. And at that moment i thought, the kid gets it! One of the most important things about being a class teacher is that you DO do anything and everything - so that the children see that you can do it. And it is because of this, they realise that THEY can do anything as well. So of course, i said, "Well one day YOU will be able to do everything. I had to learn this and you will learn it too. All yo...

I wrote this poem for the class to recite at the Michaelmas play. Each child will be given a verse - i have nine children in the class - and be dressed as their characters or in period costume. Please feel free to use it if you are celebrating Michaelmas. Long ago a dragon Poisoned all the land The people were afeared And to it gave their lambs When no more lambs were left They began to give their own Each day a name was chosen Each day a child was gone But then it came to pass The King's own daughter then Was to be given to it With sorrow he began Upon his knees he begged Please spare my child, said he For she is my only one Please leave her to me! No, the please shouted It is now your turn! To they dragon they insisted In its fire she will burn! By the lake she waited Then she heard from afar What was this like a comet, A brilliant radiant star? But then she saw the dragon Slither from its watery depths Oh me oh my, she cried and sighed, I am lost, alone, bereft! Trembling and tr...

When Oisin was very young - around Class Three - Jo, a parent of one of his friends and now a student in my class was so very kind and said she would take him for two days a week. As a result he had a semi Glencraig upbringing which means that days were spent roaming around the place. And one of the places he loved going to was the barn. They only spent a very short time in here, but i thought it would be nice to capture that short space of time for him as he showed Ghin the haybales. The Grey Owl There was someone there who showed the kids owls. I used to work for a conservation charity and coincidnetally i have been meeting people who are or were from there. They ask me if i miss it, i say no. I guess it was time to go. I took what i could from it and made the best i could of it and now, it was gone... i don't mind either was really what people think about it - good or bad. I have my own truth about it, so it is neither here nor there for me. I still sometimes...

I know that i have been totally rubbish at keeping up the blog lately. A combination of my mom being here and my dad facetiming and being so blerloody busy has meant that the incentive of bloggging is not really there. Also i generally do not have a life. It is mostly school and then home and then kids. But I do love this blog and when i look back on it i really do want there to be something which holds all the kids growing up and my thoughts and whatever...anyway, i shall make more of an effort i resolved. Last Sunday my mom and i went to Downpatrick. Partly research for the field trip to Downpatrick and partly because we just needed to go for a drive in the beautiful Norn Irish countryside. We found the graves of St Patrick, Brigid and Columba in a church in Co Down. It was very quiet and the church itself was very quiet and not at all what i expected of a site which held so many important saints. Perhaps people aren't so religious. Maybe putting saints in a Protestant graveyar...

Copied from Paulo Uccello's painting in the National Gallery Yesterday i completed the blackboard drawing for the week. It is St George and the Dragon. I used Paolo Ucello's painting in the National because it had a kickass dragon. Over the summer i also read Festivals and Their Meaning in which Steiner has a lot to say about the Michaelmas festival. This celebration is unique to Steiner schools. It is a new festival in the world of festivals and it celebrates the individual. It is really interesting juxtaposing what Steiner says about the development of mankind with what is happening in the world today. Globalisation was predicted by Steiner. He said that barriers are breaking down, we need to embrace all of humanity as one. To do this, paradoxically, we must strengthen ourselves internally and we need to work outwardly. There will be forces of fundamentalism - nationalism and religious fundamentalism - which will oppose this, but we must not give up the fight. Archangel ...