Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Happy me! There are times when i think, this is a dream… perhaps it is. Honestly, last week has made me really bewildered. The entire internet seems to be in a massive contraction of hate and the most extreme excesses of the ugliest bits of human nature. There is no doubt that there is a section of the digital media which brings out the worst in people. I mean really the worst. The fear of the other is writ large and actually this is quite normal. Most people - er not me because i don't know why - are afraid of things they don't know or don't understand. (I am not afraid because i think i have too much of the archetypal fool inside me. Explore new things see new places, what's the worst that could happen is usually my motto. If you are horrible to me, it is you which is suffering not me.) Anyway, the internet has provided a shield for people to hide behind. It's anonymity and its illusion that the person who is on it has some kind of power. Except that they ...

Sacred landscapes Yesterday i was emailing a friend about conservation. Having spent about ten years observing mainstream conservation, i have noticed they are based mainly on two things: science and the law. Conservationists, especially the suits in conservation, believe that if they throw enough science and lobby hard enough they will change people's minds - or politicians' - about saving habitat and species. I now conclude that this is actually not right. Science and the law will not save habitats: values will. Lets us take countries which have done quite a lot to protect their habitat. Like Bhutan and Norway and Canada. What has made them look after their wild places? Science and the law? No. It is VALUES. They have said we actually value this and we don't really care about the science - we have decided that we are going to look after these places because they mean something to us. Sometimes this can appear as a form of religion. The land is sacred. We don't ...

Akka Mahadevi People, male and female, blush when a cloth covering their shame comes loose When the lord of lives lives drowned without a face in the world, how can you be modest? When all the world is the eye of the lord, onlooking everywhere, what can you cover and conceal?           - Akka Mahadevi I have spent the best part of my bank holiday researching on two female saints from the Hindu tradition. Saints are interesting. The occupy the space between fairytale and history. They are sort of like superheroes, which is why superheroes are so fascinating for children and saints are good for children of that age group. The hallmark of sainthood is usually an innate sense of what is good and right and going towards that, no matter what. No matter what obstacles surround you, you head towards what you believe is to be right. Usually the obstacles are quite formidable. Quite often they are family. Very often they are corr...

On Monday i did some cleaning of my room. There was a thick layer of dust and sheets that needed changing. In the course of this cleaning i unearthed little treasures from my past. Things i had put away and forgotten. My grandmother's silver and freshwater peral crucifix, her kerosang. A set of hsells a friend had given me from a beach in the North East of England. They were marvellous because there were seven of them and they were perfectly matched to the seven planets. At that point in time i was learning about the seven planetary seals. Here the shells are.... My grandma's kerosang and rosary I thought about these shells looking up to the skies and the stars and how they were selected to be mine, from the beach to my hand. I will make seven pieces of art using them the seals and flowers and trees and birds i thought - each piece dedicated to each planet. It will be a meditation on the cosmos... what a meditation it will be. I now have the excuse to do all thes...

This week's blackboard drawing So i made good my threat to wake the feck up and i did. Went to school, did the blackboard drawing, went to St George's market and then met up with friends. We got Oisin some clubs and Ghin got a hat - we had cake a wrap, i went back to school, planned the main lessons, looked at the coming week and then now... i am gonna have a bath after din din... here are the highlights from today... Oisin tests his new clubs My beautiful mother and my son St George's market is relentlessly photogenic Oisin, without any fuss does his drawing of still life flowers in pastel like a pro for his portfolio I was leaving the classroom and saw how beautiful everything was which prompted a photo opportunity...

Post breakfast! It is often said that the greatest tragedy is not to die, but not to have lived. In that respect i can tell you my life has been a complete success. There aren't many what ifs? in it. A friend asked me yesterday if there was a philosphy behind Oisin's going to circus school, i said it was just like fun gym. In fact, i said, most of the things in my life have been done because it sounded like it might be fun. I think on that basis i really cannot complain about any of the less than positive consequences which may have emerged from the "We should just have fun philosophy." This can be quite at odds with my "I would like to save the world" philosphy. Perhaps that is why i ended up in Steiner education - we can have fun AND save the world. In fact, we need to. Steiner education is not just about having fun, of course. It is also about reverence. And gratitude. And health and well-being. Which given my sanguine nature can all be ach...

Gratitude is a wonderful thing. Today we went walking in Redburn country park with all those bluebells. It was amazing. Spring time… we also went to Little Wing and we had the macrons - every flavour. It appears that it is possible for Ghin to OD on macaroon. After three he said it is too sweet and i need to have something salty. Oisin was at circus school, the sun was shining, i was holding Ghin's hand as we crossed the road. It was simple and lovely…. simple and lovely. The silences and the spaces in between those silences….

Sufferegette colours...

Yesterday we went to Forest School. If you can remember yesterday you will remember it was one of the best days of the year thus far for sunshine and just a general great feeling of being alive. Steiner says that sunlight is the physical manifestation of the cosmos' love for us. You know, i am inclined to agree. Anyway we took the kids of Forest School. Essentially what does one do in Forest School? Depending on the age of the children, they are supposed to learn to be in the outdoors. I know, what kind of society is it when being outdoors is something children need to go to school for? In Sako Suban, the children were outdoors playing sampans as soon as school ended. They fished for prawns, they messed around in Sungei Kampas, they were so able, so willing to do and try everything. Here children end up in front of the telly, or playing mine craft. Both experiences are not equal i would say. And yet in this part of the world our children are considered luckier. I do not un...

The Feast Day of Joan of Arc is coming up soon, so in her honour, I made this week's saint Joan. Also Joan kicks ass. If anyone is in any doubt of how lucky we are to live in the times we live in, then please read about what 14th century France was like. Mostly an abysmal mess of families fighting it out and sleeping with each other. Kidnappings of royal children, affairs, insanity - and that was just the monarchy. It sounds exactly like the Game of Thrones actually. Then there were the English who adopted a scorched earth policy on everything which opposed them. Joan's village was burned twice. They were also trialing witches constantly. It must have been great to be a woman. Joan and place value   More place value A typical day at school, such as this one consisted of doing some maths, listening to some stories, drawing, baking cupcakes for selling to raise funds for seeds for a little nursery school in a reforestation project in Kenya, playing the recorder an...

Over the last year i posted loads of selfies and then, i stopped posting them. So i thought i should rectify this a bit. This is my Mother's Day present to myself. Taken just before Forest School Taken after Forest School That Swatch watch is about 20 years old! My mom had to repaired from me! Me and the boys in the Dr Who exhibition in Cardiff St Andrews Chilling after school Being the Boss in Birmingham Post bath Yep that was fun! It's funny how we can wake up and not feel great and then drink coffee and feel amazing. What would we do without caffeine eh? Off to do a stint in the school for Natural Childhood Day. Every child should have not only a physical connection to nature, but a spiritual one as well. Usually children natrually have this. The wonder and magic a child feels in a natural space is so tangible. When i was a child going to places where there was a beach, where there was a forest, where there was room to roam and be...

Cairn Woods... some children improving their gross motor skills and ability to empathise aka playing I love being still. Not having to go anywhere or do anything. Having a cup of tea. Watching TV. Reading. Watching clouds scud by. I love being able to be quiet. Sometimes i think i may forget how it is to be quiet. To be able to rest. There are no 'have tos' in life. I love that. You do not 'have to' do anything. Everything is a choice. We choose each moment. We choose each day. We choose how we live. We even choose how we die. The day is wet. One of those heavy wet summer days which i do not mind. The garden is watered. There is a silence. We potter about, lie around. I sleep after lunch. I think about writing in my journal. I resist reading school related stuff. On Friday we went out to Forest School, this time with Class One as well. It is such a delight to be able to work with a curriculum which says this is important, getting children to connect with t...

A snapshot from my study floor... So what the heck did i spend the May Day Bank holiday doing? Why working of course. Cathing up on Admin, slotting in dates and organsing stuff, filing - you know the bits and bobs of life which somehow manage to slip by the wayside when you are reading about Parsifal and the Holy Grail. Yesterday i attempted to sort my stuff and realised that in the last few weeks i have spent a lot of time reading about esoteric Christianity. Last night i made an attempt to list, from memory, the sun beings which figure in ancient mytholigy and cultures. The list was not very long, because it was from memory - and i also realised there were huge gaps in my knowledge. I was not very good with desert cultures. No idea what Beduoins think about the sun, if they have a mythology for it, for instance. Anyway, i just, for fun decided i would sketch out where all these things connected. What is interesting is that nothing i have read in mythology and spirituality ac...

In the last scence of Act I, Hamlet tells Horatio, "There are more things between heaven and earth, than are dreamt in your philosophy Horatio," after Horatio says to Hamlet that it is not possible that a Ghost can come back and speak to you. It is an interesting statement to make. Hamlet is a play and therefore fiction, but that friendly admonishion is something which i have been thinking about. Horatio is the scholar and he has all the 'facts' - he is the learnered man, the man of reason. In his universe Ghosts do not exist. However here we have a Ghost, not only just an apparition, but one which also interracts with the living. These are old wives tales and supserstitions. As a man of science he cannot entertain this thought - and YET - yet here it is. This is the essence of phenomonology - to observe as closely as possible and then develop a hypothesis which can be tested. Is that ever possible? The Ghost is real and it speaks to Hamlet - or is it? Ever...