Sloth

I realize that sloth is the opposite of a virtue. Sigh. I can see some definite advantages to sloth, I fear. But I am too lazy to figure them out.

I am not at my own computer, so I am resorting to this slothful way of saving an interesting website. I have already forgotten the name of it. But it has some fascinating slothful ways of cooking.

auspiciousdragon.net

Aha! I knew there was a dragon involved!!!! Thank the powers that be for control C and control V.

Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings

I was able to make inroads into this book, which contains some esoteric material (at least for my limited understanding). The books is written by Marko Pogacnik of Slovania - published in English by Findhorn Press. He is involved with earth healing as a "lithopuncturist," a type of acupuncture for the Earth. I think he came to Santa Fe to give advice on the particulars of our school in relation to its geography. I gather that we have some special issues to grapple with (duh!).

The part I want to note in particular as having relevance to my cleaning studies comes on pages 70 ff. He is discussing the legend of the dwarfs of Cologne. It is a legend reminiscent of the Elves and the Shoemaker. I knew I had read about this somewhere, and when i came across it again in this book, I realized I had better make a note of it. P.71..... "The legend of the dwarfs of Cologne also explains how this wondrous union [between creative people and the elementals] collapsed because of an interfering human mind. [.....] [The elementals}cannot exist on the mental level. And they will never return. The craftspeople must complete all their work by the sweat of their brow."

From Santa Fe to Seattle

Here I am. After a heart-rending adventure last night with Twitch not coming in, the moon bright, and the coyotes howling and ripping through the arroyo like the Hounds of Hell, and Twitch still not around in the morning, I was quite tired and weepy. I did not sleep after 3 am - I lept from the bed twice and ran out to the deck with my heart pounding. Dave our builder shared his horror story of his beloved cat being taken off by a huge owl.



I prayed and visualized and tried to be philosophical, since the morning newspaper had several stories of human tragedy, but still I was torn between holding out for hope but trying to be realistic. And then - a rattling in the closet in my office. I opened the door and there was a black furry thing who was slightly annoyed and certainly bemused by being covered with kisses. Thank good ness she was found before she was reduced to a skeleton in my closet, since R. does not hear reliably and might never have found her while I was in Seattle.I could leave with a light heart!

An Affirmative Phone Call

What an unexpected pleasure, to receive a phone call from my Lead, who is on vacation in the East, seduced by water and leafy trees, both of which are in short supply here in the high desert.

She was excited and thrilled and totally inspired by the glimpses she got of the work of some fibre artists. She was on a high and needed to talk to someone who would understand. What an honour to receive this phone call from the East Coast! Sometimes I feel overlooked and rather inessential - my problem, I realize , and it is by no means a predominant theme in my life - but a call like this is invigorating and affirming.

Fie! Poor Me

Trying to tie up loose ends before the great trek to Seattle. I heaved and ho'ed a couple of bags of steer manure and cotton burr mulch to spread on the back garden here at the house. It had rained yesterday a bit and I wanted to get this all out before the sun hit. I am not sure whether I am burying wild flower seeds which will now have difficulty penetrating the mulch, or whether perhap I am amending the soil so they have a better chance, or even, horrors, am I making the soil TOO rich for some of these desert plants. Is there a metaphor here? Let me give it some thought.

Went to school to finish what I could do in respect to cleaning - without the Lead K teachers there.

It was very discouraging. Years of neglect and stuffing odd things away in a basket and hanging on to everything (except stuff I found in the trash I sometimes hauled out!) I think that part of the horror and ennui is that I have been guilty of similar things (though never this awful, ha ha) and I have some of the zeal of a convert working in me. It is AWFUL and DEPRESSING. Should never be in a Waldorf K.

I know my lead will freak out and think I made things worse. What I did was haul things out of cupboards that no one has looked at. I put them out on the table. I washed shelves and put other things back.

I also got rid of papers and notes that were several years old and totally irrelevant. I have to get out of Dodge. It is just as well that I continue as Assistant and not as Co-Teacher. I have had no energy to work on songs, circles, stories.

Seven Planetary Grains

One of the things that I cannot seem to get nailed down is the associations of the grains with the different days of the week. Frankly, I would like to tinker with our "snack" menu at school.

Googling does not always come up with good sites as answers to questions. I used Answers.com to get this site.

http://www.alchemycalpages.com/7grains.html

Hmmmmm.

New Resolve

O ho! No wonder I have not been blogging. My sign-in name had changed and I forgot my password. But here I am now.

Alkelda the Gleeful suggested making this blog my personal struggles with matters of the Waldorf Kindergarten. Good idea, though of course there is a bit of dissonance vibrating between Waldorf K and writing on the computer. On the other hand, I am royally sick of having papers and files all over the place... as well as printing out web pages and juicy posts.

I have recently gone through the struggle of trying to clarify my new position at the school. Technically, I remain "Kindergarten assistant" as well as "Nap teacher", plus supervising early morning drop off, and also the clerical/administrative stuff for licensing, etc. This is to total 40 hours a week and does not include Early Childhood meetings, Faculty Meetings, work on the College of Teachers, festival work, parent evenings, and probably more.

I had thought that I would be more of an Assistant Teacher (semantically, and in my mind, essentially different from teacher assistant), which would mean that I would have an hour or two off in the afternoon to help the teachers with things like parent work and making puppets and buying supplies and all the things that have so often fallen through the cracks.

But i shall not complain right now. I am grateful that they have made this job full time which gives me the recognition and stature actually to be on the COT - as well as giving me medical benefits. Hurrah.

My work this summer at the school is giving me more connection to some of the faculty but especially to the administrative staff. This is all to the good.

So far this summer I am making sure that we have enough nap bags for our expanded program (I have made 8 new bags and have over-dyed the rest with Rit... Fuschia.. so all relate in some way, even though there is a big range in colour intensity and value.) I am also knitting face cloths in cotton yarn - each one different with stripes and simple textures- in yellow, rose, apricot, robin's egg blue, and lavander.

I have bought little pink washcloths to use as serviettes and also simple wooden serviette rings to mark with the children's names and then, perhaps, symbols.

My sister has bought enchanting little cups and bowls from IKEA for the class. The bowls are lined with soft green and the cups with coral.

I have an order in with Lehman's for another "rapid washer" and also a space-saver, Victorian style clothes dryer.

I am also pondering mydormant master's project on cleaning. Do we detect a pattern here?