Living Arts Weekly: New Beginnings

May 24, 2020

In out of the way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

 

Recently we shared a posting from our dear colleague Acacia, a Lead Teacher in Residence at the Rose Rock School in Oklahoma.  Though we are decades apart in age, one thing we have in common is that ever since our teens we each looked forward to one day being mothers.  And when that happened for each of us, we found it fulfilling.  Yet, not many years into parenting we each were also called to expand our circle of caring.  She was called to care for many children at Rose Rock, a state-of-the-art childcare center, while I was called to found a Waldorf School and years later a childcare center in Wisconsin.  While we are each educated women, others recognize that we work, not only out of our understanding of the developmental needs of children and our capacities to develop meaningful curricula, but equally out of our initial calling to mother.  Mothering/Parenting is a very high calling for women and men to respond to, and every now and then one realizes that more than our biological children may be served by our capacity to care and educate. 

As old forms of care and education are experiencing instability right now, new forms are quietly forming, waiting . . .  Are you being called to open your arms and heart to more children (a few or several)?  If you are a teacher, are you ready to set your own course and offer home-based education to yours and other’s children?   Or do you know someone who would be excellent at it but who needs support and encouragement to go forward?  Are you looking for new forms of care and education for your own children when you return to work, and are you willing to support someone ready to embark on a new model?  Let’s start this dialogue.

Love,

Cynthia

 

A Blessing for New Beginnings

John O’Donohue 

In out of the way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

 

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

 

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

 

Then the delight, when your courage kindled

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

 

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life’s desire.

 

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/guided-creating-home-away-from-home-a-course-for-home-childcare-providers/