June 7, 2020
A morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence – John O’Donohue
Dear Friends,
Earlier this week we released a video urging each of us to find our call to action to support our brothers and sisters who are continuously being oppressed, suppressed, and denied access to liberty, equality and brotherhood and, in some cases to life itself. We hope it is clear that we stand in this calling also as an organization. As we are an organization that supports the endeavors of individuals, we want to support you in what may be awakening in your hearts and minds at this potential turning point in our culture. We are creating new online content specifically to help with the creation of models of care and education that are newly awakening and seeking to find those being called to step outside of the box. We hope some new models will arise that will be specifically dedicated to uplifting families suffering from the cultural illnesses of overwhelm, oppression, racism, addiction, mental illness and fear. Perhaps other models will take the form of extended family education, teacher/homeschool hybrids, life as the curriculum models, and others we haven’t yet imagined. Actually, these ideals do not even have to develop into “models”. It can simply be YOU doing what you are being called to do. With that hope, again here are words from my favorite Irish poet and activist, the late John O’Donohue.
May morning be astir
with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening
to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced
by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface
to a source.
May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,
A morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence,
May your imagination know
The grace of perfect danger,
To reach beyond imitation,
And the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call of all
The unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of the unknown yields
And something original begins
To stir toward your senses
And grow stronger in your heart
In order to come to birth
In a clean line of form,
That claims from time
A rhythm not yet heard
That calls space to
A different shape.
May it be its own force field
And dwell uniquely
Between the heart and the light
To surprise the hungry eye
By how deftly it fits
About its secret loss.
https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/learning-in-nature-establishing-outdoor-care-and-education/
https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/re-thinking-care-and-education-developing-programs-outside-of-the-box/
Last chance to jump in!
https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/guided-creating-home-away-from-home-a-course-for-home-childcare-providers/