mIcHaeLmaS! and other thoughts

I remember that my Waldorf childhood was enhanced by the fact that our school community would have frequent and often quite lengthy breaks. It seemed as though even the most obscure and random holidays could serve as excuses to take a day off from school. It was wonderful, really, and my family took full advantage of it, especially when Kelda and I were little-- going on weekend off-season trips to places like Cape Cod or simply spending time at home on our gorgeous woodsy property. However, what I began to realize as I got older was that often, while we were having all of these glorious pauses from the work of school in honor of Columbus Day or Veterans Day, or simply because the administration needed a little hiatus, most of the time we didn't have Jewish holidays off. I had several Jewish kids in my class, and they were able to stay home to observe their religious holidays if their families so chose, but school went on without them. It's funny to me that my new school, which has many more Jewish families, still operated the same way-- something of which I took note this week in particular (the imbalance): we did not have Monday off in recognition of the Jewish holiday BUT yesterday we took a full day to celebrate as a school community MICHAELMAS, the old Christian festival for the arch angel and his aiding of Saint George in slaying the dragon (anyone unfamiliar with the story should totally check it out-- it's fantastic; very archetypal too). I'm certainly not complaining, just noting it. AND Michaelmas itself was SUCH fun; a much more elaborate and engaging affair than anything that I experienced at WSP...We, all 300 + of us in the school-- students and teachers from all 8 grades and the high school, traveled in buses to a beautiful park in Huntington Beach for a day of adventure and challenges of all sorts. The day began with Mr. Bennett telling a variation of the Saint George story to the entire student body (not the high school) gathered in the hall, after which the kids were sorted into groups, each led by a different Eighth Grader and with the title of a particular craft/trade (i.e. The Candlemakers, the Goldsmiths, etc). My favorite part of the whole experience was seeing these mixed groups-- each group had at least one representative from each grade and in total had about 10 kids. It was incredible to see them interacting-- to see the Eighth Grader take charge in an authoritative yet empathetic way, to see them looking out for one another and helping one another...Anyway, when the groups arrived at the park, they were set up to follow a map that would take them to the sites of four different challenges, some mental, some physical-- and all requiring the participation and teamwork of each kid. I was the chaperone for the Jesters (hey, making people laugh is just as important as any other trade, if not more so!) and my oh my was I impressed and just tickled by how they encountered these tasks-- everything from the riddles they needed to solve, the group jump roping they needed to do, the spider's web they all needed to creep through, the costumes they needed to create out of various materials given to them...The hardest part for me was not being allowed to participate in the activities myself, or even help...There was a lot of sitting on my hands and biting my tongue....;) In any event, Michaelmas was an all-day affair, culminating after the challenges in the groups building shelters out of building supplies they had acquired at their challenge sites in the central staging area and then finally concluding in their enacting the end of the Michaelmas story: there was a dragon's cave at the center of a clearing-- according to the tale, the dragon had poisoned the well and the village of trades people was in danger of death as a result. The only way the water could be purified was for the bravest of each trades group (traditionally the Second Grader) who has been dressed up and armed by his or her people, to creep up to the cave and to steal the gold treasures (in this case, rocks I had taken from the train tracks near my house and spray painted sparkling metallic) from the dragon and throw them into the well at the center of the town square...The cave in our case was incredible, with bones strewn about the entrance and smoke billowing out-- it was totally scarier NOT to actually see the dragon but to simply see evidence of him, allowing the kids and us too to imagine our own dragons, our own fears and demons as embodied in whatever was lurking in there-- the Second Graders were quite terrified (at least some were) to approach the cave, but all recovered the stones and the water was purified. The finale of the high schoolers, who had set up and run the challenges, coming to the stage and leading the school in the Saint Michael song, was adorable and even though many of us and the younger kids didn't know the words, HOW POWERFUL to see the teenagers stepping up like this and to see the younger kids looking up to and emulating them...Here, I really could see why they wanted us teachers to take a very minor role...My observations from this day will stay with me, and I'm sure have already changed my feelings about many individual kids, and certainly about the community that the school is in general. I couldn't have had a better time, nor left school feeling happier or more inspired.

After school, I had my first tutoring client from the WSOC student body-- one of my own kids from Grade Seven. It went really well-- and we connected right away and for me, it felt incredible to get back into this English stuff again! I have missed it! As much praise as I have for the school, I am a little worried about the way in which they are teaching, or not teaching, writing here; however, more on this later. I have a plan for progress with this student about which I'm totally excited and very optimistic.

Today, after classes, I will be going to get my own direct training-- another long day with yoga training! But, man, am I loving this! I am so so glad I've stuck to it. Last weekend, I got completely overloaded with information, in a good way: three things that were dominant--

1. Taking my first C3 (Advanced) heated Vinyasa class-- challenged myself and humbled myself and pushed myself to places I never thought I could go (like Birds of Paradise!)

2. Breaking down my Chaturanga and realizing (along with most other people in the room) that I'd been doing it incorrectly my whole yoga life! It's actually even HARDER and since this workshop, I cannot go back-- I've been working on getting it perfect in terms of alignment and while I'm far from it, it's moving toward it, slowly but surely!

3. Anatomy! Such a great, but incredibly overwhelming lecture on Sunday-- soooo much information, but how fascinating to uncover the mechanics behind what makes us able to do these postures, how our bodies and their predispositions create particular limitations or allow for ease within certain poses, how proper alignment can support the development of a balanced and healthy body...I'm in awe, really.

All right. Enough babbling here. I'm off to work. Reflections tomorrow!