Michaelmas

Yesterday, we celebrated Michaelmas here at the Mount.  Michaelmas is a harvest festival centered around the archangel St. Michael.  St. Michael is the conqueror of the dragon and friend of mankind.  Reflection on him can help us all to overcome the darker sides of ourselves and let the lighter sides shine through.  St. Michael conquers, rather than slaying the dragon.  We must tame our passions - most notably pride and fear - though they cannot be exterminated.  Michaelmas is the first of many festivals to be celebrated here.  We started the day with a collection of performances.  I sang in a choir and recited and verse with my house but there was also music, dance and storytelling.

  

Calendar of the yearly festivals. 

After the morning gathering with the community, we split into groups to harvest different sections of the gardens.  My house was harvesting leeks.

The harvest! 

In the afternoon, we each worked on a different project with a group of students.  Each group produced something to share with the community at the end of the day - dancing, cooking, and iron forging were among the projects.  My group was preparing a harvest display for the dining room.  

The Masterpiece! (That's St. Michael in the center) 

To end the day, we had an outdoor supper of pumpkin soup and rolls,
followed by pudding - of course.  

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.  What a blessing to be able to spend time working together with a community.  The fact that we have been enjoying an Indian Summer helps too!  Holidays can be stressful - everyone running around trying to prepare some sort of wonderful day to be enjoyed.  It is so easy to get overwhelmed.  There is usually enormous pressure to prepare so much ahead of time so that everyone can "relax and enjoy the day" that one can forget to relax at all.  This harvesting festival, while almost continual work, was an important reminder that the beauty of the day is simply working together.

I am overwhelmed with how cool my life is.    

A smattering of the vibrancy of my life.

I've been trying to find this perfect combination of time to write and fascinating things to say and beautiful pictures and a coherent theme in order to throw them all together for a post that could wow everyone.  This combination is not coming together as much as I'd like.  Instead I'll just share a few things that are happening in my life.

1.  Our first craft project in College 1 is pottery.  However, instead of heading for the wheels or even for a nice new packet of clay, we trekked out to....the woods.  And we dug clay.  And now we are in the process of wetting the clay (squelching) and removing all the imperfections - wood, leaves, stones, etc.  It is wonderful to simply feel the earth.

2.  In art, we are doing wet on wet watercolor painting.  Our first project was a yellow circle surrounded by blue and next was yellow on the top of the page and blue on the bottom - just barely meeting.  It is very therapeutic and just having two colors to use is so clearing for one's mind.  On Friday, I entered the art room after a very difficult incident with a student and I was very worked up.  Being handed a paintbrush and asked to stand (we always stand rather than sit while painting) alongside the students - I found a great calm come over me.  I could concentrate on the simplicity of two colors and the strokes of my own hand.  The students need help with focus and staying still and listening - but I do too.  The reasons why painting is good for them are not lost on me.

3.  In religion class, we passed around different objects from the garden and started to ask about life.  Just barely starting to ponder these things - no heavy theological truths - just students sitting around a table carefully examining the bounty of the world that God has created.  Where does all this life come from? the students were asked.  Watching them interact with each object and fully experience what was before them was incredible.  It is so easy to forget how beautiful everything is.

4.  On Saturday night, we had a birthday party for one of our students.  The joy that accompanied "Dancing Queen" - the last song of the night was so invigorating and wonderful.  

Life is vibrant here.  We must never stop dancing and looking and painting.  Every experience here is in brighter colors than I can describe.  The therapies that are in place for the students in order to help them order their lives are having the same effect on me.  I am proud of what I am doing.  I am seeing the world fully.  It is not easy work but each day I am aware of how far the human soul can stretch and how gracious God is to man.    

Weekend.

During the week, the schedule is VERY busy.  I am working with the first year students and so they take classes in a little bit of everything.  This is great for me - because I really get a taste of everything at the Mount.  It is also quite a run-around!  Literally a RUN around.  About half of class time is spent just trying to find escapee students :)  "How could I possible lose 4 students in a half hour tea break...?"  I am asking myself on a regular basis.  

The weekends offer a bit of a different flavor.  On Saturday, breakfast is an hour later than usual (so 9:00) which means we all get a little extra sleep.  The mornings are spent cleaning which is an absolutely fabulous feeling.  Everyone has a job and so the whole house gets a complete scrub down.  I am in charge of the girl's bathroom and laundry room.  The washing is very therapeutic and really helps to prepare yourself for the rest and reflexion that is to come.  The cleaning also allows for some one on one time with the students since they are working alongside the co-workers.  It is a great time for conversation and getting to know each other.  The feeling of sitting down with your house after the cleaning is so wonderful.  I have lived in various degrees (mostly on the lower half of the spectrum) of cleanliness in college and living in a place that is floor to ceiling sparkling gives me such pride.  The students can also feel the importance of their roles in this community as they contribute to these domestic tasks. The house really feels prepared for the special day that is Sunday.  How nice to set this day aside!    

After the cleaning routine, everyone in the house showers, dresses and prepares for festive supper.  Festive supper is a silent meal of bread, cheese, and cold meats that starts with a blessing of the meal and ends with the reading of a bible passage.  It is a little strange to eat a meal with others in complete silence, but it also very refreshing.  I think I fear silence a little and it nice to have an opportunity to embrace it.  After supper, it is quiet time for the students and usually meetings for the staff.  Sunday brings the service.  The service here is unlike any other I have attended and I will need more time to process it until I can write it all down.

Sunday afternoon?  Usually an outing!  This week, we went to a castle.

 When I was little my conception of England was rain boots every day and visiting castles whenever you felt like it.  That's actually pretty close to the truth.  Lately, I have been pretty homesick.  So I have to remind myself often that God is with me always and also that it is really cool to take field trips to castles.       

The Morning Verse

While the jobs around the house - domestic life, if you will - take up much of my life, I am also working with the first year students in the classroom during the day.  Each morning, we recite a poem together, written by Rudolf Steiner, that is worth sharing:

To wonder at beauty,

Stand guard over truth,

Look up at the noble,

Resolve on the good.

This leadeth man truly

To purpose in living,

To right in his doing,

To peace in his feeling,

To light in his thinking.

And teaches him trust,

In the working of God,

In all that there is,

In the width of the world,

In the depth of the soul.

Sometimes the days feel too long, and the students are difficult, and you feel so very far from home.  But there is comfort even still!  This morning verse has helped to center my life and keep me focused not only on what I am doing here at Camphill, but what we should all strive to do always and everywhere.  

I will write more about what I am actually doing in my classes soon, I promise!  It is really good stuff :)

The Rhythm of Life

The term has officially begun!  One of the most important things here, one that we emphasize as much as we can with the students and with ourselves is the rhythm of life.  There is a strong emphasis here on the seasonal rhythm which is emphasized especially in the fact that we eat out of our own garden.  All students and staff must be aware of what is growing currently.  Grocery stores are more confusing than we may realize - seeing all food available to us all year, it is easy to forget that not everything grows at all times.  Also, in some seasons, certain foods are in abundance - which means currently that we are eating apples at almost every meal.  This may seem simple but waiting for food to ripen and being aware of when it does helps to settle all the students into their lives.  We also have a very constant daily rhythm that we follow.  Each student and co-worker is given a timetable that we then follow for the entirety of the year with very little variance.  This timetable includes showering slots, times for calling home, jobs, and leisure time.  Of course, for many of our students, especially those with autism, a scheduled life is essential to their very ability to move comfortably through their day.  But this daily rhythm is by no means for them alone.  I find myself also very comforted by the rhythm of constant meal times and regular jobs.  It has only been a few days here and already I can feel my body thankful for the even life here.  This is not to say that each day is not varied - only to present that that there is a cycle to things here.  My house mother pointed out to me that we all breathe in a rhythm and that is most natural to us all - why not model our entire life after such a pattern.  One of my students is very happy to be able to tell me what season it is every morning.  He is not bored that for months at a time, his answer will not change, he is merely happy that the season passes day by day.

Life has become much simpler for me here.  I feel as if each day is longer than I can even pull myself through but then as I reach the end and reflect back on what I have done - it hardly seems packed.  Today?  Today was the singing of a song, the telling of a story, and then cutting apples in the yard with the some of the students for drying.

It is a beautiful place here.  It is a good place.  It is a healing place.  One of the mottos of the Mount is "Our work is our prayer, our prayer is our work."

         I do not doubt for a moment that I am in the right place.