Launching our spiritual dream boats a sail

Today at the Living Wisdom School the whole student body, participated in yet another of our festivals of the light celebrations. We wanted an celebration to bring all the students together and something that would connect all our children in a more dynamic way. Today at the Living Wisdom School the older students were the role models for the younger children.

New Year’s Eve is traditionally a time for thinking about the year that has passed and the year that lies ahead. It is a time to dream, imagine and to wonder what the new year can bring. All of these rituals need to become a natural part of children's daily life. All the teachers wanted a ritual to acknowledge the New Year and this activity allowed plenty of room for gentle fantasy and beauty.

Below is the basic recipe of how we organized the day.  

I adapted this ritual from the book: "All Year Round by Christine Fyers-Clinton, Ann Drutt and Marge Rowling.

Here is the process:

Supplies needed

• Large bath of water

•  Lower the lights as it is to be magical.

• Coverings over the bathtub or pond’ with a  dark green/ dark blue covering

• Pretty crystals’ pebbles and shells

• Herb/ greenery, anything with winter berries

• 4 large glass vases to hold the greenery and extra greenery for the sides. Individual themes on each vase with matching harmonious colors on each vase.

• Candle in the middle needs to be attached with clay or a candle stick

• Walnut shell boats individually made by the children. Individual wicks and beeswax can be used or a small birthday candles that has been cut are melted into the bottom of the boat. The candles need to be lightweight and small.

• New Years blessings  for each child.

To prepare the bath:

Place the bath on the floor and line carefully with the fabric. Place the pebbles, crystals and shells on the fabric at the bottom of the bath, together with the vases.The vases are evenly spread around the bottom of the bath. Fill the bath within six inches from of the rim. Place four bunches of the greenery in the vases. It doesn’t matter if they are submerged, in fact it can add to their beauty and mystery for the bunches now become island in a magical sea.They can be called, the Isle of Peace, Isle of Happiness, Isle of  Gratitude or the Isle of Love. Drape the cloth around the sides of the bath, making it secured at the rim with pins or adhesive tape. We used a heavy felted fabric so there wasn't any need for extra pins.

Prepare a tray of board with medium candle in a holder and few sprigs of greenery. Settle the boats amount the greenery and light the candle.

To prepare the letters: or messages

Each paper fortune should be rolled and tied in the middle with a string. The blessings can be placed in baskets around the outside rim of the basin. The baskets are color coordinated with each Isle.  These can be random blessings or can correspond with the Isle that they have landed on. This depends how coordinated you want your themes to be. 

 
Hand made verses are such fun to compose and served as their New Years blessings.  Write the lines on the inside of folded slips of colored, papers as you choose.I like to make up small blessings taken from the qualities of the "Little Secrets of Friendships" by J. Donald Walters. Each classroom made up and contributed their individual ideas.

Setting sail!

The first person selects a candle boat and lights the mast from the larger candle. The boat is then very carefully set in the middle of the sea. A big wish is loaded on board. A tiny ripple of the fingers at the edge of the bath is enough to see the boat gently moving off on its journey into the New Year. Where will it harbor? This was so fun to watch and dream.  Let’s hope that it visits the Isle of Happiness or Love. One of our children launched her boat and within seconds it went directly to the Isle of Love. It was like her boat was pulled by a magnetic energy source to that island. 

The spiritual aspects of this also can hold true. How often with our own energy do we push to make things happen, or do we let the stream of life carry us along with a gentle push of our personal magnetism? 

 There’s no hurry.  The children also used straws to act as a wind gust to carry their boats away. We divided the pond of water into four parts. 

All in good time the boats did come to rest, some lodged firmly on an island or clinging to the edge of the pond. However when the boat has once touched the edge of the pond it is seemed to have landed.  Each child took their blessing from the corresponding basket next to the pond. If time is limited, two or three boats could be set a sail together.

After all the children had finished with launching their boats and receiving their blessings, we placed dry ice in the pond for another mystical beautiful surprise. The children loved this aspect of the pond. Many conversations began with how the ice created the effect, how the candles blew out and what it reminded them of in nature?

 Whatever the New year holds for us, the idea was to spend a little time afloat in the world of magical beauty, that can capture our dreams and sprinkle the light of beauty, love, joy, gratitude and happiness for all we see. This is how we want our children at the Living Wisdom School to follow as leaders into the future by expanding their imaginations and preparing them spiritually to meet life challenges. Isn't this our spiritual dream already in the making?

Joy to you,

Happy New Years blessings to you. 

From all the Staff at the Living Wisdom School of Seattle.

Every day in the New Year!

This afternoon a friend from our community in Italy, posted on my Facebook page a deep and inspiring quote that seemed fitting to share on New Year's Eve. This might be a nice affirmation to read at midnight during your private celebrations with your family or combine it with your New Years' meditation rituals. 

These words are written by: Paramhansa Yogananda.

 "Every day in the New Year must become an altar for the God of new living, new achievements in wisdom, and new joy.
Every day in the New Year must bring hope and cheer to yourself and all humanity.
Make every day of the New Year a better day than the previous one for greater effort to succeed in business, family happiness, and increasing the ever-new joy-contact of God in meditation.
The old year has gone, but the New Year is full of treasures for you to use.
May the New Year spread the example and message of your renewed life and renewed power unto all Creation".

Happy New Year and many blessings of joy in 2013.
Chandi

Part 2: 2012; A Year of Love and Inspriation

Last December on "Inside Out" I wrote an entry to review the inspirational moments of my first six months of blogging.  This past year I had so many beautiful photographs that uplifted my soul, I couldn't decide which ones to include or delete.

 With a few late nights and several hours tweaking, I created this video of love and inspiration from 2012.

May the light and joy of this year, carry all of us forward into 2013 with a greater source of love, inspiration, peace and inner joy.  

With Beauty before me may I walk.

Christmas week is a time for inner reflection while recapping this past year's documentation on this blog, "Inside Out" and contemplating the beauty that lies before me for the coming year in 2013. 

This past year I have added many new technical experiments to my blog including: YouTube videos, iPhone applications, linking up with new inspiring bloggers and I am thrilled to have upgraded to a new iPhone.

 The iPhone has advanced my skills as a photographer, while enabling my ability to record information to my parents automatically in this new age of technology and energy.

 "Inside Out" has reached almost 11,200 page views that expands the globe. That alone is truly inspiring to me. When I began this blog, I wasn't even sure, if or how anyone would find it. This is what you hear bloggers often say. It takes a level of detachment to write weekly, while putting your heart and your passion on the line. My motto has been: "Well just get over it." Either people will read it or they will pass it by. My blog isn't for everyone.

 I personally would like to thank everyone who has read it this year and shared this blog. Simply passing it along to others is a blessing in disguise. I am deeply humbled and grateful.

I wanted to review this week, the most popular entries since I have started writing in August of 2011. I will start with the top six .

Coming in at number 6 is: Come Gather Round / Books for the holidays.
http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2012/11/come-gather-round-books-for-holidays.html

I am thrilled this years entry made it into my top six. I am glad that my spiritual book list was so popular and actually had an author, Carin Berger contact me personally to thank me. I still will be featuring my, Come Gather Around Series, along with new added pages featuring spiritual books for children and families. New books will be added monthly, as I find them in my travels. Do you have a special spiritual favorite? Let me know about it and I will research the story, to see it can be added on my favorite lists.

Coming in at number 5 is: Accepting a moment in Divine Gratitude

http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2011/12/accepting-moment-in-divine-gratitude.html

 This entry was life changing personally for me last Christmas and I have dedicated this year to actually practicing living one day of gratitude at a time.  I actually participated in my own experiment this summer at taking a photo a day to document my gratitude.

 This short entry features a mini short film by Louie Schwartzberg. I review this video often because it truly uplifts my spirit. 







Coming in at number 4 is: A week together
http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2012/02/week-together.html 

This is another entry that is dear to my heart. This particular entry is all about Education for Life and the Foundation years. I also love to watch how the children have grown in our classroom over the past year using these principals.

 Coming in at number 3 is: We live in joy!
http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2012/02/we-will-live-in-joy-free-cd-giveaway.html

I am happy to announce this Valentine entry and the song highlighted was our "theme song" in our classroom last year. It was written by one of our parents, Eva Tree.  Thank you for listening and reading about our valentine activities.

Coming in at number 2 is: What color is your hearts energy?  
 http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-color-is-your-natural-loves-heart.html

This entry has many memories shared in my classroom. The children love to feel their energy in their hearts and expand their love each day to others. Thank you for reading it and sharing in our joy. 

Now here is where a little drum roll happens.....

Coming in at number 1 is:The light is inside each one of us”
http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2011/10/light-is-inside-each-one-of-us.html 

 
 This is my favorite entry, I have written to date and humbled that it is the most popular.
 It came to me right after a deep morning meditation. I don't take any credit for my writings personally. These are messages from the divine.


I also would like to thank a few very special people who have helped share the message of "Inside Out."

My editor and writing professor  Bekka Davis,   and the Education for Life teachers who share ideas and inspirations together weekly.

 I would also like to thank, Susan Tara Meyer from River Blissed and Sally Haughey from Fairy dust teaching. Susan and Sally are kindred spirits with very successful blogs of inspiration.  I have learned so much from them.

I would also like to thank my spiritual guides, Joseph Cornell from Sharing Nature with Children and Nitai Deranja the founder of the Living Wisdom Schools. Both of these great souls have been a guiding light for inspiration and my service to children and families.


With Beauty before me and behind me as I walk,
The year ahead looks very exciting and promising.

Aum, Shanti,
Chandi

Guest Post: Elizabeth Aguilar

 This evening as a guest post, I am delighted to feature one of my colleagues, Elizabeth Aguilar from: Education for Life in Public Schools. Elizabeth teaches 6th grade language arts (English), social studies (history), and art.  On an average day she has 30 students per class and teaches 2 - 3 different sets of students for a total average of 60 -90 students. Elizabeth has taken on teaching Education for Life, in a public classroom setting and has inspired us as a pioneer for Education for Life.  I hope you enjoy her latest post below. She is an inspiration to us all. Thank you, Elizabeth.

 A Festival of Light

   We have wonderful diversity of cultures and traditions represented at our school.  Our students’ families are from all over the world every continent is represented except Antarctica.  Therefore, the holiday season means different things to different students.  We honor these different traditions in many ways at our school, specially in this last week before our Winter Break.  In my classroom I wanted to focus on the shared tradition of “Light” during this time of the year.  So many cultures and traditions have Light as a theme in their holidays.  Most even have some sort of “Festival of Light”.  Well, in Social Studies we are still in ancient Egypt so I was curious.  Did the Egyptians have a Festival of Light?  To my great surprise they did.  Herodotus, a Greek historian in BC tells of the festival of Lychnocaia, “the lighting of lamps”.  Lamps were lit in rows on the outside of houses around this time of the year to help Osiris find his way back from the underworld.

    I shared this information with my students.  I also found some wonderful pictures of the different expressions of light in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as the story of Egypt and light in the natural world.  We brainstormed to understand what Light symbolized.  The students thought it symbolized: peace, happiness, life, power, energy - these were their words.  I told them that I wanted us to experience some type of celebration of Light but that I knew we could not have lit candles in school since it would be a fire hazard.  We could, however,  have a string of lights.  Thanks to help from Erika Glazzard, a fellow EFL teacher, I had come up with a lovely plan.  We would make a walking spiral of light that would lead the students to its center where they could pick up a glass stone that would symbolize a personal excellence quality that they wanted to nurture in themselves in the coming year.  I needed a focal point of light at the center so I brought in an angel that I had from my daughters' childhood.

     The visual experience of having the lights on the floor was beautiful.  It was like walking inside our Milky Way Galaxy.  I played Pachelbel’s Canon in D for music in the background as each student made their own way into the heart of the lights.  After every one had a turn we sat around and had a few minutes of silence as we all tried to expand our own heart’s light.  I’ve asked the students to keep their glass stone to remind them of that special quality that they want to nurture in themselves.

I am a public school teacher in northern California.  I teach 6th grade language arts (English), social studies (history), and art.  This past summer I participated in Education for Life workshops and activities.  I was so excited by what I learned that I wanted to try it in my classroom and document how the EFL principles translate into the public school system.  It’s an on going great adventure that is turning out to be fun and rewarding

 Are you a public school teacher and want to see how these teachings can be applied in a public school setting? Follow Elizabeth at: 

 http://eflinpublicschool.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Healing Prayers

In light of this recent tragedy today, I am postponing my post for this evening.

May the mother of compassion be held close to our hearts as we all unite in our deepest prayers for the children, fellow teachers, and staff in Connecticut.

Let's us send out the healing prayers though the cosmic sound of Aum,Aum,Aum

Peace, Amen. 

Memories that last a lifetime . Saint Lucia Celebration

Today in our prekindergarten classroom we began our morning watching this video and singing together.  I wanted to awaken the children to one of the European festivals that is celebrated every year on December 13th. Today marks the celebration of Saint Lucia from Sweden. Lucia seems to have taken on many stories passed down over generations but above all, the more positive role, as a symbol of light in the dark Swedish winters and as a symbol of growth for man. She is a figure who emerged from obscurity at a time when light and nourishment were most needed.

When I was a small girl growing up in Bellevue, Washington one of the most memorable Christmas's celebrations was when I was playing the piano at my very first recital. As a Education for Life teacher now I have tried to recreate these holiday experiences each year for our children. These celebrations and ceremonies provide a beautiful foundation for children to experience others realities and world cultures outside of their own. It can touch their souls and add a greater depth to their spiritual lives.

This is such a beautiful ceremony. We calmed the lights through the school hall, sang, and gave each child a candle as we walked into each classroom. This year the prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, and second graders all participated in the processional.  Our Saint Lucias, lead the way and passed out our Swedish cinnamon treats.

All the children felt inspired, beautiful in their white attire and uplifted by this sacred event.  They told me they felt like angels. These are what true memories can bring for  the young child and can last a lifetime.

God Jul,
Merry Christmas!