Stepping into the light

I have just recently returned from my annual silent retreat that I take each summer. A great Indian saint said: "Seclusion is the price of greatness."  So it is with this spirit I packed up all my belongings, left my natural surroundings, and began to quiet the murmur of my soul.  

My days were spent in meditation, yoga, chanting, spiritual journaling, praying for my loved ones, reading spiritual literature, and for the first time in many years, I'm rekindling my practice of drawing and painting. 

This year was a beautiful time of solitude. I bundled up all my camping gear and headed to a nearby lavender farm.  My heart really wanted to be close to the trees. 

I spent six nights in a small tent underneath large cedar and pine trees. I awoke each morning to nearby forest birds singing a boisterous symphony chorus of various songs. Their methodical melodies joyfully awoke my senses. Each sound was in continuous harmony, gently reminding me that I was Only a visitor to their natural setting.   

 During the school year, I like to teach my students about becoming a part nature's existence. I found it deeply inspiring this year to become so still in nature. So this was a profound journey into the heart of nature each day.  

Now, I am back home into my natural rhythm of daily life in the Ananda Community with a harmonious spiritual family and deep soul friendships. 

 Re-entry from not talking for 6 days can be a little challenging at first. You just want to hold onto the inner silence and peace for as long as you can. 

Next year my goal is try and take two weeks of seclusion. The main point in taking a seclusion though is to draw in the deep inspirations of God's infinite light and his daily presence. 

I have found each summer day upon my return refreshing, and my energy is recharged. 

I would like to leave you with some lovely photos I took during my seclusion and inspire your thoughts of experimenting and trying to take a seclusion for yourself.

The light beckons all of us a home to his guiding presence.

Many 

Blessings,

Chandi

Welcome to Warmhearted Wednedays Link-up

Welcome again to Warmheart Wednesdays. It has been a whole week and time has gone by so quickly.

I want to feature an activity that was linked up last week, from Susan Tara at River Bliss. She shared so a great summer project that could be adapted almost anywhere. Even on a rainy afternoon, this would be a glorious afternoon activity. I love how she turns out all the lights and makes the campfire glowing.

The weather here in Seattle for June has been so beautiful. Our summer is in full swing. Acutally I have lived in Seattle my whole life and I have never seen a June like we have had this year. We are truely blessed.

I was able to join my grandchildren for a fun enchanting end of the year party that their family organized for all their school friends. Truly, I believe my daughter is living out one of her childhood experiences. She was never really one that enjoyed crowds of kids, so she often preferred a fun day at a wild slide park. But as we all have to go through life experiencing events over and over, this was her own magically way of sharing this with her children. A fun day was had by all.

What fun activities have you been doing with your families, summer day camps, family reunions or with close friends. 

Link up this week and share your summer activities. 

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A time to stop and smell the flowers

As the year ends for classroom teachers, the first couple of weeks are almost a daunting task to actually tell the body to slow way down. How do we do that? How can we actually just be? The school year is divided up into so many single tasks that seem to roll out like a long carpet, that never stops. I like to visualize a palace with the carpet of our tasks filling up the whole castle. The children are the princes and princesses. We are there to serve their needs as best we can.

But now the summer is for us to replenish our mind, body and souls.

I have over the years really loved and cherished the summertime.

 It is a time for me to remind myself that I am to slow down my mind from chattering, planning, and become one with the spiritual energy all around me. I begin to notice nature more profoundly, the birds, the warmth of the sun, and of course lets not forget the flowers. As I slow down I am inwardly more creative. I listen to the whispers of my soul more profoundly and the inner lessons that I am to receive.

I begin to look at my body temple. How can I replenish it as well? How well am I eating, sleeping, and exercising. I am I drinking enough water? I take the time to juice daily and eat organic foods that are grown right outside my door.
The summer also provides me with many opportunities to cook
 for my husband and try out new combinations of ingredients.

I also dive deep in my spiritual life, to journal, chant, and reading spiritual books that I haven't had the opportunity to read deeply through the school year.

  I also find more time to serve others in my family and community.

This next week I will be taking my annual meditation seclusion. It is a time of complete silence. I will not have emails to answer, phones,or internet connections. It is a time to dive deep into the spirit and to replenish my soul for the year that will unfold in the fall.

I am so grateful for this time to slow down and stop and smell the flowers.

In joyful expectancy......
May we all find solace in this season of warmth and inner joy.


Many Blessings,

Chandi

Welcome to Warmhearted Wednesdays Link up

Since the summer began I have been browsing the internet and posting to my Pinterest page on sharing specific summer activities with your children. I was actually overwhelmed and didn't know where to begin. I have over the past two years been able to share my ideas over specific "widgets", on different blogs, that allow the reader to collaborate their creations together under specific themes each week.  What a great way to expand the love.  I choose Wednesdays as a way to tune into the middle of the week. Though these melodious inspirations from global bloggers, I am hoping to share with all the blessings I have received through linking up to their numerous sites. Many of these are listed on the right hand corner of this blog.

I wanted to start off with a great summer idea that came from one of the teachers at our school. She is a mother of three very active girls.  I just loved the way she mapped out the whole summer with different themes and activities for them to focus on. 

This idea was taken from mom with a lesson plan.

What are your ideas for the summer?  Please
share below.
Until next Wednesday.

An InLinkz Link-up

Blessings,
Chandi

Photo: Sending Summer Love

Yesterday I was at a summer solstice celebration and my granddaughter handed me this tiny leaf. She knows how I collect heart rocks and finding beauty in nature. She thought this could be added to my collection. She is such a sweet and gentle spirit. "Here, Oma, this is for you!" Not thinking of herself, she handed right to me.

                                        

   I wanted to pass along the love to you.

 Happy solstice and for a beautiful summer yet to come.  

Love and Blessings,
Chandi

I am the bubble, make me the sea.

I am the bubble make me the sea..

Make me the sea,

Make me the sea.

Wave of the sea, dissolved in the sea

Wave of the sea, dissolved in the sea.

Oh, I am the bubble make me the sea.

The "wave of the sea", is our very last celebratory unit that we participate in our classroom. 

For the past 11 years, I had started the tradition of taking the children to the Puget Sound for our all school field trip.This year was no exception.  The Puget Sound is only fifteen minutes from our school. 

.  The children explored the Puget Sound seashore at low tide with teachers, parents, grandparents and friends.  

The next day in the classroom, I wanted the children to recreate the living tide pools that they saw. 

This is a two day project and begins with mixing:

3-4 cups of white flour

Enough dough to make the dough very sticky

One rectangular cardboard piece

Have the children apply the sticky flour to their cardboard

Let this dry flat in a cool space until the next day. 

So fun, sticky hands. 

The next day in class we all began to look at the pictures that we had taken from our 

the previous day at the beach. 

The children were reminded about all the tide pools and sea life they had viewed.

I gave them their dried play dough boards and we mixed several colors of paints. 

They were able to paint several textures and colors with sponges .

Textured sea stars were also added with a hot glue gun. 

I think their creations came alive and very real. 

Below is a chant written by Parmhansa Yogananda and is chanted by Swami Kriyananda in the 1950's 

We love this chant at the Living Wisdom School. We use this song particularly during this unit and our children know it well. It is often requested to sing repeatedly.

 I will leave you this evening with this beautiful chant. 

Blessings all

Chandi

Mother we thank you!

 Summer's Glow Original Watercolor by Elaine Frenett, Ashland, Oregon

 Today we celebrated our last class for the school year. In the past two weeks we finished up our garden unit and spent some time with creating our habitats for the new caterpillars. 

Divine Mother always has her own timing while working simultaneously collaborating with nature.
We were late in the season to start this project but our caterpillars hatched just in time for our last day of school.
 It was a perfect day, to release our butterflies as our last ceremony of the year. 

We had many fun activities leading up to this moment. 

 Creating three dimensional watercolor paintings 

                                     

 Creating our butterfly habitat in the classroom. 

  

 Sharing Nature with Children:
Duplication Game
The items were shown to the children and then they explored in the forest for the same items to duplicate.

Caterpillar stories, math games, and songs

 Yoga postures and stories about Gerdy and Caty. Gerdy is a goose and Caty was a caterpillar. I created a yoga story that was told all week  in class about how the caterpillar and the goose becoming fast friends. . 

                             
    This was a very sweet video that our children were able to watch. They were only three years old when this was taken, so it was exciting for them see how fast they had grown in a year's time. 

But the most exciting was for the children to watch the birth and unfolding of these amazing creatures. We were all in a state of reverence as we carefully set them free today. As Divine Mother's perfect metaphor, it was time to set the butterflies free and for our children to spread their wings and fly too.    

 They were our friends just for a little while,

What glorious smiles on their faces as we shared our last precious moments of our school year together. 

Mother we thank you,

Your joy shines in everything. 

Open these channels so the world once more may sing. 

Channels: words and song by: Swami Kriyananda