Saint Bridgid

Tomorrow Wednesday is Saint Bridgid, so I decided to publish this post in advance.

I have looked at the story of the saint and I will make up a story of the childhood of Saint Bridgid, telling her how father envisioned her sanctity in a vision, how when she was little she was so generous that gave all her mother's butter to the poor one day, and afterwards the butter appeared again, and also how desiring to be consecrated to God and not to marry, though she had many suitors because of her beauty, she asked God for an infirmity and her wish was granted, with an eye that become swollen right away. Some years after at the ceremony of her consecration, her eye became right again and she was as beautiful, pure and radiant as she had been before.

This is a viedo of the gaelic song Ode to Bridgid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqN3XAqoFDg

Ode to Bridgid

Gabhaim molta Brighde, Iníon í le hÉireann,

Iníon le gach tír í, molaiimís go léir í

Lóchrann geal na Laighneach, soils’ ar feadh na tire,

Ceann ar óigheacht Éireann, ceann na mban ar mine

Tig an geimhreadh dian dubh, gearra lena géire,

Ach ar lá le Brighde, gar duinn Earrach Éireann , molaiimís go léir í.

 (Translation)

I sing loudly the praises of Bridget, she it is who is a daughter not just of Ireland, but of all the countries of the world.

A shining lantern of Lenster, a flame throughout the land, leader of the women of Ireland, one of the finest women ever.

The hard dark winter comes, short and sharp, but once Bridget’s day appears, Ireland’s Spring is not far behind and in all the countries of the world.

anonymous Irish Gaelic song, 1900

Poem 

Far above enthroned in glory
Sweetest saint of Erin's isle
See thy children kneel before thee,
Turn on us a mother's smile
Sweet St Brigid, Erin's children
Far and near on land and sea
Mid the world and in the cloister
Fondly turn with love to thee
Sweet St Brigid soothe the mourner
Shield the weary tempted soul
Sweet St Brigid guide thy children
To their bright and happy home.

St. Brigids Oaten Bread
1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 3/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt., 3 tablespoons butter in small pieces, 3/4 cup uncooked oatmeal flakes. 1 egg, 1/2 cup buttermilk
1.heat oven to 425 degrees. 2. grease baking sheet. 3.combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl and mix. 4.Add butter bits and cut in with knife until mixture is crumbly. 5.add oats and toss to combine. 6.in other bowl beat egg with buttermilk. 7.make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the egg mixture and mix with a fork until crumbs hold together. Make dough into ball and transfer to floured surface. Knead 20-25 times. Add flour if sticky.
8.pat dough into 8-inch round and transfer to baking sheet. 9.score a deep cross into the bread but do not cut it through 10.bake 15-20 minutes till brown.

Sleep

Briar Rose

These weeks we are having stories with a common thread, the sleep and the union of the Prince and Princess, as depicted so clearly in Briar Rose. These are stories of the union of the soul and the spirit which need to take place in order that Man can be awaken. It is also the task of the Consciousness Soul, to take notice of the Spirit so to say:

" So much of the human development hangs on the question of whether human beings can take the next step into the consciousness soul and then onward to the spirit.......One way the opposing forces work on young children is to awaken the nerve-sense system prematurely.........Fairy tales provide wonderful pictures that can live and grow in the children and help them prepare for the time they may become inwardly active and seek the union of the soul and spirit. Rudolf Steiner spoke of fairy tales as being a good angel that accompanies a child from birth onward. He also spoke of the importance of puppetry and marionette work, calling it a remedy for the ills of civilization"

Joan Almond "Early Childhood and the Consciousness Soul"

 

Jacob's Ladder

In falling asleep, or upon awaking, we adults, can also enter into that dreamy state, -"We must look into our soul to see what is there by remaining awake before fully awakening within that dull and dreamy consciousness..." R. Steiner Boundaries of Natural Science -and explore the relationship between the soul and the spirit.

In my experimentation, this in between worlds comes up as dream-like images, where my I has metamorphosed into a character and is living a scenario, I am deemly aware of it, but can notice the images being of a different nature than when fully awake, more rapid, more diverse, more filled. The first thing as consciousness slips away is a slowing of the breathing pattern, I can hear the breath going slower and deeper, and then the sense of hearing notices a feeling of a mantle that comes inwardly from the chest periphery and then upward  away from the crown in the head. Then I am asleep. Before this happens I take time to ask questions, revisit the day and prepare for my journey. Upon awakening I take time to hear what the spiritual world brings, in ideas that arise within myself but that are not my own.

The Seven Ravens

A friend of mine has sent me this poem, and found it to be very relevant to this week, as we seek to work with the angels and the spiritual world:

There is a Knighthood of the 21st Century 
Whose riders do not ride
through the darkness of physical forests, as of old,
but through the forests of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor.
And a spiritual sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing,
healing that flows from the knowledge
that the Human Being is a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice,
Peace and conviction in the darkness of our time.
They must learn to work side by side with Angels.
 
Karl Konig
founder of Camp Hill movement
<http://www.camphill.org>

Summary

So this year so far, we have accomplished our goals with the third grader being able to write by herself sentences in a row and make short summaries, playing violin daily and writing dates and weather. We are way behind with math, as we lack the memorization of the multiplication tables, so the multiplication itself and division are lacking.

For the first grader, she is recognizing the letters, yet she is far from linking them to the actual words, and I can see that in general she is half year behind compared to what my first daughter used to know, so, I will just hang in there going along with the curriculum and waiting for the summer to make another assessment.

The kindergarten and nursery children are well learnt in dress up clothes!

I have started this January gradually, the first week we did two days of school, this week we are doing three weeks of school, and next week we will resume our habitual four days of school. I want to establish a faster pace, since I want to count three more months of this type of schooling and then unwire for the planting/spring season, I know that when April comes by, things start to get difficult to contain in the previous forms!

One of my aspirations, besides the festival life that we are sharing with homeschooling families, is to have a Biodynamic farm-school, where we could all go once or twice a week, to do farm work, and where other people in the community would have their work too, I am thinking children with autism, or adults with disabilities, even from the public school or other venues.

As we ponder about this, I am reminded of a sentence of one of my friends regarding the building up of community:

"Community does usually fail when built up for its own sake,

usually is something else that people gather around to,

and as a consequence a true Community arises"

 I am trying to decipher what is that "something else".

Winter Wool

We are grateful of our wool-shop, they have a good variety of yarns and wool, and also they raise their own sheep. We bought the wool of one of theirs, Widget, and spent some time cleaning and carding it. Now it is time to start spinning, hopefully we will learn with one of those small hand-spinning wheels that they sell also in the shop.

Now that it really snowed finally, and hopefully winter weather is to stay, at least for a while, we are hoping to finish some of our knitting projects, the children knit scarfs (1st Grade) and mittens and bonnets (3rd Grade), and fingerknit (Kindergarten), while I have set to do dresses, vests and pants for them.