Still seeking the Light

High in the sky
the big round moon
gave a light so bright
shining down on the night.

Far down on the ground
small creatures looked around
amazed at the light so bright.

They all found their warm beds
and kissed each others heads,
feeling snug as a hug,
beneath the shine of the light,
all through the night.

I long to give my children the gift of hope for the future. So much talk and news these days about how we are bringing our earth to the brink of disaster, how the Mayan calendar ends and so will the world. This is scary stuff. My adolescents grab onto it and use it to feed their need to be hard edged and my younger one just keeps his eyes wide open.

This week Rowan encountered an adult who went a bit off the deep end with fear about the earth and nature and the role of humans in it all. I was not present when it happened so I could only question and support after the fact. This morning I told him the story of "The Burden Bull of Scotland" by Reg Down, borrowed with thanks from her website offering of free stories. This sweet story of a kind bull who shelters a young child and then brings a Christmas miracle to a starving village helped, I think, to share with Rowan yet another example of how the earth does provide and how hope is possible even in dark times. I also wrote the poem above (with the dual purpose of helping Rowan with his "ight" and "ou" sounds and to help foster a sense of safe protection in nature). I will try to take up more of this theme when we resume our formal studies after the new year.

Now we enter vacation proper! The big kids are out of school, packages and cards have been sent off, all we need to do now is enjoy our warm home and fun family. Ahhh.

Finding Light in the Darkness

The weather here in Santa Cruz is cooperating amazingly well with my lesson plans. We have moved from very cold days to dark wet days. How easy it has been to work with Rowan on the themes of Winter, Advent and Hanukkah.

I was not certain at first how to include the story of Hanukkah into our lessons. It is not an Old Testament Story and it is not something our family usually celebrates. I always have a hard time teaching things that I am not connected with and I worried that this was going to happen with Hanukkah. Books to the rescue! I found a lovely book by Erica Jayasuriya called Traditions. In the book I found wonderful prayers and verses and many stories to choose from to make Hanukkah come alive for us in our school day. I decided to tell the story of Deborah, Woman of Flames. I kept the story simple and was able to weave the bigger story of Hanukkah into the smaller story of Deborah who is seeking her true calling in service to God and finds it as a weaver of candle wicks.

We moved from the story into painting on Monday, filling our page with deep dark blue and then pulling the light of a menorah from the darkness using the lifting off technique. This was challenging for Rowan and he kept saying that it was hard, but he persisted and the painting worked well. I was most pleased with the mood that we were able to create, it really felt like we were honoring the human need to bring light into this time of year.

Our house can sometimes feel mired in darkness with the heavy adolescent influence it holds. Although I think my own two teenagers are questioning the world in a totally healthy and normal way, I worry that Rowan will have too much cynicism too soon. In taking the time to light our advent candles, sit together for our family meals and honor our own family traditions like gingerbread house making and finding the perfect Christmas tree, I hope to help all my children, especially the teenagers, hold onto the beauty and light that is inside of them.