Wishing everyone a magical connection to the living Universe once the skies clear. The galaxy is speaking to us – whether we are lying out there or not!
THE MAGICAL LIVING UNIVERSE
Author: Lila Strand
JOY! JOY! JOY!
A happy report from the Waldorf School’s Winter Faire – which we still like to call the Christmas Faire! Such a happy ambiance with the magic of 4 cellos underlaying the chatter with the profound depths of sacred music. Ahhh! While booths filled with magic and hard creative work abound. We are so lucky to have this school in our vicinity, brooding over us all like fluffed up hen. So grateful for that!
A beautiful time was had by all and many books were sold. Thank you!
Wishing everyone a blessed holiday season!
WINTER FAIRE AT NELSON WALDORF SCHOOL
This Saturday, Dec. 6 we will be enjoying friends, atmosphere and shopping at the Nelson Waldorf School Winter Faire, 10 am to 4 pm. In my little booth, besides books and mounted illustrations for a child’s room, I have Nature Treasure plates, all to encourage ways children can connect to nature. (More ideas are offered below photo.)
We have either a sweet baby bird, or a little star child, and many tiny things from nature to to be examined and fantasized about (what is this? where do you think this came from?) and rearranged (and joined by other things the child treasures). The real value of such a little world on a plate, in my mind, comes from opening doors to invite more interactions with nature when the weather warms up.
Did you know, Rudolf Steiner teaches us that the young child’s reverence is for their environment? While playing outside as much as possible is wonderfully healthy and good, reverence is not really experienced unless the child is in solitude, or they are with an adult that models reverence and care.
“What’s this? A little ant friend. Where is he going? Let’s watch…What is he saying?…I’m looking for my home.”
“Oh, look. A little snail person…Look, she’s worried… What does she say?… Please put me back where it is shady and safe for me…There you go, little snail…Let’s see if there is another snail house around that is empty.”
“Oh, look. Another snail shell. How beautiful!…Where is the snail?…It has died. Its life has gone back to God, (or Creator, or the Universe). What did the snail say?… Thank you for my life, good-bye….But it will come back….We can put this shell on our nature treasure plate. Thank you for making a beautiful shell, snail.”
“Oh look at the beautiful flowers (or nuts, or strawberries, etc.) May we pick you?… Yes, yes we may!… Thank you, thank you!”
“Oh look at this piece of wood. It has a very strange shape. Should we take it home to our nature treasure plate? – maybe our star child can sit on it (or hang from it).
The value here is learning to connect with loving feeling and reverence for LIFE around us, and the givingness of that life. The exact scientific accuracy is entirely unimportant – the small child relates to living things according to their own model of self (person) and family and home. The beauty of this is to develop a feeling for the sacredness of life, the care we offer to that which lives around us. Reverence.
I hope to see you there!
WHY Is It IMPORTANT?
Why do I care what the late Jose Silva put out? It is because he is actually addressing children’s brain development, and did years of research to come up with his findings. For him it started out because his children were not doing well at school, so he thought to help them by finding out more and developing a training program. The strange thing is, not only did they do better, but they also developed parapsychological abilities. This is how he came to understand that the slower brainwaves (alpha, green) relate to a more inward state, a more powerful and balanced state of being, and why he labels it CENTER or BASIC PLANE on the previous chart. He was featured on YouTube before he passed away, and he does mention that these slower brainwaves are also the connection to the inner worlds, to ourselves in our essence, to right brained creativity and intuition. It is the portal to inner states of consciousness. Here is the chart again, with slightly different wording:
When I looked up what others have said about brainwaves, I have not found anyone interested in how children’s consciousness develops. And further, they blithely state that we just leave those slower brainwaves behind. So this means we leave our deeper connection to the universe behind, and the deeper connection to ourselves, to creativity, imagination and intuition. It also means, that when we push young children into faster brainwaves, left brained school learning, before they are truly ready, we rob them of living fully and deeply, their magical connection to the planet they are born on and their own infinite inner selves. We want our children to stay connected to and use their slower thinking, their right brained thinking and not have it atrophy, not have it left behind.
In one of his YouTube talks, he mentions that Beta is the brainwaves we are in when we are in a business meeting, when there is stress, antagonism and/or pressure. Beta is Left brained, analytical, linear, logical. It is abstract thinking, not picture thinking. It is definitely not where anyone wants to get stuck. He called his program Mind Control, his meaning was that YOU must learn to control how your mind is functioning to do its best for you, your balance, your health, your joy, and your fulfillment of your purpose on this planet. .
ways of knowing
Some time ago I made a connection with Jose Silva’s mind course.
I had dismissed this many times. It seemed it was connected with business and making money. (That’s the usual way of the world but it is not my soul’s purpose.) I bought the book The Silva Mind Control Method for Getting Help From the Other Side. ‘Mind Control’ is an unfortunate title, but the part about getting help from the other side caught my interest. What he’s actually teaching is that we have many frequencies of brain waves, and to fulfill our purpose in life, we must learn to access the state of mind we need to be in.
I had learned about these brain waves in Psych 101 decades ago, but there was nothing given in the text book that made these Greek letter names understandable or memorable – beta, alpha, theta etc. I found the chart above both fascinating and helpful. But did it work? Yes.
Why am I writing this? – because I was needing help to deal with being stalled in the next book I am writing. Remarkable help came through.
Thank you!
FORGOT
to say, Silverton General Store, Sunday Aug. 10, 10 am to 1 pm. Hope to see you!
COLUMBIA BASIN CULTURE TOUR
You are invited!
So happy to let Mother Earth look after my gardens now while I get ready to take part in the Columbia Basin Trust Culture Tour. My presentation will feature displays of original illustrations – some in books and some not, talking a bit about the whys and hows of my work (including on brain waves), an offering of a wet-on-wet painting experience, and hangable prints of illustrations for a child’s room by donation.
Happy Easter
Hello! It’s been a while! Much time has passed with other necessities of life being dealt with. A new book, a really new book, is on the way. It is a little untimely for me, as either the book, or gardening (two of my big passions) have to stand in queue.
My wondering lately has been about ‘reverence’. I wonder if there is any left in our world – where secularism and the scientific analytical mind has bulldozed every awareness of the unseen world. Can humans find their human way devoid of guidance from the inner worlds?
My Little Spot at the Waldorf School’s Fair
Dec. 7, a lovely time, not just in sales but also connections, at the Nelson Waldorf School’s Christmas Fair, shared with my friend Jenn from Maplerose. Thank you so much!
Aside from the new book, Little Star, and the previous book, The Star Children, you can see my ‘merch’, mounted ready-to-hang illustrations from the book, and my newest, little star babies sleeping on clouds. (Although one is awake! These star babies turned out to be a popular item!)
THE STAR CHILDREN BOOKS / INSPIRED BOOKS FOR CHILDREN 