My New York Adventure

So I am wrapping up my beautiful autumnal 2 week holiday in New York. I have had a chance to see the beach on Long Island, travel all around the city and see the amazing sights, a whole day in Central Park with my lovely friend Mel, and spent lots of time with the family of good friends who invited me into their home these last 2 weeks.

This trip was significant for me because it is the first time I have chosen to visit a city for a holiday. Cities have not held much interest for me, and have in the past been the places I avoid rather than seek out. I dove right into experiencing NYC. Striking out on the 3rd day I was here, I took the hour-long train ride from West Islip where I was staying, to Penn Station. As I emerged from the station I was struck by the cacophony of sounds and smells and sights of one of the most vibrant centers of urban life in the world. I stood still, exactly like a little country girl, and just took it in. Then I set off, exhilarated and excited for my adventure.

I started by walking up to Times Square. At the end of the square there are bleachers set up, so that one can simply sit and watch the flood of humanity wash by. I sat there, reveling in the foreignness of it all.

New York has a particular energy, something I did not expect to feel, or to get so much enjoyment out of. I have always felt somewhat intimidated by large cities, but I felt myself reveling in the sensory experience of being there.

I took in a few more sights that day, then headed back to West Islip. I was glad to be able to travel by train. There is something about that time that creates a kind of natural transition, like bookends on the day. The next day I ventured forth again, this time to meet the family of a student of mine and take a bus tour through the city. Lots of fun! On another day I caught a Broadway show. I saw Annie, which was awesome since it was the first musical I was in as a child. It was a really great production, and inspiring. I love theater, as a participant and spectator :)

Then there was the day spent with my good friend Mel in Central Park. The whole day. It was obscenely beautiful that day, perfect skies, warm, sunshine, and not too many people about. We started out at Grand Central Station, where we got lots of yummy food for a picnic lunch, then just walked till dinner time. We then hopped a subway down to Little Italy and ate the most awesome Italian food, then got cannolis to bring home to the family.

One evening I decided to simply wander around Soho and see what I found. I was initially looking for a poetry cafe where I was going to listen to a reading, but I got lost and turned around and tired and hungry, so I ducked into a restaurant advertising locally produced food.....what an incredible discovery! I had a great dinner with all local food and drink, and super friendly service. A couple of guys from the next table (film crew workers) gave me great tips for where to go and what to see. I was really impressed with how open and friendly the people I met were. Even on the subway, when I asked for directions there was always someone there who would help me out. I like that in a city.

Now I am at the end of the trip. I feel filled with the experience of the city, and the warm companionship of friends. I am grateful for the journey, and everything encountered along the way.

Hello Autumn

It has been quite a while since I have written a post. Now the season is well on its way into autumn. This morning as I was walking Sumo in the forest, we could both see our breath, and the ground was littered with leaves from yesterday's rain. The air smells different too. There is a kind of sweetness in the air, like burnt sugar mixed with fertile earth.

For me, this season brings a time of quiet. I spend a lot of time at home and alone in nature. My love of cooking (and eating ;) is also revived. I laughed at myself the other day when I scrolled through my pictures and posts on Facebook, most of them in the last month or so have been about food! The small woodland creature in me is preparing for the long cold months. As I write, I have the last of my garden pumpkins baking for more pumpkin bread...

Since I returned from the US, my focus and energy has been directed at my work in the classroom. We have a much younger class this year. This happens naturally in a Montessori classroom, if you have a large group of 3rd graders move on, then those places are naturally filled at the lower end. Some of the new students we have look so tiny! I have had to teach in a very different way this year as a result, but that is one of the things that keeps my interest and love of teaching alive. Every year is different, and each day presents a unique challenge for me to learn something or grow in some way as a result of my interaction with these little people.

I have been playing more music lately as well. A friend of mine plays piano, and teaches the piano lessons at the school. For a year or so, we have been meeting from time to time to play piano and cello pieces together. Now the violin teacher is joining us, and we are talking about a possible concert in the next few months. It is good to reconnect with my music. I am also teaching cello lessons again!

My fall holidays are coming up in a week, and because I have to return to Cleveland for the last part of my Montessori Adolescent Training, I decided to make a holiday out of it. On the 10th of October I am flying to New York :) I have never been there, and I am super excited to see the city, and experience the culture and art that is there. Look for lots of pictures in another few weeks!

Overall, life is quiet right now.

Untethered

A very good friend shared this video with me today. I remember the scene from the movie American Beauty that inspired it. The scene spoke of the importance of remembering that there is an energy, a life that exists behind everything. It spoke of beauty, the kind of quiet beauty that swells in your chest and threatens to tear you open to the world. I watch this and see the dance between freedom and attachment, that exquisite space where love and beauty both binds and releases us.

Watch this. Feel beautiful and free for a moment today.

Thoughts about Home

I have had an amazing and unique opportunity this summer to spend some time in many of the places that I, in my life, have called home. Being in the highly charged and transitional place I am, this has brought about in me many different thoughts and emotions.

From arriving in the US, jet-lagged and mildly culture-shocked, I began to realize how much Switzerland was now "home." The first phase of this trip was spent making these comparisons, and missing what has come to represent "home" there. Then I started to settle, and meet people, and revel in the familiarity of my own social culture.

My mom came to meet me in Cleveland, and this began the marathon family and friend portion of my summer. Family. In this phase of my life, family has become very important to me. My visits with my parents and my family held for me wonderful support and love. I have seen friends, and been embraced after long absence and have laughed with them with joyous familiarity. I have held my nieces in my arms, and had long talks with my brother.

I come away from this thinking about home, about the pieces that make up that deep feeling of peace and happiness when you are truly home. I have felt that at various times this summer, and in many varied situations. In the training this summer we talked at length about the kind of bond one forms with the place where you grew up, that you are somehow intrinsically linked with the actual physical geography of that place. I agree with that. I felt that when I was boating with my Dad at the lake where our family spent our summers when I was growing up. My soul is deep in that water and in those rocky cliffs. But I think that we form those same kind of imprintations on other significant places, and on significant people.

I do not know at this point where home will end up for me. This summer I realized that so many things in the US are "home" to me, but they are mainly based in my past. Now many things about Zurich are home, but it is still and always will be a foreign place. I am balanced precariously between. What I carry back with me from this summer is the knowledge that home is a collection; people, places, events, times...all the memories, experiences and connections that come together to create and environment that supports us at our deepest core self.

It's About People

I have just completed my fifth and final week of the Montessori Adolescent training, an intense and packed experience. I had been wondering for a while now what I would write about for these last few weeks. All I could see was that I had sat and listened to lectures all day every day and spent most of my evenings editing those lectures, and most of my weekends writing essays. Not much there I thought.

Today was the last day for the group together. We began the day with a spontaneous and raucous round of "I had the time of my life" in full male-female duet. I looked around at the room full of 60 adults, from all over the world, that I had just shared 5 weeks with, living, working, eating, learning, experiencing with. I realized what this had been for me.

It's about people.

It's about the power of seeing someone, looking into them and recognizing the self, the unique beauty that exists there, whether you are spending 5 weeks with them, 5 hours, or 5 years. The time is not the critical point, the point is being a part of someone's life (and letting them into yours). It is about the power that comes from embracing each experience, each new connection for what it is. It is about meeting some fellow wanderer on this crazy planet and taking their hand, saying, "I hear you." It is about listening, hearing what someone else is saying, without ego, without agenda. It is about being heard.

It is about going to a vineyard in Ohio on a Wednesday afternoon and playing cornhole ;)

I have always carried with me the fear of losing people who I love, but the truth is that the possession is the illusion. You can't nail love down. The idea of permanence is what we use to soothe that terrible risk that we take each time we look into the eyes of another human and decide to let them in.

This summer has been about people, about all those crazy, smart, impassioned people who are willing to dream, willing to devote their lives to the service of others, willing to spend 5 sweaty, intense, difficult, expensive weeks in Cleveland, Ohio for the sake of this passion.

All of you, this summer, I thank you. You have brought light and love and joy into my life. I will carry that with me as I travel on.

Montessori Training...continued

So here I am, at the end of week 3 of my training. It is still blazingly hot in Cleveland, but I have almost been too busy to notice it!

Most days are lecture-filled...about 5-6 hours worth. The weekends are taken with a 5-10 page essay and 10 words of a lexicon to define and support with quotes. Not to mention a library of Montessori readings. Man, it has been intense.

There have been days of other, more active work and experience. We spent a day traveling out to Hudson, OH to visit a suburban school there with an adolescent program, and we viewed the farm that they use and the little village where the kids have built relationships with the local merchants, historians and governmental agencies.We had the choice of activities that day, and I chose to do photography in the town square (focusing on spirals and concentric circles :) The idea was to see ways to connect the students with the particular place in which there school (and life) is located. To root them in the culture of their particular place and time. Again I was struck by how the act of looking (from an artistic perspective) causes you to connect with a place in a deep and meaningful way that would not otherwise happen.

Another day we spent at the Montessori High School here in Cleveland, and visited some of the locations and institutions where the students can do practical work. I had the chance to go to the Natural History Museum on a behind-the-scenes tour. That was such a fun experience! Not only as an educator (gathering ideas for the future) but also just for me personally. We went to the paleontology department and got to see the huge casts, removed from all around the world, which contained dinosaur fossils. Such fun! We traveled all through the bowels of the museum, coming at one point to a freezer room, which held an enormous collection of stuffed animals (not the plush kind). There was everything from a tiny bird to a giant grizzly bear. I felt like a kid, just filled with amazement.

As it is with any intense period of time away from home, it seems like I have been here MUCH longer than 3 weeks. But the next 2 will be more focused on writing up my own prospectus for an Montessori adolescent program, using the proposed site in Switzerland as a model. This will be interesting and inspiring work, and I am sure the time will fly.

Then on to visit family and friends!

First Week at the Farm School

What an awesome week!

Last week I got to live and work on the farm, at the Hershey Montessori Farm School. My fellow trainees and I lived and worked just as the adolescents there do. We roomed together, cooked meals together, cleaned, cared for the animals and attended classes. It is a really immersive way to get to know the school and the concept of the Erdkinder program.

It was my job a few times to feed the animals in the evenings. I was in heaven! I got to know the goats, who were extremely friendly, and of course spent some time hanging out with the chickens. One evening I volunteered to round up an escapee from the coop, and apparently impressed my colleagues with my chicken wrangling skills. I credit all those long beautiful childhood summers chasing chickens with my brother :)

The farm itself is not too big, just large enough to have a few cows, a few sheep, goats, chickens and a large garden. Everyone worked so well together and there was a real feeling of community built among those of us staying there at the farm. Study sessions were often lively and interactive, and there was more than one "jam session" on the porch in the evenings after "study hall."

This whole experience is reinvigorating me to go back and really apply what I am seeing and experiencing here. It is also refueling the fire I have for teaching in the Montessori way. What I see in the children here is so inspiring, these adolescents have such a sense of calm and confidence and peace about them. They are clearly adolescents, and are giggly and loud and very active, but you can see a spark in them and a self-assuredness that I have never seen before in a group of children this age. They seem satisfied in some way that I have never seen in adolescents.

At the end of the week, we had a chance to see the Montessori school (ages 0-12) that feeds into the adolescent program. They asked us to take a "silent journey" through the classroom environments in developmental order, so we shut our mouths and started in the infant room. We were required to stay 15 minutes in each environment and were permitted to move about and work with any of the materials. It was a beautiful experience, and I have never seen such amazing and well-prepared environments. It was a real treat to see this.

I am having a great experience and looking forward to learning more :)

In the meantime, here is me on the farm!