Why There Is War

Oh.  

I have been doing a lot of yoga lately.

Om mane padme hum.   (Be the lotus!)

I was so mellow in the midst of an evening meal with 8 kids and 6 adults this past Friday after my yoga class that I MUST be getting somewhere on the inner peace and balance, right?

So why am I still in the middle of childish slights and petty turmoil?

Because I chose to be.

And why do they exist?

Because there is no growth without struggle.

Oh.

Inner peace is the RESULT of inner struggle. 

Personal growth comes from personal questioning.

So, Lori, there's my answer.

It's not about Krishna and being the arrow but not the archer.

We have war so that we can choose not to have war.

We have war to teach us peace.

We struggle so that we find balance.

It still sucks, just about as much as this rapidly typed blog, but I wanted to share the answer with you as soon as I got it.

Once again, it would be very profound, if it hadn't already been written down thousands of years ago.

Om.  

Sophia's Spider

Christine M. Steinmann                             about 500 words

Strathpine, Queensland 4500

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christinesteinmann@yahoo.com

SOPHIA'S SPIDER

by Christine M. Steinmann

Sophia didn't want to go to bed. Sophia wasn't tired.

“Sophia, dear. Time for bed,” said her mother. Her mother sounded tired.

Sophia went upstairs to her room. She put on her favourite pink pyjamas. She brushed her teeth and washed her face. Then she called to her mother.

“Mum,” she said, “I'm not tired.”

“Get to bed, sweetheart,” said her mother, “I'll be right there to tuck you in.”

Sophia went back to her room. She turned down her favourite rainbow unicorn sheets and went to turn on her night light.

That's when she saw the spider. It was staring at her.

Sophia didn't like spiders. Sophia was afraid of spiders.

“Mum,” shouted Sophia, “there's a spider in my room.”

“I'll be right there, darling,” said her mother, “Get into bed.”

Sophia eyed the spider. The spider eyed her right back.

“But Mum,” said Sophia, “there's a spider in my room.”

“Sophia,” said her mother. She was starting to sound angry.

Sophia walked backwards towards her bed, keeping her eye on the spider. The spider stared right back. Sophia crawled carefully under the covers, still keeping her eye on the spider.

And then...the spider winked at her!

“Mum,” said Sophia, “I'm scared of the spider.”

“Sophia,” said her mother. “I'm sure it won't hurt you. It's just a little spider. I'll be right there. Now be a dear and go to bed.”

Sophia looked at the spider. It appeared to be growing. And it was crawling right towards her!

“Mum,” said Sophia.

“Sophia,” said her mum.

The spider came closer. And closer. And closer.

The spider opened its jaws!

“Hello Sophia,” said the spider.

“Hhhellllooo ssspppider,” said Sophia.

She was still a little scared but she was curious too. She had never spoken to a spider before.

“I'm not tired,” said the spider.

“I'm not tired either,” said Sophia.

“Would you like to play?” asked the spider.

Sophia thought a moment.

“Sure,” she said, “but we'll have to be quiet. My mother is just down the stairs.”

“Sophia,” said her mother, “I hope that you're in bed.”

Sophia giggled. The spider giggled too. They played 'Ropes and Ladders' under the covers with Sophia's princess torch. They read 'Charlotte's Web.' They made believe they were camping in the bush under a tent until they both got sleepy.

“Spider,” said Sophia, “I am sleepy now. Would you like to sleep with me on my rainbow unicorn pillow?”

“I will rest here with you until your mother comes,” said the spider, “then I will go back to my home in the corner.”

“Will I see you tomorrow, spider?” asked Sophia. She wasn't at all afraid any more.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” said the spider.

“Good night, spider,” said Sophia.

“Good night, Sophia,” said the spider.

“Sweet dreams, my love,” said Sophia's mother when she came upstairs to tuck Sophia in.

“I guess that spider wasn't such a problem after all.”

END

From Fountain Pens to Facebook

Two years ago my daughter was writing with a fountain pen and learning geography from a pull-down map attached to a blackboard.

Now she is preparing audio visual presentations on a computer and learning current events from an interactive smartboard attached to the internet.

That, Germany, is why you are falling behind on the international scores.  

Australian children also manage to survive a six hour school day without having to be sent home at noon for a warm lunch.  But wait...before I get going on interschool sports teams and learning to work in a group......

Let me get back to the Fueller.  Yes, German children still need to learn to write with a fountain pen.  Even though the only people that still use them now reside in nursing homes.

Either the fountain pen industry is keeping more of the European economy afloat then we think, or the German government is using tradition as an excuse not to invest in modern computer equipment for its children.

Might be they only save the good stuff for the smart kids that make the cut when they are ten.  But our school in Altdorf had approximately TWENTY computers for a school of four hundred kids.

This is one of the leading economies in Europe, the country of engineers, Mercedes, BMW and Bosch.  It baffles the mind.

Maybe it's the hand-eye coordination they get from using a fountain pen.

On the other hand, I am quite old-fashioned when it comes to planning and preparing assignments.  Maybe it was just my corner of the globe - NYC - or maybe it was the age before mobile phones and texting and facebook made advance planning obsolete.  (How did we ever manage to arrange playdates at the zoo before mobiles and texting?  Uh...we arranged a time to meet at a certain location ahead of time and we stuck to it.  Oh.  What an odd concept now a days.)

But all I heard from 5th grade onward was that a deadline was a deadline; that we had had three weeks to prepare the presentation and that being sick the night before wasn't really a valid excuse because we shouldn't have been saving it for the night before in the first place.

This advice seems to be as outdated now as the fountain pen.

There is no planning.   Assignments are changed at the last minute so that kids who have actually worked on them ahead of time are punished by having to do them again.   Deadlines change, some are moved forward unexpectedly.  Others end up not really being due on the day kids bring them in.

Teachers are astounded that I am trying to coordinate the assignments a week ahead of time. 

Because we have five children, three soccer teams, and horseback riding.  Because we like to read out loud as a family in the evening and play board games as a family.  Because we like to keep our weekends open to relax and reward ourselves for our hard effort during the week.  Because we like to have fun and because we don't want school to dominate over family.

Because I can only get all of this done by coordinating and planning ahead.

How do you do it, they ask.

I plan ahead. 

The amazing thing to me is that things actually DO get done here, last minute, and done very well.  Noone seems to have a problem pitching in at the last minute.  It seems to be expected that it will be done the night before or the morning of.  Which actually works if you are also procrastinating on the other things that are on your list and saving all of those for the last minute as well.

All of which has taught me to remain flexible within my scheduling.  But also to say no when asked the night before if I am available.  I WAS available a month ago when I asked if you needed the help; but no, since you told me not to worry about it then, I am now not available for tomorrow.

I wonder if this is just an Aussie thing; or even just a Queensland thing.

I wonder how things work in Sydney or even in Brisbane.

I wonder if NYC is now running that way as well.

But somehow I doubt it.  And I do worry that my children are not learning a valuable life skill that is still in demand in other, less relaxed, areas of the world.

You get it done.  You start early and finish with time to spare.  You do not wait until the last minute because there are no excuses in the boardroom if you had the sniffles the night before and couldn't finish the presentation. 

On the other hand, Aussie good nature might buy them some leeway in the boardroom.

And if all else fails, at least they can write with a fountain pen!!!

Dark Muse

Gabby came back from her visit to South Africa a couple of weeks ago.

This brought a huge sigh of relief to other friends of mine who have been floundering in the fertilizer of my personal growth since she has been gone.  (As if they haven't had enough fertilizer of their own to deal with lately; tell me, is it only Lawnton that has had a sale on fertilizer recently or is there really something to this 'Venus in retrograde' business?)

There have been huge tectonic shifts on the personal growth here, but the afterschocks remain.

My core, thank you for asking, is stable.

I have learned to step back, I have learned that not everyone has to like eachother (or even me!) and I have learned - lo and behold - that I am NOT the centre of the universe...and that, Lori you are right, it is not always all about me.

What a relief.

That this is all a gigantic, smelly load of self-indulgent fertilizer hit home when Gabby came back with stories from South Africa.

I am so blessed.

In another life - in this life, in another place - that could have been me. 

This is an educated white woman who went to teach at her local black highschool.  This could have been me.

This is a woman who was brutally gang-raped by her students.  This could have been me.

These are young people who butchered their teacher by hacking off all four of her limbs after the rape.  Could that ever have been me?  Or my boys?  Could my family - raised in different circumstances - have become this bestial, this savage, this less-than-human?

This woman - and these boys - are alive today. 

And I realize that I have five children to raise in a world that allows children to become less than animals.

I realize that I have been blessed by circumstance, that I have been given the gifts I have been given, and that these gifts carry an obligation to do better than most.

I owe it to myself, to my children and to our savage world - I owe it to my dark muse, HIV positive, missing four limbs, and most likely a shattered shell of a human being- to do more than the average person because I have been given more than the average person.

Do I fit in?  Absolutely not.

But I do feel that I can finally leave the self-perpetuating cycle of highschool mistakes behind me (every adult female group that I have been part of has been a repeat, in some way, of highschool!), that I am strong enough NOW not to worry so much about what other people think of me, that I am wise enough not to waste my time on things I can't control (including the past and the future!), that I am learning to be like the lotus.

I'm not doing it for my dark muse.  She just reminds me of what might have been.

I have an obligation to my children, sure.

But I am doing it for myself.

I have been given gifts.  I CAN do more than most.

And damn it, I have four limbs and an intact soul; I am not going to let trying to fit in with everyone else stop me from achieving heights that I was meant to reach on my own.

Namaste.

Aidan on Christ Church

Christ Church is a city in New Zealand.

A year ago the earth was shaking.

This is called an earthquake.

A lot of buildings fell down.

Lots of people were hurt or killed.

Other people tried to help them.

In the museum we saw a movie where people told us about the earthquake.

One man saved all the kids from the school who were in the pool having a swimming lesson.

The earthquake made the waves very high but he saved all the kids, not just his own.

Today, builders are fixing the buildings that fell down.



Matthew on Christ Church

As promised, Matthew's account of our trip to Christ Church. 

Done on good old-fashioned poster board... and replicated here.

Last Wednesday my family and I flew to Christ Church, New Zealand.

On Thursday we all walked into Christ Church.

We saw many buildings that had fallen down in the earthquake.

But some parts of the city are already rebuilt.

We helped rebuild the city out of Legos.

On Friday we visited the museum and we saw a movied of the earthquake.

We saw a building fall down.

We also saw the firemen and police and rescue workers who saved many people.

We ate healthy fruit icecream in the new part of town.

Christ Church is a beautiful city.



Instead of Writing....

Some of the sixth grade work I am doing with Ryan.

This week, persuasive advertising.

Next week, photovoltaic cells.

I think I can scrape a "B" on this one (not enough simile or metaphor but we only had tonight to do it!) but I'm hoping she can pull off the p-n diode explanation on her own!