Two halves make a whole

In May of this year I left the warmth and security of my Windgrove home and began the 40 hour journey to England to co-teach a course with Fritjof Capra at Schumacher College where students from nine countries attended (Ireland, Canada, Slovenia, Brazil, Norway, England, Scotland, Thailand and Spain).

High above Asia on a tiny screen I viewed the movie Avatar. Although the violent solution to the problem of getting rid of the “invaders” seemed to undermine the possibility of a sustainable peaceful future (expect to see a return to the planet with bigger warships and thousands more soldiers), I found the overall message that, whether called Earth or Pandora, the land has a powerful, spiritual and potent voice. And her names are Eywa and Gaia.

Schumacher has it’s own “Hometree” in the form of a towering chestnut tree. How useful, then, to be able to teach at Schumacher and have this tree’s undeniable energy available to us all.

The course Fritjof and I taught revolved around Leonardo Da Vinci and how Leonardo’s sensibilities as both artist and scientist could give people today a model of how we might live our own lives in order to create societies on Earth wherein all beings are seen in an interactive and interconnected web of life.

For educational purposes only (and not because either of us lacked what the other possessed), Fritjof and I took on the symbolic roles of artist and scientist: I, the artist, represented intuition, vulnerability, passion, non-linear contextual, subjective behaviour, and emotive feelings. Fritjof, the scientist, represented raw facts, rationality, objectivity and factual linear thinking.

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“He who knows not both knows neither”
Robert Frost
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We didn’t argue the case of one side being superior over the other; rather, both sides were shown to be important to the debate. Like the two sides to our brain with the left and right hemispheres each having important functions (and moderated by the corpus callosum). Our present crisis of perception has more to do with the left brain becoming more dominant over the right brain rather than the two being in “dynamic” balance.

For my part, I delivered nine lectures that involved the showing of over 500 slides and the reading of 50 Roaring Beach stories and some 70 poems. Although all the lectures wove a web of interconnection, the one lecture that best summed up my intent was the one entitled “Becoming Earth, A Spiritual Journey”.

Beyond all the indoor, classroom “heady” stuff, what I found really important (in an Avatar sense) was the fire and tree guardian circle twenty of us created on the first day.

Eight blossoming fruit trees (four apple, two quince, two pear) were half buried in ceramic pots at the cardinal and sub-cardinal points of the compass. Within each pot, each of us partially buried a conically shaped hand made piece of paper that would become the repository of whatever we wanted “composted” during our two week course. Whether representing positive or negative emotional thoughts and feelings, flowers or leaves or twigs were put into the cone and the earth would bring its substantial energy to bear on transforming these elements back into the ground. This was our neural link to Ewya or Gaia. This kept us grounded.

While at Schumacher I gave one public lecture attended by around 100 local residents. I ended the presentation with a collection of prayers I have for those children who visit me at Windgrove. These are prayers for my “children”. Not in a biological sense, but in a relational way where I, Uncle “Peter Bear” and Windgrove can have a little influence in their physical, emotional and spiritual growth.

Children in any home are always a delight. Having children come to Windgrove for any time is a time to cherish.

These are my prayers for them while they are in my presence.

PRAYERS FOR “MY” CHILDREN

I pray that:

That they immerse themselves in fun so that when shadows arrive they can beat them back with fluffy pillows and plenty of giggles.

That they play “pick up sticks” and Monopoly and Scrabble and do jig saw puzzles; not to learn competitiveness, but to experience the joy of games and companionship and joint efforts to solve problems.

That they bang on the piano and my drum to feel how sound, any sound is music to the body; that they develop a taste for this particular joyful expression and yearn to be a member of a band or choir and to constantly, spontaneously, sing up the earth.

That they pick themselves up after falling out of a tree exclaiming how wonderful was the view despite the sobs.

That when climbing on the cliff rocks they learn to discern between being courageous and being foolish.

That when swimming in the bigger waves they learn respect rather than fear; that being tossed about by the surf might have an element of danger to it, but boy, is it fun.

That their sweet, innocent bodies and minds grow up understanding the privilege of being alive on this precious earth; of their role in the safeguarding of this earth.

That they are never shielded from the negatives of life, but rather shown how to continually embrace it in all its manifestations.

That their growth into a fully sensual/sacred person is never held back by social or religious dogma.

That the language they learn to speak in “school” is balanced by the other languages of the trees, birds, clouds, wind and worms.

That their love for their individual selves, their family, the greater human family and the outrageously large tribe of all living beings continually deepens throughout the whole of their lives.

These are my prayers for these children.

I also pray that I:

am seen by them to be an exemplary role model of how one can live in this precious world without ever abandoning — no matter how old — a child’s awe and imagination to call forth the fairies and pixies of wonderment;

am seen by them to be a person of trust;

and, hopefully, will always be worthy of a visit, every now and again, as they grow older.
Likewise, the fire would be the recipient of pine cones or pieces of paper and would transform these elements quickly into air and spirit.

Although not children in any sense of the word, Ekawee from Thailand and Ingrid from Brazil were the youngest people in my class. Along with all my students, I dedicate today’s blog to their ongoing happiness and continuing dedication to bringing peace to this world.