Thursday, January 4, 2007
Why I Teach
I became a teacher believing it was Spanish Language and Hispanic Culture I wanted to share with my students. As I’ve developed as a teacher, I find that it wasn’t a choice. It was a gift.
The gift came from my intuition, from parents, who were both teachers, and from the positive learning experiences I have had.
Creating a safe learning environment has been my top priority. Without a feeling of safety and trust there can be no learning. With this in mind, it is the learner, or student, who takes top priority, not the subject being taught. With 15 – 30 students in a classroom it is therefore the learning community that takes priority.
I will do my best to facilitate all my students learning and guide them to success. It must be in a community spirit, established through my joy in learning and genuine interest in each person. This gift is about love of learning and caring for humanity and the earth. This gift comes from the heart.
The gift came from my intuition, from parents, who were both teachers, and from the positive learning experiences I have had.
Creating a safe learning environment has been my top priority. Without a feeling of safety and trust there can be no learning. With this in mind, it is the learner, or student, who takes top priority, not the subject being taught. With 15 – 30 students in a classroom it is therefore the learning community that takes priority.
I will do my best to facilitate all my students learning and guide them to success. It must be in a community spirit, established through my joy in learning and genuine interest in each person. This gift is about love of learning and caring for humanity and the earth. This gift comes from the heart.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Pray and Act for Peace
Fourth Grandmothers Council Gathering Dharamsala, India
(What I took away with me in writing and in my heart from a presentation given by Barbara Simmons & Jeannine Vannais, Sunday, December 10, 2006)
Yesterday I heard my dear friend, Barbara Simmons’ and her friend and assistant, Jeannine Vannais, talk about their trip to Dharamsala, India, to attend the International Council of Indigenous Women. Barbara was invited to interview the thirteen women who have been meeting twice a year for 2 years. These interviews will be the subject of a half hour program on Peacetalks Radio
The Thirteen Grandmothers include healers and shamans from the Arctic, Amazon, Gabon (a country in Africa), Nepal, Tibet, Cenral America, Mexico (Mayan), and North America (Lakota, Hopi, Cheyenne and Takilma). They came together after Jyoti, director of the Center for Sacred Studies, had a prophetic vision.
In another profound prophecy Grandmother Rita, as a child, was given by her grandmother 13 bundles of corn husks, each wrapped around a stone, and an eagle tail feather. She told Rita to save them for the day when she would be meeting with 12 other indigenous women at which time she was to pass these bundles out. Although sixteen women were invited to the first meeting in October, 2004, in Menlo Park, NY, only thirteen were able to come. Thirteen is a significant number. Grandmother Agnes, of Oregon, points out that “there are 13 planets in the heavens (in a year) and . . . 13 moons in the year.”
The Grandmother’s Council and Barbara believe that “It’s time for the female voice (to assume leadership). For many centuries leadership has been of the male voice (and) we have war. We are in the 11th hour.”
This meeting was extra special for Barbara to attend because the Grandmother’s Council met with the Dalai Llama in his residence in Dharamasala. Barbara said that meeting with him “was like being with your favorite grandfather.”
The Grandmothers held prayer ceremonies three times a day – morning, lunch and evening. Attendees of the council were asked to walk down to the Dalai Lama’s temple to learn about Buddhism from a nun or monk each day for 3 to 6 hours. Barbara, being a woman of action, could not sit still for 3 hours and would go out and find a way to help two people a day. She said that “India is the kind of place that cracks your heart open. . . It is a place of paradoxes.” Everywhere you go there is disease, poverty and homelessness. She couldn’t just sit and pray. She had to find a way to feed someone. She is an activist as well as a deeply spiritual human being.
The overwhelming message of the Grandmothers was to pray and act. The Earth needs our “prayer and action.” It “doesn’t matter where or how you pray. . . When the Grandmothers pray it is out of gratefulness.” One exclaims, “We have united as one, isn’t that a miracle?”
Three other messages I came away with were:
1. “The young people can be the legs of the action. . . . It’s not about us. It’s about ALL the grandmothers of the world. It includes grandfathers and young people.”
2. “Don’t be scared or overwhelmed. We have the tools – all we need is the voice and the will.”
3. “If we want to see the change we need to feel peace inside . . . then we need to be patient with those who haven’t arrived there yet.”
And a quote from Grandmother Bernadette of Gabon, part of which Barbara quoted during her presentation:
“I would favor an education about peace from the start, from the basis of life. I would see in the programs of preschool and school until the universities a different way of teaching and to give greater room to spirituality because, in fact, this is the basis. When we speak about love, it’s not to go wash your face, it’s in your heart, and there in your head. And so a Spiritual education really has its place and to apply this new educational methods about peace on the long term we are going to change the mentalities. And I would like on this occasion, to really talk to the toy makers, to stop teaching children violence from the beginning. We give to a 3 year old child a gun as a toy. The same child looks at television and has its toy. The child imitates very quickly what is bad. He learns hardly what is good and so manipulating these toys he learns by that the physical violence and the visual violence through the television. But if we are looking in to different ways to make the toys favoring love and tenderness and affection, the child will start from his young age with a different education, hoping that the films will be censored.”
Grandmother Bernadette’s quote is soooo perfect as the Peace Center, of Langhorne, PA, where Barbara worked as volunteer and executive director, has put on a Peaceful Toy Fair for many years, educating families about the importance of choosing toys wisely.
Barbara is a great teacher and mentor for me as were the Grandmothers for her. One learning experience she related which speaks deeply to me was when one evening she was interviewing Grandmother Margaret (Red Spider Woman). There was a storm brewing outside and Barbara found herself distracted and concerned about the storm. Grandmother Margaret continued talking. Suddenly the window blew in and broke into pieces all over the floor. Barbara became extremely anxious but Grandmother Margaret continued as if nothing had happened. Barbara learned something about focus, saying, “You can let what’s happening outside of you rattle you if you choose.” I am at a time in my life where I find it much easier to not react to what’s going on around me if it is out of my control. But to be able to completely focus on the task at hand no matter what is going on around me will take more practice and inner peace.
One more story I want to relay is that during a prayer ceremony with Grandmother Agnes, thirteen kites were swirling around above them. At the end of the ceremony a condor swooped down over them all making them duck down out of his reach. The story goes that when the Eagle and the Condor meet we will see the change that is needed to save the Earth. I recently heard this prophecy from a woman who had been to a Pachamama Alliance fundraising dinner in San Francisco -
If we want to see change we need to be a part of it. You know the saying – “Be the change you want to see.” And, “am I part of the problem or part of the solution?”
The four considerations we need to make are:
1. Mentor young people
2. Speak up!
3. Run for office
4. Support Grandmothers’ Council, Peacetalk Radio and/or the documentary
makers of "For the Next 7 Generations."
Go to their websites.
International Council of Indigenous Women – http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com
"For the Next 7 Generations." – http://www.forthenext7generations.com
Peacetalks Radio – http://www.peacetalksonline.org
Center for Sacred Studies – http://www.sacredstudies.org
Pachamama Alliance – http://www.pachamama.org
The reason I write this is really to internalize these messages and thoughts I want to keep with me as I take each step forward. It is so easy to forget and be numbed by the lifestyles we Westerners (Western Civilization) live. Lifestyles of materialism, abundance of food and drink, and the ability to fly anywhere, leaving our local community and home to continue in their alienation. Many on this earth are going through a dark time. I am included. Or, maybe I should speak for myself! I want to work for Peace. In order to know “how to act” or “what steps to take” I will have to pray, clear my head and my heart, to find clarity of action. And, Take Action.
I hope that all who read this and come in contact with the Grandmothers Council have been fed a little light and can join me on our journey to connect with the Earth and each other and through this, end war.
Peace in our Hearts
Peace in the World
(What I took away with me in writing and in my heart from a presentation given by Barbara Simmons & Jeannine Vannais, Sunday, December 10, 2006)
Yesterday I heard my dear friend, Barbara Simmons’ and her friend and assistant, Jeannine Vannais, talk about their trip to Dharamsala, India, to attend the International Council of Indigenous Women. Barbara was invited to interview the thirteen women who have been meeting twice a year for 2 years. These interviews will be the subject of a half hour program on Peacetalks Radio
The Thirteen Grandmothers include healers and shamans from the Arctic, Amazon, Gabon (a country in Africa), Nepal, Tibet, Cenral America, Mexico (Mayan), and North America (Lakota, Hopi, Cheyenne and Takilma). They came together after Jyoti, director of the Center for Sacred Studies, had a prophetic vision.
In another profound prophecy Grandmother Rita, as a child, was given by her grandmother 13 bundles of corn husks, each wrapped around a stone, and an eagle tail feather. She told Rita to save them for the day when she would be meeting with 12 other indigenous women at which time she was to pass these bundles out. Although sixteen women were invited to the first meeting in October, 2004, in Menlo Park, NY, only thirteen were able to come. Thirteen is a significant number. Grandmother Agnes, of Oregon, points out that “there are 13 planets in the heavens (in a year) and . . . 13 moons in the year.”
The Grandmother’s Council and Barbara believe that “It’s time for the female voice (to assume leadership). For many centuries leadership has been of the male voice (and) we have war. We are in the 11th hour.”
This meeting was extra special for Barbara to attend because the Grandmother’s Council met with the Dalai Llama in his residence in Dharamasala. Barbara said that meeting with him “was like being with your favorite grandfather.”
The Grandmothers held prayer ceremonies three times a day – morning, lunch and evening. Attendees of the council were asked to walk down to the Dalai Lama’s temple to learn about Buddhism from a nun or monk each day for 3 to 6 hours. Barbara, being a woman of action, could not sit still for 3 hours and would go out and find a way to help two people a day. She said that “India is the kind of place that cracks your heart open. . . It is a place of paradoxes.” Everywhere you go there is disease, poverty and homelessness. She couldn’t just sit and pray. She had to find a way to feed someone. She is an activist as well as a deeply spiritual human being.
The overwhelming message of the Grandmothers was to pray and act. The Earth needs our “prayer and action.” It “doesn’t matter where or how you pray. . . When the Grandmothers pray it is out of gratefulness.” One exclaims, “We have united as one, isn’t that a miracle?”
Three other messages I came away with were:
1. “The young people can be the legs of the action. . . . It’s not about us. It’s about ALL the grandmothers of the world. It includes grandfathers and young people.”
2. “Don’t be scared or overwhelmed. We have the tools – all we need is the voice and the will.”
3. “If we want to see the change we need to feel peace inside . . . then we need to be patient with those who haven’t arrived there yet.”
And a quote from Grandmother Bernadette of Gabon, part of which Barbara quoted during her presentation:
“I would favor an education about peace from the start, from the basis of life. I would see in the programs of preschool and school until the universities a different way of teaching and to give greater room to spirituality because, in fact, this is the basis. When we speak about love, it’s not to go wash your face, it’s in your heart, and there in your head. And so a Spiritual education really has its place and to apply this new educational methods about peace on the long term we are going to change the mentalities. And I would like on this occasion, to really talk to the toy makers, to stop teaching children violence from the beginning. We give to a 3 year old child a gun as a toy. The same child looks at television and has its toy. The child imitates very quickly what is bad. He learns hardly what is good and so manipulating these toys he learns by that the physical violence and the visual violence through the television. But if we are looking in to different ways to make the toys favoring love and tenderness and affection, the child will start from his young age with a different education, hoping that the films will be censored.”
Grandmother Bernadette’s quote is soooo perfect as the Peace Center, of Langhorne, PA, where Barbara worked as volunteer and executive director, has put on a Peaceful Toy Fair for many years, educating families about the importance of choosing toys wisely.
Barbara is a great teacher and mentor for me as were the Grandmothers for her. One learning experience she related which speaks deeply to me was when one evening she was interviewing Grandmother Margaret (Red Spider Woman). There was a storm brewing outside and Barbara found herself distracted and concerned about the storm. Grandmother Margaret continued talking. Suddenly the window blew in and broke into pieces all over the floor. Barbara became extremely anxious but Grandmother Margaret continued as if nothing had happened. Barbara learned something about focus, saying, “You can let what’s happening outside of you rattle you if you choose.” I am at a time in my life where I find it much easier to not react to what’s going on around me if it is out of my control. But to be able to completely focus on the task at hand no matter what is going on around me will take more practice and inner peace.
One more story I want to relay is that during a prayer ceremony with Grandmother Agnes, thirteen kites were swirling around above them. At the end of the ceremony a condor swooped down over them all making them duck down out of his reach. The story goes that when the Eagle and the Condor meet we will see the change that is needed to save the Earth. I recently heard this prophecy from a woman who had been to a Pachamama Alliance fundraising dinner in San Francisco -
If we want to see change we need to be a part of it. You know the saying – “Be the change you want to see.” And, “am I part of the problem or part of the solution?”
The four considerations we need to make are:
1. Mentor young people
2. Speak up!
3. Run for office
4. Support Grandmothers’ Council, Peacetalk Radio and/or the documentary
makers of "For the Next 7 Generations."
Go to their websites.
International Council of Indigenous Women – http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com
"For the Next 7 Generations." – http://www.forthenext7generations.com
Peacetalks Radio – http://www.peacetalksonline.org
Center for Sacred Studies – http://www.sacredstudies.org
Pachamama Alliance – http://www.pachamama.org
The reason I write this is really to internalize these messages and thoughts I want to keep with me as I take each step forward. It is so easy to forget and be numbed by the lifestyles we Westerners (Western Civilization) live. Lifestyles of materialism, abundance of food and drink, and the ability to fly anywhere, leaving our local community and home to continue in their alienation. Many on this earth are going through a dark time. I am included. Or, maybe I should speak for myself! I want to work for Peace. In order to know “how to act” or “what steps to take” I will have to pray, clear my head and my heart, to find clarity of action. And, Take Action.
I hope that all who read this and come in contact with the Grandmothers Council have been fed a little light and can join me on our journey to connect with the Earth and each other and through this, end war.
Peace in our Hearts
Peace in the World
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