Choose to Bless the World

Sugar Moon setting

I sing with the choir at Champlain Valley Unitarian Church (CVUUS) as of this year.  We have the good fortune to have a twenty-six-year-old, gifted beyond measure, music director, Ronnie Romano, who is also one of the most exuberant and kind people I have ever met. It is a joy to sing with this choir and I look forward to every rehearsal and every Sunday that we sing. I also sing under Ronnie’s direction in a hospice singing group named Wellspring. 

Last Sunday at CVUUS we sang an anthem entitled “Choose to Bless the World.”  It has stayed with me, the melodies, and the words. They live in my head, or sometimes I just sing them out loud.

You who light the world,

Oh, you who love the world,

Be the light today.

Be the love today.

Choose to bless the world.

What is happening in our world in Gaza, in Ukraine, at our southern border, in our country, with our changing, warming climate…is heart breaking and crushing.

Yesterday’s service and the anthem helped us to love the world, all of it.  To resist becoming crushed and shattered, and instead, offer our light and love in any way that we can, through our talents, our smiles, our gestures, our kindness.

New baby Liv, her mother Lei, and her brothers, Jack and Alden

The last week has been full of blessings in our house.  We have a brand-new granddaughter, born March 14th, named Liv Louise Cadwell.  She has two older brothers, Jack and Alden.  We will be lucky enough to spend Easter weekend with them in New Jersey. 

Last Friday, I picked blooming snow drops to bring inside because on Saturday it snowed all day until there was over a foot of new white snow.  And as the day broke on Sunday, the world filled with light and sparkles and a deep blue sky.

And last night, there was an almost full moon that stayed in the western sky until early this morning so that we could watch it set over the hill in between the branches of bare maple trees.

Hiking and Skiing the Middlebury College Snowbowl

And today, we will go put on our climbing skis and hike up the Middlebury College Snow Bowl, and ski down. No lifts running today so very few people.  Just the crunch of our skis climbing and gliding on snow, the breeze through the spruce trees, and birdsong. The cardinal now singing his bright spring song.

This poem was also read at the service last Sunday,, “Snowdrops,” by Louise Gluck.

Do you know what I was, how I lived?  You know
what despair is; then
winter should have meaning for you.

I did not expect to survive,
earth suppressing me. I didn't expect
to waken again, to feel
in damp earth my body
able to respond again, remembering
after so long how to open again
in the cold light
of earliest spring--

afraid, yes, but among you again
crying yes risk joy

in the raw wind of the new world.

May we all risk joy. May we all nurture our capacious hearts to hold both the pain of the world and the joy. And may we bring our joy and kindness to others in the raw wind of the new world.

Snowdrops

A week with Jack

Jack labeling his block construction buildings on a photo of his town

Our grandson, Jack, visited with his dad for Washington’s birthday week to ski. However his dad, our son, was starting a new job that very week! So, we spent a lot of time with Jack, waiting for his dad to be finished with work so that we could all go skiing.

Note to encourage his dad to get ready to ski!

This was a week away from preschool for Jack who turned five last December. Well, really four days away from school, after the Presidents Day holiday. 

I put out good quality paper in a 9 by 12 inch notebook, and pencils and pens, and colored pencils, and a variety of good quality markers. In the past, Jack has dedicated hours to drawing all kinds of games, animals, scenarios.  He worked at the kitchen island most of the time.  And, for the most part, I followed him.  By that I mean, I made available what he asked me for; I was his secretary; I was his assistant. 

He wanted to write a lot.  When I showed him Swahili words for animals, he wanted to write them.  (We had just returned from an epic and long dreamed of trip to Tanzania which I wrote about last month.)

Names of animals in Swahili …do you know them?

When he was getting antsy and wanted to go skiing, he wanted to write his dad notes about that. When he built a town of buildings that he knows, he wanted to label them on a photo/map of his town. When he wanted to design a stuffy for us to make, he wanted to draw step by step instructions. 

Instructions for designing and sewing a ghost stuffy

In many ways, this was a week of school for me, with Jack being my teacher.  I have written several blog posts about time with Jack.  One post when he was around two years old and was living down the road during the pandemic.  I was lucky enough to spend two days a week with him then.  And just last fall, when I visited his school, A Child’s Place, in New Jersey and, again, was lucky enough to be able to work with him and some of his friends with natural materials. 

Ghost stuffy

So here he is again, star of the show.  Making school for himself learning, practicing what he knows and stretching into new forms, inventing, building, writing, drawing, making all kinds of things.    

And we did ski. And he is a good skier, mostly because of the year that he spent learning to ski when he was two, the year he lived in Vermont during the pandemic. So, during the week that they were here, I followed him down the mountain as well.

Finally skiing at the Middlebury College Snowbowl

Visiting Tanzania: The Rift Valley Children's Village

Jetruda drawing Shanchezia Zebra plant leaf from shrubs around the RVCV campus

About a month ago, Ashley and I set off for Tanzania.  An epic trip for us, one that we started to plan in late summer of 2021 and canceled due to Covid fears. In late summer 2023, we reopened our plans, thrilled in anticipation that we would finally make it.

After we cancelled our trip, I wrote about where we had planned to go: The Rift Valley Children’s Village (RVCV).  We learned about RVCV from our close friend, Peggy Curley Bacon, who has volunteered and served on the board of this amazing place since the beginning. We were lucky to travel this time with Peggy and her husband, Carter, and to volunteer ourselves. This post gives the history of the village, where 100 would be orphans have a forever home where they are nurtured, safe, loved, and provided with an excellent education until they are financially independent.

Elementary students gathering before school

Our first morning at the Children’s Village, we met the group of elementary age children at 7 a.m. where they gather on benches before school to express gratitude, to share, and to set out to walk to their nearby school all together.  That morning the adult leader of the day asked about the “RVCV family rules,” what are they? Different children, all in different stages of learning English, offered up the rules…be happy, help others, always tell the truth, be thankful…

Then, they took turns sharing a joke or two before heading off across the fields to their school.

Walking to Gyetighi Elementary School

The Tanzanian Children’s Fund, the foundation that supports multiple initiatives, has vastly improved the local elementary school, Gyetighi, renovating and adding buildings, planting gardens, hiring many more teachers, and raising standards of all kinds.  The Fund has also transformed the local Oldeani Secondary School by building classrooms and dorms and hiring many more teachers. The fund has built and staffed a health clinic that serves the surrounding community. In addition, the Fund supports small business development, especially for local women.

Mica demonstrating contour drawing for younger children

Several times during our stay, I was lucky enough to be able to work with about 7 children, ages 7-10, with the art materials that I had brought with me to leave with them…black fine line pens, quality-colored pencils, watercolors, good quality mixed medial paper, and markers. When we arrived, I started to collect a variety of leaves from plants around the campus.  With the children, I demonstrated contour drawing, or “bug drawing”…pretend that you are a tiny insect crawling around the edges of the leaf that you are holding. Follow the path of the insect carefully with your pen.  Then use whatever colors you would like to finish your piece.

Jacob painting Zebra plant leaves

I was floored by the focus of the children and the pleasure that they took in doing these drawings! They had not worked with materials like these, and they do not have any art classes in school. They all were engaged immediately and did beautiful work. They were happy. I was overjoyed.

I was supported by several volunteers who were there for a month from the U.S., and a Tanzanian high school boy, Micah, who joined in and inspired the children, and helped to translate.

Drawing by Jetruda

I could not be more grateful or more humbled by our experience at the Rift Valley Children’s Village.  We were surrounded by such a happy and highly functional community of adults and children for five days. We were thrilled to be able to contribute to this place and the people who live there.  Ashley was helping Carter build shelves for storage during the time that I was working with the young children.

We gifted several children with extra sketchbooks and pens that we had brought along so that they can keep drawing on their own.  And we decided to sponsor two sisters, now age 7, for the remainder of their education. 

Painting of Zebra plant leaves and Calathea plant leaves by Jacob

We are forever changed by this experience. Children who would otherwise be without homes and without family, are becoming strong, talented, passionate young Tanzanians who will be leaders in their communities. In our world where so much is unsettled, it is truly uplifting to experience a community like this one. Thank you, founder, India Howell, whose vision and dedication brought this place into being and gratitude to the staff and the board that sustain and lead this beautiful place into the future. 

Sunset at the Rift Valley Children’s Village

Learning & Joy

Self Portraits, JK class, South City Catholic Academy, St. Louis, MO.

How was your passage into the new year? Ours was full of grandchildren and a bonfire and skiing all together on beautiful snow despite the wildly unpredictable weather in Vermont.

We are full of gratitude for our year of work with several wonderful schools and all the teachers who are working to make learning more interesting, meaningful, and beautiful for their students…who want to create lasting learning that makes a difference in children’s lives now and into the future.

We visited one of the schools where we work the week after Thanksgiving in St. Louis, South City Catholic Academy (SCCA).  We found many aspects of student and teacher work that are an inspiration to us! And we found teachers eager to embrace ever new ways to engage their students in learning that is transformational.

The Art Studio, South City Catholic Academy

One of the ways that we work is to photograph evidence of vibrant learning in the environment, in organization and materials, in student-to-student sharing and collaboration, in teacher to student relationships, and in learning made visible often displayed on the walls.  We then project the images back to the teachers and ask them what they see.  They appreciate seeing through our lens what is working well and feel pride in their progress as a community of learners. Several of those images are included in this blog post.

Documentation, South City Catholic Academy

Louise visited the school where we work in Somerville, MA the second week of January, Prospect Hill Academy (PHA).  Likewise, at PHA there was much evidence of progress and joy in student work.  One exceptional hour was shared observing in Peter Coner’s kindergarten classroom as children worked in centers…dramatic play, the studio, blocks, construction, the library… followed by sharing by several students with the whole class.

A protocol for responding to the student work frames the conversation for the students.  The questions that frame the conversation are: What do you notice? What questions do you have? Are you inspired to do your own work, or do you have suggestions for your classmates who are sharing today?

Afterwards, the kindergarten and pre-K teachers who were observing shared with the students what they had learned from them.  The kindergartners were rapt in attention listening to what the adults had noticed and appreciated by spending an hour observing their work and play.

The following dialogue was recorded during that observation by one of our team of observers.  The dialogue took place in the dramatic play area where a group of children were pretending to be cats.

Pretending to be cats, Prospect Hill Academy, Peter Coner’s classroom, Somerville, MA

 Peter (teacher): What do cats eat?

 All of the group: Cat food!

 Edwensky: Kitties, I have some orange juice for you.

 Dorothy: I don’t think I ever saw cats eat orange juice.

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow, Meow.

 Edwensky: Kitties, time to eat!

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow, Meow.

 Edwensky: Kitties, do you want to go for a walk?

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow, Meow.

 Edwensky: I think that “Meow” means “yes.”

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow does mean “yes.”

 (Edwensky leads the cats around)

 Dorothy: Cats twirl like this. And they pick the best spot. Meow.

(Dorothy twirls in place and lies down on the sofa.)

 Dorothy:  Cats lie on top of each other. I want to lie on top of you!

(Dorothy and Khaleesia lie on the sofa together for a moment.)

 Khalessia: Hey, let’s go wake up daddy.

(both girls crawl over to Edwensky who is lying under the table.)

“Cats lie on top of each other.” Dorothy

The observer commented afterwards,

I was impressed with the extent to which kids embody animals as a way of learning about them. They really moved around like cats.

And, I noticed all the negotiation of the story and of the physical space. There was such subtlety in the students’ communication, both physical and verbal. They are developing an understanding of how to "read" one another.

This was an experience of pretend play that was captured during the one hour of observation. It represents the value of observing and of recording the words of the children and capturing their play in photographs.  We now have documents that we can study together and imagine how to further support this pretend play. 

There is much research done on the value and importance of pretend play for young children…role play, social/emotional growth, negotiation, collaboration, storytelling and story-acting, perspective taking, self-regulation, empathy.

In their book, Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation, Patrick Bateson, and, Paul Martin explore how creativity and divergent and innovative thinking have their roots in pretend play in childhood.

What a wonderful way to conclude and begin our year…with two schools where curiosity and joy in learning are alive and thriving. Here’s to a year of learning and of joy for all of us.

Playing Games, South City Catholic Academy

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Finding Light

Our winter sunset

I just read one of the most beautiful pieces that I have read in a long time that I found moving and helpful and true. It is by an author whom I admire and love: Mary Pipher…author of Reviving Ophilia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, and many other wise books. She has been an inspiration to me for many years.

When I read this short essay, I thought, what could be more fitting than to reference it for our December blog post when the shortest days are upon us, and the world, as Mary Pipher writes, “is pummeled with misfortune.”

You can find this piece published as a guest essay in the New York Times on December 11th, at this link. And also excerpted below.

The Time of Year and the State of the World:

Mary Pipher writes:

…As we approach the darkest days of the year, we’re confronted with the darkness of wars, a dysfunctional government…mass shootings…and the tragedy of climate change with its droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes. Indeed, the world is pummeled with misfortune.

We can count ourselves lucky if we do not live in a war zone or a place without food or drinking water, but we read the news. We see the disasters on our screens. Ukraine, Israel and Gaza are all inside us. If we are empathic and awake, we share the pain of all the world’s tragedies in our bodies and in our souls. We cannot and should not try to block out those feelings of pain. When we try, we are kept from feeling much of anything, even love and joy. We cannot deny reality, but we can control how much we take in… Whatever is happening in the world, whatever is happening in our personal lives, we can find light.

…I am up for sunrise and outside for sunset. I watch the moon rise and traverse the sky. I light candles early in the evening and sit by the fire to read…We can watch the birds. Recently it was the two flickers at my suet feeder with the yellow undersides of their wings flashing, the male so redheaded and protective, the female so hungry. Today it may be the juncos, hopping about our driveway, looking for seeds. The birds are always nearby. Their calls are temple bells reminding me to be grateful.

White Breasted Nuthatch, Watercolor Bird series by me, Louise

For the Light that Family, Friends, and Children Bring to us:

Mary Pipher writes:

…For other kinds of light, we can turn to our friends and family. Nothing feels more like sunlight than walking into a room full of people who are happy to see me….or my friends, sitting outdoors around a campfire in our coats and hats, reciting poetry and singing songs.

…We also have the light of young children. My own grandchildren are far away, but I spend time with 9-year-old Kadija. My husband and I are sponsoring her family; they arrived here from Afghanistan, with only the father speaking English, only a few months ago. Already, she can bring me a picture book and read “whale,” “porpoise” and “squid” in a voice that reminds me of sleigh bells. I know someday she will be a surgeon, or perhaps a poet…

Ashley and Alden, our youngest grandchild

For the Arts and for Spiritual Life:

Mary Pipher writes:

In our darkest moments, art creates a shaft of light. There is light in a poetry book by Joy Harjo, a recording by Yo-Yo Ma and in a collection of Monet’s paintings of snow.

The rituals of spiritual life will also illuminate our days….readings from Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and influential Zen master. Also, it’s the saying of grace and the moments when I slow down and am present. Whatever our rituals, they allow us to hold on through the darkness until the light returns.

For the Light that Memory Brings us:

Mary Pipher writes:

Finally, we will always have the light of memory. When I recall my grandmother’s face as she read to me from “Black Beauty” or held my hand in church, I can calm down and feel happy. I feel the light on my skin when I remember my mother at the wheel of her Oldsmobile, her black doctor’s bag beside her….Deep inside us are the memories of all the people we’ve ever loved…. And when I think of my people, I’m suffused with light that reminds me that I have had such fine people in my life and that they are still with me now …

My mother reading to our son, Alden, circa 1984

For the Goodness of People and for Becoming Each Other’s Light:

Mary Pipher writes:

…Every day I remind myself that all over the world most people want peace. They want a safe place for their families, and they want to be good and do good. The world is filled with helpers. It is only the great darkness of this moment that can make it hard to see them.

…No matter how dark the days, we can find light in our own hearts, and we can be one another’s light. We can beam light out to everyone we meet. We can let others know we are present for them, that we will try to understand. We cannot stop all the destruction, but we can light candles for one another…

Thank you to Mary Pipher and to the New York Times for publishing her wise words.

We send you all our light during these dark days, and wish you each peace as well as connection to the pain and sufferting, and also to the joy and light of this beautiful world that we share.

Louise and Ashley

Scholten Family Farm, Weybridge, Vermont