Unity with All People

This week of advent my theme is "Striving to find unity and peace with all the people of the world". Each year I look at issues that are relevant to human rights in the world at this time, and challenge myself to work to create the conditions of peace (justice, equality, and freedom) in my family and my community.

As I get deeper and deeper into Earth Care as a way of life, it is valuable to return once in a while to think about People Care.

Agenda:

1. Read "Soulful Simplicity"

2. Journal queries

3. Choose next steps

4. Make a piñata for Las Posadas

1. Read "Soulful Simplicity":

This book by Courtney Carver (2017) is a personal journey through the author's life with MS, and along the way shows how "simplicity allowed hope to replace fear."

Chapter 5 is Lessons from the Mat. She lists out what her yoga practice has taught her about how to move through each day with grace:

• Trust yourself, and try new things.
• Do just as much as you can each day - don't try to do it all.
• Use a big sigh to release stress any time you need to.
• Aim for a place between ease and strain (she calls it steadiness) that will foster creativity, and improve health and relationships.
• To pacify the fear, jump in to action.
• Remember to relax, stop trying to control the world, and smile!

2. Journal queries:

What areas of human rights work are calling to me now?

What are possible next steps?

From my journal: I'm called as usual to be around children, and the childcare I do for my grandkids fulfills that; it's a big Little People commitment! I'm also led towards helping people in my community with my teacher-leader role.

3. Choose next steps:

I'm not moved to take action directly in the area of human rights, but I already do a bunch of human support work. Here is what I am committed to--

1. Continue to care for my grandkids, and perhaps volunteer at Headstart starting in February or March. 

2. Write and work with people on feeling hopeful, especially with climate change issues. 

3. Offer a variety of helpful classes, including a review of my Ducks in a Row work. 

4. Help facilitate a discussion about anti-semitism.

4. Practice visualization:

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Every month, at the waxing gibbous moon (my last push for action), I call on the practice of visualization to help me to see the next steps towards bringing my goals to fruition. Today I choose my top two action goals to shine a light on:

1. Being a teacher

2. Earthcare blog - Darkness and Hope

Creative visualization is a technique that uses my imagination to create change. (Because of my visual and auditory sensitivity, this is the best process for knowing what I'm feeling.) It has these steps:

• First, set an intention
• Center and relax each part of my body
• Create a clear, detailed picture in my mind, as though the objective has been reached.
• Lastly, affirm that this is what I want with a short positive phrase in the present tense.
• Give thanks and return

5. Make a piñata for Las Posadas:
Another way I seek unity with people of the world is to explore and practice folk art customs from around the world. Las Posadas is one really cool Mexican Christmas tradition; it's a series of nightly processions and parties that begin on December 16th and continue until Christmas Eve. (I'll post more about it later.)

Piñata making, 2023

Each night of las Posada the party-goers break a piñata. My grandson and I have made a piñata the last two years, and we are making one again this year! They take at least a week to dry so we will start today.

Note about art with pre-schoolers: Most little kids have a short attention span; expect to create in 5-minute increments. Also, get all set up, including your clean up plans, before you mention art. Then enjoy the little burst of wild creative energy while it lasts!

Piñata-making with a 2-year-old was experiential: He played with the balloon, put two pieces of gluey paper onto the balloon, then got into throwing the paper scraps around. Then he was done. And that was fine! Last year, at age-three, he had an infinitely greater ability to keep at it. He stayed to help with the first two layers!

Supplies: Balloon, newspapers and plain newsprint, flour paste, foam or plastic plate, strong string, towels, warm water tub for rinsing hands

1- Tear up all your strips- make large piles of both newspaper and plain newsprint.

2- Make papier-mâché paste in a fairly shallow bowl: Start with 1-1/2 c. white flour and add water, stirring with a wisk, until you have a smooth and fairly thick paste. (I used to make a cooked paste, but this simpler one dries more firmly.)

3- Blow up the balloon and set it in a nest of towels or inside a large bowl to keep it from rolling around.

4- Cover the entire balloon with four layers of papier-mâché. I keep track of layers by alternating newspaper and plain newsprint.

You will need to make another batch of paste- probably another cup of flour will be enough.

5- Tie a harness of strong string around the balloon, from which it will hang. Cover the harness with another layer of papier-mâché.

6- Let it dry. (We added decoration later - just drawing with paint pen)