LET’S LOOK AT THIS FROM A STRICTLY ADULT POINT OF VIEW.

As an adult, how would you feel about learning and taking on new, radically different intellectual challenges, if you were offered 9 months of 3 to 6 hour days (according to your stamina) in a place that is scientifically and artistically designed to help you be personally successful?
AND someone else paid for it all.
You probably wouldn’t believe it at first. You might hang back and check it out. When you did so, you found that this place was just your size ---you were not “too short” or too weak or too inexperienced. There were some games and projects that were familiar to you. Some new projects required ingenuity, but all were accessible. The place was cozy and attractive with good light, good snacks, and room to move around as you wished. In fact, this place proved to be full of possibilities – full of intriguing things to do. There was no, “Hurry up.” or “You have to do this now.” The phone didn’t interrupt. People were told not to bother you when you were working. Your rights were protected. Your ideas were never judged, graded or compared. You weren’t told what to do, but could chose from a big group of things. Colleagues were available but were not necessary for you to function. They were amiable colleagues – diverse in size, shape, age, origins and viewpoints – but with a similar purpose to yours and with a shared community of interests. They were available to talk with, sing with, share with as you wished within the rules of courtesy. There was a person in charge to answer questions; show new things to do; protect the group; mediate disputes; supply the environment with whatever you needed. She/he was available for emotional support, in fact, she/he enjoyed the process; but was strictly charged not to interfere with your ideas, silence, or constructive activity. Even if you were having a hard time handling your negative feelings, (in fact, acting ugly) you found you could depend upon the consistency of the environment – never blaming, very reasonable. You could make lots of mistakes and nobody in authority was concerned or pointed them out. But you were very clear about the emotional expectations and where the limits of behavior were that the group would tolerate.
You didn’t have to do anything; you didn’t have to produce anything – you were welcome in the group just the way you were and respected as an interesting, contributing person. Your growth was appreciated; your help valued; your curiosity fed.
If this were offered to you ---you checked it out and found that it was true ---how would you, as an adult, feel about learning new things in that place?
Welcome to international Montessori.
- Ms. Paula

A Montessori School Community works

A Montessori School Community, as Dr. Maria Montessori envisioned and taught it, is one of the sanest most psychologically astute environments that we can provide for children. Because it’s purpose is to develop the individual human’s understanding and gifts and its insights into how that is done have proven so accurate, we have a living, breathing, growing model of What-To-Do to rear loving, healthy children. The model works whatever the culture, financial condition, social status, religion or age. We know that when our children are freed from models that cramp the mind, so are we. Now this is not to say that adults through their own egotism, blindness or ignorance cannot distort any good thing. But having a well written and developed model is a huge blessing as we try to overcome our limited views and habits and not pass them on to our children. Montessori’s insights are for all ages and circumstances---from choosing which tray to use for a 2 year old’s pasting project to the implementation of universal peace.
Key elements are;
· changing the conventional relationship between adults and children
· accepting the adult’s obligation to prepare the environment and the children’s to develop their gifts
· using guidance and indirection instead of coercion and command in relationships
· devaluing dependency in every area of living
· discarding rewards and punishments as teaching tools
· having respect as the beginning point for all plans, thoughts and gestures
· doing one’s own work – exterior and interior
These may sound fanciful or impossible until you see it operating right before your eyes…..which it is, right now, all over the world.

DEEP IN THE 3 PERIOD LESSON

(the 3 fold process by which we convey knowledge, pass on culture, expand our mind function—“This is… Show me….What is… reflected in: choosing work, working to completion, putting work away; Presentation, repetitions, mastery*; three years in a classroom, etc.)

Let us pray in the name of the Initiator, the Process and the Living Spirit through Christ the Complete.

We are privileged to be in a 3rd Period development---mastery, the internalization of God. The brilliance of the 3 Period Lesson is an overwhelming gift brought about by Dr. Montessori living out the vision given to her by spirit. (Secret of Childhood, p.140) and developed by many people dedicating their lives to serving the archetype of the child. The practice of the Montessori Method itself is a 3 period lesson –the environment of the classroom is internalized by the children, is incarnated, and they become ‘the new child’ she recognized. This incarnation makes possible the next spiritual developmental plane for our species.

Awe-ing—this worldwide body of thought and practice that illustrates in minute detail the Cosmic Christ. Each true Montessori community is more than a map, more than a manual—a living, throbbing, growing model of the shepherd guide, the community grown from an intense spiritual preparation manifesting itself in a physical world-of-its-own, which replicates then grows into an institution that has the grace to always, and only, be held to the standard of individual experiences of transformation. It is apparent to all who know the criteria when the transformation of normalization is happening in a child, when the adults are guiding, when a classroom is living out Dr. Montessori's vision. The Child is our control of error. Mastery is not completing someone’s devised plan but Transformation Itself ---Immanuel.

*Mastery does not imply there is no more to learn but that the concept has been grasped and the material can be presented to others with precision.

pcraig 12-07

A merry Christmas Metaphor

The Christian Church is like a one-horse open sleigh. St. Paul is the driver and the Holy Spirit, the strong, prancing horse. Around the belly of that horse are the bells –the music of the church—ringing out the earnestness, inspiration, and delight of the journey. Jesus is the adult-in-charge gathering up children that are trudging through the snow of life, slogging through the slush, or lost in the forest of their desires.
The children in the sleigh call out to those walking to join them. Jesus scoops up those who come near and plunks them in the midst. Some won’t come because they are looking for another means of transportation; some say the sleigh is too crowded and they see the children fighting for a seat; some are so far off the track they can’t hear the invitation. But the ones who climb on board are in for the ride of their lives –clean, cold wind, warm bodies, singing together, a feast, and a high-stepping spirit powering the journey. Do you feel the motion of the sleigh?
Jingle, bells. Laugh, children.

May the One answer you in the day of trouble,

the character of the Ground-of-our-Being defend you,
send you help from God’s viewpoint and
provide strength to you out of your spiritual tradition,
remember all your offerings and
accept your personal sacrifices,
grant you your heart’s desire and
prosper all your plans.
We will shout for joy at your victory and spiritual triumph.
Blessings Be Yours This Christmastime.
Love from Psa. 20 and Paula Craig

NEVER ENOUGH

Pointing out what needs to be done,
what is not yet completed,
what is out of line,
what could be better,
what is lacking,
Is useful, of course, real and necessary, because
There are always needs to be done.
We are never complete.
Life is not linear.
There is nothing really good.
But God, in full.
And the burden of our need,
our incompleteness,
our trial and error,
our moral inadequacies
Is more than we can bear.
It drains our courage; leaves us in want
and with a haunting sense that we are
never enough.
No matter what we do, it is never enough.
Only God is enough.
So….we’ve been given God
swaddled to fit in our arms,
to smile into our eyes.
pcraig ‘06

ACROSTIC TO CELEBRATE THE WORD

A day is not right in the Universe unless it begins with your Word;

it waits for me and opens my eyes to essential life.

B eginning with the dawn your word is opened to me like the sky,

when I have the strength to see the glory.

C arefully, how carefully, the words that carry spirit have been preserved;

caressed and treasured, they have been passed down to me with love.

D on’t let me wander from your word blinded by pain or despair;

write it on my mind’s eye for Love’s sake.

E very day lace my work and my leisure with your word and its power;

even my night thoughts, thread with your word.

F ailings distract me, your words call me back;

focus me on the word within the Word.

G oodness is our portion, our structure, our word;

genes of goodness God’s grand gift without condition.

H ear the word, my heart, chapter and verse, story and song,

lively and lying still, surface and darkest depth.

I , the Beloved, would be ever mindful of the enormity of your gift of

words; filled to overflowing with this gift of joy.

J ust at this time, just in this place, let me hear your words again;

renewed, refreshed, surprising in their truth.

K indle in my center the little fire; scratch the matchless scripture

and ignite in me your vision.

L ove itself comes to me through the doorway of your words

caressing my ears, touching my nerves, dancing before my eyes.

M emory climbs around on the hard rocks of commands, the gravel of

interpretation, the gemstones of poetry, the porphyry of meanings.

N othing silly, nothing sentimental is there in your scripture to muddy

my meditation; no cloying chatter impedes the arrow of your word.

O nly let me hear you in the word; not the I that twists the view, that

changes the rhythm and leads me away; only you.

P eople carry your blessed word to me in doublehandsful, between

strong covers or falling out of pockets unheeded.

Q uicken me to sense the coming, to value the carrier, to recognize

the import, to act on your direction.

R eveal the mysteries of your words; how careful you are to regulate my

reality; how respectful of my sluggishness.

S aved from many stupidities by the sharing of your wisdom;

the shaping of my soul is by your word.

T he terrifying truth lays so quietly on the page; tongues tell and turn,

trickling in and out. Truth reposes and waits.

U ni God, the One word encompasses all our ideas, possibilities and

shadows; Uni way beyond our verse.

V ery God of very God, your ritual words shape our community like

stones from the river are smoothed in the stream of the spirit.

W eaving in your boundaries the warp of truth, the weft of love

you made the fabric of words that cradle us in hope.

X -ray my intentions, Lord; expose my painful meanness so that I

won’t betray the pure beauty and vitality of your word.

Y ou are the Center, the Force, the Detail, the Joy, the Cohesion,

the Point, the Reason----You are the Word.

Z eal for your word is the touchstone of my life.

Amen

pcraig 8-19-05

TO BE PRO-CHOICE

To be Pro-Choice does not mean you approve of abortion.

Losing the potential for life and relationship is always a sad, grievous. and serious loss. Abortion means we are not able to live up to our full potential at a specific time – a male is unable to father his seed, a female is unable to carry and develop life with grace, a society is unable to nurture, care for, and protect its citizens. To be unwilling is to be unable. No one can force someone else to love. Abortion is the physical evidence of being unwanted.

Being Pro-Choice means that you realize that the basic issue of life is that everyone, individually, must make choices. Being Pro-Choice means that you respect life in everyone not just in a chosen few. Legislating away peoples’ individual moral choices does not make the nation stronger and wiser, rather weaker and more furtive. Deliberately creating a society that nurtures (I don’t mean indulges), that cares for the true necessities of (I don’t mean throws money at), that protects (I don’t mean is blind to the faults of) its citizens makes it possible for its citizens to make Good Moral Choices.

Every time leaders, corporations, or legislative bodies makes the collective choice to make it harder for fathers to keep a job that will feed their children, they are Pro-Abortion.

Every time government agencies waste millions of dollars that could have made mothering poor children easier, they are Pro-Abortion.

Every time corporate raiders loot businesses saying, “What matters is the bottom line,” they are Pro-Abortion.

Every time voters vote to protect their own financial interests rather than to benefit the common good, they are Pro-Abortion.

Abortion doesn’t mean “killing babies” –that’s too simplistic. It means deciding not to nurture life.

pcraig 5-26-05

Being postdenominational
is right on,
if it means that nothing
matters but compassion.
If when the child is bewildered,
the old widow desolate,
the citizens terrified,
and the prisoners hopeless,
one responds with spiritual freedom and hope;
and one loves those idiots.

A QUESTION OF ANGELS Dec. ’04 pcraig

I wonder about the shepherds,

How come they were the ones

the vision of angels overwhelmed?

What softened them up to see

that which others couldn’t?

Was it the despair of grinding poverty?

Or perhaps the terror and grief of a

merciless predator having killed their precious sheep?

And Zechariah, hands lifted at the altar,

grieving for the thousandth time

the lack of a son to take his place and legacy;

And Elizabeth with her flame of life dwindling

from the suspicion that she wasn’t worthy

of God’s answering her prayers or

noticing her longing.

Was her spirit as low as it could go?

And Joseph in his agony over what to do

about sweet little pregnant Mary.

Wasn’t he caught in a soul-tearing, ethical dilemma

in which he might cry to God for guidance?

Perhaps our pits are precious!

Out of them come the terrifying glory

that stuffs the senses to the bursting point,

that throws one off the mundane cliff into the

spiritual realm,

that puts dirt in its perfect place

------in ECSTACY ----- drenched with angels.

MY FEAR

My fear of him

comes back in waves.

Most of the time

I play in the water,

a free soul strolling on the sand,

a rational mind writing

poems of the sea.

But a sudden fishy smell

will bring the wave of threat

rolling in,

bring the foam of misuse

straight at me.

Dream waves in the heart

are like

water in the lungs.

12-10-04 pcraig

“The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfill the law. All these: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet, and all the other commandments that there are, are summed up in this single phrase: You must love your neighbor as yourself. Love can cause no harm to your neighbor, and so love is the fulfillment of the Law.” Romans 13: 8-10

Soooo. How does one love a polluter who would expose children to a toxic waste dump? for years!!

How does one help (do therapy) a person who has this toxic lie buried in his consciousness?

The Greek “therapeuo”(sic) means to ‘cultivate a garden’ as well as ‘render service to God’.

How? Offer him the tools and invite him to garden with you;

(identify your spade, cultivator, rake, wheelbarrow, etc.)

remove the rocks together; look forward to new seed together.

The laws and agencies are the pains that make one seek therapy. Look for the opportunity to see with him that those pains are a blessing (Pains are warning signs that make us seek healing.) Work alongside him to take out the rocks –the big, heavy ones that take people working together to move; and the little, ubiquitous, constantly recurring ones that irritate. Rejoice over the rain that comes to clean and renew (and make us feel like we are going to be washed away).

Connect him to an appreciation of the stages of cultivation:

l. claiming the land (the problem, the scope, truly “the lay of the land”)

2. assembling the tools (agencies, funds, neighbors)

3. remembering the dignity of work

4. starting in the correct season

5. digging at the correct depth

6. clearing the ground thoroughly (no little lies)

7. fertilizing with manure (Nature provides what will renew even tho it may be despised and messy.)

8. being patient

Each stage done faithfully will produce food for his body, food for his soul.

(and for lots of people, 10 fold, even 100 fold)

The Therapist remembers everyday to thank Godbeyondunderstanding for the opportunity. For we can cultivate; only the Holy Spirit can heal.