ANXIOUS

I’m packing boxes of treasures and routine comforts. Our beds and books are gone. Soon we’ll be stuffing our bathroom and kitchen belongings in more containers. The sound of the ripping tape is getting on my nerves. How long will it be before we connect with our attachments again? Maybe two weeks? Exciting? An adventure? At this stage, it feels like an approaching tornado.

Maria Montessori tells a story of a young mother concerned for her crying child who, for apparently no reason, could not be consoled. She explains how young children have a sensitive time when they need their environment to have consistency. The child cried because the mother had disturbed the order of his surroundings by putting her coat in a different place than usual. This sensitive period for order usually happens around the age of two.

I’m feeling like a two-year old. Maybe it will help if I cry.

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com

CHANGE

CHANGE

I’m moving.This weekend we had a moving sale, or garage sale as is often called. The difference is that with a moving sale more pieces of history are released into the hands of others looking for treasures.

For several weeks I have been cleaning out closets, dark deep holes of space behind more spaces of unused, of once long ago meaningful belongings, taking hours and hours of sorting and discerning—what to keep and what to let ago, reminiscing over each picture, each prize and its day of glory. Emotionally, it was exhausting. I’m thankful for the experiences of joyfulness, yet very happy the days are done with. I’m happy to move on and especially thankful for the friends and family who were there for me.

The experience was transforming. Letting go of my gems meant a letting go of a pastime, a piece of life given away, maybe to be forgotten forever; a time for tears and a bit of sadness. Nevertheless, as the days passed I grew accustomed to the process and began to think about how another will appreciate the goods for less than retail prices. I began to look forward to the sale and feel joy in the giving. A change was happening. I became excited waiting for the days of the sale.

When I experience myself going through changes like this, I can’t help but to relate the time to the development of the young child. Thinking about the young child is a continuing pastime and passion for me.

The conceived infant is on a pathway of constant change, continually letting go of his history, of his flesh as he changes and develops daily, minute by minute into a new being reaching out toward the goal of someday being an adult. How desperately the growing child, the young teenager, must need a friend who is there for them.

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com

BEAUTIFUL

I remember the exciting time when my first child was born and the nurse brought him to my bedside. He was beautiful—no matter that his head was cone shaped and his eyes crossed. He was the most beautiful sight in the whole world to me that first morning.

Why is it that all babies are beautiful? No matter bald or cone-shaped heads, or different colors or features. To a mother and to a father, the child is beautiful. You hear the phrase, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but I think there is more to it than that.

The child is the incarnation of its parents. That is, the child gives bodily form to his parents. The child is the flesh of the parent’s love for each other. Each one giving their love to the other bares flesh, another human being. This is truly a miracle.

Much to think about this week—I best close for now.

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com

GRADUATION

My oldest grandson graduates this week. He played the Postlude on the piano for his classes’ Baccalaureate service the night before last. You could hear a pin drop before he was finished—the music was that moving. He has been fortunate to have a loving environment with collaborative parents who understood his moods and allowed him his moments of joy and peace.

Maren Schmidt’s kids’ newsletter, www.kidstalknews.com has a special conversation on Experiencing the Moment with an enlightening understanding of the child’s realization of joy and goodness.

Music is a blessed media to escape the troubled world and find peace in the truth of beautiful sounds. I’m pleased to know my grandson will have his gift of music to share and will continue to create a life of his own, and I'm proud of his courage and dedication to his talent and willingness to listen to his own spirit.

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com

BAPTISM

Through culture and traditions, the adult works to prepare different environments for the child working to become the adult. One of the environments the adult prepares for the young child is through the initiation of baptism where the child learns to be one with the Holy Spirit. Through the enlightened Word, the adult works to share their bread, their grace, with their child.

The child, of course, comes to share his life that is already grace-filled, already God-given; so we sing, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. I wonder sometimes, who is the lamb—the child or the adult?

Peace can happen, and will happen, if the adult can see, can be aware, can collaborate, with the grace of the child, and work toward an environment of love.

Maria Montessori's life work was for peace in our world. She understood the potential peace, joy, and hope the newborn, the young child brings. Through collaboration with the child she discovered ways to turn on the lights for parents and educators. Living the life of the Holy Spirit helps a great deal

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com

SILVER LININGS

Hmm . . . how does that song go? . . . look for a silver lining and . . . . The young child sees the silver lining while the adult is looking for it. We can learn from the developing child by recognizing and understanding our differences. Adults can come to see the silver linings like the young child if they can uncritically watch the baby or little ones do their own work—not the work the adult is expecting them to do, or the work the adult is teaching them to do. Sometimes when I’m not looking for it, I see and experience joy and realize this is what the developing child sees most of the time.

But why does the child cry? That is where the work of the adult becomes essential—the work of changing the environment so the child’s happiness will continue. The adult’s work is to discover the cause of the distress and to collaborate with the child to restore their joy.

Maria Montessori discovered the secret of childhood over a century ago. She observed this eternal joy in the child and worked to encourage parents to see how the child sees. Through her studies and observations she created materials and a method for an environment for the developing child to know joy.

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com

JOY

Ted and I are moving. We both felt a sense of knowingness when we stepped into our new environment but were hesitant to express it to each other. What if we couldn’t have this new environment for keeps? We kept our good feelings to ourselves, squashing our timely moment of joy, as most intelligent house-hunting individuals would do. This is the way of many adults. Their sense of knowingness is brief, like a flick of a bird in the morning’s light. Quickly the thought is clothed with learned lessons of experience. The adult has learned to be cautious with silver linings.

Not so with the young child, with the newborn. Their sense of knowingness is on-going without review. Like a rose bud becoming a flower—the learning is already perfected—the experience of joy is constant. Maria Montessori reminds us that, “The things the child sees and experiences are not just remembered—they form a part of his soul.”

For the budding child, eternity is not associated with time. Time is a learned measure created by the adult and later taught to the child. For the young child, eternity is an expression for what presently is—like a lost moment in prayer or meditation—perhaps like a Buddha in contemplation.

As best I can, because I want to learn more from the child, I’m trying to understand, as Maria Montessori understood, the connection and the differences of the work of the adult and of the child. I believe it is the responsibility of the adult rather than the child, to appreciate and collaborate their modes of work. Perhaps the silver linings of the adult and of the child can be joined to create a pathway to peace. Maria Montessori believed it so.

Please read my book, Montessori—Living the Good Life. I’m blogging on my website: www.montessoritheory.com