My Hundred Acre Wood

A child lives in continual contact with the world of spirit. Somewhere around nine years old, the child comes fully into his body, as if entering the real world after a nine-year dream. This transition is painful; the child feels an acute loss that he cannot articulate, much less explain. (Re-read the last chapter of The House at Pooh Corner if you haven't in a while: Christopher Robin is losing the imaginative world that he has built up so carefully, and he knows it. Once it was pointed out to me, I could see my own children losing their own Hundred-Acre Woods. In fact, I could remember losing mine.)

I read this while persuing an article on the Waldorf method of schooling (http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/essays/waldorf.html) and it brought tears to my eyes. Sometimes this happens; I read something that strikes a chord I didn't even realize that was out of harmony and boom--tears. With all my heart I wish my parents had tried harder to bring me into a spiritual frame of mind, given me *some kind* of guidance in those thoughts and feelings instead of letting me do it completely and utterly on my own and wander lost in the desert of spiritual emptyness until I was 16. All I knew of faith was what I picked up from tv or movies, my little kid bible with the REALLY scary picture of the devil in it, and some friends. My older sister was baptized but I've always gloated that I wasn't. Neither of us recieved any kind of spiritual instruction but as far as I know it's only ever bugged me.

Discovering Paganism by accident while in a computer class in highschool was the first big step. Later on I was a part of a circle, then a one-on-one with a mentor/teacher, then alone, now apart of a group again. It's more focused on community than actual spirituality but we're working on that, trying to create our own Canadian tradition. It's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress. The very latest step has been the adoption by and of the Anishnabe.

I think each of those steps needs it's own post. For now I'm out of time as the small man is potty training and being very demanding.