Our first session in our new space.
We fitted well in there. Our little room of delight.
We began the day with our usual morning meditations. I enjoyed today's meditation especially as it combined words with repetitive action. The words are as follows:
I am brave
I am bold
My own Spirit
I can hold
These words are said in accompaniment to the loveliest gestures of the body and hands. As always, we ended in hysterical laughter, which always ushers us into a positive space of healing and creativity. In high spirits, we began to make 'Wishing mobiles'.
Mira Matthew, a friend of mine conducted a short workshop on how to make these mobiles. We had our sticks, colourful wool, and beads all set-out in front of us. Once the mobiles were complete, the children were asked to write one wish they felt really strongly about. These wishes they had to keep to themselves. I asked them to write their wish down holding the intention of its manifestation in their minds eye. With these in mind we headed down to the ocean to deliver our wishes to the expansive waters.
Throughout the day I had very interesting conversations with the children about what wishes meant to them, how they felt when their wishes came true and how they felt when they didn't manifest. For the most part they were rather skeptical of wishes, with only one of the 6 children saying that once upon a time, his wish came true. He had said he had wished upon a shooting star when he had seen one and soon after that, his wish came true! I would like to explore this notion of wishing more in future sessions as I believe it to be a powerful mechanism for transformation.
Another observation that struck me was when we were at the ocean. The boys had taken off their shirts and had flung themselves enthusiastically into the waters edge. At the sight of this, one of the girls commented that she wished she could do the same. I replied that she could if she wanted to, emphasising that it was important to know that ones gender ought not to be thought of as a limitation to freedom and enjoyment. She laughed in a surprised way at my suggestion that she could just hold her breasts, keeping them covered with either her arms or her hands. She explained that for her being bare-breasted was "geraam", meaning "wrong". She then went on to say that perhaps it would be fine for me as I was African.
We continued discussing her ideas of what an African was and the moral imperatives that resulted in such a conceptualization of identity. Throughout it all, she maintained that she was definitely not an African, but that she was 'Coloured'. Once again, this is another topic that I wish to explore with the children that I had hoped we would discuss through the Connecting project.
There is much still to cover and so many subjects that I wish to creatively explore with the children.
We ended the day with me in a cloud of thought as we drove home, the children cautiously questioning me as to whether I was angry with them. Seemingly my silence is perceived as an indication of discord. I reassured them that I loved them dearly and that I was only thinking very deeply about life, the universe and everything.
We fitted well in there. Our little room of delight.
We began the day with our usual morning meditations. I enjoyed today's meditation especially as it combined words with repetitive action. The words are as follows:
I am brave
I am bold
My own Spirit
I can hold
These words are said in accompaniment to the loveliest gestures of the body and hands. As always, we ended in hysterical laughter, which always ushers us into a positive space of healing and creativity. In high spirits, we began to make 'Wishing mobiles'.
Mira Matthew, a friend of mine conducted a short workshop on how to make these mobiles. We had our sticks, colourful wool, and beads all set-out in front of us. Once the mobiles were complete, the children were asked to write one wish they felt really strongly about. These wishes they had to keep to themselves. I asked them to write their wish down holding the intention of its manifestation in their minds eye. With these in mind we headed down to the ocean to deliver our wishes to the expansive waters.
Throughout the day I had very interesting conversations with the children about what wishes meant to them, how they felt when their wishes came true and how they felt when they didn't manifest. For the most part they were rather skeptical of wishes, with only one of the 6 children saying that once upon a time, his wish came true. He had said he had wished upon a shooting star when he had seen one and soon after that, his wish came true! I would like to explore this notion of wishing more in future sessions as I believe it to be a powerful mechanism for transformation.
Another observation that struck me was when we were at the ocean. The boys had taken off their shirts and had flung themselves enthusiastically into the waters edge. At the sight of this, one of the girls commented that she wished she could do the same. I replied that she could if she wanted to, emphasising that it was important to know that ones gender ought not to be thought of as a limitation to freedom and enjoyment. She laughed in a surprised way at my suggestion that she could just hold her breasts, keeping them covered with either her arms or her hands. She explained that for her being bare-breasted was "geraam", meaning "wrong". She then went on to say that perhaps it would be fine for me as I was African.
There is much still to cover and so many subjects that I wish to creatively explore with the children.
We ended the day with me in a cloud of thought as we drove home, the children cautiously questioning me as to whether I was angry with them. Seemingly my silence is perceived as an indication of discord. I reassured them that I loved them dearly and that I was only thinking very deeply about life, the universe and everything.
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