Our story on Sunday was preparing the children for our merging of the waters ritual in the fall. \u00a0We imagined where we might collect water this summer and we each poured our water into the gathering bowl saying in response, \u201cThis is the water of our community\u201d. \u00a0The children loved participating. \u00a0They loved having their own water to pour. \u00a0We also had an interesting conundrum in our opening liturgy.<\/p>\n
One of the things we start class with is sharing our joys and sorrows. \u00a0We pick a joy stone or a sorrow stone and put them on our scale and then either share them verbally with the class or keep them in our hearts. \u00a0It started right away. \u00a0A few kids picked multiple stones and put them on the scale. \u00a0I observed. \u00a0Then when we were part way around the circle I wondered to the group if there would be enough stones for everyone. \u00a0Some children responded by choosing just one stone as is our usual practice. \u00a0Some children couldn\u2019t resist following the example of others and taking multiple stones. \u00a0And this time, it really happened. We ran out of joy stones before we got around our circle.<\/p>\n
We stopped. \u00a0I sat in silence and looked in our bowl of stones. \u00a0I looked in and picked up the bowl. \u00a0I observed to the class that there were no more joy stones. \u00a0And then I was quiet. \u00a0They looked around. \u00a0I looked around. \u00a0\u201cWhat do we do friends?\u201d, I asked. \u00a0They looked around. \u00a0I looked around. \u00a0I asked again what we might do so that we could continue with joys and sorrows. \u00a0Then there was a mad rush as the children took all the joy and sorrow stones that we had used and put them back into the bowl. \u00a0\u201cHmmmm\u201d, I said. \u00a0And then we continued.<\/p>\n
For our story, I poured each child a small amount of water. \u00a0\u201cWhy do I only get that much\u201d, a child complained. \u00a0I said, \u201cEveryone gets a little water. \u00a0This is how much we have to share. \u00a0We want to make sure everyone can have some. \u00a0There is enough water for everyone as long as we share. \u00a0Do you remember what happened with our stones this morning. \u00a0There is enough for everyone if we take only what we need\u201d.<\/p>\n
Share is a word I don\u2019t often use with pre-schoolers. \u00a0I have been trained by parent educators to use the words \u201ctake turns\u201d when trying to negotiate toys and resources. \u00a0Share, in a child\u2019s experience means they need to give up what they have; taking turns is a move toward some mutuality, autonomy and cooperation. \u00a0But I really think share here is appropriate. \u00a0We don\u2019t want anyone to go without. \u00a0We want our whole circle to have enough stones to chose one joy or sorrow. \u00a0We want everyone to be included in our circle of community\u2026to pour their contribution into the gathering bowl of our beloved community\u2026to join their integrity, service and joy into a force that creates a new and more beautiful world for everyone. \u00a0In order to do this, we need to be aware of each other. \u00a0We need to receive what is enough and share\u00a0the rest. \u00a0This is a lesson beyond the community of our church. \u00a0What do we have to share? \u00a0Who needs it? \u00a0How are we in\u00a0community? \u00a0How are we all in this together so that the water rises for everyone? \u00a0I wonder. \u00a0This is the water of our community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our story on Sunday was preparing the children for our merging of the waters ritual in the fall. \u00a0We imagined where we might collect water this summer and we each poured our water into the gathering bowl saying in response, \u201cThis is the water of our community\u201d. \u00a0The children loved participating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}