In Stargarden, my Waldorf Early Childhood Parenting Program, the morning  begins with the group of adults and children singing together:

 “Give Thanks to the Mother Earth, Give Thanks to the Father Sun, Give Thanks to the beautiful garden, Where the Mother and the Father are One,

 Give Thanks, give thanks, give thanks that we are One, Give thanks, give thanks, To the Mother and the Father Sun”

The greeting is accompanied by gestures of gratitude to our Mother, the Earth, and Father, the Sun, reconnecting with a feeling of humility to the Nature Spirits, the Elementals, and the Higher Beings who have sacrificed themselves to manifest material reality for the sake of our Spiritual Development here.

In creating a garden, even small flowerpots on the window sill, one nurtures in children a deep appreciation of these invisible brothers and sisters. The feeling of gratitude and appreciation for the plants, which are manifestations of the elemental beings, nurtures these Beings in a way that frees them from material bondage. The relationship that we cultivate with the Divine Mother Earth through tending and caring for our garden keeps alive the child’s inherent experience of their spiritual home and creates an aura of blessed sanctuary so that the beneficial elementals, and we with them, find peace. Through the seasons, careful attentiveness to the needs of the elementals in the garden helps to imbue the children and adults with health-giving vitality so that they have an experience of the sensible and supersensible in nature and the physical world and can find the peace and harmony accessible to all.

One aspect of tending the garden involves use of biodynamic sprays with which we aid the cultivation of sanctuary for humans, for plants, for animals, and the supersensible realms. Each sanctuary becomes an island of light with its boundaries extending to the farthest reaches of the cosmos and to the deepest realms, where Higher Beings who guide the earth reside. The home becomes the chapel for the Holy Family to worship in the daily rhythms of waking and sleeping, eating and cleaning, working and playing. Our work becomes our prayer, and our prayer becomes our work, as we celebrate the spark of divinity, the gift of co-creator, within each individual. It is a very full, rich and beautiful tapestry of life that we weave together.

It was Rudolf Steiner’s vision that these islands of light be cultivated far and wide. Here in the Rocky Mountain region and throughout Waldorf communities and other communities which appreciate the Mother Earth and Father Sun, we can shine brightly by creating such sanctuary.

I am very happy to have people forward these blog articles on to other parents and request that you acknowledge where they originated and/or link to my website.☺