The Rhythm of Learning

"Life in its entirety is like a plant. The plant contains not only what it offers to external life; it also holds a future state within its hidden depths. One who has before him a plant only just in leaf, knows very well that after some time there will be flowers and fruit also on the leaf-bearing stem. In its hidden depths the plant already contains the flowers and fruit in embryo; yet by mere investigation of what the plant now offers to external vision, how should one ever tell what these new organs will look like? This can only be told by one who has learnt to know the very nature and being of the plant." - From The Education of the Child, Ruldolph Steiner.

In modern textbook education many subjects are taught one page or one chapter at a time. The teacher will set aside a couple hours to teach the children "how to do division" and then will assign problems and continue to assign problems with progressive difficulty. Or, a teacher may explain what the subjunctive is and then have children practice marking these in sentences. No matter what the subject, the rhythm is often standard - teach the subject, practice the problems, answer some questions, and students who don't understand get the lower grade.

What is missing in this method (and I call it a method rather than attaching it to a certain place of education or name of an educational philosophy because you can find this method in many different systems) is an understanding of the quote above. People bloom like plants. Children bloom like plants and blooming is not something that happens so instantaneously. One cannot touch a rose bud, chant a little and it will open. One must slowly coax it out into the sunlight with a little water, some gentle breeze, rays of sun and most importantly - time.

When a child is given this time to really get to know a subject and become comfortable with it the fear related to that subject will vanish and they will truly learn instead of just "learning enough" to get by and go on with the next subject. This means that as a teacher we must be patient.

The most important part of teaching is not always what the child is taught but how and when they are taught. The teacher first presents the material in a gentle way. The children are not expected to fully understand or be able to mimic the process at this point. In this stage the children are simply expected to "encounter" the material. The children are then given a day to reflect on this encounter either consciously and/or subconsciously (during sleep). This process typically takes one day but it could take more if you are teaching at home and have more freedom with time. If your child needs more than one day with this stage, consider giving them more time. Sometimes I may even go through all the stages with my child and if they still are not easily grasping the subject I will set it aside and come back to it again in a week or a month. Miracles often happen during that week or month!

From this encounter comes experience. The second day the child is asked to participate in the learning process either through verses, painting, drawing, copying from the board, movement or other tasks. However, there is still no pressure on them to actually completely understand the material or to be able to "spit it out" again onto a worksheet or during a test. This stage may last a few days. There may be stories, paintings, movement, and many other experiences related to this concept.

Finally, when it is the right time for the class (as I said before, teaching at home you have more freedom with this time-line) the experience naturally crystallizes into the concept itself. You will find that some children will "suddenly" understand the concept and will be able to explain it and complete tasks. Their "buds" in this topic have bloomed.

Other students may need more time. In this case you should give them more time. To force a bud to bloom before its time can result in the petals being ripped apart, and falling to the ground. It is often hard to recover this bud and create a whole and beautiful flower from it later. One can force the child to finish the worksheets and projects and "half-understand" the concepts but their flower will be filled with petals that are glued onto the stem, always falling off and having to be put back on...and some petals may be missing. This "flower" may hate the subject for the rest of their lives or develop a fear of performing in that subject that will prevent them from growing in other areas. Or, they may simply not feel an affinity to the subject and will find it undesirable the rest of their lives. This could be why some children grow up and don't enjoy reading books, writing letters to friends, or doing anything related to math.

Perception, feeling, idea - these are the three steps in the genuine learning process that prepares the intellect for the abstract and conceptual thinking that will become possible later in adolescence.

When I think of this in terms of rhythm I think of the first method being akin to a marching band. There is a strict drum rhythm and everyone needs to keep the beat - ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three. When I think about the rhythm of Waldorf education I think more of the rhythm of a river...flowing instead of beating, with one idea flowing into another flowing into another and so on...until it reaches the ocean of adolescence.

Stages in Waldorf Education

This article can now be found at www.BEarthBLOG.com

Turning the Morning Around

Sometimes a morning just looks impossible. Of course I have an ideal vision of what I want it to be - filled with smiles, gently stretching, perhaps a song and a prayer, good food and a sunny clean home. However, this morning started out to be anything but that! I had not been able to do the dishes because I was at a conference yesterday and our dishwasher was broken, we all slept in unti 11am for some reason and woke up very hungry, the kitchen table was filled with crafting supplies and I had not yet unloaded my conference props. The dog needed to go for a walk or go outside, the cats were hungry, I was aware that I was behind on a few consults and other work related items and it just all looked so impossible. Sofi wanted crepes and Sunii wanted pancakes and I didn't want either. We were all a bit grumpy. How was I going to get through the day?

When things get like this I have learned it is time to stop and focus on the present moment. So that is what I started out doing. I focused on what the immediate need was. We all needed to eat. So I went into the kitchen to clean the dishes so I could cook.

The second thing I do in such circumstances is that I look for creative solutions. The kids feel nurtured when I cook for them and they are quite independant in some ways so I love to cook breakfast for them when I can. I am reluctant to give that up but I realize I need some help so I call out to the kids "Hey - you guys want to help?" Surprisingly they are overjoyed with the idea of helping and they want to do it all themselves. Cooking WITH me in the kitchen while I am also working and cooking together as a family is aparently much more fun than making one's own sandwich for lunch all alone.

So they both enthusiastically took over cooking. Sunii made pancakes and Sofi made crepes. She was very proud that she could actually do it. Crepes are hard to make and this is the first time she did it from beginning to end. The entire time we were chatting and I was doing dishes. The time passed before I knew it and the dishes were done and breakfast was ready.

After everyone was fed they were all in a good mood, including me. So, suggesting some more tasks was not hard. Sunii happily took care of his dog and Sofi happily swept the kitchen floor.

It is amazing how little it takes to get the house in order again. It seemed so impossible and only two hours later it looks like a home again.

We play a bit and talk a bit, Sofi decided she wanted to needle-felt a doll and Sunii decided to teach the dog some new tricks and then both children got invited to visit friends. That left me with two hours to finish my consulting and other work tasks. Not everything got done but at least I don't feel so completely behind anymore. I was full, the house was clean and everyone around me was happy. This meant that I was able to be very efficient in my work time.

Now, I look at the day and think about how ideal it was and is now. I am glad I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about it and just let it take its own course!

Waldorf Member Question #22: CarSchooling

Dear Waldorf Parents,

The following is a little schedule I made up for one of the members of the Waldorf Enrichment Program Online to help her with some ideas for a carschooling schedule. I hope it is inspiring to you too during your summer of travel - even if that travel is just to the local park or pool!

Dear S,

I have made a sample schedule for the week to give you some ideas. I have used most my curriculum as you requested. However, I did want to also take into consideration what your children are working on right now and what they are doing outside of the Waldorf Enrichment. I have used the April lesson plans as an example since that is what you have. If you would like more details on something please tell me. I hope this is closer to what you were looking for.

General Outline

Monday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work - Take from circle time verses
Three hour wait
Circle Time - Can include yoga, verses, chatting, prayer, meditation, stretches, anything regular that you need to do each day when you get out of the car and need to center yourselves again.
Lunch
Story/Math (Set the theme for the week) - All three ages
Rest - This can be a walk, sitting, reading, whatever each person finds restful. You will need a rest a bit after the intense morning of working and driving.
1 hour car ride
Math Practice - All three ages
Tuesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Language (set the theme for rest of the week) - All three ages
Rest
1 hour car ride
Language Practice - All three ages
Wednesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Knitting/Handiwork
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Thursday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Drawing & Art
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Friday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Science Story
Field Trip/Nature Walk - You can have more of these if opportunity presents itself. And you can combine these with other lessons. For example, on the knitting or handiwork o drawing day you could have a short lesson and then take a field trip OR you could do a longer lesson IN an interesting location, like drawing in the art museum, knitting in a fancy cafe or the library or a rose garden or on a boat...
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice

Notes: I included math practice daily in the car ride home because a lot of the math is verbal, memorization, practice and a state of mind, rather than the lesson itself. You said that they needed more math practice so doing it daily at the same time will help as math is inherently rhythmic so it will help to have it at the same time each day. Also, many studies have shown that movement helps to learn math and CAR movement is a good substitute for body movement. I find that movement of any kind increases learning abilities even if it is just a train or a car.

I used the April lesson plans to add the details...however, you can "plug in" other lessons you are doing or request me to send you additional literature for those lessons. For example, when I mention language work...this is a good time to bring in the study of history as you will be studying it through language.

Circle time can be anything you create - it is a time for centering and coming together as a family. Choose some verses and/or music from the lessons. Bring a Kinder-harp and/or recorder along with you and create your own circle time. It will take some time...but it will become something wonderful. If the kids don't like the singing at first you can do Yoga or prayer or just chat. You can make it 10 minutes long or an hour long...whatever suits you.

Note - I have started the week "easier" - peaked in the middle with more intense work and then ended with Friday being a more restful day. You may want to re-arrange this if you family has a different rhythm.

Now here are some details filled in from April for one week...

Monday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work - Take from circle time verses - Give each child a verse to work on - one verse and don't change the verse this week until they have "mastered" it in their own way. Then go on to the next verse. Start with the smaller verses or parts of verses. There are a lot of nice poets introduced in the monthly verses. This work will help them with their reading and writing skills.
4 year old - recite a verse to him and have him create a play to go with this verse. You can supply some clay or dough for him to make the figures that go with this verse. He can perform the "play" in the car or when you arrive. You can also allow him to draw it or color it if he prefers but the clay work is the best - you can use play dough if you are concerned about the effects of clay or homemade play dough on the car.
3rd grader - Write a verse in the main lesson book. Have him copy the verse from what you wrote and label the parts of speech - you choose - one day he can label the nouns, one day the verbs, etc...
7th grader - Write a verse or passage in her main lesson book - or have her copy one from her history or other book she is working on. Have her choose ten vocabulary words that she wants to work on that week. Have her read some of the lesson (choose ahead of time how much is suitable) and then write a summary of that in her own words or (this is fun) create a "historical fiction" account of what she read using herself, you and siblings as characters OR write a "modern" account of what she read - transposing all the events into what they would be in the modern day.
Three hour wait
Circle Time - Can include yoga, verses, chatting, prayer, meditation, stretches, anything regular that you need to do each day when you get out of the car and need to center yourselves again.
Lunch
Story/Math (Set the theme for the week) - All three ages
All: Nassrudin - which is more important...the sun or the moon? (circles)
4-year-old - Form drawing circles by tracing - block crayons to fill them in.
3rd Grade - Drawing circles and measurement of diameter/radius/circumference. Bring a tape measure and have him find things around you and draw a little sketch and write down the DIAMETER ONLY. of each of these things.
7th Grade - Geometry creation of Eastern Designs with circles.
Rest - This can be a walk, sitting, reading, whatever each person finds restful. You will need a rest a bit after the intense morning of working and driving.
1 hour car ride
Math Practice - All three ages
4-year-old - draw things WITH circles. Ask him to see how many pictures he can make from a circle. Sort of like the game "How many words can you make from this one word?"
3rd Grader - As you are driving have him tell you the diameter of each of the things he has sketched and have him figure out the radius and circumference from this information.
7th Grader - Have her finish her circular art and write a short evaluation of it or TELL you an evaluation of it. What has she learned about geometry from these patterns (there will be a lot and some surprises).
Tuesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Language (set the theme for rest of the week) - All three ages
4 Year Old - V, W, X - Have him act out the verses for these letters and find these letters in nature or around him. (See Sixth Sense Language)
3rd Grader - The Story of Creation (or other unit story you are working on this week...you can also choose from another story in the 3rd grade lesson plans if you want a more secular unit) - take the time to copy this story (or part of it) over in the main lesson book with the verbs in one color, nouns in one color and adjectives in another color. Choose some vocabulary words from the reading for him to write about OR tell you a story about. OR create a crossword puzzle with (I used to love doing that with words)
7th Grader - You said she is losing interest in reading. Perhaps a way to get her interested again would be to have her read a bit in her history lesson (or you can do what I did and READ the lesson yourself and TELL her the story (not read it to her) in storytelling style. You don't have to prepare this ahead of time. You could read the lesson while the kids are working and then TELL it after that. While you are reading it she could be reading a historical fiction novel of the same era. I have found this is a very good way to get children interested in history and reading again.
Rest
1 hour car ride
Language Practice - All three ages
Wednesday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Story/Knitting/Handiwork
4 - Finger-knitted Flowers (or other items...I have a list I can share with you)
3rd: Knitted rabbit (easy version)
7th: Knitted rabbit - start with easy version or hard version and move on...
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Thursday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Stories:4 years: The Golden Goose (Egg is almost a circle :) OR
The Pot that Died
3rd: The Dandelion
7th: Do You Know Why I Came Here Today? This story is actually intended for adults to learn from but it spans many many ages of people. Point out that in the story the people run a full circle of what they want to say, and end up where they started. What lesson can you learn from this? Can you incorporate this lesson into the mandala?
Story/Drawing & Art - Mandala (Art/Geometry)
4th - Take the circles from earlier in the week - create mandalas (see lesson plans)
3rd - Same
7th - Same
This is an activity that they all can do. Follow the lesson plans and you will find that each child can create their own mandala and it will be on their level of skill.
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice
Friday
1 hour car ride
Verses/Writing Work
Three hour wait
Circle Time
Lunch
Science Story:
The Butterfly Brothers (9-11)
A Drop of Water from Fairyland of Science or A Drop of Water from PRE/KG lessons.
How The Apple Blossom Came Back
Field Trip/Nature Walk - You can have more of these if opportunity presents itself. And you can combine these with other lessons. For example, on the knitting or handiwork o drawing day you could have a short lesson and then take a field trip OR you could do a longer lesson IN an interesting location, like drawing in the art museum, knitting in a fancy cafe or the library or a rose garden or on a boat. Another idea - take a craft or handiwork from the lesson plans that is difficult to do away from home (like henna or cooking) and find somewhere you can do something similar in town. Is there a cooking school in town? Can you bring some cooking supplies with you? The herb tahini balls can be made without a kitchen! Is there an Indian shop that does henna? Etc...
Rest
1 hour car ride
Math & Language Practice

More on Rhythm

Kristie,
I appreciated your broad answers to the consulting question about developing rhythm. I wonder if you could be a bit more specific about how you balance your family's rhythm with each child's flow. How often do you revisit your rhythm and readjust? Also, do you have your children get involved in designing the daily/weekly rhythm in your home or do you do that on your own? In other words, is there a "buy-in" in advance?
Thank you, M

Dear M,

Did the Organization and the Temperaments Lecture/E-book help on this question? I think you have that now - right? If I had answered this a couple weeks ago I would have said some things to that effect. However, I didn't have the charts available at that time when you asked the question and now I do...so I think that is more helpful.

Other than the charts/lecture that you downloaded from http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/ I would say....

I revisit rhythms about once every three weeks. But that is because I am one of those Sanguine "go with the flow" and always fixing and adjusting things. Some other types seem to be able to find a rhythm and stick with it all year. But we are always tweaking things and the kids DO get involved. I create an initial schedule based on my OBSERVATIONS of them and I also let them create their own schedules for things too. So this is our recipe:

Recipe of Our Schedule

1 cup of mom writes the schedule out based on her observations
1 cup of mom writes a schedule based on their type
1/4 cup of child writes their own schedule for something like spelling words or other activities
1/8 cup of child suggests alterations to the schedule I created

Stir all together and make a chart. Post it in a public place. Allow children to comment on it and suggest changes. Let each change simmer for a week before any changes can be made because sometimes things need time to settle and it is not that the change is not working ... It is just that you may need some time to get used to it. After the chart simmers for a week you can enjoy it. After 3 weeks check on it and see how it is working out. If things need to be changed you can either add some spices to it, add more ingredients or completely start from scratch!

One example is we have a visiting schedule because otherwise our household gets overwhelmed with neighbor kids and I get overwhelmed with the question "Can so and so come over today??" Yikes! I started out allowing them to trade off every other week with a sleep over and then have kids over once a week on a certain day for each of them. As summer nears and we relax on school work I allow them to have people over more often. I also realized that a sleepover every weekend was too much for ME so I changed it to rotate with all THREE of us...so now, every three weeks I get a Friday that is MINE! No friends allowed. Sometimes we go out as a family. Sometimes I just laze around the house.

Does this help? If I left out anything you can certainly write back. You might also post some of the questions to the Members list. The question you had about a "buy in" is a good one. My kids don't really get a buy-in initially. But they know they can tweak things and that I will listen if they decide to create their own charts. A few months ago my son created his own chart on how to get his spelling done every week. I was totally shocked. But with no help from me he now has a plan and it is the same plan every week and he does it like clockwork every week! (He is a melancholic of course!). It might be fun to see what sort of buy-in other parents give their kids with the schedule.

That said, some days I just ditch the schedule altogether and we "Unschool"!

Blessings & Health,


Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
Mother to Mosi, 13, Sunii, 11, Sofi, 9
Living in Des Moines, IOWA after travelling the world :)


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What's Good for the Gosling...

What’s Good For the Gosling…
By Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/
Permission to reprint this article is given to anyone who also includes my name and website in the reprint.


Have you ever heard the term “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?” (It means, basically that what a man can do, a woman can do to or what is good for the man, is also good for the women)

I would like to coin a new phrase and dedicate it to Waldorf schooling: What is good for the gosling is good for the goose.

Over the years I have heard so many parents reflect that sentiment – even myself. When I attended the parent-child class with my children in the Chicago suburbs I used to joke that I was going for me and they were just along for the ride. At my Waldorf enrichment school overseas many mothers commented to me that they were surprised how much THEY looked forward to coming to my program and just the other day someone commented that they didn’t know who was getting more out of Waldorf – their kids or them!

This is one aspect of Waldorf education that makes it so appealing and healing at the same time – it encompasses each person as a holistic being. In striving to be the best teachers we learn the skills of inner work and meditation, in creating paintings with our children we can sometimes heal ourselves from our own rushed childhood years. In teaching a main lesson on mythology our own fire for learning is re-lit and in taking nature walks we re-learn appreciation of nature from our own children.

In noticing the ways that Waldorf can be good for us as well as our children, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the teaching methods as well as for the efforts we put into our teaching hours. We can also discover new and wonderful things about ourselves and enrich our own lives.

This week, our show on The Waldorf Channel was about a parent making a main lesson book (see http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/ - click on ART). As a parent we are also learning and a main lesson book can be something that we can use to record that learning, express ourselves, honor what we are learning and create a sacred space for it. As a baby we are cheered with each new skill we learn. Our first laugh is rewarded with praise and photos. Our first steps are rewarded with hugs and squeals of excitement from the adults around us. However, when we learn something new as an adult how often do we get praised for it? Keeping your own main lesson book can be a way for you to honor that.

The reason I call it a “main lesson” book rather than a journal is that I want to emphasize that the scope of the book is to record lessons and processes rather than a mixture of lessons, photos, and experiences. A memory album is a record of the past. A journal is a record of our inner thoughts and experiences. A main lesson book is a record of lessons we are working on now – academic, artistic & spiritual. In my main lesson book this week I have written out two of my favorite quotes and decorated them with a flowery border. The next page is a mandala meditation I did when I needed to work through some frustrations. Mixed in with those kinds of entries is a page I did with the kids on herbal form drawing and another page on a story we created together.

Another area of Waldorf we can learn from is the skill of rhythm in our lives. Modern society teaches us to schedule things by the hour and accomplish as much as we can in one day. We are told that we must be on time to work, on time to school and on time to everything we do. We are given cereal so we can rush through breakfast, frozen meals so we can rush through cooking and cars so we can drive quickly to wherever we are going. In this rush we often lose our sense of rhythm and can become quite overwhelmed and confused.

In Waldorf education, rhythm is a central part of the day. In Steiner’s writing it is hard to find a lecture in which he does not refer to rhythm and cycles – of the day, of the month, of the year, of the life and even of the life of earth & mankind itself.

In his lecture, The Christmas Festival (at: http://tinyurl.com/2baklv), Steiner says, “Man seems to become more and more akin to the great rhythms of Nature. If we think of all that encompasses the life of the soul, of the course of the Sun and everything that is connected with it, we are struck by something that closely concerns us, namely, the rhythm and the marvelous harmony in contrast to the chaos and lack of harmony in the human soul. We all know how rhythmically and with what regularity the Sun appears and disappears. And we can picture what a stupendous upheaval there would be in the universe if for a fraction of a second only the Sun were to be diverted from its course. It is only because of this inviolable harmony in the course of the Sun that our universe can exist at all, and it is upon this harmony that the rhythmic life-process of all beings depends. Think of the annual course of the Sun. — Picture to yourselves that it is the Sun which charms forth the plants in spring time and then think how difficult it is to make the violet or some other plant flower out of due season. Seed-time and harvest, everything, even the very life of animals is dependent upon the rhythmic course of the Sun. And in the being of man himself everything that is not connected with his feelings, his desires and his passions, or with his ordinary thinking, is rhythmic and harmonious.

By realizing this within our children and ourselves we realize how important “little things” like morning circle time, regular meals, regular bedtimes and regular routines are to our holistic well-being. There are many theories today that most psychological issues we deal with as a society are greatly attributable to our lack of rhythm. Depression can often stem from days, months or even years of sleep deprivation (example: http://tinyurl.com/3x6atf) . ADHD can become manifested when a child or adult is exposed to an environment lacking in rhythm (example: http://tinyurl.com/3c47pc) and many illnesses, especially of the digestive system, can be directly related to our habits of eating out of rhythm with the seasons and with our own physical needs.

However, although we may spend hours planning the rhythms of our child’s day, we sometimes forget our own. While we definitely reap the benefits of the morning circle time and other rhythmic routines we sometimes forget that our own routines often need a rhythm. In the same way we schedule a different activity for each day (bread making on Monday, painting on Tuesdays, etc…) we can also schedule our own chores in this way.

In my personal situation, I schedule both my household and my business duties in this way. On Mondays I clean the animal cages and change the sheets on the beds. On Tuesdays I scrub the kitchen floor and clean the bathrooms. The list rotates every week. In my business I have a similar list. On Mondays I list things on Ebay, I do home and business related shopping and I ship any weekend orders I have. On Tuesdays I do finances for the home and the business and on Wednesdays I write BLOGS, articles and do my main work on the Waldorf lists. On Thursdays I see consulting clients and on Fridays I have office hours for students from my natural healing classes.

In the same way I also have a rhythm to my day, which reflects the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out that the children follow. After spending some time on breathing in (E-mail, gardening, doing dishes) I make sure that I spend some time on breathing out activity (ie: running errands, lessons with the kids, healing work)

I also make sure my day contains the three elements of head (writing articles or mental work), heart (chatting with friends, being with my kids, partner and pets, meditating) and hands (knitting, baking, creating something). The morning is a natural time of awakening when a person can best function in creating projects & writing. Afternoon is naturally the peak of the day when more physical activity is required, such as a walk. Many people who ignore this natural rhythm can experience a “low” or feeling of fatigue daily sometime in the afternoon. The evening (and early morning before the sun comes up) is a natural time for inner work and peaceful activities as a family.

On days when I do not follow these rhythms I can feel the difference in my mood, productivity, outlook on life, ability to work and levels of inner peace and balance.

If you reflect for a while you will find that there are many ways in which you can incorporate Waldorf into you own life as well as your child’s life. If you have any inspirations that work for you please share them with the group at:

waldorfschoolonline@yahoogroups.com


ADDITIONAL NOTES

This article was about using Waldorf methods for adults as well as children. If you would like to read more about Waldorf and rhythms an article about Waldorf and Rhythm can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorfschoolonline/files/ (Click on Waldorf Basics)

Soul of man!
You live in the heart-lung-beat
That guides you through the rhythm of times
To the sensing of your own soul's being:
Practice spirit contemplation
In equanimity of soul,
Where the surging
Cosmic creative deeds
Unite
Your own I
To the cosmic I;
And you will truly feel
In deeds of the human soul.

- Rudolph Steiner

END NOTES

1. In some countries where it is very warm or hot it is actually WITHIN the rhythm of that country to take a nap in the mid afternoon, so when I mentioned not napping, I was speaking of only some situations. A lot of rhythm DOES have to do with the environment that surrounds us!

2. Rhythm is something we strive for. After writing the article I didn't want everyone to feel like I always had this lovely rhythm going on in my life. But there is a big difference between having on and not having one. If you have one and then your day gets de-railed by another life rhythm (bad weather, someone popping in for a visit, illness) you have a clear map and road to go back to. If you do not have one to begin with then you are often wandering seeking one both mentally and physically.