Big Baddeck, Cape Breton Island,
Nova Scotia.
19
August 2012
Dear Friends,
I want to respond to Colin Rioux-Beausejour’s inviting
letter in Glimpses Summer 2012, introducing Vers les Sources group members and
their work together, in the Sherbrooke area, Quebec. It is so encouraging to hear about the
inspiring work that others are doing.
It is of much interest. I want
to tell you some of the things that are going on in the Maritimes. Nova
Scotia has been my home for forty years.
In NS there are 17 members of the Anthroposophical Society. There is an open triangle of Society activity
from Halifax to the South
Shore to the Annapolis Valley
and Digby. I want you to see that we are spread out over
the geographical area, and although it maylook like we are close together when you look on a map,
travel is very often required for us to meet together, logistics need careful
consideration. Members come together
for festival celebrations at least four times in the year, friends included,
with a meal, reading and artistic offerings, moving the location about the
region. At any one time there may be
two or three or more study groups in different places; last fall a group met at the Waldorf school
to study threefold social order and how it might apply today to governance of a
small school; this fall, a group in the
Digby area will study the Karma Series of lectures. Last year a need was felt for the first time
to get together as members for an annual meeting. We are,
loosely, the Nova Scotia Anthroposophical Group, which includes a sub-group of
six ‘business-carrying’ members who mostly manage finances from a bequest made many
years ago for anthroposophical work in Nova
Scotia, by Hans and Lotte Castelliz. Money from this source has been used to
support Waldorf teacher training and development, curative training, lectures
and conferences, sending a member per year to the Society AGM, and more. A ‘lending community’ has been set up to
enable the South Shore Waldorf School & Kindergarten to raise money for new
classrooms. The Waldorf school (50+
students in two kindergartens, grades 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6) is in Blockhouse, near
Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Bridgewater,
about an hour’s drive southwest of Halifax. (The school was the reason I came to the South Shore
from my home in Cape
Breton sixteen years ago,
as the first teacher.) In New Brunswick there are
4 Society members. There will be a new
Waldorf-inspired school opening this September near Fredericton,
Knowlesville Art & Nature School.
We feel fortunate having Arthur Osmond as Classholder in Nova Scotia. 7/8 members have been attending monthly
Class Lessons for two years. We will
complete the cycle of nineteen lessons in September, when we shall decide
together how we wish to proceed. There
never was a classholder living in NS before.
I have been a member of the School since 1999, and was seriously
wondering why, when Arthur and Margaret with their daughter, came to live in Dartmouth. There is a feeling of preparing ground with
this work.
As a retired-from-the-classroom Waldorf teacher I am greatly
encouraged by how much interest there is in Waldorf education here; parent groups have formed and started
playgroups in Halifax and Annapolis
Royal, and there are Waldorf-inspired homeschooling groups dotted
around. Recently I have talked to
interested parents in Cape
Breton. In Nova
Scotia, population is small, with distances always to
be bridged. In Halifax there is a parenting initiative run
by Carol Nasr, who is also supporting a parent-run playgroup there, with
mentoring and workshops. Arthur and
Margaret Osmond are active in giving support to anthroposophy, Waldorf
education and eurythmy. Teachers and parents/families are also supported by
Waldorf East, which put on its sixth annual conference this year at the South Shore
Waldorf School;
and also organizes lectures and workshops.
Ontario is not too far away (1500 kms!)
with Waldorf teacher training at the Rudolf Steiner Centre in Toronto.
Some SSWS teachers were educated there, myself included. It is hard to express adequately how
grateful I am to have had that experience.
Some have taken part in the distance foundation studies course (RSCT),
of which I hear excellent reports. Others
have been trained at the West Coast Institute in British Columbia, and they too are grateful
for the excellent courses there. Some
of the SSWS teachers have not had Waldorf training, but are very keen to be
trained. There have been requests for
training closer to home. It is
impossible for some to travel away.
What is being carried out piecemeal at present adds up to excellent
support for teachers and parents, but there’s a feeling that an integrated
course would be beneficial.
An anthroposophical foundation studies course will start in
September (a requirement for Waldorf teacher training). True to the nature of how courses are often
initiated, I was asked several times by one of my colleagues before I retired, if
it would be a possibility for me to lead such a course. It is dear to my heart, for several
reasons: to be able to respond to an
individual’s wish for knowledge, which gave the inspiration! I love to read anthroposophical books with
others, it helps to sort things out; the
school community being a young one anthroposophically-speaking (are we not,
most of us?) I welcome the thought of another avenue opening up for an
anthroposophical approach to life there.
The course is supported morally and financially by the NS Group to get
started; it looks likely that it will be
self-sustainable this year. There will
be participants on the South
Shore and in the Valley,
with a leader in each location: all
participants will come together periodically.
Five books written by Steiner will be studied over the year, starting
with How to Know Higher Worlds. There
will be arts/science sessions as part of the course, opened up to wider
participation; this, in addition to the
joy of sharing the subject matter, will help the course become self-sustainable
financially (first session: Earth
Science given by Dr Duncan Keppie, geologist, ASC member, The Spirit of the
Earth, Our Home. Developing inner
organs to gain spiritual insights into the planet we live on. A day in Minas Basin, NS). Can we dare to hope that this will be the
first year of a continuing course? At
this stage, it’s a beginning, and we’re open to what it brings us, without
proscribed expectations.
There is bio-dynamic farming, gardening and beekeeping in Nova Scotia. Bio-dynamic farming, composting, and
beekeeping workshops are offered.
Through last year there was an active bio-dynamic study group initiated
by a gardener on the South
Shore, who is introducing
bio-d methods into her CSA market garden.
In Wolfville is the Alexander Society which has brought
Steiner’s insights into curative work with children and adolescents for many
years, as well as bringing speakers/workshop leaders from England and North America
for public presentations.
There is more than this, but I will not go on. What I have described is the outer ‘skin’ of
much human activity inspired by anthroposophy.
Imagine all the preparation and work, the joys and the challenges of the
spiritual and earthly worlds that has brought into existence these human
endeavours! There is so much going on
unseen, which will prove important and supporting for anthroposophy in the
future I believe. I am an optimist,
especially as I meet so many young, and not so young, people today who hold an
earnest striving to enliven the world with their loving care for the good.
Thank you, Colin and all the individuals in your group, for
stimulating me to write.
Greetings from Nova
Scotia to all, and blessings on your anthroposophical
adventures!
Judy King.
