A Wonderful Teacher

My youngest heads out into the world tomorrow morning giving her all to land the job of her dreams. She is now considered HQT -  highly qualified teacher - a designation given to teachers deemed fully qualified to take on one of the most important jobs in America. She will bear the full responsibility to be not only a teacher, but a developmentalist, a social worker, a psychologist, a friend, a family counselor, a front line against abuse, neglect, and so much more. She'll use acting skills, art skills, reading and writing skills, dance skills - all in the sometimes thankless job of educating our Littles.

Her dream job is a home room teacher for middle school. But not just any middle school. A Waldorf-inspired middle school that is also a charter school. The synchronicity here is that Waldorf is the education I have my eye on for my grandson when he starts school next year. A Waldorf education is one that is hand picked by many of the movers and shakers in the Silicon Valley for their children. It doesn't come cheap - the average tuition is $12,800 per year for a middle school student. But this school is special - it's free. At least it's free to the students - it still receives federal funding. 36% of this school has students that qualify for the free lunch program - an indicator of need. When asked in the first round of interviews why she wanted to work in their school, her answer was that it offered a Waldorf education to everyone - even those that could not afford it.

Social justice is very important to her.

So off she goes - I know she will give it her all, just as she did in the Master's program. Graduating with almost a 4.0 will not hurt her chances, but there are many HQTs out there that are just as qualified to land this wonderful position, many with more experience.

My hope is that they will see the heart of my girl. She really loves those children, but more than that - she sees them. Each and every one.

Good luck, Jilly.

What's Working

One of my writing and researching interests at the moment is to seek out what is working in the world. What I would like to do is find the small business ideas, emerging paradigms, changing mores, educational opportunities, that are already here and effective. My personal cosmology is that our intentions and focus create reality. I also believe that when we are doing what we are meant to do, our true purpose for being here, energy organizes and things begin to happen faster and faster. Sychronicities are more apparent, people enter our lives, doors open, life becomes magical.

Enter the newest social constructs to emerge - renting resources. Nightline did a segment on how people are realizing that they do not need to have things all to themselves. They are renting their cars, extra rooms, even clothes. At least two of the people interviewed in the segment, when asked why they would want to rent out such things, answered by saying that people no longer feel they have to be judged by what they own - therefore, ownership has lost some of its cache. They would rather rent a house than buy it - even if they are qualified and able for ownership. It is just not a big deal for them to own things outright. Whole businesses have been created around this concept. One company is estimated to be worth over a billion dollars. Someone recognized an emerging paradigm and ran with it.

Our friends were telling us about an app that allows you to get a ride anywhere in the San Francisco metro area for $8. It works the old fashioned way - trusting people. The drivers are everyday people that have been vetted by the company. The closest one to where you are calling will come pick you up. You are expected to pay $8. The driver rates you to the company - so if you do not pay, then the next time you call everyone will be too busy to pick you up. Pretty simple, really.

These new entrepreneurs are the wayshowers for the rest of us. Follow your passion, your innate abilities, let go of fear, have some fun! Above all, it is time to have some fun. What's working is us - we are working. We are finding ways to make lemonade out of lemons. We're evolving. Hand us a bad economy, and a banking/mega corporate system determined in their greed to own everything, and we will no longer want what they have to sell. Instead, we will follow a more sustainable path - we'll share!

And we'll make a living while we're doing it.

Personal Power

I was just thinking about personal power and how we often give our personal power away. We allow others to think for us because it's often easier than doing all of the work ourselves. Unfortunately, in the process, we give others our personal power - something we should never do.

I love the idea of taking in big gulps of information and then taking the time to decide which sips I actually swallow. There is so much information out there that we are constantly bombarded with conflicting data. What is truth for one is not necessarily truth for another.

What works for me may not work for you. What works for you may not work for me, but that does not negate your processes. Discernment is key. And to always remember we are all the same, one not better than another, and that each of us have our own path to follow and our own lessons to learn. 

Smart Talk

I've been following a new genre - Smart Talk Radio. That is my interpretation of alternative radio programs that allows one a break from reading. It alleviates the need to sit still! One can learn while doing other tasks. It's been the perfect avenue for me to remove myself from the chair and still absorb the types of material that is of interest to me, personally. 

Most of the programs are downloadable so you can put them on your I-Pod and listen to them while you're driving, gardening, cooking, or working on mundane tasks. I have a tendency to turn it on when I'm doing housework and especially when I begin to prepare dinner. It's like having a friend in the room that talks about the sorts of things that interest me. Have you ever noticed how much of your time is spent talking to friends and family about things that are not all that interesting to you? If I started to talk about what actually interests me, my friends would roll their eyes and think I've gone over the edge. So instead, we talk about the weather, economy, future retirement, houses, cars, children, grandchildren - well you get the picture. There is never any discourse on UFOs, physics, evolving consciousness, or the matrix of control that we seem to be caught up in. Chem Trails have never come up in polite conversation.

There are many radio programs out there. Some are better than others. I like Red Ice Creations out of Northern Europe, Veritas Radio, and Coast to Coast. They seem to be professionally produced, and have high quality sound. But there are many to choose from. You can find a radio program that follows any interest you may have. Most have a segment that is free and then for the second hour you need to be a subscriber. They usually charge $6-8 per month, or pennies a day. For the price of a latte you can have access to some of the deepest thinkers of our time. In fact the website we discussed starting last month was going to eventually have a radio segment. (It is still on the back burner.) 

I may not always understand or agree with what is being said, but I like to listen and store the information. Sometimes little bits and pieces of information can come together, completing a picture of something you may not have even known that you were interesting in knowing!

Keeping in mind that everyone needs to make a living, paying these people such a small sum to keep me entertained and intrigued seems like a good use of my time and money. Listening to these people talk before buying their book, CD, etc, would have saved me many hundreds of dollars over the years. I can't tell you how many books I've bought and abandoned.

If you have a favorite, please let me know. If I find others that might be of interest to you I will post about them. In the meantime, listen to a segment with Neil Kramer (episode number 186) on Veritas,  he is so good at verbalizing what many of us are thinking and feeling right now.

Flexibility

There is just no energy going into our new website. Trish is very busy putting some of her old books into e-book form and won't be available for several months. Jen is busy working full time, taking care of a four-year-old, and launching a new marketing company on the side. That leaves me. I have the time, but not the inclination to do it by myself. After all, collaboration is much more fun.

Flexibility seems to be the word of the day. If we cannot be flexible during these energetic times - we can literally go off the deep end. Things are changing in rapid fire - from our jobs to our government to our personal lives - everything is in limbo. Change is the order of the day and if you can't bend with the times, you run the risk of breaking.

Which leaves me to this blog. Do I continue writing here? Do I put all of my energies into The Book, or do I just remain flexible - following my intuition? I would really like to finish Seth Speaks and put all of that information onto this site. It is partly for you - because I think it is fascinating that much of what Seth channeled in 1971 is proving to be true in 2012 - and partly an exercise for myself. Synthesizing information of that depth is difficult, and I would really like to have it completed for other work I am doing. On the other hand, there is so much more going on in the world right now. Great blog fodder.

So there you have it. A crossroads. To blog or not to blog? How about you? Are you at a crossroads?