School starts one week from today and this is what our campus looks like. I am exhausted and exhilarated by it all. For the past five years, we have planned and talked about and raised money for the school. It has pushed me into areas of great discomfort and frustration. But I have also been brought to tears by the generosity and kindness of people. One day last week, a young woman came into the school and said, "I just needed to be sure this building was still here. I loved being her every day." She was in my class when she was 3, 4, and 5, and now is in her twenties. It is humbling to know that sometimes our everyday actions have a greater impact than we can imagine.

So the dream buildings are rising from the dirt and now we have to fill them with children and adults in community with each other. Here is something I read today from one of my mentors:

"And so, Montessori teachers must teach children to read, write, and calculate - and they must do it well. But with these academics, spiritually aware teachers can encourage children to love, to forgive, to be responsible, to be tolerant, to feel compassion for the less fortunate, and to work for the common good. Spiritual nurturing, by spiritually aware adults, can give children the spiritual strengths they will need to work for Montessori's goal of creating a better and more peaceful world."

and this:

"In a democracy, election of the most able leaders depends on the voters' ability to analyze the claims and arguments of those seeking office. Such analysis can only occur when the electorate can listen discriminately, think clearly, and express themselves accurately."

Time to get to work.

On Harvey ... by Kenny

It’s oil over now, baby blue

You must leave the coast, take what you think will last

And look for higher ground, you better find it fast

Yonder seas are dead, and they're a-rising

There’s a tar sands fire on the horizon

Look out now, hurricanes are coming through

and it's oil over now, baby blue

The highway is for truckers, better use your sense

Crude/chemical explosions and pipeline spills, coincidence?

Carbon fumes are fogging up your streets

and fracking’s uncontrollable methane leaks

the sky's the source for solar power too

and it's oil over now, baby blue

All your oil-slick sailors, they are rowing home

your empty-handed armies, are all going drone

The coal market just walked out the door

renewables now promise so much more

the ring of fire is rumbling under you

and it's oil over now, baby blue

Leave your fossil fuels behind, something calls for you

Forget BP and Shell, conserve and follow through

If we don’t want to bring the planet to a boil

we'll have to leave some oil in the soil

walk or ride, share, go start anew

and it's oil over now, baby blue

- Kenny D., with apologies to Bob D.

On Harvey ... by Maggie

Eronga, Lunes, 28 de Agosto

Hurricane Harvey

Houston

oil refineries, chemical plants, pipelines… 

Are we ready? Beautiful ocean are you ready? 

Terrorist attack on fossils

by the power of nature 

to respond – resist – reset

man- made imbalance Hurricane Pachamama, 

are we ready? NO. 

When's day morn 8/30/2017 

Rain off and on 

all night, all morn 

90% chance, all week 

Rain outside

Rain inside - Rain around the planet 

on the monitor and flooding our minds 

drenching any other thoughts.

After-math, 

the never-ending equation... 

Business, as usual? 

Is there such a thing? 

Recovery? 

Let it go! 

Recover the CO2 from the air; 

recover the plastic from the ocean; 

recover our connection 

our con-science 

our humility.

And, for the "white" clan,

if you think for one moment 

that the survivors will be the "white thoroughbreds"...think again

You may be the first to go with your “cold, dead fingers” wrapped around the triggers.



Well, it’s twelve noon 

 Kenny has gone to Patzcuaro. 

 Fresh Lemon pie arrives at the door 

 maybe another cup of coffee will rescue me from the rain. 

 I’ll have a Skype chat with Molly, 

 put on the latest playlist from Max 

 and carry on, 

 in the slick of it.


- Maggie D