A Candle-Lit Wreath
Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,
This Tuesday at WSSB was Santa Lucia Day, a day -- because of its shortness -- writer John Donne called “the year’s midnight.” In this Waldorf tradition -- based on a European one -- Santa Lucia leads a procession through the school, singing and offering rolls (flavored with honey, saffron, and raisins) to the students. Ms. Witcher’s Second Grade brought this festival to life this year, Kiera Medina serving as Santa Lucia.
According to legend, Santa Lucia brought food and aid to people fleeing persecution who were hiding in the Roman catacombs. Lucia, the story has it, wore a candle-lit wreath on her head to light her way in the labyrinthine dark and to leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible. Here at WSSB when Lucia -- dressed in white and wearing her wreath of seven lighted candles; her maidens of honor and star boys in tow -- enters each classroom, all of her procession singing, the mood of that classroom immediately changes into something at once awed and glad. Numinous even. How moving it is to behold the sincerity and solemnity of Lucia and her entourage!
A great haiku recounts the fierce Japanese warrior who takes off his armor one afternoon to better see a few peonies. This year’s Santa Lucia procession -- composed of some of your children -- was that clutch of peonies. Seeing the procession one couldn’t help but doff one’s armor. One couldn’t help but be undefended before the beauty of our world.
We hope your holidays are filled with such beauty.
In gratitude,
The WSSB Admin Team
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Thank you to those who have given to this year's Annual Fund Campaign. Our goal is $80,000 with 100% participation from every parent (as well as staff and board member) at our school. Please know that this campaign is of primary importance as it helps us cover our operating cost. And please do not see giving as some abstract duty you perhaps ought to fulfill. Instead see it as an opportunity to concretely support the wellbeing of your child and her/his classmates. Please also see it as a way to support WSSB’s faculty and staff who work in service of your child and her/his classmates. Amid unprecedented inflation and a soaring cost of living, help us keep (and hire) the faculty and staff who make our great school what it is. We owe it to the children (and the world they inhabit) to expend every resource available to support WSSB's Slow Education. Please click here to support your child:
https://waldorfsantabarbara.org/annual-giving-fund
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Heart to heart,
The Admin Team
PS The thought of the day is from Satish Kumar:
"The world is how you see it and what you make of it. If you look at the world with benevolent eyes, the world reciprocates with benevolence. If you project suspicion and self-interest, you get the same in return. Trust begets trust and fear begets fear. Recognizing the benevolence of the universe is not to deny the shadow side, but seeing nature as red in tooth and claw and people as selfish and greedy makes us respond in a similar vein. If we sow seeds of malevolence, malevolence will grow; if we sow seeds of benevolence, benevolence will grow."
PPS The second thought of the day is from Thich Nhat Hanh:
"I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."