A Bittersweet Goodbye
Dear WSSB Community,
It is with bittersweetness that we announce Ms. Angela's leavetaking. This summer, after the completion of the school year, Ms. Angela will move to Portland with her husband to be close to her children and baby grandchild.
In the yet-to-be-written chronicles of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara, the chapter on Angela Mietzke will be titled "Legend of Love." (WSSB's motto is "A love-based education that honors the whole child." The phrase "a love-based education" was lifted from a remark Ms. Angela made one day after a staff meeting.)
Few among us have been so unstintingly, extravagantly tender as Ms. Angela. One poet says, "The masks we wear to manage fear weigh heavy as stone. It's this that weighs us down." For years now, Angela has been teaching us -- children and adults alike -- how to take off our masks. And now that she's leaving, it's on us to do this work. It's also on us to carry on her work as storyteller, singer, patient listener, card-writer (what cards she writes!), painter, mulcher, knitter, sweeper, willow-planter, hoedown-dancer, empty-belly-feeder, bread-burner, large-laugher, deep-hugger, child-whisperer, and maker of sundry little heart-thawing gifts.
Angela has served our community in countless other ways besides (committee-work, board-work, numberless open houses, parent enrichment events, et cetera). To attempt a summary of her service to our community in a newsletter is a fool's errand. Therefore, we will more properly and humanly salute Ms. Angela at the end-of-year party.
In the meantime, here's a letter from Ms. Angela to the WSSB community:
"Dear Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,
Sometimes we have to leave the people and places that we love. This is one of those times for me. This summer I will move to Portland with my husband to be closer to my children and new grandbaby.
I want to express my deep gratitude for this community. The children, the families, the faculty, staff, and board have shown me real care and consideration. Over the years The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara has offered me healing, kindness, creativity, and an overflowing fountain of joy.
Every day with your children has been a gift. Their keen interest in life, their curiosity and silliness, have formed who I am in this world.
This school is a place well worth investing in. It served my children as they grew, giving them a place to holistically explore who they were meant to be. This school is in my heart and in my bones. Treasure it. And care for one another. And keep doing the difficult and rewarding work of being in community.
I have been so fortunate to spend 13 years of my life in a deep relationship with this community. Thank you for gifting me with love.
In gratitude,
Ms. Angela"
As many of you know, Ms. Angela is a singer and songwriter of rare beauty. Even as sharing music thus is not exactly Waldorf-correct, we are prepared today, in her honor, to live dangerously. The link below takes you to her recent album, an album that, according to Johnny Gill, "has magical fairy dust sprinkled all over it, making the album get better and better with every listen." It really is a gorgeous gathering of songs, marked coincidentally by the bittersweetness of leavetaking:
Mostly Sad Songs - Album by Angela Mietzke & Sam Genualdi - Apple Music
Ms. Angela, we tenderly wish you well; and look forward to your many visits to the Santa Barbara area.
With gratitude,
The Admin Team
PS The Poem of the Day is by Hafiz (as translated by Daniel Ladinsky). This poem, one that is filled with the spirit of Ms. Angela, is best read aloud:
The Need
Out of a great need we are really holding hands
with everything, and climbing.
Not loving is a letting go. Listen, the terrain
around here is far too steep and dangerous for
that.