Esther Leisher shares:
Four children shared their lives with my husband and me in this rambling old house and this lovely mountain setting in New Mexico. They are grown up now, but when they were young so much living, so much family life, went on that I would hardly know how to begin to speak of it if people did not ask me specific questions.
Those questions come up in chats around a kitchen table, in Waldorf study groups, or during the questions and answers after a craft workshop. When the chats are by e-mail, some things get written down. I encourage people to add comments or suggestions, then pass it around. A file results that is a collection of ideas--women talking together about their lives.
About my life: When I had only two children, after teaching kindergarten for two years I decided to have another child and bring her up in an entirely Waldorf way. Life is unendingly amazing, and in the wisdom of the universe I ended up with two more children, Laurel and Paul. The odds and ends of Waldorf that I did with the older two, Mark and Craig, gave way to a life suffused with Waldorf, continuing into homeschooling until Laurel was 11 and Paul was 9.
I found Waldorf strange and difficult at times and yet heart-warming and appealing. It is so creative that I had to find qualities in myself that I did not know I had. In the beginning I could not even tell the story of "The Three Little Pigs." By the end I was creating stories daily, writing musicals and illustrating stories with colored wool roving -- and doing a multitude of other impossible things.
My Waldorf experience has been largely home based, though I had
mentors, a curriculum, conferences and study groups--and always, always, a
steady supply of radiant and life-filled thoughts. Understanding Young Children
--a collection of brief excerpts from Steiner--became for me a source of meditative thoughts. I tried to listen inwardly to one thought at a time, sometimes even saying out loud to the universe "I want to understand this."
I think there are angel-like beings who are waiting to hear such intentions. Surprising things happen. A grace-bestowing being hears your reverent receptivity and clearly focused intentions, and is ready to help you in various ways. You know that from your own experience, each of you, for out of it you have created your own individual approach, your own unique family.
