Filed under: Thoughts
A couple of weeks ago while reading Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life (Hanh & Cheung 2011) I came across the authors’ contention that there is a net of general everyday, moment-to-moment mindfulness. They referred to mindfulness as the rhythm of mindful living. At the same time, I was thinking about how the momentum of work is sustained, an especially vital concern when involved in a learning situation where there are few external controls coupled with all the distractions of modern life. I recommended writing out a schedule of activities so that a momentum of self-directed reminders is established: “every morning at 10:00 I will write in my journal,” or, “every Tuesday I go on a photo shoot, rain or shine,” or, Tuesday and Thursday evenings are devoted to journal writing.” But how is such a practice established in life? In the same week, a conversation with Crystal about the book You Are Your Child’s First Teacher (Dancy 2012) came up with the answer: we learn such patterns early in life, at home. Dancy’s chapter, “Rhythm in Home Life” presents the case that “children’s—and our own—life” can be simplified on four levels: “environment, rhythm, schedules, and filtering…” Adults influence work patterns that lead to internal self-direction by creating weekly rhythms of daily home tasks. As a Waldorf practitioner, Dancy quotes Rudolph Steiner (b.1861 d. 1925) the founder of Waldorf pedagogy, “Chaos prevails. But man must give birth again to rhythm out of his innermost being, his own initiative.”
