Tag Archives: anthroposophy

Martinmas Through a Waldorf Lens

To celebrate Martinmas, Jeffrey’s school held their annual lantern walk. As the story goes, St. Martin grew up the son of a Roman soldier and he himself joined the Roman army. While on horseback in Amiens, he noticed a naked beggar being ignored by others as the beggar was requesting food or clothing. St. Martin, having no money, took the red cloak off of his back, cut it in half and handed half of it to the beggar. This act of kindness caused St. Martin to run late and the city gates were shut by the time he arrived at his destination. Left with no choice, he nestled down next to a tree root and sought shelter under his half of the cloak. He noticed lights flickering in the woods as he noticed a long single file procession of lanterns. He followed them all the way up to the glory of heaven where he was met by the son of God. And Christ thanked St. Martin for clothing him, for Christ had been the beggar in spirit. As a sign of thanks, Christ gave St. Martin a warm white cloak. When St. Martin awoke, he found his red cloak was gone and left in its place was the white cloak. From that day forward St. Martin vowed to serve God and Christ. When he met with the Emperor to be rewarded for repelling the Teutons, he replied “Up to now, I have served you as a soldier; allow me henceforth to serve Christ. Give the bounty to these others who are going out to battle. I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.” To which he was accused by Julian of cowardice and thus imprisoned, but finally released after striking a deal. St. Martin left the army and pursued a solitary life devoted to Christ.
The lantern walk featured a procession of students, teachers and families walking in a procession, singing songs while the children carry the lanterns they made in class. It is said that St. Martin recognized the divine spark in the beggar in Amiens and thus gave it the protection of his cloak. The lanterns that the children make are symbolic of our individual divine spark and the lantern represents the protection of that spark. Our flame began shining at Michaelmas, and we must protect our flame as we carry it into the darkness. Every light that shines offers relief to the darkness.
“No one who lights a lamp hides it away or places it under a bushel basket, but on a lamp stand so that those who enter might see the light. The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness. Take care, then, that the light in you not become darkness. If your whole body is full of light, and no part of it is in darkness, then it will be as full of light as a lamp illuminating you with it brightness.”
Luke 11: 33-36

Courage and Community

A Celebration of Courage

At our son’s school on Friday we had the pleasure of observing and participating the Michalemas festival, which is a celebration of courage, reflection and conquering fears. Also known as the festival of strong will. We watched a magical play that depicted the slaying of the dragon by St. George. There was a slight deviation from the story as this version had the 1st graders taming the dragon as opposed to actually slaying the creature. It was quite an adorable adaptation. After the theatrics, we were treated to “dragon bread,” organic handmade bread baked at the school. Then came time for the games! Children challenged themselves on the wooden obstacle course with such challenges as a teeter totter balance beam and varying balancing and crawling obstacles. On the hillside children could be observed chasing hula hoops while running between through the center. Fresh organic fruit kabobs provided refreshing nourishment between the challenges. It truly was a joyous festival. If you would like to read more about Michaelmas, click here. If you would like to learn more about Waldorf education, click here.

George taming the dragon

Farm Fresh Eating

Last week, my wife and I decided to sign up for a couple of local CSA’s (community sponsored agriculture.) We signed up with J.R. Organics for our produce and SonRise Ranch for our meat. We were already purchasing a good portion of our produce from J.R. Organics from the farmers market, so they seemed the most fitting and logical when decided on which farm to go with. We like SonRise Ranch because their animals are all pastured, including the pigs and we agree with their farming practices and methods which includes not engaging in the use of GMO feed, pesticides, antibotics. They also use sustainable methods which is refreshing in this age of resource depletion. We signed up for the weekly CSA box and the veggies provided will be enough for our family for the week, along with what we can supplement from our garden. The meat totaled 14lbs, 7lbs beef and 7lbs pork. If you eat organic or clean, then you know how hard it is to fine pastured, grass-fed pork. We received various cuts from pork chops, roast and pork ribs to New York steak and ground beef. I haven’t had ribs or pork chops in at least 2 years since I committed myself to eating a GMO free diet. Needless to say, I am stoked and we are cutting our grocery bill almost in half. If you would like to locate a CSA in your region, click here. Below are some pictures of our CSA treasures:

The Turning of the Wheel – A New Cycle

The Turning of the Wheel

As the wheel of the year turns, the Fall equinox finds us again as we gather our Autumn harvest. The Earth bulges with gifts of life as we prepare ourselves for a period of reflection. In this spirit I have started this blog in hopes to share my human experience with those who are so interested in learning more of the way of life for yours truly, The Crunchy Dad.

Being that this is a brand spanking new blog, I will use this first entry as an opportunity to introduce myself. I am a 32 year old father two a 5 yr. old boy and 3 yr. old girl. I have a beautiful wife and have been married for 12 years to my high school sweet heart. All in all, we lead a pretty unconventional lifestyle. We by no means judge negatively those folks who lead a more conventional lifestyle, much as we do not want to be judged. It is my hope to bridge some of the gaps between the two worlds.

What does “crunchy” mean?

You may be wondering, what does “crunchy” mean and why would I call myself The Crunchy Dad? Crunchy has been defined by urban dictionary by the following:

Crunchy – Used to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc.

I never really considered myself crunchy, liberal or a hippie. I never cared for labels and stereotypes. It wasn’t until others would start to address me as such that I decided to embrace that which I am, The Crunchy Dad.

Lifestyle

As this first post is intended to introduce myself to you and bring you into my world, I should give a synopsis of our lifestyle and see if you think it fits with the spirit of “crunchy.”

Completely organic diet. This includes taking into account factors such as brand selection.
No restaurants. We will occasionally eat at Haggo’s Organic Taco or the organic salad bar at Jimbo’s
No GMO’s. This should go without saying.
Meat must be from grass fed pastured animals or supplement with certified organic feed.
Buy local. We purchase our meat from the CSA provided by SonRise Ranch and our produce from J.R. Organics.
We have a whole house water filtration system that removes all the fluoride and chloromines among other chemicals.
We have a growing garden that we use to supplement our weekly CSA shares.
We haven’t touched seafood since the Fukushima disaster unfolded.
We don’t watch television. Our kids can watch one movie on Saturday’s. Computers and video games are out of the question.
I don’t use deodorant! Don’t worry, lime works just as well so I don’t walk around smelly!
I brush my teeth with fluoride free clay.
I use herbal remedies and concentrated herb oils to treat various ailments.
Our son attends a Waldorf school which develops the whole child as opposed yo focusing on academia.
We celebrate the festivals of the seasons.
We are against plastic toys for our household.
It doesn’t bother me when my son puts on his sisters fancy shoes to play dress up or when my daughter decides to play with toys for boys.
We sing, dance and play games daily for entertainment.
Last but no least, we sacrifice. There’s a lot we do without to afford our simplistic lifestyle. What we lack in personal possessions, we hope to make up for with riches from the heart.

So ends another day

There you have it, a brief intro to the Crunchy Dad. I’m sure there’s a ton I left out that you’ll get to see as we grow to know one another. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I tried to link to information that I felt would be useful, please note that I am in no way affiliated with any of the mentioned businesses. It’s merely me doing my part to spread the word of the places I trust my family too and to increase consumer awareness. Until we meet again, stay blessed and speak from your heart and in the language of love.

– The Crunchy Dad