Flowers, forgetfulness and the COVID complications of making plans (On Fridays I write)

flowers

This is the week of Sant Jordi in Barcelona, the traditional day to gift roses and books. The day my child has to sit through hours of the “Jocs Florals” at school – these aren’t games at all, but hours of listening to different people read and discuss stories they have written. The modern day Barcelona equivalent of sitting through a sermon in church. Just once a year – except this year it will be cold. The temperatures are incredibly low this April – just yesterday a Mum in our “kids stuff” Whatsapp group asked for winter clothes for her newborn. They just hadn’t planned to have warm clothes for an April birth. 

Our routine of playing in the park after school continues, with flowers, tree climbing and beautiful times with Kira. She did have a fifteen minute breakdown last night, crying and shouting about the injustices of life. I’ll tell you why: In the park they were selling the flowers to strangers. One child was holding 50c!! And one woman, dressed in a black lace dress, offered Kira a wish in return for the flowers. She wrote a note on a napkin for Kira.

Obviously (and especially after reading “Braiding Sweetgrass”) I had a chat with the children about the fact that the flowers they were “selling” were a gift from nature, and what would they like to give back. This resulted in all of them shouting “gracias” at the park in general, and whispering “gracias” and caressing individual plants on the way home. 

When we got back Kira said, “I don’t know what to wish”. I said “You don’t have to wish now, you can keep it for later.” But she wanted to do it now, so thought hard and made her wish. Five minutes later she asked me “Can I have a dog?” to which the answer, as she well knows, is no. Five minutes later she asked “Do witches exist?”, to which the answer is complicated. She has asked both of these questions before! But today it had more meaning, because she was promised a wish which clearly wasn’t going to come true. 

At this point (and please remember hunger and tiredness were very present) the crying began, “Why can’t I decide anything? Why do you and Daddy always decide everything? Why did you get me a mermaid blanket instead of a mermaid swimming costume for my birthday in December?” 

I just got dinner on the table as quickly as possible. 

I love my daughter so much and treasure every moment with her at this beautiful age. After dinner she tried her hardest, and unsuccessfully to blow up a balloon. It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. 

Forgetfulness

The low points of the week were managing to forget to show up to 1) My friends birthday party on zoom, 2) A meeting I myself had called about Rovira Regenerativa 3) A meeting I myself had called about the website and 4) A private class the student had rearranged for the weekend. All these events were things I had planned to do while I was with Kira. The lesson here is, being pregnant, looking after a seven year old, and also trying to work is too many things at once!!!

making plans during covid

We have successfully managed to make plans to run a Rovira Regenerativa weekend and a workshop for this weekend! The workshop will have just 5 participants! And there are constant conversations and doubts about where people can sleep, how we can keep isolated from Caseres, where there is sadly a surge in cases, whether participants are travelling legally to come to the workshop. We need to understand the regulations in two different regions, and also stay updated to any extra localised restrictions in the village. 

In other planning, I am aiming for a slow travel trip to the UK in July. Things are falling in to place, but at seven months pregnant who knows if it will become reality, and with all the different ideas and attitudes from the family about what is “safe” in COVID times it is another crazy minefield. As usual … wait and see. Make plans that don’t affect anyone too much if they are cancelled last minute. Have about ten different versions of what might happen in mind.. and there’ll still be a surprise!

Rewilding Education

As part of the KA2 European funded project I am collaborating with, I had the chance to attend a seminar this week on Holistic Education, and how to bring sustainable, regenerative, education into schools. The session I attended was about increasing intrinsic motivation (rather than “exam grades”). Among other things we talked about

• the need for parents to change attitudes to what “learning” really might look like.
• How can connection with nature increase intrinsic motivation for learning?
• How can we bring risk, freedom and space into classrooms – and facilitate a “choice” to learn?
• How can we bring play into the classroom for older children, and value it?

The main presentation was Alys Mendys 

And here is a link to her PhD and the amazing work of Dan Ford with research promoting “Rewilding Education”

Our interest in rewilding education was ignited a long time ago. Our personal and professional journeys have been leading us to this point. We are like two streams, flowing in the same direction, moving with the elements, being shaped by rocks and by the living world, and finally, after a long time, joining together. The geographical term for this is ‘confluence’: an act or process of merging. Max Hope and Dan Ford

THIS WEEKS CRAZY IDEAS AND NEW STUFF

I had a little look back through the last sections on this. The school workshops won’t go ahead because, in a nutshell, private schools like to talk the talk on eco activities but don’t get it together to actually implement real projects. It’s all on the surface. 

The Lush funding .. well we’ll see

The EU projects: we have a deadline and are connecting with some amazing ideas in Barcelona – the latest is a documentary about the Sindicat de LLogateres who are an incredible powerful force for social justice here. 

And the campsite idea has been very well received by one person!

Until next time!