07/14/2023
What Does Your Spirit Need to Feel Healthy?
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941, Author
Today’s EED message comes from Exchange Leader Amber Holmes, a Registered Early Childhood Educator in Ontario, Canada:
I was encouraged to see a recent ExchangeEveryDay message on Reflections on Children’s Spiritual Development talking about Spirit, since it’s not a conversation I often hear educators talking about in practice. I am Anishinaabe, and in my teachings our Spiritual well-being is just as important as our physical, mental, and emotional well-being... I recognize how crucial it is to create space for understanding Sprit’s role in wholistic learning with children, so as a pedagogical leader in mentorship with childcare programs, I often find myself bringing Spirit into everyday dialogue. Through my work walking alongside programs, I encourage educators to reflect on what I call the Spiritual Domains of creativity, curiosity, empathy, and wonder, and how these domains nurture connections between Spirits. During a visit to a childcare program this summer, I invited a group of preschoolers and educators to think about the things they do that make them feel most like themselves. “What does your Spirit need to feel healthy?” I asked. This is the list they came up with:
- Colouring
- Painting
- Beading
- Climbing
- Playing
- Creating
- Learning
- Being
- Music
- Dancing
- Being with plants
- Pizza
- Movie nights
- Hockey
- Stitching
- Crafting
- Stitching
- Crafting
The children’s responses were so insightful. Without prompting, many of the children recognized that they feel most in touch with Spirit while in the act of creating. This affirms my Anishinaabe teachings about children being innately closest to Spirit, and my teachings about our purpose here on Earth. Our purpose is not to consume, to collect or to conquer; our true purpose in life is to create and to connect.
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