Warren Lee Cohen

I am tickled right down to my toes to receive this beautiful poem from Paul Matthews, my dear Foundation Studies colleague at Emerson College in Sussex England. Paul led me artfully to explore the full potential of science and art working side by side, of pursuing silly-seriousness, serious insights pursued imaginatively and at times peripherally. For the truth, much like a heffalump, can only be trapped in an unsuspecting sort of way…

BREAD FELLOW
(for Warren Lee Cohen)

Wisdom is a word you like.
I never relished it,

but have admired how
(loping across the yard)
you knead the good earth
with knees and feet.

It is in this wise
that I’ve savoured you.

Even your homespun hat
seems a bowl preparing
a thoughtful yeast to rise.

Your sourdoughs and your ryes.
You’ve tasted good.

Dear Warren,
Here is the poem I was trying to write for you upon your
farewell from Emerson all those years ago.
Whether it still applies to the person that you now are, I am not sure,
but as a poem I like it (unless the lines beginning:
It is in this wise… should come after: a thoughtful yeast to rise).
Anyway, here it is.

Love to all,
Paul.

We are fortunate at RSCT to be surrounded by a number of anthroposophical initiatives.  We share our campus with the Toronto Waldorf School, Arscura School of  Living Art, Hesperus Village Retirement Community, Pegasus anthroposophical medical practice, the Anthroposophical Society Library, My Child Myself and a Christian Community Church.  There are also a number of anthroposophical initives and Waldorf schools within easy reach of our centre: Waldorf Academy, Halton Waldorf School, Trillium Waldorf School, Mulberry Waldorf School and the London Waldorf School as well as others. This allows for a diverse community life and places us in daily contact with students of all ages in the rhythms of a fully-developed Waldorf school community.

Not all Waldorf schools are so fortunate. I am presently visiting Rio de Janeiro where there is one  small and growing Waldorf school, Jardin-Escola Michaelis. It has been a pleasure to work with the faculty, parents and board of this school as they have all grown over the past five years from a small kindergarten to a growing school that encompasses severeal multi-age kindergartens up to grade four. They have outgrown their first school house and are presently nearing capacity in their second. It is not easy to grow a spiritually minded community school in Rio, the capital of CARNIVAL, but these families are doing a remarkable job and with little support or recognition beyond those families who have found their way to this little school. It´s creation and conitnuing existence is a miracle whose value is most clearly visible in the faces of the happy children.

Parabems!

Here is a simple pentatonic song to open and close our bedtime storytelling and/or reading.  I composed it to introduce the lyre I made (posted below) for my two young daughters this Christmas.

Sun and moon and shining star
Gently guide my dreaming far
To the land of angels bright
Fill my heart your golden light.

The melody is D, E, G, A, B, D, E ascending
and then E, D, B, A, G, E, D descending.
This repeats twice with the lyrics.

It was such a treat to work creatively with Kuniko, Paul and Bree again, an honor to reunite with Emerson Foundation Year colleagues. Somehow we all seem to have all grown a bit older and wiser and more tender through the challenges we have each had to meet in our respective countries. Kuniko is now a trained and practicing Biographical Counselor in Japan – a wise woman who is ready to listen and selflessly reflect. Bree is teaching music and English and developing her beautiful voice. And Paul continues to delight students and writers around the world with his creative approach to “silly-seriousness.” His genius, all of their genii are contagious. I am grateful that we created another opportunity to work together and that they had an opportunity to meet my family in our home outside of Toronto where they effortlessly warmed their way into the hearts of my daughters.

These pictures are courtesy of Kuniko, who courageously came all the way from difficult circumstances in Japan to study  with us in our Encounters with Imagination: festival of arts and education.

May we find many more occasions to come together in our striving and in our desire to play artistically.

Encounters with Imagination: festival of arts and education was an inspiring success with over 50 people enrolling in 1 or more courses. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive with much encouragement to carry on with this initiative next summer. I thoroughly enjoyed bringing aspects of anthroposophy over the course of a week and felt well met by my students. What  a pleasure it was wrestling with ideas such as freedom and the journey beyond the threshold with intelligent and open minded individuals. We devoted the whole final day to looking at Rudolf Steiner’s large wood sculpture, The Representative of Humanity. We explored first the many contrasting elements of this piece and the dynamics between them before we ever tried to name them. Once we had fully characterized the forms and flow of these beings then it felt proper to share their names Christ, Lucifer, Ahriman and Humor and to explore our own understandings and relationships with them. It was a rich and evocative session.

In the second week I took part in Paul Matthew’s creative writing workshop and as ever was delighted by his creative genius and warmth. It was heartening to renew our friendship, which has only grown since our working together at Emerson and as well to see how my girls delighted in his presence. The highlights of the festival for me were the times we were all working together: singing and spacial dynamics in the mornings and evening events including pizza nights, poetry and story evening and a social art evening. this is where it really felt like a festival and I could sense the creative spirit of Emerson raying through our work. And now I look forward to a bit of a rest and then pulling together next summer’s festival.

Welcome parents, educators and artists interested in working with the imagination. The Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto has invited a team of internationally acclaimed artists and educators to offer a diverse selection of practical and artistic workshops. Each explores how the capacity for imagination can be cultivated to serve the arts and education and to enrich our lives. Enrol in one, two, three or four of these week-long workshops and savour your encounter with imagination.

The capacity for imagination is central to advances in all fields of human endeavour. Scientists, artists and educators alike rely upon creative capacities to forge new understanding and build healthy relationships. The cultivation of imagination is fundamental to Waldorf education, in which teachers and students alike are encouraged to perceive living interconnections between seemingly separate things. These reveal that individuals and objects are but a part of a whole meaning-filled world. Imagination lifts the veil of materialism and offers insights into how to work holistically in any endeavour.

Yes, I love to make bread.
I love to combine flour, water, salt and leaven.

I love the alchemy of how earthly substance combines with water; of how air is created by the leavening culture and how at last fire completes the transformation from four simple ingredients into whole loaves.

These are the staff of life.
I like the feel of the dough as I kneed it with my hands, how when I push it, it pushes back against me.

My life meets its life.
We shape one another.

But how, I wonder, am I the bread of life?
In what ways do I nurture the life in myself and in others?

Perhaps it is in those special meetings in which I knead the being of another and equally allow her to knead the essence of me.
I meet you.
You meet me.
Life!

There is a Japanese saying:
Friends eat together from the same bowl.

Let us then companions be.
Let us eat from the same loaf.
Kneading, forming, baking community.

Bake bread. Break it and share it out.

~Warren Lee Cohen

Waldorf: Being a Teacher

I have been fortunate to be involved with Waldorf Education for the past 20 years. Not only is it a continuous source of inspiration for me, I have witnessed what a unique and wonderful approach to education it is. Children excell there in many faceted ways. Now that I have my own children, I could not imagine a more perfect school setting for them. Waldorf schools value childhood, protect their innocence, allow for creative play and foster the healthy development of imagination. They offer offer children opportunities to develop a broad range of skills, social/emotional maturity and conceptual depth that they will need for life. This truly is a broad based education rooted in the arts that  fosters balance, empathy, creativity and ultimately human freedom. It has been tested and refined over the past 90 years.

As a teacher, I feel that to be entrusted with professional task of looking after the well being of a group of students over a period of eight years. It is an awe inspiring responsibility and one for which I am eternally grateful. I could not now imagine a more satisfying or meaningful vocation than that of teaching in a ‘Waldorf school. As the director of teacher education at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto I do have a vested interest; nevertheless, these sentiments do come directly from my experience and from my heart. I welcome any inquiries and/or questions.

I was invited to bake Dragon Bread with the first grade at the Toronto Waldorf School. The 25 students, their teacher and a few very helpful parents were delightfully enthusiastic to get their hands into the dough and to shape their imaginations into wholesome and tasty loaves of bread. Some chose to make their dragons spiky and scary others saw them as more amiable creatures, waiting to be of service. None had difficulty kneading and shaping their creations. they made them in the morning and we were able to bake them for lunch. They ate a part of it and took the rest home to share with their families. Whenever I see any of the students they are sure to ask me when we will be baking again. Children simply love the meaning-filled task of baking bread especially when it is done with imagination and love. They sense the rightness of it and are  eager to participate from the initial sticky dough all the way to eating the delicious crust and crumb.

And, while making 25 smaller dragons why not make a really large one? In response to a special request from Jef Saunders from Arscura School of Living Art, I made the largest Dragon Bread that I have yet attempted: sourdough with raisins and dried cranberries, jewels in the belly that was decorated with almonds. It was fun to make and according to many reports from their Michaelmas celebration delicious to eat. The photo is courtesy of Vibeke Ball. Thank you to one and all for a fun baking day!

Is this bread really food or is it the clever brain child of a chemistry lab?

Whole grain white bread???

Look at the ingredient label below.

In what bread recipe that you know is their more water than flour (usually it is 2 to 1, flour to water)?
Since when is Cottonseed fiber a food?
High fructose corn syrup is not a food!
Neither is soy fiber!
And then there is the whole list of other unpronouncable goodies…

Ingredients:  WATER, WHEAT FLOUR, COTTONSEED FIBER, WHEAT GLUTEN, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP OR SUGAR, YEAST. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, BARLEY MALT, VINEGAR, NATURAL FLAVOR, CALCIUM PROPIONATE (TO RETAIN FRESHNESS), SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, CELLULOSE GUM, SOY FIBER, ETHOXYLATED MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SOYBEAN OIL, SOY LECITHIN, YEAST EXTRACT, B VITAMINS (NIACIN, THIAMINE MONONITRATE (B1), RIBOFLAVIN (B2), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (B6), FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN B12), CALCIUM SULFATE, FERROUS SULFATE (IRON), CALCIUM DIOXIDE, VITAMIN D3, VITAMIN E ACETATE, ZINC OXIDE, AZODICARBONAMIDE, ENZYMES, SOY FLOUR, STEVIA EXTRACT (NATURAL SWEETENER), WHEY.

Why choose this when all it takes to make nutritious bread is flour, water, salt and leaven?

Keep on baking!