Spiritual Preparation
Part of Windows and Mirrors, Grades 4-5
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Make yourself comfortable and light a candle to mark the time as different from other activities. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for about five minutes; perhaps repeat a word or phrase to separate you from the activities of the day. After opening your eyes, consider:
- What ages are the people who are part of your daily life? Do you live with young children, youth, adults or elders? Do you work with individuals who are at different stages of life from you? How do your interactions reflect your respective ages and stages of life? How do these interactions affect your perspective or the way you live?
- Remembering your childhood, what multigenerational or cross-generational moments mattered to you? Why? Who was present? Why were you together? How did individuals of different ages contribute to these moments?
- Review what you know about the multigenerational lives of the children in the Windows and Mirrors group. To what degree might the message of this session be "news" to them? How can you prepare for losses that children may think of or mention, such a recent death, illness, or move of a parent or grandparent?
- What are your expectations for this session? What do you hope results from it? What difference do you hope it makes?