Eleanor Winship called me. “Would you please come interview at the Atlanta Waldorf School?”
That was late May, 1999.
In February, 2000, she stood in my first grade classroom, saying, “I have called my friend to see if he could come take your class, to make it easy for you to get out of this.”
In between those two statements, marking the beginning and the end of my welcome with the Waldorf School of Atlanta, Eleanor played many cards in the game that was my life with the school. Although I was not aware of it at the time, I am deeply grateful for being introduced to the idea that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and that relationships are the medium in which our soul’s mission is dabbled.
That view gives me a perspective that allows me to honor Eleanor for playing an essential role in my personal growth as I danced with the Waldorf community to experience all the life lessons my soul created, to throw myself into the fire of transformation, burning off any conceit, pride, self-centeredness, and arrogance keeping me separate from others and from my life’s purpose. If I were blind to this significance, I would be puzzled, angry, regretful, resentful, and revengeful with the many people who danced with me during that time.
Eleanor could be a representative of the entire community, but others who filled out the personification of my spiritual training were Dena, Peter, Liara, Patricia, and parents Mary, Linda, and Joshua’s mom. Then there was Susan Irby who was wise to both sides and willing to cast off the veil of conspiracy that I was not seeing.
Other characters in the play could be seen as supporters: Kathy, Brigitte, Carol, Bradford, Sara, Jake and Natasha.
At the end of that year, as Bradford was being rejected as well, we attended a showing of Richard I at the Shakespeare Theatre. The play seemed to mirror our journey perfectly as the favored king arrived in a cloud of blessings and was subsequently betrayed, conspired against, and beheaded. At least I didn’t have to die!
My “purification by fire” in the Waldorf Community has perhaps been my most dramatic and significant in my life! I had poured so much of my hopes and dreams into being a Waldorf teacher! To have my position there fall apart within six months was devastating to my ego – and to my career plans. Nevertheless, even as I was leaving, I heard a voice say, “Consider forgiveness. There’s something here about forgiveness.” It took several more years of peeling away at the wounds of being rejected and having to start over before I learned about Radical Forgiveness.
That’s what has given me the tools to truly see how I was doing a healing dance with and for everyone in that community! That view has turned that whole experience from the deepest failure and disappointment in my life to a true blessing of spiritual significance for my life.
Today, I can be grateful to Eleanor for playing her guiding role for my spiritual growth. My heart is at peace.
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Read the book that paved my path for forgiveness – radical forgiveness – and helped me reconnect with the people who ushered in my biggest life blow!
https://forgivenesswalks.com/the-book-radical-forgiveness/
