Humanity’s Team and School of the New Spirituality
Children’s Spiritual Retreat
concurrently run with
Neale Donald
Walsch’s
“God and Me – A
Journey To Holy Ground” Retreat
March 7-11,
2007
CHILDREN'S PROGRAM -
Integrating New Spirituality into LIFE!
Introduction:
HT Kids is an initiative of
Humanity's Team
SNS’s Eileen, Rita, Linda, and
Mary Ann HT’s
Lynne and Mary Ann
SNS is a world-wide non-profit organization, created by Neale Donald Walsch and formerly named Heart Light Education. HT and SNS are sister organizations in that both are leading new spirituality "Civil Rights for the Soul" programs. SNS specifically co-develops programs for youth and their adult leaders. For more information on The School of the New Spirituality and how you can get involved, please visit www.schoolofthenewspirituality.com
Lynne Cox is the creator/author of
"The Shining Light" program which is includes stories
both in print and on CD and a wonderfully comprehensive manual for
parents and teachers just full of self-discovery activities that
can be done with children of all ages. During our program, Lynne
presented several activities and stories from her work. More
information can be found about "The Shining Light"
program by visiting www.shininglight.ca . Linda Lee Ratto, Ed.M. is the author of ten books
and a worldwide education consult and keynote. The SNS-HT Retreat
Team utilized "Dream-making" techniques and tools from Linda's
books, CDs, and SNS's HeartLight Learning Model in each retreat
circle with the children. For additional information:
www.LindaLeeRatto.com
Overall
Theme: Love of Self and You Can
Lead Your Life!
Sub
Themes:
The focus was on the introduction of the concepts of spirituality as
outlined in the CWG book series in a fun, practical and interactive way.
Body, mind and spirit
(tri-part being) was addressed directly (or indirectly, depending on the
age and level of the children in attendance) with the incorporation of
principles such as chosen lifetimes, soul/light within and finding one’s
inner voice, communication and listening, equal voice and sharing/caring
activities, developing intuition skills, interconnectedness of all life,
creative power of imagination, visualization. The underlying theme was:
Love of Self and You Can Lead Your Life. We brought new spirituality
into LIFE through practical activities that apply to everyday
living.
Outline of
Program: We brought together a
variety of activities, stories, art, music and film with the emphasis on
getting to know the children in attendance with a set of “getting to
know you” activities chosen on the Wednesday evening. We then choose from a range of
material listed below to represent each sub-theme that seemed most
suited for this group.
Cues on how to
introduce, discuss or explore a theme were taken from the children as
their interests became known to us. Having the children's thoughts
and input was encouraged and supported at all times, and varied
presentation styles were taken as a normal part of the agenda.
Modalities
encouraged: Life-Purpose /
Dream-making / Hands-on/Experiential Learning / Leader-focused
environment / Dahn Hak Yoga / Games / Arts and Crafts / Swimming and
outdoor play / Chanting and Drumming.
Activity
Themes:
We
went in with the following outline and ended up choosing suitable
activities from this list:
1.
Circle times began each
day/session, initially to help introduce each other in a fun and
interactive way, afterwards to simply create the space to express and
connect with each child each time we came together, and set the tone for
activities to follow
2.
Meditation was introduced
though circle/nature/music or simply quiet time with guided
visualization(s)
3.
Introduction of Soul/Light
and God through selected stories that emphasized chosen lifetimes, the
complete spirits/souls that all of us are, that God is all Loving,
Everywhere and in All Things
4.
Explored "We are all One" and
what it meant, in many ways throughout the program
5.
Loving
Your Self – in as many ways as possible,
not just through the program material, but also through the nurturing
support of guides, with children and each other
6.
The power of caring, what you
give is what you receive (life mirroring back) Laws of Attraction
7.
Relationships
8.
Communication skills
9.
Intuition as a skill and tool
to develop in each of us. To know without knowing how you know - and
trusting it
10.
Intention and Focus - what we
place our attention on grows
11.
Diversity and differences in
people – acceptance of self and others
12.
Dreams and wishes, and
"Making Dreams Come True"
13.
Creativity - what it is and
how each of us show this individually
14.
Feeling and Emotions, and
recognizing their importance in self
15.
Modeling the importance and
value of service to others
16.
Laughter Yoga as a tool to
altering emotional state and perceptions thereafter
17.
Imagery and Power of
Visualization to heal and create
18.
Awareness, honesty and
responsibility
19.
Importance of the "Now" or
present moment in our lives
20.
The power of story and
mythology in imparting key spiritual messages.
Program
Format:
Wednesday beginning with dinner at 5:30pm, program introduction at
7-10pm. Thursday/Friday/Saturday all day (9am until 9pm - minus
breakfast and dinner with parents), Sunday 9am until 6pm.
Program
location and set up: A large dedicated room with
natural lighting, and washroom was requested for the program. We were very fortunate to have
two suites on the top floor of the Harbour Towers Hotel located in
beautiful downtown
Show and Tell -- some of our
materials
What Happened:
We were working throughout the weekend with thirteen amazing
children registered -- siblings from five fabulous families. We had a 3-year old, a 5-year
old, two 7-year olds, four 8-year olds, a 9-year old, three 11-year olds
and a soon to be 12 year old.
There were four girls and nine boys. After the introductory
games designed to get to know each other on the Wed. evening, we spent
the time having the children make life-size outlines of their bodies by
tracing around them onto large pieces of chart-paper. The children then
decorated them. We used
them later in the program as a form of expressing how each was feeling
that day. They would create
a new face expression and attach it to their picture-body which hung on
the windows of one of the rooms we were using.
Bodies – “just hangin’
around”
Rather than give a formal litany of
each day, what follows are some of the specific activities chosen for
this particular group.
Each day began with a “Trickle-in
Time” (which became shorter and shorter as the weekend progressed and
participants wanted the time to sleep in). As the children arrived they
could finish their activities from the previous evening or read a book,
do a craft, while waiting for the Circle Time at 9am once everyone had
arrived.
Linda began Thursday morning by
asking the children the “BIG” questions: What do you love? Why are you here on the
planet? What are your
dreams? Responses were
recorded for each child and remained posted throughout the weekend. Insights and new dreams were
added to these posters as the weekend progressed and Linda spent
one-on-one time with each child on Sat. and Sun. helping them to clarify
a plan for manifesting the dreams and wishes that were being revealed
throughout this weekend process.
After snack and a story from Lynne,
we were joined by Master Young Hee, who travels with Neale’s group and
gives yoga sessions for the adult participants during Neale’s
workshops. For us she gave
a wonderful Dahn Hak yoga session which really got our bodies moving and
energized. In fact, Young
Hee joined us again at this time on Saturday and Sunday for more
invigorating Yoga sessions.
Master
Young Hee
“I Love My Toes”
Yoga was followed this day by a
workshop from Lynne, titled “I Can Bee” which emphasized belief in
oneself and belief in the seemingly impossible based on the life of
bees. The children created
their own reminder “Bee” from various materials. Each “Bee” became a vessel for
them to place their own wishes and dreams into.
After lunch, Mary Ann lead the
children in a “Cosmic Zoom” meditation which was designed to encourage
relaxation and unleash their creative imaginations as they “traveled”
out into space to the sounds of the music “Tocatta Wood” from Mannheim
Steamroller’s Fresh Aire III CD.
This was followed by having the children draw a depiction of
their meditation which became a springboard for sharing stories. Several times during the rest of
the weekend they requested the “Cosmic Zoom” meditation to continue
their travels.
Eileen then took over, to direct the
children in creating Heart Boxes, which were lovingly decorated and
filled with “touchstones” representing their dreams and wishes. Later, gratitude rocks collected
on a walk were added to the boxes.
Eileen explains and then we
create Heart Boxes
Next, In preparation for a visit
Neale made to the group on the Friday, Rita lead the children through a
workshop entitled “I Am” which began with the reading of Neale’s book,
“The Little Soul and the Earth”
and focused on helping the children think about their true
nature, their personality traits and talents and abilities they each
possessed. This was
followed with having each one create a small poster identifying “I Am”
statements for themselves.
Rita directs the “I Am” workshop.
Each day the children spent time
expending their energy at the hotel pool between 4pm and 5pm. We had several volunteer
lifeguards who supervised during this time. Unfortunately, none of us
brought our cameras to the pool!
We were also able to do two walks
outside, when the weather cooperated, which gave the children time to
play at a nearby park or to take in the beautiful ocean view while
looking for gratitude stones to place in their Heart
Boxes.
Following swimming, children were
picked up to enjoy dinner with their parents and the program resumed
around 7pm each evening for a couple of hours. One night they were shown a
lovely short DVD film; “Dance Lexie Dance” from the
On the Friday evening, the children
were entertained by the wonderful volunteer Shannon who brought a
collection of drums and percussion instruments to share, including a
demonstration of her dijeri-doo.
The children spent a wonderful time dancing and drumming the
evening away. By Saturday
evening we had been able to manifest a VCR and the children were
entertained by the feature “A Bug’s Life” with it’s themes of
self-acceptance and using one’s talents for the good of all, despite
social pressures and perceived limitations.
Another highlight on Friday was a
visit from Neale Donald Walsch.
He came to talk about his work, in particular as it related to
his two children’s books:
“The Little Soul and the Sun” and “The Little Soul and the
Earth”. This was very well
received by the children who asked many wonderful questions about the
writing process and who were able to have their own books and artwork
signed by Neale. Aeron was
pleased to be able to share his own writing talent with Neale when he
read a poem he had written for the occasion.
Our Visit With
Neale
While Thursday and Friday were more
facilitator-lead and structured to accommodate various visitors,
Saturday and Sunday were more free-flowing once we became aware of the
interests of the group. As
well, in order to incorporate more themes and address the age range, we
decided on a centered approach to our morning programs on the Saturday
and Sunday. The children
were introduced to centers run by each of us and which ranged from story
writing, energy work, arts and crafts, reading, sensory exploration, and
games. This format also
allowed Linda the opportunity to pull individuals for the one-on-one
time needed to assist them with a plan for fulfilling the dreams set out
on the first day. We also
used some of the time Saturday to put the finishing touches on a little
presentation that the children made to the parents just before the
evening program of Saturday night got underway.
Saturday Night Presentation to the
Parents
We were entertained on Saturday
afternoon by another musical guest. Seventeen year-old Taylor Ashton
(son of HT’s Tanya Dixon) joined us with his guitar. We certainly enjoyed this
talented young man and
On our final day, Sunday, the
morning was spent finishing up the center activities and completing
dream making plans. Dan –
another awesome volunteer – joined us after lunch to create a
massive tent under which the children enjoyed their afternoon snack –
they wished for and we manifested ICE CREAM for
all!!
After the daily swim, we reconvened
to have a closing ceremony which included telling each other what we had
enjoyed about each individual over the course of the program and giving
out participation and appreciation certificates to each child. The appreciation certificates
were created from an activity presented to them the day before where, in
a circle a person’s name was called and the group then called out
positive attributes and things they loved about the other. These were scribed onto a
separate sheet for each child.
The sheets were then left out for the rest of the morning and
children could go and add any additional comments and encouragements as
they wished. Later these
were transcribed on to a more formal template by one of the facilitators
to be given out at the closing ceremony. We asked each child for some
“feed forward” which was recorded on videotape where they answered each
of the following questions:
What was awesome about your time this weekend? What did you manifest? What has changed about you? What would you like to see if
you came to another children’s retreat?
As lengthy as this summary seems to
be, I feel my words do not do justice to the amazing experience that
this children’s program was.
The atmosphere was full of loving, healing energy. I was proud of the “safe
container” we created to allow the participants – both children and
adults – to express their divine loving natures so easily. It really didn’t take long for
each child to feel close to each other and to us and for all to
demonstrate their talents and share their wisdoms. There were many breakthrough
moments for each person and many opportunities to connect with each
other in deep and meaningful ways.
The fact that the children’s parents were jointly going through a
similar process with Neale’s team, makes it all the more powerful. Once back into their everyday
routines, what a powerful creative force these families will be for each
other and their communities, and even on the world stage if they so
desire.
In making loving acceptance of self
and each other a priority and focusing our thoughts on only seeing love
and beauty in each other, we were witness on an intense level to
moment-by-moment manifestation of divine purpose in action. It is no accident that we all
brought ourselves together from varied places and walks of life for
these four days in March.
There is no doubt in my mind that our world is going to be just
fine if these young people are representative of the type of child
coming into the world today.
Thank you to The School of the New
Spirituality and Humanity’s Team
In Perfect Love With All That
Is,
Mary Ann
Swan