The First Adventure

"No matter the conditions around us, there are two great adventures that the soul would have us undertake. Our life-project involves both making a way in the outer world and awakening to the way of being already planted within us as a divine spark-seed. The first adventure of life begins with the first breath we take; it concerns the course of human development that leads to “growing up” and eventually entering the world on our own two feet and establishing ourselves in the marketplace of life. The first arc of adventure requires that we produce something, achieve in some way, and “make something of ourselves.” While following this initial arc we make a life, find a livelihood, and adopt a lifestyle. -       Michael Meade: from Why the World Doesn’t End   Home from China, I dug out one of my old journals (2006) to confirm that this indeed was the year I first taught in China. It was. I started to re-read the news from that 18-years-ago-self, my 31st year working at The San Francisco School and me a young 55-year-old. Turns out it was quite an active year, though truth be told, most of them from 1990 on were somewhat similar. On the workshop front, there was a short summary:   • January: Brazil—  Sao Paolo, Rio and Recife • February: China— Beijing and Suzhou • March: Spain— Madrid, Soria, Bilbao                  Finland— Espoo                  Belgium— Brussels                  Scotland— Inverness • July: Austria— Salzburg. Orff Symposium: Keith Terry Body Music Performance with groups from Finland, Austria, Turkey, Spain and California (the last performance of our group Xephyr). Followed by teaching at the Orff Institut Summer Course.              Canada—Toronto Course   • August: Oakland, California—Mills College Level Training   • September/October—Workshops in Charlotte, Washington DC, Orange County   • November: Omaha, Nebraska—AOSA National Conference So clearly my ambition to achieve something in the marketplace of music education, to “make something of myself” was well-underway. Add to the above teaching at The SF School in the Spring and Fall, producing the 20th SF School recording (Summer Samba), writing and publishing my sixth book The ABC’s of Education.  All of it clearly following that “divine spark seed,” the unique soul-pattern of how I am put together.    But reading further, it was not all happiness and rainbows. Like all of us, I was deep in the mud and muck of the human comedy and tragedy. There was a big schism in the heavenly trio of James, Sofia and myself as James came to within an inch of leaving us for a dubious adventure in New York, my marriage was continuing its rocky and stormy dynamics, my daughter Talia graduated from college only to have her heart broken two days later by her high school sweetheart. Kerala began a relationship with her husband-to-be who now is breaking her heart in other ways (we never cease to sorrow for our children). I felt wholly celebrated in all the Orff courses around the world, but deeply unappreciated at my own school and within my own Men’s Group. One month after 2006 ended, my Dad had a minor heart attack that turned out to be the beginning of the end. All first-adventure things.    But re-reading all this 18 years later, I’m clearly in the second adventure and I’m here to report it’s a grand place to be. Read on.