Friday, December 2, 2011

Spiral of Lights







"As the children walk the spiral, one can truly get a sense of the incredible loving light each individual brings into our world." - K's teacher.

Today was K's Spiral of Lights at school. This is truly one of my favorite festivals of the year. It's so simple and pure and filled with such reverence. There is just nothing else like it. We enter a room that is pitch black minus one candle in the very center of an evergreen spiral. A harp is beautifully played as the children walk the spiral. Each child is given an apple with a candle in it and will walk to the center to light it. Then he or she will find a star on which to place his/her particular light. As each child walks the spiral the path is illuminated more and more. If you are unfamiliar with the festival you can learn a bit more here.







This year's spiral was quite a bit different than the one from last year for me. The meaning and beauty of it all was still the same but Kevin wasn't able to attend and I had a cranky teething baby doing gymnastics in my lap during the whole thing. You've seen this/been there before, right? The baby who's poor gums hurt so much that he wants to nurse for comfort but then doesn't really want to nurse so he stops, sits up, and then arches his back and cries to nurse again. This went on pretty much the whole half hour we were in there. That explains the one and only (blurry) photo I got of K as she lit her candle.









Here she is last year. Yep, she's wearing the same dress and everything. I think it became a tradition for her.



May the beauty of this season be with you always!

P.S - I am so late posting this but if you are in the area please consider helping out Share Your Warmth. We are knitting and crocheting warm, natural fiber outerwear to warm the hearts and bodies of our neighbors in need.
Details can be found here or on their Facebook page.

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Comments (11)

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Your candlelight photos are stunning! And as for the arching baby back routine - yep. That's been us the last 24 hours. Only she's getting so big it's hard to hold on to her when she decides to have a flip and arch! I hope he feels back to normal soon mama.
1 reply · active 695 weeks ago
Thanks! Oh goodness, the back arch - it's crazy, right?!
What a wonderful tradition! And a quick question- how do you get your night photos so beautiful? They aren't grainy at all! Where is your ISO?

I was really looking forward to doing our advent sprial this year, but our birthday box (girls bdays are the week of Xmas, so we keep everything together) got lost in our recent move... so although I have the spiral, I have no candles! Next year.. but I'm living vicariously through you on that, hah.
2 replies · active 695 weeks ago
Thank you so much!! I am still learning how to take candlelight photos. It's been hard for me to figure out, I have been trying to find instructions online and just can't :(
I have the camera set to apertaure priority mode and use a tripod. I tend to just play around with the ISO and aperature until it seems right. I believe those were taken with it set a 1.8 (50mm lens) at an ISO of 640. The blurry spiral photo was taken on auto because I was doubtful of myself... I am wishing I just kept it set to manual.
We live and we learn! I find it easier to stay at a fixed ISO and play around with the shutter speed and aperature- I love candlelight photos, but they are quite tricky. Too big of an aperature, you lose your depth of focus. Too slow a shutter speed, you catch a lot of blur. Too great an ISO and you get grain! You keep doing what you're doing- your photos are wonderful! I hope you and your family are enjoying the season :)
I am so envious of your Waldorf school! (In a good way.) The school closest to us is about 6 hours away. I love the Waldorf principles and try to incorporate them all I can into our regular days. Hope the baby feeld better soon, poor Lil Guy!
1 reply · active 695 weeks ago
I know how you feel. We moved across the country to get to this school. There was nothing near us when we lived in Virginia.
We got to do something similar last year at our church. It was so beautiful! I love your photos. Sorry about the baby. I commiserate.
1 reply · active 695 weeks ago
Thank you. How sweet you do this at church!
How beautiful! So sorry to hear about L's hurting gums! But, the look on C's face as she looks up at her smiling sister! So precious. Wish I were there to help out (not that you or L would have wanted ME to hang with him outside during this special time, but still...). Hugs and love to you all.

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