COZY RECIPROCITY
Guiding ideas:
What is cozy? Loneliness versus happy alone. Tranquility, reciprocity, generosity, surprises for the community, words.
Ingredients for today’s Lab:
Coziests Place on the Moon, by Maria Popova.
Small envelopes, embellishing and filling materials: stickers, papers, beads, sea shells, dried flower buttons, words, pinecones from the forest, colored pencils, gift ribbons, tapes. Cookies, hot cocoa, and our Little Free Library.
What just happened?!:
We gathered in the circle to read Coziests Place on the Moon, As Eva read, MATIAS took the opportunity to get cozy on her lap as the story unfolded. Together we discovered the difference between feeling lonely and feeling happy alone. SUNNY and Wendy tested this idea by going behind the loft, still able to hear their friends, still connected, yet all by themselves.
MAX arrived from his walk to school with his hands frozen. As he entered the classroom, he reached for Nicol´s hand and did not want to let go, offering her his other hand. During the class he stayed close, sometimes standing between Nicole’s legs, using her presence as a cozy shelter until his hands slowly warmed.
Wendy does not find driving a truck to Ethiopia cozy, but REY does: “Sometimes I feel so cozy in a construction truck, a digger, going to Ethiopia,” he shared.
Coziness, we explored, is not a fixed idea. It can be about comfort, a physical feeling, or feeling protected, connected, and free to be exactly where one is.
After the book Eva served hot chocolate and offered cookies at one table. Kids noted hot warm the cup fet. LOLA didn’t hesitate to dip her cookie into the chocolate, transforming its solid texture into a warm, mooshy cocoa she was happy to drink. This cozy sensation was immediately echoed by SUNNY, TINO, ZOYA, and ALIYA, who followed her lead, not all of them as willing to drink it. Nearly everyone asked for a second cookie.
At another table , the children explored a wide array of inviting materials, some to put inside the teeny envelopes and others to embellish them. At this table we were making surprises for the vecinos. The Free Library was set out as a place to put the envelopes once complete. Amigues were so proud to fill the library with envelopes, as they delighted in words, textures, objects and images, carefully choosing their favorites to place inside each tiny envelopes.
As the children opened and closed envelopes and wrapped small gifts, a sense of excitement and presence emerged. Wrapping itself became a source of pleasure, an experience to be lived in the moment. Sometimes the gifts were made without a specific recipient in mind; other times, they were created with thoughts of a mom or a dad. In both cases, the love was already present in the act itself.
As we discussed, “What just happend?!” on COZY RECIPROCITY DAY, Eva introduced a large soft paintbrush, CAMILLE was quick to want to share the same gentle brushstrokes with one others, exploring softness and coziness together. TINO and NIKO found comfort in putting on blue vinyl gloves, keeping their hands warm.
