Internationally Recognized Waldorf Educator, Author, Artist & Activist
Nancy Poer, Waldorf educator and spiritual life coach, is a passionate advocate for young children and families and the dying. She is considered the grandmother of the Home Death Movement and produced an award winning documentary on conscious dying. Nancy is a pilot, long time activist for healthy food, mother of six, grandmother of many and for fun, she jumps out of airplanes.
Nancy Jewel Poer
HOW ARE WE GOING WHERE WE’RE GOING???
As we go deeper into world crisis it is about as scary as it can get! And what is the scariest thing for people? That we are going to die! Dear Ones, I have news for you, we are going to die. We all will die, in fact it is absolutely guaranteed that we will die! I am not making this up! Possibly we will even die from a virus, but it is pretty unlikely.
What we have forgotten is that before we came down from spirit realms to be born in mortal bodies we saw the big plan for our lives, about our coming in and our going out. But even though we came full of heavenly divinity as little babies, through materialistic educations, the prevailing beliefs in Darwinistic science, health systems, consumer culture, etc. we got more comfy and accustomed to physical existence. This has become our major reality as we have forgotten the truth and wonder of the spiritual world. We have forgotten the truth that our spirit will not die. So the bad news is that we will die, but the good news is we can’t be killed! Our higher spirits go on.
We need to be able confront our fears for, as any aware person knows, fear makes everything worse and certainly weakens our immune system.
Of course we recognize that these are serious times— actually it doesn’t get any more serious than it is now. Some numbers of people will cross the threshold in this pandemic but most likely considerably fewer than the numbers that die from other causes all the time. High rates among the elderly are occurring, primarily with those who are already ill, though they are not the only ones as we know. Truth is, the scary thing that we should be equally concerned about as much as our bodily survival is that humanity is in danger of losing their souls as well as their mortal lives.
But guess what? We can only live one moment, one breath at a time. That’s it. We either spend our life energy in panic, fear, and trembling for what might come instead of what is right now. If that is the case, we just missed LIFE❣️ Whoops! Life is lived one moment at a time. Here I am not encouraging the “we-only-live-once-let’s-try-everything” self-indulgent partying, but rather how do we give focus and attention to our deeper soul life, to our truest, highest calling on how we ‘show up” as conscious and caring human beings. Can we recognize the specialness of the quality of the moment? In the grip of fear are we missing the smell of the roses, the divine blessing of the baby’s smile, the endearing look of love and pride in an elder’s face, the kind gestures happening for those in need, the brilliance of the sky, the song of the birds, the awesome wonder of a butterfly, the miracle of the sunrise, or the beauty of the stars?? And especially the many signs from our loved ones living and loving us from the spiritual world?🦋
There is no shame in having fear and there are darn good reasons some people are easily overwhelmed from awful things that have happened to them. But what do you think we came down to earth for? Dig in and go deep - what are we here for? Do we really think it is to spend the time quaking in our boots? We human beings have stunning resilience, and when we are in service of the Higher Good we can be empowered to do amazing things. We can overcome and rise to the occasion. And that is why we are here now —to rise up singing in gratitude that we are still alive. Most younger folks don’t know what it’s like to not be able to take the next day for granted, so please hear it from the old people and yours truly! Every morning we can get up and say, “What do you know, I am still here - standing up, still breathing, actually still walking by golly, even taking nourishment. Yup! “ Do whatever you can do, while you can still do it!😋
Let us re-focus during this massive reset time and take action. Old Granny here is wheeling the compost around on her walker to plant more garden— and you can too!! For heaven’s sake (and I mean that literally) give thanks, help our glorious Mother Earth and one another. Plant a garden or at least a ‘garden’ of good deeds for others. For everyone’s sake, do something positive! We are so much more privileged than most of the world, and we need to be conscious and use our privilege to take caring action!
But we need also to take time to laugh. Yes, belly laugh! This is the good medicine that directly counteracts the hysterical yet paralyzing emotions of fear! Will Rogers and Lucille Ball were two beloved individuals who spoke from the soul of America to our "we-can-do-this-even-in-a-totally-crazy-world” capacities. Will Rogers endeared himself to the whole world with his down-home folksy goodness and astute humor. Lucille Ball was a gift to this nation, an all-American wacky comedian who could steal your heart with her crazy dearness. In more recent times, Fred Rogers and Jon Stewart brought to us similar soul qualities of goodness and the ability to speak with wonderful humor and truth. They are great models for us now in how we can meet our new reality. Find humor wherever you can. Watch some old movies showing us great attitudes and strength when facing challenges where things go absurdly wrong. A bubble of shared laughter is priceless social medicine and great for your health! 😃
Dear Ones, don’t forget to live while you can live! Take care of your family, hug the little ones, pat the dog, cuddle the cat, care for the neighbors, pray for our dear, old Mother Earth and all her people, especially those courageously on the front lines of this crisis. Take action with whatever you have to give.
But most of all, spread some LOVE❤️LOVE❤️ LOVE ❤️ ❤️ ❤️! That, Dear Ones, is why we came into this beautiful but challenging life at this amazing time in history in the first place.❣️
About Nancy
Nancy Jewel Poer was born and raised in California. As a child she loved horses and outdoor life and graduated from the University of Arizona with hopes of becoming a veterinarian. But her large family of six children, three sons and three daughters, became the creative center of her work, along with teaching in the International Waldorf schools.
Nancy is known across the United States, for her lively lectures on Waldorf education, parenting, child development, the spiritual feminine, the mission of the spiritual America, and threshold work. She felt called to threshold work, first assisting with home births, and then pioneering support for home deaths in the community, which she has done for over thirty five years. Nancy is considered a grandmother of the national home death movement and has helped in the founding of threshold groups across the United States. She has written a book considered a classic in the home death movement, Living Into Dying, Spiritual and Practical Deathcare for Family and Community, which has empowered people throughout the country to care for their loved ones at death.
Nancy has served as consumer advocate on the CARE committee for creating end of life policy for the state of California. She is the producer of an award winning, full length documentary on conscious dying, “The Most Excellent Dying of Theodore Jack Heckelman”. and she appears in the PBS documentary A Family Undertaking. An artist as well as a writer, she has published A Child's First Book, Mia's Apple Tree, and in 2011 The Tear, A Children’s Story of Hope and Transformation When a Loved One Dies as well as art prints and cards for children and adults.
She is a co-founder of Rudolf Steiner College, a Waldorf teachers' college near Sacramento, and taught there for forty years. Her courses have included the Spiritual Mission of America. She was co-editor of special America edition forLillipoh magazine and lectured in the national conference on The Inner America, 2009. She has taught children at all grade levels, K-12, and began three Waldorf kindergartens, the last as the founding teacher for the Cedar Springs Waldorf School in Placerville, California.
Nancy and her husband, Gordon are both pilots and built their own airplane. They live in the Sierra foothills on White Feather ranch where they raise cattle, have a bio-dynamic garden, host school classes, and Nancy gives women's retreats and conferences to help pass the work on to others. The ranch serves in many capacities to bring people together for sustainable organic agriculture, supporting spiritual education for teachers and children and building sustainable communities for the future.