Jane's Pocket Change: Nourishing the Soul and Spirit: More Valuable Than Money*

As you perhaps saw on our Facebook page, the end of Mod 2 coincided with the world-wide observation of Diwali.

My resource Wikipedia says “Diwali: the "festival of lights" is an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in autumn (northern hemisphere) or spring (southern hemisphere) every year. Diwali is one of the largest and brightest festivals in India. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair.”

Anjali Tyagi, English teacher, piloted a new course during Mod 2: Nourishing the Soul and Spirit: A Philosophical Perspective. She and her students prepared some wonderful food at the end of the class and offered it to all of us at our end-of-mod art show celebration. Her students shared the following words about their class experience:

• The cooking today gave me a sense of community and being together. The fact that we were in the kitchen working as a team and hanging out, spending time together really made my day and nourished my soul. I enjoyed how we all just opened up and talked about experiences we had as children with our parents in the kitchen. The idea of creating and making something that we all will benefit from is very calming, and also makes me very proud.

• I found that the cooking was very therapeutic in the sense that I felt connected to the other girls, and in the sense that I felt like I was nourishing myself through snacking and making food. This process of cooking was a step towards nourishment, especially because I was in the presence of friends and laughter. We were presented with the communal challenge of making food, and together we helped each other learn how to make the food. The kitchen was filled with music, chatter, and laughter, which was very refreshing and proved how we were nourishing each other by connecting to one another.

• Cooking today with my peers was a great way to nourish my soul. Something I really value is a strong sense of community. While we were all standing around the counter, chopping our various vegetables, I felt in touch with every other human being in the room. I felt that we were all happy to be there and enjoying ourselves, and that was a very beautiful feeling. Not only were we all in great spirits, but we also got to work on creating something together. It is wonderful and magical to have a spiritual connection with other people, as I feel I do with every person in our class, but to be able to create something is just another way to nourish your soul.

• When we were all in the kitchen working together and learning about all the different spices, I felt connected both to the people around me as well as to myself. It was a time where I was really able to appreciate what I have, and now that I am reflecting on it, I am able to notice the nourishment that my soul feels.

• It was also interesting when Anjali told us about the spices and put them in the pan with oil. As for me, I think the idea of cooking for other people and trying to make it delicious, is what makes it nourishing my soul. Plus what I said before of us as a class doing it together brings that warm feeling that it’s something that we are all involved in. I think I learned some skills that can be useful for me in the future if I ever decide to cook!

• On the first day of this class when we introduced the idea of “what nourishes your soul?” the first thing I immediately thought of was cooking. Cooking has always been something that has calmed and entertained me. And in fact, I would like to pursue a cooking related career in the future. Cooking is also great because you get to literally nourish others through food. Like they are becoming full and satisfied because of you, and I think that’s a great feeling. I also like to get feedback from people tasting my food and watching them enjoy it.

Feeding the soul, light over dark, community, connection and inclusivity—wonderful aspects of human relations and of CSW, especially in the face of recent world events and the US continued dialog about race relations. We’re reminded more than ever of the value of building, nurturing and sustaining inclusive communities.

Thank you Anjali and to all of your students. [*And thank you for the incredible donation of more than $1500 to the Health & Fitness Center from the food sales and an earlier clothing sale!]

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Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.