Driving Down the Hill

By Lynne Golodner The approach to Sacramento Waldorf School is slow, mindful as cars cross over speed bumps, passing soccer fields, lush foliage, and the beginnings of walking trails that descend into a maze of wilderness bordering the American River. You can’t see our 22-acre campus from the road. You meet the gates with our signage, you know it’s coming, but the first glimpse is beyond your reach…until your car crests the hilltop and begins its descent down the steep driveway to our serene campus. Coming down the hill to Sacramento Waldorf School is a transformative experience. You must drive slowly – there is no other choice – and so you inhale, hold the exhale, and slow your expectations, your enthusiasm, your passions, as the approach transforms your state of mind from a rush-rush-rush place to a mindful minute-by-minute state of being. Then, the view is breathtaking. Tall pine trees frame the administration building. Flowers, bushes, and abundant trees border the drive and shade the parking lot. The approach to our school is full on the senses – children eagerly skipping toward their friends and teachers, parents accompanying happy children or happily themselves greeting friends, Miss Valerie or Lower School Administrator Kat McFee greeting the morning rush and guiding from the crosswalk. The foliage sets a serene, breathable backdrop to the flurry of activity that begins and ends a day at Sacramento Waldorf School. And we take it all in from our perch atop the hill, down the slow approach, until we nestle into a parked place, restful and ready to greet the possibilities that await. When we settled on this campus a half century ago, we had no idea that the landscape would beckon so completely, and give us a cocoon of security and beauty in which to become our best selves. The landscape is perhaps our most treasured feature here, a landscape that allows us to journey from wonder to wisdom, from the very youngest ages to full flowering adulthood and beyond.