Hello friends,
Welcome to the FHC Fall newsletter. Our theme for this edition is resilience. Resilience means having the capacity to rebound from an illness, trauma, symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. It also means to re-connect to truth, beauty and goodness in the face of falsehoods, cynicism, doubts and fears. Neither our physical body, soul or human spirit can endure in a healthy manner without the powers behind these virtues. Resilience speaks to our capacity to heal the physical body, balance the soul and achieve our greatest possibility and potential as an individual and community.
It is easy today to feel as if we are standing in the face of a tidal wave of stressors. Technology, inequities, social schisms and chronic illness are just some of the stressors on the rise today. How do we part the seas and create a practical path to resilience?
This challenge is affecting people at a younger and younger age. The foundations of resilience start in early childhood and gradually require more and more awareness as we get older. In this newsletter we hope to explore how resilience can be supported through education, our connection to nature and our own individual striving. This is becoming one of the biggest issues of our times. Namely, how do we maintain a healthy state of humanity both individually and communally.
Please consider joining us Thursday October 1st, when we introduce our online resilience course being offered later this Fall. We will begin with an exploration of the forces of pausing, presencing and meaningfulness. If you find this introductory webinar helpful, perhaps you will join us in a broader online resilience retreat later this Fall. This course will involve short presentations and group work together.
We hope you find inspiration in this newsletter and share it with your friends and colleagues. Remember, knowing and doing are two separate things. The first is simple and the latter a challenge for all of us!
Sincerely,
Dr. Steven M Johnson and the FHC Team
In this edition:
Opening Poem: Playing Moses Each Summer
by Julia Perez
How the Human Being Transcends the Machine
by Daniel Perez
Health in Action:
Transforming Our Inner Terrain
a Course on Resilience
Learning to Return: A Practice of Resilience
by Linda Park
Resilience: The Ship That Navigates Through Our Pralayas
by Vinay Parameswara
Calendula & St. John’s Wort
a Visit to the Medicinal Herb Gardens
Upcoming Events
Webinar:
The Power of Pausing & Presencing
Physicians’ Fall Retreat 2026
Special Invitation For Waldorf Communities
Playing Moses Each Summer
by Julia Perez
When you feel the weight of sorrow
Encroaching on your chambered heart
Pulling on the breath of life
Go down to the water’s edge
Embrace the levity of cool calm
Lapping against your brown skin
Place the black inner tube upon the surface
Lie down within the sun warmed circle
Spine exposed
Float into the wide expanse
Letting go —
Rocking, rocking, weightless and buoyant
Where has gravity gone?
Time is suspended
Cloud pictures form and shape, moving swiftly
Against a heavenly blue
Sleep secure in your Moses cradle
Who knows how long
And when you awake
You are flooded with gratitude
Filled with holy reverence
For the beauty and goodness of this world
Paddle home against the currents
You have drifted far along the friendly shoreline!
Arms and legs synchronized
Sweeping arks
Of gentle guided intention
Climb the stone stairwell
Up and out of Granite Lake
Greet the boulders
That serve foundation
For new found freedom
And patient loving resilience
How the Human Being Transcends the Machine
Artificial Intelligence and the Healthy Parent-Teacher-Student Relationship
by Daniel Perez
I build the machines we have started calling intelligent; that is my profession. I am also a Waldorf graduate. This past year I sat with the faculty of High Mowing to think through what artificial intelligence is doing to their classrooms, and mentored several of their students to assist with senior projects on the subject. I come to this from two sides: I know what these systems are made of, down to the silicon, and I lived the Waldorf curriculum at the dawn of the personal computer…
Health in Action:
A Course in Resilience
Transforming Our Inner Terrain – a Course on Resilience
October 23-24th and November 13-14th
In a world of constant demands, technological overload, polarization, economic uncertainty, and rising rates of anxiety, depression, and chronic illness at younger ages, how do we reclaim our capacity to adapt, regenerate, and heal?
Join Dr. Steven M. Johnson, DO and Dr. Daciana Iancu, MD for Transforming Our Inner Terrain – A Course in Resilience . Drawing from Dr. Johnson’s forthcoming book and the presenters’ combined decades of clinical experience, this course guides participants into the wisdom of the heart. It cultivates practical healing capacities to recognize, navigate, and transform life’s traumatic events and stressors that often lead to anxiety, depression, pain, and illness…
Learning to Return: A Practice of Resilience
As the out-breath of summer with all of its exuberance gives way to a drawing-in of the breath, this is the time when conversations turn to the topic of transitions. Autumn is near, and many families are getting ready for the new school year. As a parent, teacher and administrator at a K-12 Waldorf school, I hear from many parents of school-aged children expressing how much they are looking forward to a little more structure and the regularity of the school year routine…
Resilience: The Ship That Navigates Through Our Pralayas
by Vinay Parameswara
When most people hear the word resilience, they think of strength. They likely picture someone who never breaks, never cries, never doubts, and somehow keeps moving forward despite overwhelming adversity. That is true sometimes. But to me, resilience is something far deeper than toughness. It isn’t simply psychological endurance or the ability to bounce back. At least to me, it is the willingness to let suffering change us without letting it define who we are. Even when life strips away the identity which we thought was permanent, something deeper within us can continue to unfold…
Calendula & St. John’s Wort
Step into the medicinal herb gardens in upstate New York for an introduction to Calendula and St. John’s Wort, guided by the doctors and gardeners who tend this remarkable space — one that has grown medicaments for Camp Hill Village and pharmacies since the 1990s while offering meaningful work to people with special needs.
These videos invite you to see the plants through the doctrine of signatures: learning to read the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers as a book of nature, where the gestures of a plant point to its healing qualities — qualities that are then confirmed by phytochemistry and biochemistry. Rooted in Anthroposophic Medicine, these remedies work in rhythm with the body over time, addressing not just physical symptoms but the soul and spirit as well.
Upcoming Events
Webinar: The Power of Pausing and Presencing
An Introductory Webinar on Building Resilience
October 1st, 2026 5pm PT / 8pm ET
In our fast-paced world filled with constant demands, challenges, and distractions, how often do we truly pause to reflect, become present, and reconnect with ourselves? This webinar introduces core practices from “A Course in Resilience – Transforming Our Inner Terrain.” You will explore pausing and presencing as foundational activities that open the door to greater self-awareness, inner calm, and resilience.
Physicians’ Fall Retreat 2026
Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Body: Tria Principia
November 5–8, 2026
Mount Madonna Center, California
Physicians are invited to participate in a 3½-day immersive retreat exploring a living, holistic approach to patient observation and physical examination. Through an exploration of the Tria Principia—a threefold understanding of the body and the fundamental processes of nature—participants will develop new powers of perception and deepen their ability to recognize relationships between structure, function, illness and healing.
Participation is limited to 25 physicians.
Special Offer For Waldorf Communities
Empowering Teachers and Parents
to Nurture Healthy & Resilient Children
At the Foundation for Health Creation, we believe that healthy children thrive in healthy communities. Our mission is to empower teachers and parents with practical, holistic tools to foster well-being through wholesome nutrition, holistic approaches to learning, healthy environments, emotional resilience, and meaningful family and community connections.
Embrace a Path of Well-Being
Raising and teaching young children today can feel daunting…are you:
● Struggling with conflicting health advice for your children or students?
● Concerned about rising stress and anxiety in young people?
● Seeking practical, holistic strategies to support well-being?
The Foundation for Health Creation offers guidance from compassionate health experts who understand your challenges. Access our free curated resources below to empower yourself with clear solutions for nurturing healthy and resilient children.
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