From Our Friends in Brazil

By Lívia da Costa Quezado Ribeiro

It has been 11 years since I first read A Second Classroom by Torin Finser, and looking back, I can hardly believe all that has happened since. Not long after that moment, at the end of 2015, we translated the book, published it, and launched it with Torin present in Brazil. And when I say we, I mean all the people connected to this because I really feel this was a huge collective effort. We then ran two years of a Brazilian edition of the Waldorf Leadership & Community Development (WLCD) program from the Center for Anthroposophy (CfA), with Portuguese simultaneous translation. We went on to translate the next book: Organizational Integrity, publish it, and — after almost launching it in early 2026 — we’re now planning to launch it online in September 2026, with Torin returning to Brazil in person in February 2027.

It has been a long path.

Along the way, these efforts led us to open a new publishing house called Bem Viver, which has since grown into an Institute. It now embraces the courses and workshops we’ve been running in other areas, such as Therapeutic Stories and Class Teachers’ Preparation Weeks, all in service of our aim to provide resources and materials for the development of the Waldorf movement in Brazil.

Some moments of this journey stand out as true turning points: Torin’s reply to an email I sent with no real expectation, using only an address I’d found online; the almost reckless decision to publish the book and bring Torin to Brazil without any financial backing; the period when we raised the funds by pre-selling his book, and seeing how many people believed in the project; the enthusiasm sparked by Torin’s talks and workshops across Brazil; and the quiet beauty of reading his words and recognizing our own school’s reality in them, despite our very different cultures.

Having the honor of helping bring all this about was a great source of joy and meaning to me and to the colleagues who stood beside me throughout. I’m grateful our paths crossed, and that we still get to share moments like these.

More recently, I had the good fortune to visit one of the places where Torin has long been active in the United States, and — thanks to his generosity and that of the CfA — to complete the WLD program. I attended classes at High Mowing School from July 5th to 10th, hosted and cared for by staff, teachers, and participants from across the United States. We took part in Eurythmy-in-the-workplace workshops, and during breaks I was able to sit in on Kairos lectures and classes. I was amazed by what the CfA has been building through these programs, and deeply honored to be part of that small but powerful gathering.

I — and Brazilians more broadly — feel very lucky to have crossed paths with so many wonderful people: starting with Torin Finser, but also Carla Beebe Comey, Karen Atkinson, Karine Finser, Milan Daler, and the teachers and colleagues from WLD and from Kairos. And most of all, Torin’s writings themselves, which have guided so many of us.

All of this has been more than a meeting of cultures — it has been a meeting of souls, connected by threads of karma that somehow wove themselves into these wonderful events.

May we keep transforming each other for the better, and stay open to the needs of our world and our Waldorf movement today.

With love,

Lívia da Costa Quezado Ribeiro