Winter Winner

I blew through Season One of this gem in maybe a day (two if I'm being generous).

It's That Time Of Year

May your winter solstice be as congenial as this Wham! music video.

Raise Up

This beautiful interview with the eleven year old boys who will be playing the prince in New York City Ballet's Nutcracker this winter made me wonder about raising a boy to be tender and true in our culture. As if in response to my meandering thoughts on the matter, this piece touched on the transformative terrain of male adolescence from a mom's perspective. 

Postpartum Depression

I so appreciated this candid narration of postpartum depression. I don't think I've had a full blown case, but I absolutely feel that potential in me and reel from the occasional upwelling of despair. In other words, I can relate even if I wouldn't claim the experience as my own. 

And Then There Was Pittsburgh...

My nephew Leo features in this response to the latest eruption of fear-based violence.

What a counter point to the message of peace I received from my dad in the Jewish new year:

A Sympathy Of Poems

Bearing Witness

Under the dual heat 
of love and alcohol
you melt. 

Solid to liquid.

Then reconstitute 
in the morning.

A little wonky
for wear (and tear).

But yourself,
whole 
and alive.


No Problem Not Possible

Careening between small mercies
Bruised in all the right places
You travel head up and wings out.

Oh, My Heart

This obituary, a family's ode to their loved one claimed by addiction, brought me to tears.

Bleak

How far must we travel as a nation into grimness, this horror show, before we stop our stumbling and regain footing in our own innate goodness? We are so deep in the dregs, so mired in the muck. 

On Vacation

Anaphylaxis

My skin rises to my defense.

Battle-tuned,

My ears close and turn inward.

Heat rolls off my body in waves.

Was this poem born of wasp stings? 

Or was this reaction

A poem's demand for life?

And Yet

i am forty one and married

you are a year older 

a gap that seemed significant 

when we were young

you too are married

both happily so, i might add

and yet

some mornings i awaken

having dreamed of you

Of Life And Death

A moving essay about how death inhabits motherhood.

Queen Bey

Lo amo.

Actress Can WRITE

Turns out Betty Gilpin is more than just a pretty face-- she's got full on writing chops. 

Familias Divididas

Shame. Shame. Shame. 

Can't Stop, Won't Stop

Nothing like a New Zealand vampire mockumentary. 

(that's the end of the sentence)

Pot Pie Commercial

Oh my god, Dan!

Did I screw up again? Yes, you did.

 Yahoo!

Father's Day

Teach the basics. 

Dope

Um, how come I didn't know about this movie until now?

Was I under a rock? The end credits alone...

Mother's Day

Whoop. There it is.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Throwing Elbows

Roaring through life,
spending down our capital
of fucks to give, 
we arrive at the question
"Who cares?" afresh. 

Struggling to shed our carapace,
we test limbs-- 
stretching them into
strange territory.

Besting the ego for once,
we emerge panting and vulnerable
into a new world and realize
this is indeed our first rodeo. 


A Wee Ditty

Cradle cap shampoo?
Selsun Blue.
Smells like poo.


Unmoored

Flesh pressed against the hull, 
we feel each swell moving under the boat. 

"Loose hips save ships," so we strive 
to anticipate change and maintain connection.

We dance upon a surface that blinds us 
with light and buoys our freight.

Navigating the margin between breath and death,
we are a small craft on a large body of water.


Parenthood

This devotional practice.

Its sweep and heft, 
scope and breadth,
staggers the heart.

Ever unspooling.

Where There Be Dragons

As Evan and I wade deep into unchartered territory, a number of wonderful books about magic have found their way into my hands...

They speak of reverence for the raw material of the universe.

Devotionals

I. The sound of the moment is a pterodactyl call.

II. You have given your father the gift of song.

III. Grins turn your gray eyes into crescents.

IV. You follow each cluster of sneezes with a coo.

V. Your hands and feet run cold to the touch.

VI. Your belly button is both an innie and an outie.

VII. You are in cahoots with your great-grandmother.

VIII. Your lost eyelashes dust my chest.

IX. My hair twines between your fingers.

X. Your upset addressed, you regain repose.

XI. Your crevices are lint traps.

XII. You are a feast of delicacies.

XIII. Your finger nails grow astonishingly fast. 

Too often I assume an overfamiliarity with the world. I look away and forget the miracle of it all. I turn back and the sacred mystery washes over me once more. It is a wonder that attention is so hard to sustain.

Parenting Around The World

A blog I follow named Cup of Jo hosts a wonderful series of posts by Americans raising children abroad. The authors share what has most surprised them about parenthood in the foreign cultural context they call home. I love the diversity of perspectives the series captures. 

This past week I have been on a tear reading about educational approaches around the world, especially in Scandinavia. It all started when I had a vision of a private school here in Lander on the acupuncture table...

Imagine a dojo/barn on The Scott Drive Refuge (it was located at Johnny Behind The Rocks in my dream). The main building has studio spaces built around a central atrium and yurts dotting the property provide additional classroom space. Students walk or bike to school, with an option to be picked up in a school van for those who are further afield. A small fleet of school vehicles facilitates the use of the world as the larger classroom.

The day starts in the core amphitheater with the ringing of a gong. Each class enters through their own torii gate and each student is greeted by their teacher as they make the passage. Each student maintains silence once they pass through the gate and lays out their Spear S fleece for guided meditation, yoga and qigong. Then the gong rings again and students leave through their gate for the day's lessons. 

Grade levels rotate through the responsibility of providing and serving lunch to the entire school (sourcing food locally and preparing it in the school's kitchen).  

Adults go by their first names. Administrators also participate in school life as teachers. 

The main curriculum areas are sustenance (farming, ranching, cooking), wellbeing (personal identity, healing practices), storytelling (literature, foreign languages, art forms such as writing, videography, and theater), craftsmanship (creating and building with natural materials, math, physics, chemistry), citizenship (ecology, history, climate change, community inquiry and service, activism), and exploration (expeditions of discovery). The overarching goal is to provide a holistic, relevant, and experiential education for students.

Older grades mentor younger grades. Faculty facilitate inter-generational relationships for students, connecting them with elders in the community. 

Each class is composed of no more than twelve to fifteen students. Grade levels have themes such as water, energy, the life cycle, the seasons, etc which serve as lenses through which to examine and link their studies. Each school year builds towards realizing a class dream, created in collaboration with students at the beginning of the year. 

Lander's greatest assets are the natural world and the human community. The hope would be that this school leverages both. 

Some of the books I have been reading about education are so common sense as to seem basic, but then I remember that they are discussing national policies that are intuitive-- a concept that pretty much blows my mind.

Here is the table of contents from a book about priorities within the Finnish educational system:

I. Well-being

• honor rest (45 minutes on:15 minutes off; 18 hours of facilitated learning per week with 24 total hours of school per week)
• learn while moving (encourage activity)
• recharge after school (minimize homework)
• simplify spaces (cultivate a clean, organized, and uncluttered classroom)
• breath fresh air (let natural light and fresh air into the classroom)
• get into the wild (learn outside as often as possible)
• keep the peace (maintain a peaceful classroom where students feel safe and can focus)

II. Belonging

• recruit a welfare team (identify struggling students early and get them supported immediately by trained professionals so that they don't fall behind)
• know each child (teachers may stay with a student group through multiple grade levels and conduct home visits)
• play together (have a gentle start to the beginning of the school year and focus on team building)
• celebrate learning (actively seek out opportunities to meaningfully recognize and delight in student accomplishments)
• pursue a class dream (determined in conjunction with students)
• banish bullying (prevented through education; addressed with timely intervention and empowering conflict resolution)
• buddy up (older students are paired with younger students to foster connection and learning across grade levels)

III. Autonomy

• start with freedom (trust in students' capabilities and provide meaningful independance)
• leave margins (don't cause stress by packing too much into a day such that you can't flex to the demands of the moment)
• offer choices (give students the opportunity to be self-directed)
• plan with students (collaborate and co-create the school experience)
• make it real (highlight relevancy and engage in consequential learning)
• demand responsibility (focus on being trustworthy with responsibility rather than being accountable)

IV. Mastery

• teach the essentials (distill lessons down to what matters)
• mine the textbook (utilize textbooks as road maps or guides for learning)
• leverage technology (ensure that technology is used as an auxiliary tool rather than a revered distraction)
• bring in music (integrate music into the classroom and material)
• coach (rather than lecture)
• prove learning (create tests of knowledge that are designed to determine how deeply a student has engaged with and understands the curriculum)
• discuss grades (emphasize narrative evaluations and hold performance discussions with each student at phase changes)

V. Mind-set

• seek flow (cultivate flow for yourself and your students and let it inform the direction of your teaching)
• value teaching experience and skill (teachers are held to high standards and viewed as professionals; their expertise is respected and honored by the larger culture)
• collaborate over coffee (informal and formal collaboration between colleagues is both an expectation and a norm)
• welcome experts (invite the strengths of others into the classroom)
• vacate during vacation (prioritize life when not in school)
• don't forget joy (intentionally foster joy in the classroom)