individuality – Peaceful Reader

Happy Birthday Baby!

(Upside down in Maryland)

(In Virginia)

My youngest child turns 17 years old tomorrow! I truly can’t believe it. This is her senior year and after that she will fly the coop and I’ll have to find new things to do with my time. I’ve been chasing after her for so many years I won’t know what to do with myself. I mean I will but it just feels so lonesome to contemplate.

(in Central Park)

She has always been full of positive energy with a quick laugh. She also can be brutally hard on herself especially when it comes to her dancing skills. She loves to be in motion, dancing, yet she pushes herself and still never feels like she gets to where she wants to be. I say let it go and enjoy the beauty that is you. She gets a little tired of my ability to spin everything to the positive saccharine. level. Each and every one of us has our quirks and at some point in our lives it’s best just to play to your strengths and let go of what isn’t working. I wish I could give her a boost of real confidence for her birthday gift so that she would truly believe in her abilities and help her move forward when things are rough. I think it has to do with developing resilience. We could all use a little dose of that right now in our world- that and patience. And those skills take time to develop…

Groovy Girl was a beautiful baby and she is a stunning young woman; I love snuggling with her at any time of the day. She has always loved baking and creating in the kitchen and now her “concoctions” are delicious Indian dinners that we can devour together. She is thoughtful and insightful, a champion for all kinds of inclusive causes.

(Look at her beautiful tiny face)

Happy birthday my dear little one! You are greatly loved and appreciated.

Beautiful October…

Greetings! I’ve had this blog post milling about in my head since October 1st and I just didn’t take the time to get it down in this format. It seems that is a tough leap to make for me some months. The ideas are there yet they stay swirling around in my head. I’m making a promise to myself to do better; my goal for the month.

This month I took a class entitled It takes a Family from the Safe Schools Academy. The coursework was great and doable and part of one assignment was video chronicling an LGBT celebration at a Quaker school in New York. What a different world we would live in if every school could celebrate diversity this way. There are other classes I want to take from this group including one, On Wednesdays we wear pink: understanding the politics of girl world. Each class is only one graduate credit yet the interesting social justice issues are more relevant than many other grad credits. Each class I take leads me to something else, some other big moment in my constant life-long learner journey.

This video by Courtney Ferrell popped up while watching the Quaker school celebration. I want to pass it along because it is just how I feel about empowering young woman. We all need to “Girl Up” ourselves so we can pass that deep love on to others in our families and community. But we can’t just “Girl Up”; we also have to Man Up because we cannot leave our young men behind allowing them to think they can make disrespectful decisions just because they are young, drunk, or just didn’t know better. It’s up to us to teach them to be an important connection in our community. We need to hold hands with other women to create change for ourselves. We also need to connect with men in a deeper way as well so we can be our allies. What an amazing world we could live in if women and men learned to work together for the greater good-like real solutions for climate change instead of the male-dominated world we now try to exist in. And it’s important to always have some mad money tucked in our bra just in case…

No disservice to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford at all because what she did was very brave but the girls of today need to speak up right away. Tell someone. This situation would look very different if Ford had shared this story with one adult or mentor. So women of today speak out to one adult, your roommate, someone at school so the facts are there. In this instance, the current administration wasn’t looking for a real solution but if one woman did have it on record of Kavanaugh’s behaviour his career would have looked very different.

This morning I shared the video with Groovy Girl and her response was “I know all that and it isn’t easy”-I agree but you have to keep trying. Here’s another Courtney Ferrell TedTalk to keep you motivated and energized. I like how she empowers one person from the audience by bringing them into her space on stage. Have some kind of creative day today!

The Girl Who Could Fly

by Victoia Forester

2008

328 pages

I picked this up from out Spring Scholastic Book Fair. The cover grabbed me! Luckily, once I started reading it-the story hooked me as well. The story is a little bit tall tale mixed with Spy Kids. My daughter, also attracted to the cover, asked me to read it with her after starting it myself. Oh, what fun some books are to read aloud! I cannot do a great English accent like the rest of my family so she has to listen to Harry Potter in “American English” but I can do a Southern drawl from our three years in Little Rock and Piper and her parents have drawls!

The beginning:

Piper decided to jump off of the roof. It wasn’t a rash decision on her part.
This was her plan-climb to the top of the roof, pick up speed by running from one end all the way to the other. Jump off.
Finally, and most importantly, don’t fall.
She didn’t make plans in the event that she did fall, because if you jump off of the roof of your house and land on your head, you really don’t need any plans from that point on. Even Piper knew that. (1)

Piper McCloud is a character with big plans and great ideas throughout this delightful book. She lives with her ma and pa on a farm in Lowland County, Southern USA and discovers at an early age that she can lift off the ground and eventually by meditating on the idea of flying she can make it happen. Even beyond her flying ability she is a rare and uniquely sensitive young girl. She questions her farmer father about cow’s having feelings as she clearly watches a mother cow mourn for a lost calf!
But alas life never remains in balance and Piper’s flying ability is discovered by the townsfolk and she is ostracized for being so radically different from the norm. Enter her saviour -Dr. Hellion (great name), who whisks her away in a helicopter to a safe haven for kids who are “different.” I.N.S.A.N.E is Dr. Hellion’s school for children who are “lost” in the world because of their special abilities and Dr. Hellion runs it with a crew of minions. They’ve made it a very desirable place to live with special diets, comfy beds and clothing made-to-order. Piper, having been homeschooled, is thrilled to be surrounded by other children for the first time in her life.

As soon as Nurse Tolle was seated at the head of the table and Professor Mumbleby at the foot, the kids hungrily dug into their scrumptious food. It became immediately clear to Piper why mealtimes were such a high point at the facility. She had never tasted food quite so good in all her life. There must have been five different flavors she’d never experienced before in her first bite alone, and every part of her mouth sat up and sang. (108)

The facility introduces a whole new cast of interesting characters and we’re not always sure who is good or evil. Piper’s journey is worth traveling as she discovers the truth about the institute and stays true to herself throughout. Teamwork is a huge element as many of the students need to trust their own instincts and rely on each other’s unique skills. This would make a fun read-aloud for 4th-6th grade students, especially if you can do that Southern Drawl! 4/5 stars

Other spots on the web to read about Piper McCloud:

Victoria Forester’s website
Kay at The Infinite Shelf’s review
and another good one at
Elizabeth’s blog at Swords for Fighting

Happy Reading!!