A New Kind of Reunion

This idea is amazing.  Thomas Allen Harris is talking about his documentary, which is really amazing in and of itself.  But what if families across America (or the globe) started blending traditional methods of media and modern media to create a reunion that reaches beyond time and location.  The applications for this idea are astounding!

Brain Based Evidence Supports Restorative Justice

Those of you who have followed my posts know that I am a huge proponent of Restorative Justice.  I have looked at lots of data and personal stories that support the practice of Restorative Justice.  Now there is actual brain evidence that suggests Restorative Justice is the change that society needs in the criminal justice system.  This video is longer than most, but worth watching!  (It was a bit laggy when I watched, but it was worth the wait!)

Toys as Tools

This is amazing!  Innovation can change so much and when great minds work together great things can happen.  What surprises me most is that no one has thought of doing something like this in the past.  I love how each device is customized to the individual needs of the child and helps them to build the skill they need to be successful and doesn't just enable disability.

Soaring Like Eagles...

Today our family took a trip to The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota.  What an amazing organization!  The center maintains the highest level of integrity with the animals and they are leaders even today in rehabilitating birds and research.  Our girls had the best time and they were so well behaved!  I couldn't believe that they had their eyes glued on the speaker the whole time and that they remembered so much that was said during the presentations.

This day reminded me how much I love to watch the eagles on the live webcam.  So when we got home I introduced the girls to the eagle webcam and they loved it!  It was so calming to sit and watch the eagles and wait for a peek at the eggs,  Watching the webcam was a great way to reinforce the information we had learned and spark another level of interest.

I have had hours and hours of peace and joy watching the webcam.  I hope you will enjoy it as well!

Decorah Eagles

The Raptor Center

Raptor Center Video

Paying it Forward

Inspiration can come from the most unexpected places.  Even the youngest children can lead by example and show the world how to love, honor and pay it forward.  This heart warming story is reaching across the miles to inspire and I am very interested to see how this continues to grow!  Thanks to my sister Lois for finding this story and sharing it.

Inspiration

Concrete Tent?

This is an amazing technology and I can see lots of applications.  I wonder what the cost is because I could see this as a way to address the small house initiatives.  I could see a minimalist living in one of these and of course there are military applications.  I was wondering if we could use these for homeless shelters or in agriculture.

Lean Forward!

I am so impressed by this conversation! What I need to figure out is how to Lean Forward without being run through because of the fear that comes from a well spoken woman sitting at the table as an equal. I am inspired!

A Beautiful Rescue

Fortunately, most of us don't know what it is like to be down on our luck so badly that we literally can't survive without help from an outside source.  Our story today shows just that scenario.  I am not sure that I would act as generously as the person in the video, but this story brought tears to my eyes.

Super Bowl Commercial?

This is a commercial you didn't see tonight.  There are strong opinions on this topic on both sides of the ongoing debate.  We studied the use of Native American names, lore, and spirituality in sports teams for a required class in college.  I have had some heated conversations over this topic.  For some perspective, consider what you would think if someone came into your church, said they were naming their team after your belief system and then mocked your traditions.  I don't know because no one ever had a team named the Caucasians and wore suspenders and oversized glasses or something goofy like this.  What do you think?

What Makes a Man?

What defines masculinity?  What defines being a man or a woman?  How do we as a society shape our young med and mold them into adults?

This video is food for thought.  Perhaps it applies to our young women as well.  This is an important topic to contemplate, even if we don't find all the answers today.

Inspriation

If you are a regular reader, you know that I have been in a dark place.  The light is starting to shine.  I was talking to a friend a week or so ago and she said that I had lost my sense of self.  I wanted to just cry right then and there, because she had hit at the core of my problem.  Stress, pressure, hardships, difficulty at work, the trials of parenting, trying to maintain a marriage through grad school, a job that takes way more than 40 hours a week to do well and is often thankless, all put me on shaky ground.

A brief comment from a friend, making a matter of fact statement, got me thinking and asking the right questions.  I had lost my sense of who I am, my centering point, my purpose and I had no idea how that happened or how to even begin digging for my magnetic north.

All I know for sure is that I let people run in like thieves and steal away the best of my spirit.  I began to live in fear rather than in confidence that who I am, is who I am supposed to be.  What I have to offer may not be for everyone, but being me is right for the job I have to do on this planet.  

We don't know the number of our days, what we will get to accomplish, or who our lives will touch.  What we do know, is that every day is a gift and we need to live it to the fullest.  Granted, every day will not be perfect, but every day will be a part of the grand mosaic that will bring us to perfection.

The video today touches me in so many ways and inspires me beyond words.  There are many things in this story that strike very close to home.  Every time I watch it tears stream down my face.  Tears of joy and sorrow flow down my cheeks, intertwined.  The tears are wiped away by hope and inspiration.  The traces of all, grace my face and my smile is deepened with the wisdom that life brings all sorts of experiences and each is a memory that creates the saga of life and death.

Sheer Will Changes Everything!

Cynthia is amazing!  And Karen is an inspiration she never thought she would be.  Life is hard and these days community is often harder to find.  Some people are developing community in new and creative ways and what an amazing impact that can have on lives.

It would be very understandable if Cynthia had decided to accept her situation and grow accustomed to a new life style.  Instead, she started looking for solutions.  What she found didn't even seem like a solution, but Cynthia turned it into a miracle!

Everyone has problems.  And to each one of us our problems are real and difficult.  I don't want to compare problems or judge which is worse or better.  I do want to challenge myself, and perhaps others, to look beyond the problem and find the solution.

Advice for New People

What advice would you give someone who was new to this world?  I wonder what advice I would give to myself on my first day here.  I can't really say what is the best advice or what I would say to myself, but Kid President has some pretty good stuff to say.

Growing Something New

There are plenty of opinions about people who end up in prison.  I have a few of my own.  Perhaps I have some perspective that others don't because of the population I work with and what I see every day.  It is a complex problem and there are many roots tangled up together, ranging from childhood trauma, fetal alcohol syndrome, parenting, mental health, chemical health, social adjustment, emotional adjustment, to societal failures and more.  We know how to get a prison population and we know that we want crime punished.  What we truly don't know is how to rehabilitate offenders.

A few programs have been started to make a difference in offender's lives and recidivism (committing new crimes upon release) rates drop dramatically.  I personally am very interested in restorative justice, but this garden idea seems really meaningful too.  Bottom line, we are humanity together and we have to learn better ways to move in a positive direction together.



The Insight Garden Program's Vegetable Garden at San Quentin State Prison from wiley rogers on Vimeo.


This video is longer, but if you are interested in the topic it is worth the time to watch and get a foundational understanding of restorative Justice.

Amazing Dog!

This story is quite heart warming and will amaze!  Do you have a pet?  In your life time, have you had a pet that you bonded with?  Perhaps you bonded in a way that you can't really even put words to.

I have a list myself, starting with Charlie.  He was missing once and we searched every inch of our farm and drove up and down the roads calling for him.  For some reason I found him, and as a young child of 5 or 6, I was convinced that I was meant to find him.  He had been shot and we thought he might die.  He was in dire shape to be sure.

Charlie was actually my brother's dog, but after that time, he just sort of seemed like my dog.  We had a bond.  When I was sick he would not leave my side.  When I got off the bus he was there waiting for me.  When anyone pulled int eh driveway he was the first dog on guard and although small, he struck fear into anyone who wasn't supposed to be there.  It beings a tear to my remembering how crazy excited he got at the first snow, running his nose under the snow and then sneezing and smiling.  I loved that dog dearly.

Charlie got old and deaf and blind.  One day, my sister picked me up from school and had to tell me the terrible news.  That day is seared into my memory.  Today though, I wonder what would have happened if I had gone first.

The Importance of Libraries!

When the older kids were little we spent a great deal of time in the library.  The library was paramount to homeschooling and we had rich resources that we could never have accessed without the library.  Now that we have little ones we use the local library again, but not nearly as much as I wish we did.  I think it is easy to overlook how much a library means to the community.  What is cool to see is that all communities benefit across the country from the farthest outposts to inner cities.  The video today reminds me of what a vital role libraries play in our lives!

This is Amazing and Cool Stuff.....

There are so many things in the video that are amazingly cool!  Some are awesome and other's I may question.  I am not sure I want another kitchen appliance, particularly one that grows insects.  Who knows, maybe there will be other applications in the future that more closely meets my needs.  I wonder about the 200 story city.  Is that the modern tower of Babel?  I do love the idea of the male contraceptive!  There is a plethora of tidbits in this video.  Hope you love it!

PS - I want the works station!

Music Blesses the Soul!

Music touches our lives in so many ways.  Think about how many times you hear music in your day.  What about those times that you get a song stuck in your head or you are humming a tune as you go through your day.  Music is a way that we express our creativity and share our emotions or reflect our mood.  People all over the world have meaningful worship through music.

Can you imagine what you life would be like without music?  What would you be willing to do in order to bring music into your life?  You will be amazed at what some have done in an effort to access music!

Understanding Depression

I guess I can't necessarily explain why, but I have suffered depression most of my life.  I have had episodes of debilitating major depressive disorder, clinical depression, seasonal affective disorder and dysthymia.  For good measure, anxiety is a regular visitor as well.  It always bothers me when I hear judgmental declarations about about the ne'er-do-wells that battle depression.  People who are degrading by those who struggle with depression may not have compassion and understanding.

My history has a few bullet points that could easily explain the difficulties with mood that endow my life.  As a small child my sleep was often disrupted by domestic violence that struck deep fear and anxiety in my young heart.  This was often precipitated by chemical use by family members.  Even by the age of seven I went to school knowing that I was very different from the other kids I saw, who looked pretty well put together.

At the age of 11 my sister was traumatically killed, being hit by a car.  The day I spent alone waiting to hear if she survived was certainly a defining moment in my young life.  Two years later I lost my mom to a brain aneurism, quite unexpectedly.  And, my life completely unraveled.  There weren't school social workers and therapy wasn't too popular or accessible.  I just had to figure out how to navigate a world that I couldn't understand.  It felt like I was underwater watching the rest of world continue on without me, but near enough that I could almost touch it.  As a teenager I truly did not understand the lives of my peers because they were so very different than mine.

After my mom died, my dad lost his entire drive to be a parent and sort of disintegrated himself.  My sister, bless her heart, stepped up and tried to parent me.  It was a tough job and I would not expect many 18 year olds to be able to take on a 13 year old with my level of problems.  My mom was the center of our worlds and everyone really lost their orbit after her death.

This is a snapshot of a few moments in my formative years.  Does it make sense that depression is a part of my life experience?  Absolutely!  And every day of my life I am either in depression, just out of depression or on my way to the next bout of depression.

I do not benefit from medications.  The best thing I can do is protect my sleep.  I can eat right and take my vitamins.  When it is warm enough to be outside it helps when I get lots of sun (but protected with sunscreen!).  It is challenging to deal with a life time of depression.  One thing that is very important to understand is that I am not weak.  A person with depression is not crazy. In fact, when I consider my accomplishments in light of my struggles, I think that makes me pretty strong and highly functional!

Despite all this, I get up every day.  Many days I do not want to get up!  I want to stop functioning and live in my sweatpants.  But I don't.  I work really, really hard.  My home functions and my kids know that they are loved.  (My family is a great support.)  I maintain a job, keep the family plates spinning and I am working toward my Masters Degree.  I am not a ne'er-do-well, but I certainly struggle.  I am one of the lucky ones probably.  Even though my depression can be overwhelming I keep going, many have it worse and are not able to keep this pace.

Why talk about my depression?  It is important to create an awareness and increase understanding.  Chances are that everyone reading this blog knows someone who struggles with depression of some form.  Hopefully, today's post and video adds to understanding and helps to create an environment of support and understanding.

Spelling Bee

I think this video is really interesting.  It has authenticity and gives me pause to reflect.

To Dye For...

I remember when America started to realize the cost of corporate pollution.  There was a lot in the news and a great deal negative PR.  And companies heard the message and made positive changes.  Or did they?  Did they just move the polluting to another location?

One Man's Trash....

Many years ago I took the children on a trip around all five great lakes.  We explored each lake by walking the beaches, wading, and climbing over driftwood.  I was alarmed when we got to Lake Ontario, because the beach was lined with garbage.  Exploring was not nearly as adventurous or fun when we were dodging used tampon applicators and various forms of waste.  I found the beach to be disturbing, because of the trash mingled in with the sand and waves.

Over the years I have heard a little here or there about the problem with trash in our open waters, but not much.  A documentary about Midway Island breaks the whole topic wide open.  Literally.  This blog features "what is cool in the world" but this topic is definitely not cool.  Chase Jarvis's documentary and commitment to bringing a voice to this issue is moving.

Doesn't Everyone Want Another Cookie?

Our home is filled with elation, joy, loudly expressed despair, laugher, roller coaster emotions and yes challenges to authority.  Sometimes it is really, really cute and hard not to laugh, because it is coming out of a charming little curly headed two year old.  Other times it is coming out of a crabby 17 year old or a defiant eight year old.  We won't talk about those times though, because they just aren't as endearing!

If you are a parent, imagine how darn cute a two year old can be.  You might harken back to those times when cuteness got the better of you and judgement went to the wayside.  If not, you might want to watch a few videos to prepare yourself for what might be in your future.

What Makes a Person Typical

I use the word typical often in my profession.  What does typical actually measure or mean?  It is important to remember that typical is relative, relative to what you are including in your comparison.  Are you typical?  You might be surprised how many different ways that question can be answered.  Today's blog is food for thought on how we define typical.  Enjoy!

What do you Want to be When you Grow Up?

I am an educator and have been committed to education for all of the years as a parent.  It always has been important for me to make sure my children have the best education attainable.  Well, imagine my chagrin when neither of the older two wanted to pursue college.  The lives they live are not grand and they do not bring any glory to me by their worldly accomplishments.

I am certainly not trying to live vicariously through my children.  Worry does creep in at times and I want to ensure their stability.  So when I was saying to my son one day that he should consider something different with his career he corrected me promptly.  He told me that what he does makes him happy and that he really didn't want me pushing him to make career moves that would make him unhappy.  He was essentially telling me what the video says so eloquently.

People need to eat.  My son enjoys making a good meal for someone to enjoy.  He's not getting rich, but enjoys going to work.  Children need to be cared for by intelligent and loving individuals.  My daughter is not getting rich as a nanny.  She enjoys changing someone's world a little each day.  I cannot fault these two for doing what make them happy and not just following the path for the sake of following the path.  We will see what the younger two choose to do in their careers.  I hope that we can all find happiness, joy and fulfillment in the things we occupy our time with day to day and year to year.

A Tribute to Moms

Oh My!  The most challenging thing I have ever done is being a mom.  This is much more difficult than being a wife, being an employee, being a friend.  In the end it is the most rewarding, but along the way there have been many doubts.

My parenting journey is unusual.  My oldest was born weeks before I turned 20.  In the 80s that wasn't as far off the norm as it is now.  As a young mom I was a voracious reader of every parenting book or magazine that I could get my hands on.  My only goal was to give my children the best parenting that was humanly possible.  I had the strongest desire for making my children's lives wonderful, stronger than anything else I valued.

I was keenly aware of my flaws and failures.  When my first born was three days old I was holding her and she turned completely purple.  This came after she refused to sleep for three straight days unless we were on the couch.  In that moment I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this parenting thing would take all my heart and soul and that would never seem good enough.

This moment in time is seared into my brain for a number of reasons.  The baby was fine, but it took us a few months to get clearly vague information that she had a rare condition that made her perfusion inadequate when being held.  It was not life threatening and would go away as she grew.  Many other things came and went that were not life threatening, but brought mom a lot of sleepless nights.

As the children grew I continued to try my best.  However, I could tell you where every tiny flaw was in my parenting.  As teenagers, my children could tell me as well and took some sort of sorted joy out of recanting every mis-step.

They grew beyond those teenage years and began to tell me other things.  While they sometimes told me all the devious things they got away with as I was white knuckling it and trying to survive the teen years, they also told me really wonderful things.  As they entered into their twenties they began to see the heart of that new mother and not the actions of the one who was guiding them and shaping them against the grain of their teenage rebellion.

In that first round of parenting I don't think I would have dared asked the children what I was doing right.  They might not have been able to say and I certainly would not have been able to hear.  Now I mentioned that I am unusual in the realm of parenting, and I am.  The birth kids are all grown and out in the world and now we have the second set, the adopted kids.  The older set have prepared me for the younger ones.  Nothing prepared the younger ones for me.

I know that the younger ones love me and hate me all in the same breath, but when push comes to shove they wouldn't trade me for the world.  And how they feel about me on any given day doesn't matter nearly as much now as it did 20 years ago.  I love them all.  It might be surprising though what they would say about me when given  a camera and 30 seconds.  I like to think it would be a lot like the kids in the video.

Here is to all the moms out there!  Keep up the great work!  As a friend used to always say, "today isn't pay day" but oh when pay day comes it will surely be sweet!

Uniquely Made

When I was in first grade, in the 1970s, I had a music teacher that touched my life beyond what she could have imagined.  My older sister, Marie, was also her TA one hour per day.  Marie loved her as well.  Well she moved away and we never heard from her again.

Through the years I thought of her from time-to-time and wondered where she had gone and how she was doing.  I always remembered her smile.  She had these two teeth that were turned, making her smile unique and very memorable.

Fast forward to the 1990s.  My son started taking choir in a small town we had to in rural Minnesota.  I went to meet the teacher and enjoyed a lovely conversation with her.  The rest of the day I was thinking about that teacher.  Something about her stuck with me all day long.  Then suddenly I thought about her smile.  The choir teacher had a unique smile that harkened back to the woman I remembered from the 1970s.

I went back to the school and visited with my son's new choir teacher.  I told her my story and she was amazed.  This was indeed my first grade music teacher that I dearly loved!  We enjoyed chatting about the years that had passed and my son was blessed with a wonderful music teacher over the next few years.

My wonderful teacher had gone on in her life and career and had gotten married, having a new name.  I might never have known it was her with out that memorable smile.

Today, it seems we do not have the same appreciation for unique features.  Everyone wants straight teeth that are unnaturally white.  It seems there is one image in the media that is promoted as "the" way to be.  Granted there are numerous styles, but do we appreciate various body styles or hair that is wildly curly or flat and straight.

Today's video is about appreciating the fact that we are all uniquely made.  I love what happens in this video and the expressions of the models are priceless.

Finding our Gifts

It is so often true that those who have some great limitation are also the ones who have some amazing gift that counters the limitation.

I have often felt a lack of accomplishment because I really am not great at anything.  I am pretty good at a lot of things, but never developed greatness in an singular talent or skill.  At times, feeling of inadequacy have crept in because of this lacking.  The things I am great at cannot be publicly witnessed or quantitatively measured and have no monetary value.  Mentoring is something I excel in and those I have mentored would tell you so, but what is the measure?  My family would most likely say that I am very supportive and give beyond what is reasonable to see those that I love grow and develop into the best people they can possibly be.  Again very qualitative.

I could go on, but then the truth is that my talent or lack there of really does not matter.  What really matters is when someone has the opportunity to shine and change the world for a moment in time.  There is a richness to those experiences when the individual has overcome great challenges and still has an amazing gift to give.  The young lady featured in today's video does all those things!  She has brought something wonderful to the world and made it a better place, despite the personal challenges she faces.  What a gift!

A confession....I yell...

Ok, so this is the not so cool, but real.  I really don't want to be a person who yells at my kids, but at times I do.  And I find that the more stressed I am the more I am likely to yell.  Granted I can always find a reason why the recipient is due my raised voice and show of temper.  However, when I am thinking and planning as my best self, I would never say that yelling is the best way to handle frustration with a child.  I would say that it is understandable that it happens from time to time and that kids will survive a parent who yells judiciously.  I might even say that it doesn't hurt a kid to know that their parents are human and that there are limits to how much will be tolerated.  Even though those things are true, I still know that there is a better way than yelling.

Recently I wrote about resolutions.  At that time, I did not know what resolution I could make that was meaningful.  Now I know that I will resolve to yell less.  I may still yell, but I will be more self-aware of my stress and I will use steps to reducing yelling.  My resolve to discipline and grow my children into the best adults that they can be, is strong.  I will just do it with less yelling.

I hope these tips will be helpful!

On the Fence About New Year's Resolutions?

Surveying my history provides a rich exploration of many types of lifestyles and truths held to be self-evident.  I have had a myriad of jobs from milking cows to writing for newspapers to serving food at local fairs to being a program coordinator.  I have also lived in various states.  I have lived in cities, the country, laid my head wherever it landed, and carried my bed on my back.  Likewise I have had varying beliefs about things like new year's resolutions.

Social media tells me that making that resolution is not so popular anymore because so many just say they will break it anyway.  Well my guess is that those are the individuals in the contemplation stage and not really ready for change.  Alas, I am jumping ahead of myself.  I decided to do a little research on new year's resolutions, post new year's hype, and find out what the expert say.

Take a look and see what you think!