On This Miraculous Planet, On Real Food, On Union with all that is
Officially it is our third year homeschooling and for some reason the whole endeavor this year feels more solid and secure.
It feels like we are plants - the first year settling in after planting, the next year building strong roots, and the third year SURGING forth with abundance - a verdant explosion. It feels like we are surging forth from a very grounded place.
Read MoreRecently we visited the number one state park in Virginia: First Landing State Park. So named in honor of the “English colonists” who first landed in 1607. The beach was warm, the cabins were delightful, the bicycling under the fir trees was peaceful and magical, and my brain exploded with the history.
Read MoreOne of my favorite nuggets from when I did the Permaculture Design Course was learning about hill mounds, or hugelkultur. Hugelkultur is a glorious construction of organic matter with soil atop. Organic matter like logs, branches, straw, upside-down turf, leaves, cardboard, shredded newspaper - if it can decay on it goes. Once the decaying matter of the hugel has enough nitrogen to start decomposing the hugelkultur works as a sink for moisture, nutrients, and carbon.
We built our raised beds over the large stumps from when we cleared the land for the house. I envision the vegetables fed by grandfather trees - and in turn, feeding our bellies.
Read MoreRecently Dragon and I were having dinner together. The robins perched on the woodpile. Chipmunks ran along the top of the raised beds. The wind flickered the leaves.
Dragon turned to me, “Momma, will you ever abandon me?”
Holy shit, Corinna, you and your sense of humor. That joke is most definitely blowing up in your face.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
I was reading a book about Susan B. Anthony to the Bean for school. The book outlined her work against slavery, for women’s rights, and for the temperance movement.
I took a breath to read the next paragraph when Bean interrupted, “Momma, what is a black person?”
Read MoreIn early December of 2020, I made an ask of my tribe for two people to create a triad of white-bodied individuals to do antiracist work based on the description Resmaa Menakem wrote about in his article entitled, “When White Bodies Say, “Tell Me What to Do”. The Voice of Love, my gut, my heart, had been tugging me in that direction ever since I read his piece in May of 2021. His article provoked on so many levels and its main gist is this.
Get out of your white privilege bubble, seek confrontation to expose your bodily experience of racial trauma, examine your life, and “commit to growing up.” Do this with a lifelong triad (here is an excerpt from his article).
Read MoreIt may be someone evident by now I am a bit of an academic, a bibliophile, an intellectual, a lover of thoughts, ideas, history, and curious to learn more always of humanity and our shared history. All of these traits are continually being fed as a homeschooling momma. I was taught to always go back to the original documents so that is what we have been doing for the 3rd grader in the house. Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream, Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a woman? speech,* rereading The Declaration of Independence for the 4th of July.
Read MoreMy dearest Beloveds,
Recently, a teacher shared with me an amazing way of looking at the world right now - to paraphrase, “Our country has exposed our sexual traumas without a commensurate healing - it is affecting all of us. The trauma lives in our bodies and everyone is triggered.” When she said this, I immediately thought of Tarana Burke, founder of Me Too, and her concerns about unearthing such sexual violence without therapy, without safe spaces, without support.
It feels as though our country is a baby having a meltdown yet no adult is swaddling us close and singing to us - helping us process the pain. Everyone is upset about something. I can’t help but think if it is related to this unprocessed sexual national wounding - especially as so much of the news is being dominated recently by our former president who bragged of being able to “grope women with abandon,” in Brit speak.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
There are many ways to communicate. Words are very useful but also constrain. You will realize when you become familiar with more languages that languages are both a container and a funneling of experiences/wordview. The most glaring example that comes to mind is the ability to own land vs belonging to the land vis-a-vis the Europeans and the Native Americans (respectively).
The wonderful thing about strong relationships is that communication can happen without words - and often does.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
Baba used to tell me when he was faced with a particular quagmire at work he would sleep on it. He would deliberately think of the issue before he fell asleep and, “9 times out of 10,” he would awaken with the solution in his mind.
This, my dearest children, is called inspiration. Sometimes it might take longer than a night. Sometimes it might take a few days. But, in my experience, it always happens. The key is giving the issue space.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
We were a puppy pile in bed early on Saturday morning. Two of us were giggling and wrestling while the other two snuggled deep and soft in the expansive warmth. Your father extricated himself from tickling limbs and sat up. “Okay children, it is time to get dressed for breakfast. Who is ready?”
Dragon fired a response, “I am as ready as a greased pig!”
Read MoreHomeschooling is an adventure. Every day looks different.
Bean and I had an appointment first thing in the morning in Poughkeepsie. On the way home we visited Eleanor Roosevelt’s home (Val-Kill - the only National Historic site honoring a First Lady). Unlike the imposing homes along the river (of FDR, the Vanderbilts. Astors, Livingstons, etc) the place feels people sized. The road wends to a small bridge where a collection of small building sit clustered on a small hill in the curve of the river.
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My life vision is to love, be curious, identify my Cranky Monster, and be brave enough to speak from and for The Good.
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