Letter to my children: Fear Muscles through Fear

Letter to my children: Fear Muscles through Fear

Dearest beloveds,

We talk a lot about the Cranky Monster as a way to start identifying that part of you that identifies with matter. Eckart Tolle, Mary Magdalene, and A Course in Miracles call that part of you the ego. The Consilience Project might call it frontal lobe hijacking. Conscious Discipline might call it your reptile brain. Momma calls mine Busy Bee (so Busy fretting over nothing Busy Busy!!).

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Letter to my children: On Being a Tourist

Letter to my children: On Being a Tourist

Dearest Beloveds,

As you both know, I grew up in a city. I walked to school crossing concrete sidewalks. The orange glow of the streetlights on my bedroom ceiling at night lulled me to sleep along with the clattering engine of the 96 bus. Every Saturday morning Baba, Tia, and I would walk to the Eastern Market to buy eggs, drop off Baba’s dry cleaning, and, once I was old enough to notice, to gawk over the artisan vendors.

Commerce was all around me.

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Letters to my children: Homeschool Circle Time learnings

Letters to my children: Homeschool Circle Time learnings

Dearest Beloveds,

The effects of covid range from the tragic to the ridiculous. Tragic - thousands dead. Ridiculous - Dragon you do not know the words or the hand movements to children’s songs.

I had assumed you would know them and was rather shocked and sad at your first Kindergarten circle time.

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Homesteading Middles: Animal Husbandry

Homesteading Middles: Animal Husbandry

I have noticed myself more and more putting my own thoughts, ideas, sensations, desires, onto the animals that feed us with their bodies - to anthropomorphize the animals. To assign human traits to animals has historically been deemed unscientific - but I would contend that not assigning emotions, agency, or recognizable sensations to animals is a way to separate humans from animals, to make us better, and in turn to provide excuses for the mistreatment of such. Just ask Jane Goodall.

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Homeschool learnings: Settling in

Homeschool learnings: Settling in

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.

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Gnostic encomium for the Mary Magdalene Revealed Retreat

Gnostic encomium for the Mary Magdalene Revealed Retreat

Here is my rooftop shout for the world to hear my encomium* for the Mary Magdalene Revealed Retreat held by the glorious Meggan Watterson. Hear me full body shouting like I did the night I merged with God.

As I have mentioned before, it makes me super happy when all of the fingers I am exploring are pointing to the same moon. Though, as I write this, I realize it is true for everyone. We all seek out that which agrees with our beliefs and create self-reinforcing loops to make ourselves feel validated. My huge ballast on this finger pointing to The Good as inside of us, as opposed to external to us, is from my own experience (see the merging above). So I am going to speak from that place, as a Gnostic.**

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Homeschool learnings: First Landing vs Plymouth Rock

Homeschool learnings: First Landing vs Plymouth Rock

Recently 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.

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Homesteading Middles: The Art of Hugelkultur

Homesteading Middles: The Art of Hugelkultur

One 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.

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Letter to my children: Labels - the antiracism conversation begins

Letter to my children: Labels - the antiracism conversation begins

Dearest 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?”

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