Obviously, This Isn’t Over
We finally cut down our dried-up sunflower bloom and roast the seeds. “Well, we did it,” I sigh to my daughter. It’s bittersweet; the whole journey ends. I turn to cut down the large stem, but I can’t do it. I keep the tall stem of the sunflower just growing in that pot–without the glorious […]
Did You Know?
This morning, the Dragon Boy begins every animated sentence with, “Did you know?” He has so much to share. “Did you know about . . .?” I learn about many types of dragons. I then learn about the game he’s inventing. “And did you know. . . ?” He continues with a new interesting fact […]
“Stress Comes from Assuming Responsibility for Things that Are Not Your Responsibility”
15 years ago (I remember the day!) a wise, older woman took me by the hand and said, “You experience so much stress. Sometimes stress comes from assuming responsibility for things that are not our responsibility.” What could she mean? She explained that God is responsible for it all. I’m not. Have I taken on […]
Dangling
I’m in line at the grocery store, and I can’t take my eyes off of a little baby strapped to his mother in a Baby Bjorn carrier. The baby, facing forward, dangles with joy: feet wriggling, hands waving, eyes exploring. He’s so free. One would think it would terrify a baby to dangle without any […]
“The Harder You Fall, The Higher You Bounce”
I’m telling my woes to my hairstylist (the one who told me last year that it’s better to be the spotlight than be in the spotlight), and he says, “Well, the harder you fall, the higher you bounce.” He advises me to go ahead and fall hard and fast into whatever pain or sadness each […]
What I’m Learning About Self-Acceptance
Yesterday, I learn about how to help children love who they are–who God uniquely made them to be. I’m observing the problems of conformity, popularity, social acceptance, and rejection all played out in my daughters’ (and my own) lives. We cry a lot around here. It’s painful to not fit in. It’s painful, but as […]
Encounter with a Writing Spider
This morning, we see an enormous brown and yellow spider on the walk to school. I learn that this garden spider commonly holds the name “Writing Spider.” Argiope aurantia and Her Writing She constructs and deconstructs this web daily. She builds a fresh web every new day with that distinctive zig-zag through the center of […]
Analyzing Media: What’s Missing from a Report (Did Jesus Have a Wife?)
This week, as we teach media analysis–in particular, bias–I wonder about every piece of news I read. I find myself so curious when reading reports about Jesus’s alleged wife. Something’s missing, and it makes me so frustrated. I want context. I want to know what question Jesus was asked before he answered “my wife.” Here’s […]
It’s Not a Constraint; It’s “Creative Pressure”
I read last night in InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity, by Stanford neuroscience professor Tina Seelig, about the importance of pressure in the creative process. She talks about “building up creative pressure” that motivates us to produce. Without pressure, creativity actually wanes. High pressure leads to high creativity, especially when there’s a mission. Seelig […]
“This Is Where We’re Going.”
Every few weeks, I stop in the middle of class and remind students of the whole narrative of the course. “This is where we’re going. This is what we’re doing. This is why we are doing it.” I reiterate the whole thing again. We’ll have the same conversation in a few weeks (then again a […]