Teaching as a soul soother...

My day job is working as a violence prevention educator.  Specifically sexual violence prevention.

Today, I was in an all staff meeting with other members of my agency completely until late afternoon unaware that 20 school children had lost their lives.

Drawing given to me by a child in a class...

Yesterday, I spent the day working with elementary school children, talking about personal space.  The school I was working in is listed as a "failing" school.  The children are taught to the test, measured, sent to intervention and tested again.  The lessons on violence prevention that I teach often seem as wing nuts in the structure of the day.  In some schools, it seems as though the children have no space to themselves.  My introduction of personal space sometimes seems as attainable as travel to the moon for children in this culture.

But yesterday, I changed my lesson a bit.  Other groups of children in this school weren't "getting" the lesson even though it was easily "gotten" in other schools.  So yesterday, I removed as many transitions as possible and allowed the 8 year old children to draw pictures of whatever was important to them.

This drawing was made by me when a child walked up to me with a frown and blank pages.  He didn't know what to draw.  The two other children at the table were engaged in the activity but stopped to listen.  I told the young boy that he could draw anything he chose.  After this drawing, the group of three happily drew and chatted for the class.  The child who was at a loss before filled several pages with drawing and was beaming.  He said, "This is ALL my personal space!"

The children made books, pictures of Christmas trees, images of pets and best friends, flowers and video games.  For 40 minutes, the children owned the time.  They could chat together about their images, share crayons and markers, or just draw.  The drawings were THEIR OWN PERSONAL SPACE...something they were in charge of.

I received a couple of images from the children.  These drawings are precious.  I hope that the children know that they were seen and valued.  This evening in this time of tragic loss that is all I really can offer.

And on Monday, I will get up and go teach more children about personal space.

Embellishing my Uterus: The Uterus Flag Project

My flag waiting for me to work on it...

Social Media and Networking can be a good thing...Such is the case with this link to the Uterus Flag Project.  I can't remember which spool of thread I unraveled in order to find my way to Terrilyn's project but I glad I followed it.  

I love the United States Postal Service...I'll plug the Snail Mail Event later...

Terrilyn writes: "I chose the symbol of a flag, thinking of Tibetan prayer flags, and the way they carry messages and prayers on the wind." 

Opting in to this project is as simple as sending Terrilyn a message asking to join.  Then she sends a beautiful little package.  The package contains a shear piece of cloth with a uterus painted on it.  She also encloses a bunch of thread which serves as merely a suggestion.  Terrilyn states that :

The Uterus Project is a profound body of work that allows me to share my creativity and my social concerns regarding the overmedicalization of women and include others in the art process...My mission is educating through the power of art integrating the ideals of feminism to change the consciousness about women's health.

Terrilyn includes simple embroidery techniques in her package and some gentle encouragement. Simply put the flag can be embellished as the artist chooses.  All genders are invited to participate.  

And today on the 92nd anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote, I think thinking about healthy, educated and happy uterii is a good way to celebrate. (In addition to exercising one's right to vote by electing folks who will work for the good of the WHOLE community, who are inclusive, and who recognize that differences of opinion are part of a healthy democracy.) 

My flag in the embroidery hoop.

Green Spiral Ovary bead surrounded by red and amber beads with green and red thread...

Beads hoping to be sewn into my flag.

My flag almost done...

Versatile Blog Award

Yvonne recently nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.  I'm not exactly sure what it is or what magic wishes it entitles me to but it allowed me to find out about both her "Zentangles" and her birds.  I love her birds.  So, thank you, Yvonne, both for nominating me and for making those birds!


There are rules for this award thingy. So, here are the rules for the Versatile Blog Award:

                

• Thank the person who gave you this award. 
• Include a link to Their blog.
• Next, select 5 blogs / bloggers That you've recently discovered or follow REGULARLY.
• Those nominate 5 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
• Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Here are the 5 blogs that I'd like to nominate:

1. Took over at Fraught with Meaning...I do believe she tries to post something about her art process everyday and she makes some wonderful creatures.

2. Sebastian over at Acts of Random Art often gets in trouble for drawing with chalk on trash cans and I love that.  Also he "catches" street art at its finest among many other things.

3. Michael at Skybridge Studios creates fantastic collages that have a lovely dry humor.

4. Papergirl Zagreb founded by Aisha asks for folks to send art that can be rolled up, archives the art on her blog, then randomly gives the art to people in Zagreb.  Love this democratic distribution of art.

5. And finally Tomasz has Simple Observations.  These almost daily photographs are lovely bits of the world.  Snapshots of places that are.

An Yvonne here are the seven things about me:

1. I love digging in the dirt and planting things.  My husband built me a greenhouse last summer and it is one of my favorite places in the universe.

2. I love the smell of watercolors and have to refrain from licking the paint.

3.  I have two dogs, four cats and a flock of theoretical goats and metaphysical chicken (the goats and chickens live in my mind because I would be too scared for them in the wintertime and would probably bring them all in the house.)

4. I have been with my husband longer than I have not been with him.  He is my best friend.

5. We (my husband and I) have a very cheeky 11 year old daughter who is right now playing the piano.

6. I often draw my dreams.  My drawings often scare me.  Then I have nightmare about my drawings and I have to draw the nightmares.  It is quite a loop.

7. I love roses and tomatoes and plant both whenever I can.  I would like a rose and tomato infused perfume.

Namaste.

The Transformers

March 29, 2012
Howard Zinn

 "What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” ~Howard Zinn

March 30, 2012
Paulo Freire

 “It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.” Paulo Freire

March 31, 2012
Addie Wyatt

"Wyatt's major achievement as a union activist was to protect and enhance the rights of women in the workplace. She was the first chair of the National Women's Committee of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), which honored her by naming an award after her, the Addie L. Wyatt Woman of the Year Award. Wyatt was appointed by Eleanor Roosevelt as a committee member on the Labor Legislation Committee of the Commission on the Status of Women, which reported in 1963. She was appointed by President Carter to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. Wyatt was named one of Time's Women of the Year in 1975 and by the Ladies' Home Journal in 1977. Ebony judged her one of the 100 most influential black Americans between 1980 and 1984. On August 26, 2005, her footprints were added to the Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia, in acknowledgment of her work as an activist, campaigner, and leader." as found here

Equality...

March 26, 2012
Fredrick Douglass

 "Observing woman's agency, devotion and efficiency in pleading the cause of the slave, gratitude for this high service early moved me to give favorable attention to the subject of what is called "woman's rights" and caused me to be denominated a woman's rights man. I am glad to say I have never been ashamed to be thus designated." ~Fredrick Douglass

March 27, 2012
Angela Hartnett

 I have been having conversation about this project and people to be included over on Facebook.  This is one of the conversations I had about Angela Hartnett:

"Well Bridget," says Connor McAlonan, (my cousin and a chef in Ireland) "I think Angela Hartnett is a good example. She is a chef in the UK who earned a Michelin Star. But for me any woman who can achieve at this level in a very male/macho dominated world deserves a nod."

... "It seems also, Conor that she is not embracing the bravado of "I am amazing so I can treat my employees like shit" mentality. It seems (and perhaps you know more about her ripples in the foodie community) that she is egalitarian in her approaches. I especially love her comment about having childcare available for ALL employees, not just women. This is what I am looking for when I think about this paper doll project," I say.

"Definitely. From talking to people that have worked in her kitchen, she doesnt have to say much. One of Heroes, " says Conor

March 28, 2012
Sojourner Truth

"Wall, chilern, 

whar dar is so much racket 

... dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. 

I tink dat 'twixt de nigger of de Souf 

and de womin at de Norf, 

all talkin' 'bout rights, 

de white men will be in a fix pretty soon. 

But what's all dis here talkin' 'bout?

Dat man ober dar say 

dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, 

and lifted ober ditches, 

and to hab de best place everywhar. 

Nobody eber halps me into carriages, 

or ober mudpuddles, 

or gibs me any best place! 

And ar'n't I a woman? 

Look at me! 

Look at my arm! 

I have ploughed, 

and planted, 

and gathered into barns, 

and no man could head me! 

And ar'n't I a woman? 

I could work as much 

and eat as much as a man -- 

when I could get it -- 

and bear de lash as well! 

And ar'n't' I a woman? 

I have borne thirteen chilern, 

and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery, 

and when I cried out with my mother's grief, 

none but Jesus heard me! 

And ar'n't I a woman?

Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; 

what dis dey call it? 

"Intellect," 

(whispered someone near). 

Dat's it, honey. 

What's dat got to do wid womin's rights 

or nigger's rights? 

If my cup won't hold but a pint, 

and yourn holds a quart, 

wouldn't ye be mean 

not to let me have my little half-measure full? 

Den dat little man in black dar, 

he say women can't have as much rights as men, 

'cause Christ wan't a woman! 

Whar did your Christ come from? 

Whar did your Christ come from? 

From God and a woman! 

Man had nothin' to do wid Him.

If de fust woman God ever made 

was strong enough to turn de world upside down 

all alone, 

dese women togedder ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! 

And now dey is asking to do it, 

de men better let 'em. 

Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, 

and now ole Sojourner 

han't got nothin' more to say."

 Delivered by Sojourner Truth 1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio

Resistance through words and through actions

Kurt Vonnegut
March 6, 2012

 "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Kurt Vonnegut

Irena Sendler
March 7, 2012 

Irena Sendler died 12 May 2008 (aged 98) in Warsaw, Poland.

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a

plumbing/sewer specialist.  

She had an 'ulterior motive'.

She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews (being German).

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she

carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids).

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi

soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking

covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500

kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her

severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept

them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and

reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was not selected.

 ~ Morgan Powder