I recently read one article about modesty and another about sex-positive parenting. I feel like there's validity to both, but at the same time the seem to be contradictory. I'll share my thoughts with you, and maybe you can share some with me (assuming we can all do so respectfully.)
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“We must speak, we must take sides. For neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.” These are the words of Holocaust survivor and renowned activist Elie Wiesel, who has died aged 87. Seeing all the posts about the recent violence, a post with this quote by Elie Wiesel struck me the most. So I did not want to be silent, but didn't know what to say. (In an effort not to be looking at a screen instead of my children, I had only seen headlines until later tonight, so I didn't even really know what was going on.) Regardless of the specifics of each case, it is clear that we have a racism problem. And I want to be part of the solution. But I no longer have faith in our government at all. I don't trust them any farther than I can throw them. So I don't believe I can do much to change things through official channels. So,what can I do at home to make a difference?... "A little yellow acorn fell to the ground and lay there patiently without a sound..." (From Edward Gibbs's Little Acorn Grows Up, one of our favorite books.) We have quite a few books about acorns growing into big strong Oaks. And with a 2 year old and 4 year old, we play the "why" game a lot. What is this?... Where did it come from?...Why did it come from the tree?...And then it grows into a tree?...Why? And I often think about how many acorns do not grow into trees. You've heard the saying, "It takes a village..." There have been hundreds of articles written on the truth of this saying and the importance of the village. Today I'm feeling this so much. Here is my version: I've been so torn lately over holding on to traditions I grew up with. My favorite holiday is coming up - May Day. I know there are many other holidays before May Day, but I enjoy it so much I'm already anticipating and planning how we will celebrate. May Day lands on a Sunday this year, and I was thinking about throwing a May Day Fesitival, with a May pole and everything! While I don't exactly remember the origin of the holiday, I know it was pagan. As the pagan holidays revolved around the seasons, it is half-way between the spring equinox and the summer equinox. Again, while I don't remember the traditions or reasoning behind them, I know this is another holiday that Christians adopted and came up with their own symbolism for. In some cases, like Christmas and Easter, I think this was done in an effort to convert pagans. They were already celebrating, so the church would use these rituals to turn them towards the church. But I wonder if in some cases, (and perhaps truly in all) this was actually just a way to let Christians join in on the fun. I've been trying to decide if that's ok or not. A plan has taken shape for our observance of Lent and Easter. Recently Acorn's most requested book has been "Ten Apples Up On Top." Half way through the book they declare, "Eight! Eight! And we can skate. Look now! We can skate with eight!" Thus began Acorn's obsession with roller skates. Over and over he would tell us, "I would like to skate." So I started looked for a pair of adjustable, over-the-shoe skates. When I found them on a resale site he wouldn't stop bugging me about when we were going to go get them. None of my explanations about waiting for a response from the seller mattered. But when I sympathized that it can be really hard to wait, I remembered the children's sermon from a couple of weeks ago in which the pastor talked about Lent and how it could be hard to control ourselves when there's something we really want. I've been trying to figure out whether or not we were going to do Easter baskets. I'm still not totally sold on the idea. I still want to look up the origin of the tradition, but I definitely have some ideas of what I would put in an Easter basket. So for now, here's my plan. Brain storming...Do you do Easter baskets? My husband and I got them as kids, but haven't done them for our children yet. My oldest is 4, so he's starting to learn more about how other families celebrate and understands what's going on more. In our church, we talk about how mainstream "Easter" symbols remind us of what we are celebrating at Easter. We have an egg cracking custom to symbolize the tomb being open. We talk about how the colors of eggs remind us of God's different gifts. Some years we explain how butterflies are a symbol of Jesus's resurrection.
In thinking about why we do Easter baskets, the only thing I could come up with was to create an analogy to the excitement that the women and men must have felt when they found Jesus's tomb empty. So I was thinking about doing an Easter basket this year that incorporates that idea. I want to set up a "tomb," close it on Friday, and have them find it open with gifts inside on Sunday. I feel like we should put something in there when we close it. Any ideas? Is this a horrible idea all together? I was picking up garbage in our bedroom yesterday when I came across one of Pastor Michelle's Musings. Michelle was the pastor of my church a little while ago, and often included some of her musings in our weekly church bulletin. This one really struck home for me. I have lots of friends on both sides of the issues. I often see posts, not just disagreeing with, but bashing people on the other side. Thankfully these seem to have slowed down lately, but I still am a little uncomfortable in the company of people that have done the bashing. So with Pastor Michelle's permission, I wanted to share her musing here... I'm really enjoying reading Jesus, the Gentle Parent: Gentle Christian Parenting, by L.R. Knost. |
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February 2016
Blogs I follow (Does it count as following if I have 50 unread posts sitting in my RSS feed?) when I have time:
A Montessori Home Ali's Art Adventures At Home with Montessori Feeding the Soil How We Montessori Janet Lansbury Jo Cessna Jordan Bagwill Eusebio Montessori ici Multilingual Living Nature Moms Our Best Bites Simply Natural Mom Three Chord Me Under the Sycamore Vibrant Wanderings |