A Really Great Essay, especially for Claire and Ken and Single Dad

It's hard not to think of what's going on in America today -- the grappling with national healthcare, the politicization of what some (like me) might consider basic morality, the decimation of social programs for the disabled in the interest of individualism, the notion of what it means to be human. 

Thanks to Sally over at Maggie World, I read this essay today, written by Chris Gabbard, the father of August. It's wonderful to hear these words from a male perspective -- please read and share.

And if you're sitting around, knitting or something, listen to any program on Krista Tippett's show Being, but particularly this one, Fragility and the Evolution of Our Humanity. Here's an excerpt, written by Xavier Le Pichon, geophysicist and spiritual thinker:

Thus, the most revealing character of human societies seems to me to be that they take care of those who, when considered on the sole basis of immediate efficiency, appear to be debris that should be eliminated. Taking care of fragile and vulnerable individuals has revealed to humans their own fragility and vulnerability. It has forced them to enter this dark world of fear in order to learn to live with it. They have realized that the human individual is a unique reality that keeps its unity under widely changing aspects from the fetus to the aged person at the end of his life. This process must have played a decisive role in the psychological mutation of humans and their acquisition of an artistic and metaphysical capacity. As a result, the social presence of an individual within a human society is related to the tight network of relations, of emotions and more deeply of love that has been progressively woven throughout his life, and not primarily to its immediate material usefulness.

Thanksgiving #13

I'm thankful, today, for the wind in the palms and flowers in my garden despite absolutely no effort on my part.

How do you define a moment?

Bless me, for I have sinned

I am coveting my neighbor's iPad.

Especially after reading this article. Thank you, Erika, for bringing it to my attention!

Good thing I'm not a kleptomaniac.

I'd have two things to confess.

Thanksgiving #12

A day off from school

Cheeseburgers, salty french fries

Thankful for my boys.

I've combined my Thanksgiving for the day with Haiku my heart. For more Haiku, go see Rebecca. You'll be thankful you did.

Reminder (one of my favorite quotes)

Jacob wrestling the Angel

In curing, we are trying to get somewhere, we are looking for answers. In curing, our efforts are specifically designed to make something happen. In healing, we live questions instead of answers. We hang out in the unknown. We trust the emergence of whatever will be. We trust the insight will come. The challenge in medicine is not the choice between one and the other. We need both.

-- Dr. Paul Epstein, Naturopath

Thanksgiving #11

I am thankful that yesterday is gone, finished, over.

Thanksgiving #10

The above photo is of Vulcana, taken in the early 1900s. Vulcana was the stage name for Kate Roberts, a Welsh strongwoman of Irish parents who toured music halls throughout Europe and Great Britain with strongman William Hedley Roberts, better known as Atlas.

What relevance is that to my intention to be grateful for something every single day during November?

I am thankful today for my upper body strength,*** which keeps me from being a total loser in the fitness regime that I am currently undertaking.

***The upper body strength I do possess is, apparently, partly due to having to lift and carry and care for a fifteen year old with special needs and also to genetic inheritance (my grandmother and both parents are both quite strong). I'm grateful for both!

10 on 10

Check out ten daily photos over at Mama Manifesto -- a day in the life of ten different mothers at ten different times. My Big O is featured.

Oliver has been admonished numerous times this past week to take your fingers out of your mouth! Or wash your hands before you keep putting them in your mouth! The thing is that he has a very loose little tooth, and he is just obsessed with wiggling it. My assignment time for 10 on 10 was 5pm, and we were outside on the sidewalk in our neighborhood, watching the moving vans down the street. Oliver kept wiggling and finally said to me, Wiggle it, Mom! C'mon, Mom, wiggle it! So I did, and I have to admit that it WAS sort of fun!

Thanksgiving #9

Tulips from a dear friend, sitting in sunlight on a pile of books in November.

On Being a Trapeze Artist

I'm doing a lot of tricks over at Smartly -- come on over and bring a net!

This is My Child

"I've had doctors, a couple of doctors, who have questioned a decision about doing something for Olivia, kind of on the basis of: Is she worth it? I've looked them in the eye and said, 'Don't you dare say that to me. Do you have children? What would you do for your child?' I think society can look at a person like Olivia and say, 'What can she contribute?'"

--Tamara Welter, mother to Olivia, aged 21

What does it mean to be human? 


What does it mean to be alive?


What does it mean to be productive or not?


Does it matter?


Above all, this is my child.

Read more and listen to this story -- it brings up just about everything that we parents of children with severe special healthcare needs face. 

Mama Manifesto

Please come visit over at Mama Manifesto.

I'm musing about sick days.

Thanksgiving #8

I am grateful for mornings at home with no one in the house.