Never Say Never to Your Traveling Self (Redux)

Tupperwolf: Wealth, risk, and stuff

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:30:13 -0700

Via Anne Galloway on Twitter, I just saw Living With Less. A Lot Less, an opinion piece in the New York Times.

I run into some version of this essay by some moneybags twig-bishop about once a year, and it bugs me every time.

Here’s the thing. Wealth is not a number of dollars. It is not a…

Whenever anyone mentions rowing

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:07:15 -0800

rowingsoundsfun:

Haha, pretty much.

explore-blog: Beautiful anatomical heart embroidery by artist...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:45:19 -0800

explore-blog:

Beautiful anatomical heart embroidery by artist Andrea Dezsö. More at the intersection of art and medicine here and here.

Photo

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:15:02 -0800

lreneegabourel: Soul Sister | Soul Brother Incredible...

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:37:24 -0800

Curtis Mayfield

Ella Fitzgerald

Etta James

Erykah Badu

Gil Scott Heron

Minnie Ripperton

lreneegabourel:

Soul Sister | Soul Brother

Incredible illustrations by Carlos Quiterio

Mixed Media, Digitally Finished

When it's 5am and your coach is going over the workout

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:14:39 -0800

rowingsoundsfun:

And you’re just like:

it was a dream

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:41:44 -0700

it was a dream:

jonterri:

in which my greater self
rose up before me
accusing me of my life
with her extra finger
whirling in a gyre of rage
at what my days had come to.
what, 
i pleaded with her, could i do,
oh what could i have done?
and she twisted her wild hair
and sparked her wild eyes
and screamed as long as
i could hear her
This.  This.  This.

—Lucille Clifton

(via poets.org)

"What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent –..."

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 23:16:34 -0700

“What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent – in the broadest and best sense, intelligent – is not having access to more and more learning places, resources, and specialists, but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill, and judgment, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives of people around them.”

- ~ John Holt, Teach Your Own

"Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which..."

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:10:45 -0700

“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.”

- Joan Didion on self-respect, a must-read. (via explore-blog)

AUSTIN KLEON: On Regina Spektor's “gift of small hands”

Sun, 20 May 2012 19:42:28 -0700

AUSTIN KLEON: On Regina Spektor's “gift of small hands”:

austinkleon:

There’s a piece in the NYTimes today about how Spektor’s “shortcomings as a classical pianist turned her into a songwriter.” Spektor has very small hands, and while studying classical piano, “scores had to be rearranged, her left hand taking on part of the role of the left.” After a while, it…

nwhiphop: Oh yeah, AND Luck-One and Dekk dropped Beautiful...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:12:54 -0800

nwhiphop:

Oh yeah, AND Luck-One and Dekk dropped Beautiful Music Part 2 today.

Not sure where else you can get such quality music for free. GET IT NOW.

This is my brother’s album! And that’s us on the cover of this album as kids - Luck (baby), Mac, and me.

Photo

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:09:56 -0800

Counting beans.

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:15:00 -0700

Counting beans.

RevNaomi Tumblr: 5 Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion (for children)

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:08:43 -0700

RevNaomi Tumblr: 5 Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion (for children):

revnaomiking:

I appreciate James Luther Adams’ complex and rewarding essay on the five smooth stones of liberal religion. I translated it into a simplified form for use in adult programming, but then that still didn’t pass the five-year-old-test.

I’d like us to be able to use the five smooth stones in our…

Me at 7 years old, in uniform of one of the schools I went to...

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:39:00 -0700

Me at 7 years old, in uniform of one of the schools I went to that year.

How I Became a Homeschooler

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:35:00 -0700

I could write far more about homeschooling/unschooling than tumblr was intended to display in a single entry, so I will start with a bit of personal history. Later I’ll write posts about different aspects of it and respond to online materials I see about education and homeschooling.

I’ll preface this by saying that, as a child, I experienced public school, private school, Islamic school, homeschooling (Calvert curriculum), and unschooling. All of these had their good points and all had their trade-offs. Despite attending no less than seven different schools between the ages of 5 and 8, I always did well, and always liked school.

My favorite time period was when we lived in one house for nearly four years and I was able to attend the same school from 3rd through 6th grades. I was an active and engaged student - orchestra, student council, school spelling bee, math club, yearbook, lots of friends, endured PE, and survived the typical schoolyard teasing while participating in my share of gossip and drama. Due to my religious upbringing, I was an anomaly, but it didn’t interfere with me making friends or fully participating in school life. I was very excited about going to middle school when my family very abruptly had to move - to another town.

Now, when you are 11 years old and live on Long Island, 15 miles might as well be 1500 miles. So I started 7th grade at a middle school 5 towns over where I knew absolutely no one, and everything changed. I went from being confident and excited about school to being wide-eyed and overwhelmed. I’d spent the last four years at a 450-student school where the student population was 99% black and/or Latino, much of the staff were people of color, and everyone understand that I was Muslim and had some concept of what that meant … and I was now suddenly in a school with a population of over a thousand students, most of them of Irish or Italian descent. I often recount the story of seeing my classmates wearing leather “Guns N Roses” jackets, and thinking they were in some sort of gang where the boys were the Guns and the girls were the Roses.

I felt invisible. I rotated through my six or seven classes a day where my name was butchered and puzzled over. I was one of maybe a dozen black children, and all the ones I saw were boys who played sports. While there were many Jewish kids at the school, I didn’t recognize any Muslims.

So when my parents suggested homeschooling two months into the school year (because of issues they were having with my younger brother’s teacher and the district administration), I thought, “Sure, why not?” I literally had nothing to lose. The only thing I would miss at the junior high was its large library. My last day there, there was no one to tell it was my last day there.

In retrospect I realize I was still grieving the sudden loss of my friends, my home, and my plans for the foreseeable future. The move had transpired over the summer, so the only classmates I was able to say goodbye to were the ones who lived on my street. It was also a tumultuous and difficult time for my entire family, so boohooing and trying to garner pity for myself would have been selfish, not to mention tacky; it was time to get on with life.

And that is how my homeschooling journey began!

small stone redux #1

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:49:00 -0700

Every morning I go to wake you

Can I turn on the light?

You’re face down

curly head squirming

half under the pillow.

There’s the point in the blanket where

your toes are pointed in a stretch.

Good morning, baby.

You smile

knowing I’m about to reach you

I dust you with kisses all over

and now you’re laughing,

eyes still closed.

Climbing.

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:29:38 -0700

Climbing.

Hobbs shows Kidlet how it’s done.

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:43:08 -0700

Hobbs shows Kidlet how it’s done.

Afternoon laugh-in w/ Kidlet.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:38:00 -0700

Afternoon laugh-in w/ Kidlet.