ElementalMom

My old pal Mike has decided to go into comedy. This video is from his first or second performance at SFCC. I think he did an awesome job.

…and you’ll always be Bubba to me. =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9wWHvwLokE

This one was really really hard to write. Mostly my essays about unschooling are pretty organic, and roll from whatever we’re experiencing, but lately I’ve been spending some time thinking of the larger cultural implications of the schooling process, and trying to focus on that. And in the interests of full disclosure, I’m also trying to help out some friends who are still arguing with their spouses about whether or not this is an option for them, and trying to encourage a few artist friends of mine who are struggling to continue to create within a culture that so sorely undervalues them. So this one’s for you, guys.

The Natural Products of Our Training

By way of Geoff Arnold, this old gem. Makes me teary-eyed every single time I hear it. I cannot believe the BBC is bleeping it, but hey… at least it gets noticed.

http://geoffarnold.com/?p=1843

Here are the fantastic pictures that Dana took at our ill-fated trip to the lake. Enjoy! And doesn’t Rowan look just like Jason in the first image?

http://www.kelpcritter.com/photography/LaureenKids/

Thanks Dana!

I‘m spending a lot of time with my thoughts these days.

I know I keep mysteriously alluding to all this stuff in my life, and it’s not my intent to be opaque; I honestly haven’t figured out how to blog about some things, some things are too raw, some things are too private. But when that’s all that’s going on with your life, your posts dry up, then all your readers send you worried messages. I love you all, guys, thanks for the concern.

I spent this afternoon printing out images for a collage which is to be the focus for a creative visualization (CV) exercise. I’m a huge believer in CV; I’ve visualized myself into stuff before, both good and bad, and hey, if you watch "What the Bleep Do We Know?", you’ll realize that we all are performing CV all the time, just with varying levels of success and satisfaction in the days that we create. So anyway, we make these collages, to help keep us focused on what we want, on the images that are most powerful towards a most beneficial outcome for everyone involved.

This particular CV is about getting our house sold. The town we live in has been rough on me, and the last four years, frankly, have sucked a whole lot. Despite doing my darnest to bloom where I’m planted, this place has bested me two falls out of three, and left me bitter, disillusioned, and disheartened. I knew what I was getting into, so it’s not like there was a great fall or anything… it’s just been a really, really long four years.

So now, as you know if you read my other blog, we’re on the boat, living in the lovely San Francisco Bay. Already, I feel my energy returning, my spirits lifting, my heart returning to my body. And for some reason, I keep stumbling onto images of Hotei, or the Laughing Buddha. He makes me laugh, he makes me rethink, he makes me stop in my day and realize that yeah, despite my angst, I’ve got it good.

My blog is in danger of becoming an endless video review. But one of my homeschooling mommy buddies sent me this link, which as its background music, has a version of Cat Stevens’ Peace Train that I hadn’t heard before.

http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

Someday, it’s going to come.

Someone on one of my multiple Mommy-lists forwarded this to me. Perfect!

http://www.venamous.net/socialization.jpg

The amazing Angela pointed me here:

http://www.i-wish.org/

I have a lot of heart tied up in Venice… if someone says “home” to me, that’s the place my brain automatically references.

There is so much negative in the world, so much angst. One of the things I noticed most about music while we were in Puerto Rico recently is that the songs on the radio are about sex and love, not about angst and suffering. It’s a marked contrast. So when I see positive, hopeful, community-based art, I feel like we all make the world a better place by promoting it.

So go forth, and let people know. I wish…