Trial run of a fashion update. I'm chronicling my attempts to gain a sense of fashion here rather than trying to present myself as some sort of expert.
(This is an essay I wrote for part of a Cultural Memoir Assignment) One former Adventist friend of mine always says, “It was the table that fed me” in referring to our shared Seventh-day Adventist background. My friend was referring to the morals, values and spirituality of Seventh-day Adventism that we still hold onto, even though we disagree with the Church in many ways. I, however, can’t help but think of feeding in the literal sense. Seventh-day Adventism did truely feed us, but in very unusual ways. Seventh-day Adventists have something they refer to as the “Health Message.” Just like the Mormons we have our very own prophet, only she was a woman and not a polygamist. Ellen White encouraged healthy living and vegetarianism in the Seventh-day Adventist church. In many ways this has been a blessing to the church. Adventists who follow the health message are some of the longest living folks in the nation. On the other hand it has brought a spirit of legalistic infighting ove...
I have become a neophyte science geek. When I started my journey away from Adventism I didn't realize I would become a nerd. Initially all my thinking was wrapped up around moral and spiritual questions. As I became more comfortable in my own semi-buddhist agnostic skin an unintended side-effect took place. I blame it on The March of the Penguins. I saw this movie with my Kindergarteners. Without my creationist goggles on I really started to marvel at how the penguins came to be. I researched penguins for quite awhile afterwards. Then I started researching amphibians for a thematic unit. I must have watched this video of the Surinam Toad over and over again. Sooo gross but soooo cool! Next I blame auto-tune. For some reason I was watching videos that had been auto-tuned and I came across this one with Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking. Funny but strangely moving. Then i started reading about the vastness of space and the galaxies and the big bang. Radio Lab has b...
Let today be the day. you look at your anger and self-loathing, your anxiety and depression, neurosis, obessions and compulsions. Look at them and see them…not as demons, but as the traumatized children they are. Then tell them Thank-you. In their own way they’ve tried to protect and nourish you, to soothe and motivate you. They didn’t know how, but they tried. So Thank-you If they are crying out to you now, tuck them in bed, kiss them on head and whisper… “Go to sleep, little ones. Mama’s got this. “ Then wake up in yourself the children of compassion. These children who are kind, fierce, curious, sustaining and beautiful. These sweet little ones need your attention now. They’ve been weak and malnourished. You’ve always given so much to the children of trauma that you’ve had nothing left for these others. So feed them now, kiss them and let them play....
Comments