Seedling Song

 Toni Morrrison is everything. I've taught her books so many times. But more than that, her words sit with me, touchstones. When images from her books come to me, they give me solid ground to reach toward ethical, beautiful compassion. Images and characters and moments from Beloved live in the back of my mind always. I read about teen girls locked up in Texas hieleras with their premie newborn and I can see Beloved's birth and death and haunting play out in my mind. I read The Bluest Eye when I was still a child, so young I don't remember it well, but it's still there. It's the reason, the reason behind my big choices about who I let into my life, what I choose to do with my life. I studied literature because she wrote literature. A set of Toni Morrison's books: The Bluest Eye, Sula, Paradise, Playing in the Dark, Home, A Mercy [/caption] If you do one thing, if you want to read something today or hear her voice, look up her Nobel prize acceptance speech. Let ...

 Yesterday I had several people decide to tell me to spend less time with my kids, squash out meltdowns by ignoring them and refusing to be manipulated, and cut out tv and video games. Today I'm not answering the phone. Today we ran races in the front yard and were awarded handmade trophies. We learned about numbers, about gold, silver, and bronze. About bronze being "third best" which is different from "worst." We learned about looking both ways before getting a ball from the street. Today baby decided they like one of my kid's favorite shows, and they enjoyed it together on the couch except they kept kicking their sibling's pillows and squishing them with hugs and trying to steal their food. Today we learned about patience. Today they learned a little about physical boundaries and consent. Today we researched how to unlock Scrapbook Theater songs in Yoshi's Woolly world. We learned about search terms and fan wikis and reading. Today we threw differ...