Daily Archives: March 27, 2010

How Do I Dig For My Dream?

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Somewhere in that shuffle of marriage,of being a wife or husband, of being a husband or mother,  in the middle of parenting in a mindful way….dreams we once had often seem so distant.  Our dreams before we had children may also now seem irrelevant because we have shifted and grown as human beings.  We may no longer know what dream we have outside of parenting, putting food on the table, homeschooling.  How do we discover our current passion?  What could we be working on that is just ours alone?  If we discover a passion and then we want time alone to pursue that, is that selfish and not to be had in this season of life?

I think it is okay to have a passion not related to your children or your marriage.  These passions and desires make you who you are, and also show your evolution and your growth as a human being throughout these cycles.   Your children will not be under the age of 9 forever, and yes, they will need your presence still, but you will be able to garner a bit more time.

What is your passion right now? What is really interesting to you?  If you cannot think of what your passion outside of your own family might be, what is it that really breaks your heart?

That sounds so incredibly odd, doesn’t it?  What breaks my heart?  Really, what kind of question is that?

It is just that sometimes I find the very thing that you see that breaks your heart turns out the biggest way you can contribute to your community, to your friends, to the people who need whatever experience or passion you have to offer.  In the words of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi, “The hurt that we embrace becomes our joy.”

You all can probably guess my passion; my passion is to build connected families, to encourage strong marriages, for  parents to connect with their children and to understand normal development across the human arc so they can educate and parent and gently guide in the most optimal way so their children can grow up into healthy adults.  I get to this  through my traditional medical background, through the seven year cycles and three and four fold human being and the twelve sense, through attachment parenting and gentle discipline and through Waldorf Education.  If you look at my “About” page, you will see the total mishmash of Things That Make Up Carrie.  And for years, I had absolutely no idea how any of that could fit together and help me or anyone else.

Maybe you are a bit like me; wondering what this chapter of your life holds outside of parenting and thinking, hmm, in twenty years or so when my children are gone, what will I be doing?  That is an interesting question!

So what is your passion?  What breaks your heart?  What brings you the most joy?  What do people say you are really, really good at?   Probably in that realm is where you will find your passion and ignite your dream. 

One thing to me that is vital in discovering this passion is having your own time each day to SIT QUIETLY.  This is time for your own inner work, your own time to see if you can hear that small, still voice.  For me, this is the time I use to read the Bible, to encourage myself when I feel low or down, my time to pray and try to discern what I need to hear.  To discern what is essential. When is your quiet time, and what do you do during your quiet time?  I would love to know; please do leave me a comment and share!

So, my final suggestion is to grab that wonderful sketchbook and do some writing or drawing.  Set a timer for ten minutes and just write what comes into your mind.  It may surprise you what dreams are lying right under the surface…

Many blessings,

Carrie

Make Your Voice Heard With Alliance For Childhood!

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This came into my mailbox and thought I would pass it on; it concerns the common core standards for childhood education.  These core standards, as far as I can see, are not at all based upon any form of traditional childhood development standards as we know of…Please read on for how you can help!

Alliance for Childhood

P.O. Box 444, College Park, MD 20741

Tel/Fax 301-779-1033

www.allianceforchildhood.org

Update—March 2010:  Rethink the “Core Standards”

 

Dear Friends,
As many of you know, the Alliance for Childhood is gravely concerned about the newly proposed “common core standards” for children in kindergarten and the early grades. Hundreds of early childhood health and education professionals have signed the Alliance’s joint statement on the K-3 standards calling for their withdrawal. Now is the time for each of you to take action on this critical issue.
After months of drafting in secrecy, the final proposed version of the K-12 standards was released by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) on March 10. Some aspects of this version are better than the draft that was leaked to the press in January; some are worse. But overall we are sure these standards will intensify an already inappropriate emphasis on cognitive development of young children that is divorced from social-emotional and physical development. Current practices are already causing enormous stress in children’s lives. These new standards will add to that.
The NGA and CCSSO have announced that the proposed standards are “available for comment” until April 2, after which they will revise the standards and issue the final version. Unfortunately, this is not a true public comment process, such as would be required for an important piece of legislation moving through Congress. Yet the federal government has announced that billions of tax dollars—including “Race to the Top” and Title I education funds—will be tied to states’ adopting these standards. We are deeply troubled by this entire process.

The NGA and CCSSO have set up an online survey to collect comments. The survey is rather confusing. Here are the steps you need to take to ask that the early childhood standards be withdrawn and reconsidered:

1. Go to www.corestandards.org.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the home page and click on the link to the questionnaire.

3. At the “Section 2—Feedback” page, choose the third option, “English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards.”

4. The next page asks you to “select the level of feedback you would like to give.” Choose the second option, “General Feedback and Feedback on Specific Sections.”

5. On the “Specific Feedback—English Language Arts” page, check the four boxes for K-5 (Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language). This will enable you to select “Remove or entirely rewrite” as your preference if you agree with our position.

6. On the “Specific Feedback—Mathematics” page, check the four boxes for Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3. This will enable you to select “Remove or entirely rewrite.”

It is vital that you submit comments and get friends and colleagues to do the same. It’s a small window of time between now and April 2, but the biggest one Americans have had yet to speak out about the need for strong, experiential, play-based approaches to early education. Use the boxes for “additional comments” in the questionnaire to inform policymakers about your own experiences and concerns about early education.
See the Alliance web site, www.allianceforchildhood.org, to read our statement on the standards, the comments of many of the signers, and more details on how you can respond. Policymakers need to hear from us all, especially parents and teachers. Their voices are rarely heard on educational issues. It’s time to act.

Carrie here:  This was a message I received in my in-box and it was too important to not pass it on.  Thanks for your help!

Many Blessings,

Carrie