when we see the inevitable truth

The inevitable truth is that it is time for me to migrate. I am taking photos, I am writing, I have hoards to say, but I am not inspired to share it here. I look at my Blogger page and I feel like "blecht." I think I have squeezed everything I could out of Blogger. I am done--- NOT with blogging (though my absence may suggest otherwise), but with Blogger. I have been complaining to myself for about a year now and it's time I packed my thoughts, words and photos and switch over to Wordpress.

I will forever be grateful to Blogger for giving me the platform and courage to capture and cement the words that ping pong around my head onto a published screen. Change is always afoot and I gladly open my door when it arrives.

Meanwhile have you Unravelled 2013 and chosen a word for 2014 yet?  If not, the workbook can be downloaded here. I have been doing Susannah's annual reflections for 3 years now, and there are two words I can say about this process: it works. I look forward to sharing my new word with you on Wordpress soon.

So with that I say goodbye to 2013, goodbye to Blogger, and Happy Happy New Year!!!

xoxox

Pushing limits

The banjo. Why I chose this instrument to begin learning at 41 is still an enigma to me. I enjoy bluegrass, but am not necessarily an enormous fan. No one in my family has ever played the instrument. I didn't grow up anywhere rich in bluegrass or banjo history. No country or bluegrass radio stations blasting from our old, yellow Dodge Aspen (what a fabulous car that was) when I was 10. In fact, years ago when I did imagine myself playing anything, the piano was the frontrunner in all my dreams.

But that did change, and here I am with a banjo and three pics fumbling my way through strings, chords, and strange looking music. At least once a day I curse that I didn't begin sooner, that I didn't have to squint and refocus my eyes just to see the strings 10 inches from my face. But I didn't begin sooner. An offer to borrow a banjo brought me to this place 7 months ago and surprisingly now it's not reading that is pushing me to get my old lady glasses, but the burning desire to play the banjo better.

Passion is a simple thing. If we love something enough, the idea is that we will stop at nothing to go for it. Even if it means we have to suck for awhile (a long while) before we get any good at it. We will give up having nice fingernails, develop ugly fingertip caluses, and endure our own crappy music playing just to get to the heart and meat of it all. It means that our comfort zone is not the endzone and frustration is actually a sign of self deconstruction and evolution. It means realizing that standing beyond our limits actually feels good. It means that in these moments, we are becoming something that not long ago was only just a dream.  That, I think I can do...

Happy Friday to you...

xoxo

the hummingbird's wings

It's just been that kind of weekend, summer in fact. Flying with the slight of whim, scheduling and canceling plans at the last minute, some hours just lazing by with a little bit of reading, a little bit of crafting, a little bit of banjo, and a whole lotta polaroids. Friendship was a theme this weekend, and I clung to the laughter, the conversations, the sharing of food and drink. And with every single beat, I'm watching my kids change, my husband change, the season's change, my life moving as quickly as the hummingbird's wings. I linger, I hover, all the while praying that somehow, somewhere, my memories are storing what my film cannot.

The blog world feels like it's changing (or is it me)?  From the wanderings I make, and even from my own time or lack there of that I spend in these spaces, something is different. I visit old friends and still peek at new ones, but I sense we are shifting, some moving on, some transforming into something new.  Me? I'm just hanging on to the day to day. Not the kind of cliffhanger hanging on, where I feel like I'm going to fall at any minute, but the "enjoying the view" kind of hanging on. The kind where I just want to remember why I am even here in this space. To wonder and question, remember, and honor the life I've been given, and to navigate and discover the inner marriage between the 2 parts of me: the human and the soul.

I guess that is why I write what I write. The longer I am out here, the more I see how much we all have so much in common, how we have battled similar battles, questioned similar questions, struggled similar struggles. In the end, we all just want to remember why we are here, to notice the things we don't want to miss, and to record the things that make us beautiful and resilient, no matter how fast our days move, just like the hummingbird's wings.

Monday love...

xoxo

joining Amanda

Chances and choices

When we are removed from our everyday, when we are placed in situations that aren't typical, when we are forced to see ourselves differently than what we are accustomed to, we are offered valuable information. An opportunity to consider that there is so much more available to us than we allow ourselves to know. Consumed with our norm, our schedules, our responsibilities, our established roles, we can miss so much. Whether I remember or not, I am given chances everyday to stretch beyond my comfortable boundaries. They come and go so often, it's easy to mistake them for anything else but a gem hidden amongst ordinary pebbles

Going on the Teton's trip as a chaperone was a chance to step outside the roles of mother, wife, caretaker, homemaker, or whatever else I want to call myself. Though my son was on this trip, it was made clear that my role was as chaperone first, not mother, which of course required a conscious effort on my part:). It reminded me of my trip to Squam last year, a scary yet oh so worthy chance at seeing beneath and between the layers of self. The Teton trip helped me remember someone I once was in a different time. It helped me see the children I was chaperoning beyond their roles of student, son/daughter, and friend, enhancing their individualities, their personalities, each with their own hurdles and burdens to overcome. There, with the backdrop that only nature and earth can provide, we were exposed to the rawness and palpability of our spirits. With no familiar schedules, routines, or roles to hide behind, we found new dimensions in ourselves and in each other in those 5 days--dimensions that challenged, lifted, supported, split us apart and then brought us together again. We were changed whether we knew it or not, and we grew closer whether we wanted to or not.

And such are the gifts of chance and choice. I do believe dreams begin this way, when we open ourselves to things that we once deemed improbable, impossible, inconceivable, like hiking the AT trail or playing the banjo. Opportunities come and go, we just need to give ourselves permission to say "yes", "yes" to finding the glimmer that keeps the light of possibility in our eyes. With this, the promise of another gem awaits :)....

much love to you fellow adventurers...

xoxo

The extra in the ordinary

The decorations will be coming down today, and what I once considered adorned before the holidays will now appear desolate and naked. I do have an addictive personality, an inherited trait that leaves me charmed by escapism, celebration, and any detour from day to day reality (especially on an extended vacation such as the last 2 weeks). But having recovered from addiction, I also know that adjusting the hardwired tendencies of my brain means making a conscious effort to practice (and practice and practice) looking beneath the surface of things, and seek the extraordinary in the ordinary. And soon emptiness is replaced by the effervescent details around me.

Reflecting back, I realize I wrote that post over a year ago about my 12 year addiction to food, and my recovery from an eating disorder. I also wrote in that post about making a promise and concerted effort to change my attitudes about cooking. I wanted to see food as my friend and infuse the practice with love, not with an avoidance constructed by fear and denial. And this was not just for my benefit, but more importantly, for my family's.

What I have not done since that post is share my progress in this space, and yes, there has been amazing progress. I have made peace with cooking, seeing it as an opportunity to reflect joy without needing to avoid pain. How much easier it has become for me to not only plan a meal, but to prepare the cupboards with staples for those days without planning. It's a f---ing miracle actually ;). Though you probably won't ever see me talk incessantly about cooking, or posting recipes of my own invention, I have found the connection between food, fun, and love, without the prickly strings of addiction, fear or perfection. Cooking is still a work in progress, just as I am, but once again, with practice, the extra in the ordinary replaces what was once empty...

Happy weekend to all and may you find the ordinary simply amazing...

xoxo

Joining Bella in 52 Photos Project {Softly Fade Away}

Subdued revelations

You don't need to give up
to stop struggling.
Give in to quiet,
slow down
and hush the wheel
of thought.

If the answers are
meant to come,
they will,
but not before
remembering that
what you are now
is exactly what
you need to be,
now.

I feel different, much different from the fragile and dissatisfied girl that has recently taken up residence in my skin. How easily consumed I become. Yet I cannot blame myself for getting lost in the dreaming, hoping, and wanting. Passion has a way of coercing and possessing our thoughts that way. We are gifted with the ability to drift into the current of creativity and completely immerse ourselves in the clouds of thought, for they are lofty and inspiring. Yet to be gone too long, we deny ourselves the pleasure of enjoying the scents of our surroundings, and we forget how hard we have worked to become exactly who we are now. The insatiable abyss of "what if" and tomorrow can wait.

Joy. Today. Now.



xoxo

The music plays on....

The Wildlife Sanctuary

A touch of sadness tinkers at the edges of my days lately. I feel summer ending and the shadows shifting again. While the excitement of experiencing a new Fall sits quietly, observing the simmer of summer in my eyes, the reservations that come with any change rise as assuredly as the steam created by the clash of hot and cool.

Having my children home with me these past couple months has brought the taste of our lives as unschoolers and home learners back into my mouth, though I don't think it has ever truly left. Today we go to their school "open house", a task that combines bitter and sweet. As much as I trust that my children will flourish at their own volition, the lack of trust I have in any system is nearly just as strong. So hope and skepticism continue to do their dance around each other, while the music plays on.

Much love on this Monday friends, and wishing everyone a smooth transition back to new routines (if any) in the next few weeks...

xoxo

Never say never

My boy left on a plane yesterday. I didn't cry, but as I watched the plane pull away from the gate, I felt something like a pinprick within my chest. Pinpricks leave the kind of holes that don't gush all the pain out at once, but rather oozes it slowly, as if fighting to stay in. Driving home, the restless energy that had mustered inside my body began to gnaw at my legs and eventually rise into my stomach. I wanted to run. The urge was too strong to dismiss. I don't like to run, in fact, I hate it. But the trouble with stamping "never" on something, is that it's an invitation to test your resolve someday, somewhere, somehow. And so my day had come, and I tossed "never" aside and ran.

And then I thought I was going to die from hyperventilation and cardiac arrest, lol :). Yet, the pounding of my feet and heart, seemed to seal and mend that tiny hole that was left agape since the airport. This is why runners run, I surmised. Alone, in the shadows of the trees, without mental chatter and with only the sound of my breath and the occasional bird singing, I felt truly alive. The heartaches the seasons of our lives bring seem manageable when all we have to remember to do is breathe and keep going.

I realize now that I said more than one goodbye at the airport. I said goodbye to that scared, clueless young mother that I knew 10 years ago. I have been pounded, tumbled, refined and polished since then. I smiled fondly at the mother I once was, and then I thanked her for her perseverance and belief that she could change and rise up to become the mother her children needed her to be.  

A new phase of mother is beginning, I can feel it. A whole new set of challenges awaits---puberty, peer relationships, middle and high school, boyfriends and girlfriends, driving, ugggh, I think I am going to be sick...and I think it's time for me to buy a real pair of trail running shoes....


Wishing you a lovely August weekend...

xoxo

7 days

Seven days later and I think, wow, how quickly we acclimate. There was a time when 65 degrees was cold for me. Today, 65 feels fabulous and I walk coatless. There was a time when going to the grocery store was a 15 minute drive. Today, we walk 5 minutes. There was a time when hiking meant getting in the car and driving 25 minutes to a local preserve. Today, it's a 10 minute walk and there is no preserve, just one of many trails natural to the landscape and leading to views like these. And we climb, and we basque, and we gasp, and we continue to squeeze and open our eyes to make sure we are truly where we had always imagined ourselves to be.

I would be lying if I said it's been all happy daydreams. It's been challenging for the kids with everything so different and so new, and it's been stressful for us to be in-between homes and without routine. We said goodbye to Nana (my MIL) yesterday as she flew back home to Florida. We've been so spoiled having her here, having her in general, as she has been there for us and for the kids since the beginning. I miss my own mother, my nephews, our homeschool friends, and my own normal routine of blogging, knitting, reading. I should be clear, there is no whining here :). Just awareness that yin and yang are alive and well, and for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

After looking at several neighborhoods, I believe we may have found a place to call home. I'm anxious. I'm nervous. I'm uncertain. I'm excited. I'm ready.

Happy Tuesday

♥ 

in the backyard this morning, there were NINE!

The space between the shift

I will tell you that my mind is blank. Empty, zip, zero, vacated, absent. I stare and try to think, what do I have to say? Do I talk about the moving, the goodbyes, the near empty house? The last minute scrambles, the neglected space here? How my camera is cold and my fingers are slow?

As much as I love to use words to describe my feelings, the space between the shift keys feels vast and immobile. It always takes me a few days to read what my heart is possessing, when the head is so overwhelmed that it escapes into its own darkroom for processing. This is where I am.  There is no sadness, just quiet anticipation.  Excitement is bubbling and brewing beneath the surface, waiting patiently for it's own time.  Until then, I am reclusive in wide-eyed wonder as I watch that space between the shift roll as slowly as I can make it. The open road unfolds next Wednesday, until then my friends....

with love ♥

Tumbling

So, remember when I asked you all for your good vibes for our 3 house showings?  We actually had an offer!! Well, not one that we will accept unfortunately, but I am thrilled for at least an offer!! You know what that means right? You all are my official finger crossers for the next round of house showings. Thank you again really, for all the kind wishes :). 

There has been much on my mind lately, which is nothing out of the normal actually, but so much of it I just haven't shared (August break?). After reading my friend Cory's post yesterday, I realized there is much I hang on to and hesitate writing about.

There is something you should know about me, I am a Gemini, which means I am fickle and I can change my position on things all the time. Truthfully, the better I know myself, the more I realize change is one of my few constants. It's like tumbling in a laundry dryer, just when I think I'm done, I jump back in for another cycle. I am restless, and I get very bored easily. I am beginning to realize that the only reason my life isn't simple is because I don't allow it to be. I need stimulation, I need to try new things, and contentment is equal to moving, changing, wondering, and inquiring. To a fault? Probably. Yet I am willing to accept it.

Only a short year ago, I imagined us moving to a minifarm, raising chickens and veggies on 2 acres, maybe even have a horse or a few alpacas. Our month long stint last year in Charlottesville, Va was beautiful, and I wanted to believe that this was where I wanted to move, to have our minifarm and a simple life (though I think there is nothing simple about a farm :). Then as the year progressed, the feeling that I might never be satisfied with just one choice kept nagging me. It's daunting to try to find the "perfect" city to move to and change our entire lives for. Then, I went through this e-course this summer, which helped me hone-in on the things that personally kept me growing, the things that made me feel alive, and the same themes kept coming up. Exploring, visiting new cities, states, countries, learning other cultures, learning new things. Our road trips and travels have steadily increased as our kids have grown. The signs are there, I just didn't really look at them until recently. My greater dream of traveling and showing my children their heritages in France and Japan, as well as wherever else we can, would be extremely difficult once committed to a dream of a minifarm with alpacas and chickens. And just like that, we've erased the black board and are staring at an open space.

We are talking about never buying another house again. We may let wanderlust lead the way and trust that no matter where we go, it will the right place at the right time, and home will always be where we are. I've thought about the need for stability and consistency in our kids' lives, and we have provided that with our home and suburban lifestyle for the past 9 years. But maybe stability is still possible with uncertainty. Maybe stability is found in knowing that our lives can only grow with continual change. Maybe stability begins and ends with the family, regardless of environment.

Both shots were taken the same morning, the sunrise east, and the mini rainbow facing west :). Apropos I think.

It seems that many of us are taking risks these days, tumbling, turning, shifting, and wondering. All of our horizons are completely wide open, and I find it exhilarating and comforting all at once.

much love
xx oo

The Art of Blueberries

It's funny the parallels nature draws in life. We like to separate ourselves with our cars, our cellphones, and our computers. But, when we pay attention to the details, our lives are written as clear as day, even in the life of a blueberry.

There is an art to blueberry picking that I never realized until yesterday. For Mother's Day, that was how we started our day. Spidey, who has been making several appearances lately, decided to join us too. How could we refuse?

Blueberries start out like we do, a tiny little seedling needing sustenance and plenty of room to grow, taking what it needs from the world around it, and with a genetic code to match. Yet each and every blueberry is different. "It's all in the seeds within each blueberry" said the blueberry farmer. The growth rate, the size, and its taste. So, sometimes on a stem full of unripened blueberries, you may find just one, perfect and ready, waiting to serve its purpose.

Hmm, I thought to myself. So, the art of raising and picking a blueberry, means letting each one grow to its full potential, at its own rate, its own speed, and just waiting until its right time to ripen.

I believe I understand. We all have our own rate in which we grow and change. We all need time, space, a little understanding, and a little patience in meeting our full potential. And the results will be pure, simple, and very very sweet :).



Happy to be joining a new blog hop today with Owlet.

Raising Parents ~ A giveaway

"If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." ~C.G. Jung, Integration of the Personality, 1939

I did read many parenting books when my kids were younger.  I just didn't realize until later that they were the wrong ones!  I listened to the wrong experts and used the wrong methods.  Of course I didn't know it then, but all the signs were there.  It wasn't until I stopped listening to all the experts and started listening to my children, that I began to actually learn something.  I learned that the greatest teachers lived in my own home.  And though I believed we were raising children, our children actually, were raising parents.

Once we brought awareness into our own habits and had a strong desire to change them, we needed support.  Once I knew what I was looking for, the right books, the right ideas, and the right methods began to appear. The first book I ever read that helped us take the first steps towards change was How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk.  Even then, we had no idea that more changes had to happen from within.  But at least we had the tools to try to stop yelling, stop assuming, and stop controlling.  It was a great place to start.

We eventually had to ask ourselves the "why's".  Why did we have to control so much? Why were we so quick to yell? Why did we believe things had to be a certain way?  Naomi Aldort's work really helped us in this part of the process, and it is her work that I want to pass on today :).

Trusting Our Children and Trusting Ourselves is a 6 disc CD compilation of 6 keynote presentations by Naomi Aldort at the Rethinking Education conference in 1995.  While her book remains excellent, this CD compilation extends from parenting peacefully into understanding how natural learning works.  Naomi is a strong proponent for life learning and raised all three of her children this way. 

Here is a summary of the content:

Disc 1) Rethinking Education: Debunking common assumptions about child development.

Disc 2, CD 1) Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves Part I: Bring peace and unconditional love into your relationship with your children by understanding your own reaction as different from your child's needs.

Disc 2, CD 2) Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves Part II.

Disc 3) Debunking Praise: Find out why you really praise and at what price.

Disc 4) Children's Behavior and Emotions: Includes many questions from audience members, and Aldort's skillful guidance about understanding children so they can be the best of themselves.

Disc 5) Self Directed Learning: Why children learn best when they follow their own path, timetable and direction, and how to support them toward their own fulfillment.

Disc 6) Equality, Respect and Freedom for Children: From chores to bed time and dinner; how to live with children in a way that they care and respond, not out of fear, but out of joy and love, of their own free will.

You have two opportunities to enter (and please comment separately for each entry): COMMENT CLOSED

1) Please leave a comment below
2) Mention this giveaway on facebook, or your blog if you have one!
Last entries will be taken by midnight Friday, I will draw and announce the winner this Saturday May 7th!!!


much love and luck
xx oo

The Big Dig

Excuses.  I've made them many times.  I think it's only natural when I feel I have to protect something, usually my ego.  But recently I read a thread somewhere where a mom was complaining about a parenting article she read.  She argued that the people who wrote that article (promoting peaceful parenting), probably never had really difficult children of their own.  She argued that when she tried peaceful parenting methods, her child chewed these methods up and spit them back out.  "It doesn't work" she complained, and discounted the validity of the article itself. 

I can understand her pain.  Change is not easy.  Change sucks sometimes.  It's slow and takes time.  But, it takes consistency and persistence, too.  And in the midst of all of that, tears, fears, and exasperation will assuredly flow.  It's hard to trust the process, especially when there is no trust between the parents and children, and no trust in themselves.  I am not patient, though many people believe that I am.  I am not laid back, though it may appear that way.  And I am not a special breed of parent that can parent this way.  What I am more than anything is a changed parent.  What I wanted more than anything was a different me.  I wanted to reach out to her and say-- it's okay, I've been there, and that it does work.  But I also wanted to ask--how willing are you?  How committed are you?  Do you want change bad enough?  Because if you do, you will have to prove it to them, and to yourself, over and again.

I wanted it so much that I was willing to do the work to make that change.  I cried.  They cried.  I yelled.  I slammed doors.  It was very very hard.  I liken it to swimming across a large body of rough, gray waters.  The other side is peace, respect, and a whole new relationship-- a wonderfully close and loving relationship.  I could give up the swim and turn back.  Or, I could tough it out and feel the burn.  When we get a glimpse of how it could be, I believe there is no other option than feeling the burn.  I chose to tough it out.  I talked to my children all the time about what I was feeling, how I was acting, and how I had hoped to respond.  And with all that difficulty and pain, something was happening.  Healing.  Forgiveness.  Vulnerability.  Raw honesty.  I could have believed that this way of parenting would never have worked for me, and I did question myself many times.  But, true healing and true change comes from digging.  I call it the "Big Dig".  I had to find me, the real me, before I could give it to my children.  I was armed with a sincere (perhaps even desperate) desire to change and the willingness to bear discomfort by digging into my emotional past.  I also found support.  Support is imperative, whether it's through books, through parenting groups, and through like-minded parents, and parents who inspire that change is possible.  But if anyone wants sympathy, excuses, or reasons why it wouldn't work, those can be found, too.  Those, are everywhere.

much love
xx oo

The freedom to choose

Change. It's happening again. The freedom to live and explore, wander and discover, change and grow, have been the main engine behind much of my posts, with parenting and unschooling providing the fuel.  Now there is an unexpected twist in our evolution as unschoolers, one that goes a bit beyond my comfort zone.  I don't know if I am ready for this part of our journey, but maybe my children are.  To put it plainly, my kids are going to try going back to Montessori. 

E. and M. both had initiated this decision, which was further supported by hubs.  But, my fears cloud my faith and I wonder, have they really deschooled enough?  Will this set them back?  We have been to Montessori before when they were younger, what is different now?   It took me a couple days to think about this when the obvious finally hit me.  They weren't unschooled children back then.  We were a traditional family that didn't offer the choice of if or when to start school.  I didn't consider that they might not be ready.  We just went through the motions, putting them in school early to give them a "head start".  They were not ready then, which undoubtedly helped set our path to unschooling a few years later.

What has changed since is that there is freedom of choice.  They have had time to unravel my earlier mistakes, and kids deschool much faster than we do.  They aren't afraid of being who they are when we stop conducting, start listening, and start trusting.  They don't really know if Montessori will meet their needs, but, they want to try.  What is guaranteed is that they are going in with a different attitude, and may come out with a new perspective. They will certainly gain a greater knowledge of themselves, and hopefully a greater understanding of what they really want and need. 

Being able to live in a manner that honors freedom of choice empowers learning.  The problem with mainstream schooling is that kids aren't given that power.  Accolades, rewards, and praise may give an illusion of choice, but the joy to follow a whim, the internal need to satisfy a curiosity, and the power to choose what or how they want to learn, is replaced by standards, grades and scores.  Unschooling has given that power back to my children.  Unschooling means living with choice and command in your own learning, and letting your interests and needs guide those choices.  Montessori may not be the "perfect" choice, but it is their choice.  They are free to choose, and we will learn to live and grow with those choices.  

The simple fact is, if it doesn't work out, they will come home and things will shift again.  What will never change is my unconditional love, or my respect, or my trust for them.  I will go with it, and see where it leads.  This is just as much a part of our journey as any other choice, and it is this thought, that I will carry with me for the next two months.   Meanwhile, I will share my experiences here with you, as there is always something for me to learn :).

For the love of books: a review and giveaway

Books.  I love them.  Like most bibliophiles, books have fed me spiritually, imaginatively, and educationally since I could read, and more recently they have helped me evolve into a better mom and a better individual.  So in honor of books and other bibliophiles out there, this week is going to about books, sharing them, writing about them and giving them away.

"Change your thoughts, and you change your world." ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Today, I am going to review and giveaway a book that came to print only a few short weeks ago.  It is a must have for any mindful parent's bookshelf.  It's about parenting, it's about social norms, and it's about changing the way we are with our children.

Parenting for Social Change by Teresa Graham Brett is a wonderful, thoughtful, and honest book for any parent who wants to change and transform their parenting from a place of control, to a place of respect and dignity.  Teresa offers her experience, her insight, and her authentic self from her own journey from parental control to parental partnership.   Her writing is informative, clear, and cites valuable research on how dominance damages children.  She challenges us to question our own social views and how we may treat children as "adults-in-training", rather than human beings with their own right to expression, opinion, and choice.  I see so much of myself in her stories and examples as a former authoritarian parent.   But, I must say, societal messages are so pervasive, as are our messages from childhood, that even the most peaceful of parents would benefit from reading this book to re-examine the subtleties of conditional love.  Here is one of my favorite paragraphs from her book, pg. 96:

"Let's be clear: our work as parents isn't about doing things differently so our children will change.  It's not about finding the magic words or methods that will ensure compliance and eliminate disagreements.  Instead, it's about examining ourselves so that we can see how our ways of being with children have been constrained by our previously held beliefs, values, and attitudes. We do this so that we can experience authentic relationships with the children we love so that they can live their own lives, free of our baggage."

I actually met Teresa last year at the Rethinking Everything unschooling conference is Texas last September.  She is one of the most gentle and authentic people I have ever met.  I am so honored to have been able to share this book with you, and am equally honored to offer a chance for you to own a copy.   Please leave a comment on this post if you would like a copy of Parenting for Social Change!! I will close comments by noon EST on Tuesday and announce the winner Wednesday!


P.S. Please visit Teresa at her website for more reviews, information, articles, ideas, etc.!!   Good luck and I'll be back tomorrow with my top ten life changing books :)!!