thoughts

We're head-first-ploughing through the busiest month of the year, trying to find moments to consider the year(s) past and where we are, today; trying to feel hope for the future, too. Somehow the following four things came along, and have fed into that consideration of our lives, so I'm sharing them, here, knowing that many of you who read this blog are on a similar journey to ours, trying to find a meaningful, authentic way to live and raise children in a world that sometimes seems so contrary. Hopefully some of these are enlightening, interesting, or at least reassuring to you, too!

Article: Neuroscience Supports Natural Parenting:
http://ecochildsplay.com/2010/12/14/neuroscience-supports-natural-parenting/

Article: Infant TV Exposure Lowers Cognitive and Language Development:
http://ecochildsplay.com/2010/12/08/new-study-infant-tv-exposure-lowers-cognitive-and-language-development/

And some videos, too! Each of these two gems we've watched repeatedly; especially the second. The more you watch them, the more you see and learn and feel. Independently and together they say a lot about why we're unschooling, and the values we hold. They give us hope.

Alan Watts speaking about life as music:


Narayanan Krishnan's mission to feed and to love the ill and destitute:


Happy Midwinter, everybody. In the year's dark season we pull close to ourselves, our thoughts, our hopes and our fears; we remember the importance of light. It is the light we cherish in our hearths, the light we bring out into the world, but also that small beacon from within our own selves that keeps us going and burns through life's twists and turns; we take time to nurture that light, this month. We sit with that light in reverence or conversation or silence. In this place of compassion and awareness, may we hold dear the company of those we love as well as the gift of solitude, the reasons we've made the choices we have in our lives, and the beauty that is dancing the ups and downs of our lives, together.