in case you have ever wondered…
June 19, 2011
we love you papa…
secret garden magic…
June 14, 2011
She told me yesterday that her job when she gets big will be “to love kids”…I’m pretty sure she is well on her way…
guerrilla goodness: moms go guerrilla
May 9, 2011
She knows me oh so well…I was ding dong ditched today with these beautiful dahlias, not for me but SO for me.
My dear friend and commune member Jen left these on my doorstep, she just knew, somehow, what would bring me perfect joy on this Mother’s Day. And so we went, so spontaneously, hopped in the car with Jen and her mom to Ding Dong Ditch flowers on doorsteps in our neighborhood, we took a couple kids and even a dog. Along the way we passed Susan, in her front yard in her pajamas, so she hopped in. No holds barred like she had done this every day of her life, she knew just which houses of mothers we should DDD. Some we knew, others we didn’t. Let me tell you, four belly laughing women, one pair of pajamas, one dog with her head out the window and tongue flapping in the wind, 2 expert kindness kids and 6 dahlias, I was so blissed the frick out…
And this is what mothers do for each other, this is how we hold one another in kindness and love, this is how we nod with the knowing, how we live everyday together, side by side…and care so deeply, give from the deep well, how we keep going.
Everywhere I turned, there seemed to be some form of love staring back at me…and oh to be loved! I hope you felt it yesterday too…just in case it was one of the hard years, or your heart is still needing/wanting more, here are a few more messages from our community kindness project- The Great Wall of Motherly Kindness: (I’m sure one of these is meant for you…)
Be so kind to yourself today in this post-mother’s day re-entry…we all could use it.
Thanks SO very much to Sheri and Franklin Goose for being partners and agents of kindness in the world!!! Love you!
a blessing for you…
April 22, 2011
a blessing Jorge wrote for Josiah for his 11th birthday altar…wishing this for you too. and me.
the simple life…
April 4, 2011
Today I am craving the simple…I’m wishing that these moments were all I had before me. Like when the suggestion to “raise your glasses” for a birthday toast invites the laughter when someone actually raises their eye glasses.
or…
The joy of cutting “J”‘s out of pepperoni to personalize the birthday pizza…
or…
Lucy pulling me out of a work fog with this little wisdom gem,
“I don’t think it’s good inside. You should come outside, can’t you feel the happy outside?”
…and who could refuse stopping for just a minute to pick a beautiful bouquet of weeds, and then leave them on neighborhood doorsteps?
And for just these small moments, I can forget the massive load I have taken on, the one that is weighing on my mind, the stack I am trying to push through, the one I can’t get seem to get on top off…
What simple joys call have a way of calling you, even in the thick of everything else? I’d love to hear them.
to love and adore…
March 29, 2011
…because everyone
should have someone…
old and wise…
to love and adore them.
if you give a kid some wire…
March 18, 2011
Art unfolds in our house much like a “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…” sort of way. I put out this lovely wire thinking we could do some cool sculpture which reminded Josiah of another wire project in which we used old junk from the recycle art box.
This sparked an idea in Jack, so out the box came. The stuff in the box inspired a windmill sort of sculpture which Josiah then decided something with wind power might make a cool boat…
which reminded Lucy of the Chronicles of Narnia’s Dawn Treader. She decided to get deep into ship building… and as a total side note I’m pretty sure I was the only one wearing clothes. So weird, right?
At the end, someone thought the wire might be good to hang all this art from the ceiling.
in the pit of my stomach…
February 9, 2011
I’ve met, talked, shared food and money to a lot of homeless people in my time. I know there are services, I know the issues are complex, I know it can be dangerous, I know, I know, I know. But there is something about a moment of human connection, not rescue or performing a good deed, but an exchange of humanity. Both people giving to each other…
The kids and I met a homeless family tonight. A mom, a dad and their two little boys. I’ve seen them walking in my neighborhood quite a bit, I had a feeling but was hoping they were just without a car. It was pretty cold and dark tonight when we saw them walking along the road, the little boy held his dad’s hand, the baby on her back with three layers of clothes on.
Of all the people I’ve bought meals for, given money or exchanged stories with over the years, I’ve never had quite this feeling in the pit of my stomach, this lump in my throat. They were kind and positive, didn’t ask for anything, the children looked like my kids, like your kids…We talked for a minute and I handed her enough to get a hotel room tonight but they still had a half hour walk ahead of them. I drove away and cried, knowing that everyone has to find their own way, whatever is before them and I believe they will…but some days, it looks so big, so hard, so real, so heavy.
And for tonight anyway, we will both hold our babies and watch them sleep…in the warmth of each other and a bed.
balloon delivery kids…
September 20, 2010
“Mom, I think the kids should go by ourselves.” Josiah said with a handful of white ribbons attached to bright balloons. It’s one of the perks of your dad being in the event industry. Every once in awhile he has a just a little helium left over and any good event guy has a pack of balloons somewhere in the trunk of his car.
Jorge asked the kids if they wanted to take Stella a balloon since she hadn’t been feeling well all day. The kids were all over it except the idea grew in about a second when they decided they should deliver balloons to all the kids on the street. After they delivered the first balloon, those kids wanted to come along. Before we knew it there was a whole gaggle of kids and balls of color racing down the sidewalk in total bliss.
The only thing better is an awesome adult playing monster and kissing you all over your face…
or a yellow balloon combined with a rad vintage Batman shirt (that was your dad’s when he was a kid) to make you run super fast…and it totally worked, you were like the wind.
Oh, the simple joys…
no language required…
August 27, 2010
His English is all but gone, just a few words here and there. He isn’t sure how it happened exactly, but said he just can’t remember anymore. Maybe it was his retirement this year, or no daily practice but for whatever the reason, he is returning to where he started. The language that is closest to his heart.
As I try to jog my own mind and revive my Spanish, I wonder exactly how I am going to do the two week long visit. I pretend we are in an exotic land on a sort of linguistic adventure, even though it is just my kitchen. While I fumble through, my daughter seems to have no problem at all.
He sits beside her and she brings him her beloved red boots. She climbs on his lap as if she’s done it a million times before even though this is only the second time she has ever seen him in her short little life. He gently slides each foot in and she wiggles off, and then holds out her hand…read the rest here.
girl goodness…
August 15, 2010
Things that make me smile:
this girl, this face, her girl power:
“Mom, we are the girls and when we get big together we are gonna have a big girl party and dress in diamonds because we are best friends, right?” she said while brushing our teeth together.
Me: “Oh yes! …and when you get big, I’m going to take you to New York City!”
Lucy: “And when you get big, I’m gonna take you on a playdate.”
Me: “Perfect, I would love that!”
Lucy: “Yeah! Pinky swear because we are the girls!”
and we linked pinkies and kissed our thumbs…forevah!
Kindnessgirl 
