Take a look at this Youtube video of a seven-year-old master pizza tosser sent to me by DH.
Mama mia!
Author: Roxanne
Peach Soap
When I was about ten, my friend gave me a box with a soap shaped like a peach. It was realistic, even having a pit – also a tiny soap inside! You can see it in the picture at the left – but mine came in a glossy, pink box too. I think it was my first product from Avon. But I really liked it.
Although, I can’t say what made me remember this particular gift, it did get me thinking about how we are socialized into our gender – as determined by our culture – at a very young age.
What about you? Any childhood gifts that stand out in your memories? Do you have them still?
You may also like Paper Dolls, Roller Skates & Gum Chains, and Let’s Play.
A New Kind of Vigil
For Easter this year I experienced a new kind of Easter vigil: helping to prepare and serve dinner to about thirty homeless people. It was not the Easter vigil I was expecting — but it was exactly the vigil I needed.
Also, feeding those who are homeless, struggling or hungry always begs the question – what are the underlying causes of homelessness and hunger?
People are not simply poor, homeless or hungry. There is enough to go around. Rather, they are made poor or hungry by others. Who are the others? Those of us who have enough and benefit from systems and laws that treat groups differently.
I’m always amazed that even books like Half the Sky or Portfolios of the Poor, while able to describe in detail all the ways in which women or other groups struggle with survival, consistently fail to explain the underlying local, federal and international laws that benefit males and certain races, nations and classes.
Charity will not fix this problem or the resulting hunger and poverty. Only systemic change will work. Laws must be changed in a way that everyone benefits, not just some individuals, groups or corporations.
If we can not see how this is true — it is because we are walking around with “blinders of privilege” on, refusing to educate ourselves. Those of us who benefit the most, often resist seeing the truth.
I must continuously make an effort to take off my blinders.
DH – I’m thinking of you this day!
InnerPeace – Rewire Your Brain
Recently Diane Ackerman wrote an article for the New York Times entitled, “The Brain on Love.” Basically it notes that when individuals are in loving and stable relationships they tend to feel safe, secure, content and even blissful. Feeling loved, safe and secure allows us then, to engage the world and others in healthy and productive ways.
But what about people who have experienced a series of unhealthy realtionships? Maybe, even since childhood? The good news is that our brains are endlessly adaptive and we can rewire or change our neural pathways at any time. People may work do this, for example, when they enter therapy – as the article notes.
What the article doesn’t state – is that we don’t actually need to be in an intimate or married relationship with another person. We can meditate, enter long periods of silence and connect with that unconditional loving part of ourselves that exists deep within our own hearts.
The universe is holy and that holiness exists within us too. We carry it with us. Sometimes unhealthy relationships, work, addictions or busyness simply distract us from connecting with the love and beauty we carry inside ourselves.
This is why meditation, prayer (another word for meditation) and silence offer such an important place of healing. We can heal our distorted ways of viewing ourselves, relationships and reality around us.
Our brain seeks healthy love and compassion to heal itself – which paradoxically – exists within our brain. Meditate, use healthy self talk. Rewire your brain pathways – a little bit each day.
One Door Closes; Another Opens
In the rhythm of our lives a door may close – we experience this with disappointment. However, other doors are always opening. We may resist walking through an open door because it means change, we don’t know what is on the other side, or we simple don’t always see it as an open door.
We are always presented with new doors. What doors will you see in your life today? Are you watching for them?
Here are some beautiful doorways.
