“There was perhaps no other school in the greater Melbourne area, perhaps no other school in Australia, that had so many children of war. Some shy, some loud, some laughing, some quiet—and every one of them on a hair trigger. Every one of them swallowing barrels and buckets of the wrath, frustration, grief, and shame that other Year 6 students sipped in juice-box amounts.”
Source: On Fragile Waves
“I’ve been very busy recently, trying to stay a child”
Source: Petit pays
“I definitely think mothers of children with disabilities have to have extraordinary courage every day...Because we all know our children have value and worth and potential, but the everyday world sometimes doesn’t.'
—Linda Strobel in Up: A Love Letter to the Down Syndrome Community”
Source: Up: A Love Letter to the Down Syndrome Community
“What we fail to teach our children and what the community fails to see is that we
need inclusion and acceptance, not superficial chesed. I’m not looking for someone to
come and sit with my child, call her cute and feel like they’ve done something good.
No, I need people to come alongside us during the hard times as well. You don’t just
get to host my child for a meal or a night and check a box that you’ve done
integration. True acceptance is completely integrating my child in all aspects of
society.”
Source: Chutzpah, Wisdom and Wine: The Journey of an Unstoppable Woman
“When working with your teenager to address his sensory issues, make it a partnership.”
Source: Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Integration Issues
“Did Dolezal really fool those black folks around her? I have a strange feeling she didn't, that many simply humored her. You have to do this with white people, from time to time.”
Source: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
“The shrine I prayed at not to go to university,” Sand said.
“I guess your prayer was answered,” Perrotte said.
Sand strongly considered throwing something at her—but there was nothing to hand that wasn’t sacred.”
Source: The Castle Behind Thorns
“Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. This disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.”
Source: Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
“Searching for Love in Everything
We are so much like these rocks
I think to myself
One morning
While passing a sea of black, gray, and white
Pebbles
All different shapes, sizes, colors
They drift past one another
On land or in oceans
All while we collide, we crash
Gracefully or without
the intention of even
finding one another
Is it messy or beautiful?
Our choice or fate?
We all have a home
We all have a story
And perhaps
we are found
In the waves that rush
Where
over time
we lose our sharp edges
And the water
All-knowing
Smooths us out
Reminding us to be
gentle with ourselves
Perhaps the boulders basking in the light
On land carry similar knowledge
And, like us
Maybe they love watching the clouds in the day
And even more
the stars at night
Maybe all of life ponders the change
the earth makes as we constantly
gain and lose sight
As we try to follow a path
to love this life
There must be love to go around
In all places
In all things
Isn’t all of it a greater message
for the love present in this world?
They were here before us
And will remain long after
Perhaps one day
Long after
Love will exist
For and within
Everything”
Source: Loving this Life
“The logical extension of synthetic nature is the irrelevance of "true" nature--the certainty that it's not even worth looking at. (62)”
Source: Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder