30 Days of Love, Day 23

(my daughter, just because it's a cute picture)

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, why not send a card with a purpose? Send a Valentine to a Hero/Heroine of Love. I'd suggest that we might all want to send Valentine's to our legislators, and thank them/encourage them for standing up for marriage equality.

You can download and print a Standing on the Side of Love card template here.

My homemade Valentines from a past year.

Last year's "All Part of the Human Heart" from our Valentine's Day service at church.

30 Days of Love, Day 22

Here is today's prompt from 30 Days of Love:

Dear Sara,

Prayers can take different forms. They can be addressed to a deity, an idea, for guidance, or simply to express your thoughts or emotions.

Today, I hope that you will consider writing a prayer, meditation, or mantra of your own, to start off this week’s National Standing on the Side of Love Month theme: Spread the Love.

Here is my prayer:

Spirit which connects all of existence, which I call Love,

may you be felt and heard and carried in hearts everywhere.

May every child feel cherished, safe, seen, and heard,

May every person know they are enough, just as they are,

May every elder feel respected and appreciated, and still wanted.

May the world itself, our Mother Earth, be cherished and sustained in love.

May compassion and peace unite us as one human family,

And may every heart sing a song of love.

A Tea Party

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
"Come, we shall have some fun now!" thought Alice. "I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. — I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.
"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the March Hare.
"Exactly so," said Alice.
"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know."
"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"
"You might just as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like what I get' is the same thing as 'I get what I like'!"
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7)

Early Art

The earliest human art has been inspiring some art from my kids:

Besides gorgeous art books full of big pictures, we also have enjoyed:

The Secret Cave

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

and a Virtual Tour of Lascaux I found.

We did a lesson about cave paintings at church, for the exploration of earth-based faiths one class is doing, and for that lesson I had the kids paint inside cardboard boxes by flashlight - that was a huge hit. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me that day.

So if I wanted to keep following the 30 Days of Love schedule, I'd need to post about the Secure Communities act and immigration justice today - and that would be a good thing to post about. The youth group at my church has been exploring this issue, and they have been blown away by hearing from activists, immigrants, and through watching some powerful documentary films (they liked Mojados).

But, I'm a bit more excited about some other things today, which are also all about Love for me. One is that we're preparing for my daughter's 6th birthday, and she wanted an Alice in Wonderland party. So I've made her a "Princess of Hearts" (because she doesn't want to be the Queen, but rather the "younger girl who will someday be the Queen") dress with fabric and pattern that she picked out, and for my son I created a Mad Hatter hat (hot glued fabric and flowers and ribbon onto a St. Patrick's Day cardboard hat). They are soooo excited for this party.

And .... last night the state senate voted to approve the legalization of same-sex marriage in our state! Some of my friends went down to attend the Senate session (with their kids) and said the mood there was just jubilant. One of our Community Ministers popped into my office today at church to show me the hand-made Valentine's that another area UU church's children had made for the legislators, and she was about to go hand deliver to each office. The kids had cut hearts in half, glued them on the paper, and written "don't keep people apart" in between the two halves of the hearts. It was quite touching, and I hope those legislators appreciated getting them!

So I'm feeling like today is a Great Day for Love.

30 Days of Love, Day 17

Today's prompt from Standing on the Side of Love:

Combating bullying is not simple, and has no easy fix. Bullying-related suicides, especially of LGBT-identified young people, have been prominent in the news cycles over the past couple of years.

I’m sure you know some of the oft-repeated statistics:

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds
LGBT youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.
Nine out of 10 LGBT students report experiencing harassment at school
Of course, bullying affects far more than just LGBT-identified young people. There are now increasing reports of Latino/a youth and Muslim youth being targeted. And sadly, many of us may have experienced bullying for a whole host of reasons, both as youngsters and as adults.

Our society's culture of bullying is a plague that has taken hold in our nation’s schools and finds its roots at the very seat of power—just look at some of the political campaign rhetoric.

So what can we do about bullying? Honestly, I think bullying is partly a phenomenon of over-crowded schools with over-burdened teachers and administrators, and a culture of competition rather than cooperation.

And it seems that one of the simplest ways to overcome the bully-mentality is the technique of cooperative learning. Why this is surprising - you assign diverse groups of kids to have to work together and collaborate to solve a common problem and they bond and come together - it really shouldn't be surprising. If we, as a society, cooperated a bit more and competed a bit less it would be a good thing.

Bullying is not a joke. And it's not OK. We, as a culture, need to make that clear.

30 Days of Love, Belated Day 16

Turn the Tide on Anti-LGBT Constitutional AmendmentsBoth Minnesota and North Carolina face ballot measures this year that attempt to enshrine anti-LGBT bigotry into state constitutions. We must put an end to the era of constitutional queer-bashing! Wherever you are in the country, sign up today to phone bank in the coming days or weeks to help beat back anti-LGBT initiatives in North Carolina and Minnesota. You can join in phone banking here.

But here in my state, we've got really good developments, and are waiting with baited breath as our state senate is debating legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. Fingers crossed!