Prayer for Mis Pollitos

Mis Pollitos, 

My prayer for you is that in this world of so much beauty, courage, vulnerability, sadness, distraction, mystery and creation; may you always find courage to bend towards the Source.

Bend towards the light and know that you can always 

seek out the Source from which you came. 

The wonderful goddess that mama calls Mother Nature. She is there in your next breath, over the horizon, 

and underneath your wiggly feet.

In light and warmth, 

Mamãe 

Photo by: Tichaamando 

¿Qué van a decir?

¿Qué van a decir?

¿Qué van a decir de los que decidieron venir por una vida de más promesas y remesas? Un sueño lejano que casi hallaron en sus manos antes que el calor del desierto por cierto los matara. 

What will they say of the courage they carried to seek a new promise land where their dreams are now buried.  Will they speak their names and write them down in history like those who came before them through the turbulent waters of the North Sea and the Atlantic?

¿Cómo será la despedida y la promesa perdida?

Will their names be forever silent in the automated lips of those who use their deaths as loud weapons of hate convincing the masses that a wall will cure us and rid us of any trespassers. Will the wall oxidize like Lady Liberty?

La negación de la humanidad y seres contrabandeados 

Vidas dignas, valientes, y esperanzadas.

¿Hay alguien que nos escuche? 

¿Qué van a decir?

Improv Meditation for the Anxious Soul: Ocean is Mother

Improv Meditation for the Anxious Soul -  I created these improv meditations in loving kindness for the sensitive souls in my life (me included) who struggle to surrender into sleep and bend towards the grips of anxiety that grip tightly at night. This anxiety might sound like "I am too hot (take off the covers), I am cold now (shift... shift... shifting in bed), I cannot fall asleep, I won't ever be able to fall asleep..."  Often, I would already be my own sleep world when these words would wake me up. At first, I would feel anxious or irritable to be awoken but with time I discovered my breath and this improv meditations that would flow out of me from a place deep inside. A place that felt like love, warmth, compassion, and kindness even in my exhausted sleepiness. I do as much or as little of these meditations as my sweet ones will tolerate or hold. I share here in hopes that this might serve you or your anxious loved ones. 

Breathe in, relax your hands
Breathe out, relax your wrists

Breathe in, relax your arms
Breathe out, sink into your body and relax your shoulders

Breathe in, relax your feet
Breathe out, relax your ankles

Breathe in, relax your legs
Breathe out, sink into your backside and relax your hips

Breathe in, relax your hands onto your belly
Breathe out, feel the gentle fall of your belly

Breathe in, feel your belly rise
Breathe out, feel the gentle fall of your belly

Breathe in, you began your physical journey in this life form in the belly
Breathe out, your belly is the home of all creation

Breathe in, imagine yourself standing watching out onto the vast ocean
Breathe out, feel the sand underneath your feet and in between your toes

Breathe in, Ocean is a most ancient and wise mother
Breathe out, smell the salty spray the Ocean gifts you as it rushes and receding

Breathe in, the Ocean teaches us the way with its ebbs and flows
Breathe out, the Ocean waxes and wains as our breath

Breathe in, our breath is a wise teacher like the Ocean
Breathe out, feel the calm of the Ocean in your breath

Breathe in gratitude for Mother Ocean keeping rhythm with ancient breaths
Breathe out, rest into your breath embracing the temporary as your belly will rise again

Breathe in, feel the rise of your belly resting as Mother Ocean rests
Breathe out, sink deep into your breath to rest

Breathe in, feel the rise of your belly resting as Mother Ocean rests
Breathe out, sink deep into your breath to rest

Breathe in, hear the Ocean sounds in your breath
Breathe out, the quiet retracting of each wave

Breathe in, the Ocean is Mother
Breathe out, wise, ancient, Mother like your ancestral breath

Breathe in
Breathe out

Improv Meditations for the Anxious Soul: Belly the home of all creation

Improv Meditation for the Anxious Soul -  I created these improv meditations in loving kindness for the sensitive souls in my life (me included) who struggle to surrender into sleep and bend towards the grips of anxiety that grip tightly at night. This anxiety might sound like "I am too hot (take off the covers), I am cold now (shift... shift... shifting in bed), I cannot fall asleep, I won't ever be able to fall asleep..."  Often, I would already be my own sleep world when these words would wake me up. At first, I would feel anxious or irritable to be awoken but with time I discovered my breath and this improv meditations that would flow out of me from a place deep inside. A place that felt like love, warmth, compassion, and kindness even in my exhausted sleepiness. I do as much or as little of these meditations as my sweet ones will tolerate or hold. I say each part slowly embracing the Divine feminine energy that is slow and patient. I share here in hopes that this might serve you or your anxious loved ones.

Breathe in, relax your hands
Breathe out, relax your wrists

Breathe in, relax your arms
Breathe out, sink into your body and relax your shoulders

Breathe in, relax your feet
Breathe out, relax your ankles

Breathe in, relax your legs
Breathe out, sink into your backside and relax your hips

Breathe in, relax your hands onto your belly
Breathe out, feel the gentle fall of your belly

Breathe in, feel your belly rise
Breathe out, feel the gentle fall of your belly

Breathe in, you began your physical journey in this life form in the belly
Breathe out, your belly is the home of all creation

Breathe in, feel your belly rise and know that you were once in a belly
Breathe out, feel your belly fall as you celebrate this breath that gives you life

Breathe in gratitude for your breath
Breathe out feel the freedom that comes with a breath

Breathe in gratitude for your breath's rhythm reminding us that everything is temporary
Breathe out the freedom that comes with knowing you can find your breath when life hardens you

Breathe in, relax your head onto your pillow
Breathe out, relax your neck onto your pillow

Breathe in gratitude for your pillow, warmth, and your mattress
Breathe out, sink into the warmth of your body and breath

Breathe in, rise
Breathe out, fall

Breathe in, rise
Breathe out, fall

Breathe in, rise
Breathe out, fall 

Secure Attachment - A love letter to my lovable inner child

Come little one.
Come in your rage, your indignations, and burning anger.
No better, I will come to you.

I will sit with you, hold you, or just take your hands.
Whatever feels safe and containing, I will offer you asking nothing in return.
We will weather this nasty storm together.

No storm is too great to defeat us as storms are treacherous yet temporary.
Storms bend us, shake us to our core, and in that painful dance we discover our strength.
I will dance with you until we both discover the mountain we are made of.
So I will not ask you to stop or show up any differently than in this here storm.

I will stay with you lovable child even when I want to run away because you are crafty at getting at my very last nerve or asking for that which I do not know how to give.
I will stay with you even not having gotten this refuge in my journey.
I will stay with you and embrace this painful reality for the only way around the storm is through, anything else is a detour to the land of numbing.

Come to me little one in your fully sensitive humanness.
I will hold you in warmth and light embracing all your feelings in loving kindness.
Come little one.
No better, I will come to you.

Just the Beginning

-----Original Message----- 
From: Patricia de Cerqueira Leite 
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 2:06 AM 
To: Ticha 
Subject: First day!

Hi All,

I am really sorry about the MASS email, but you are getting this because you are either a dear friend or family that has inspired me, supported me, and helped me get to where I am now... IN THE CLASSROOM!! ... and I have only one question... Why the h#$& did you let me do it?!

Ok, just kidding!

My first day of teaching at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School (formerly known as Somerville Charter School) was challenging to say the least.  Although I am not a homeroom teacher, I teach 5 classes with about 24 students in each for 50 minutes at a time. I don't have my own room, so I float from classroom to classroom and my desk is housed in 1A - a first grade homeroom (happy to have a desk!)

The day today was off to a great start as I had many fun activities planned to build relationships w/ my students. However, I learned that my first graders like pictures better than word search puzzles. My second graders loved the word puzzle but wanted to color instead of searching for every word. My third graders were all about testing my boundaries... my more patient attitude was REALLY not working well w/ them today. Fourth graders were a breath of fresh air and finished their word search faster than the sleepy but sweet fifth graders.

After 2 beers, a good talk w/ my colleague (who is also new, teaches Spanish and left almost in tears) and a LONG nap, I am able to take comfort in the few positive minutes of my first day of teaching just as a child that is scared of the dark finds comfort in a night light.... Does that make any sense at all?! LOL!

Today was all that I expected... EXTREMELY frustrating, exciting, scary, and full of surprises... and while I am not bursting with fruit flavors saying "I LOVE MY JOB" ... I see it all in the horizon. In the meantime, I am taking notes... for a lot of policy work awaits me as does my elementary education certification classes!

I miss all of you and thank you sooooo much for all of your support. This is not easy, but if I wanted that I wouldn't be here.

Love you all tons and miss you like crazy! - Tricia (aka: Ms. Cerqueira)

This is just the beginning ...

Creativating

Creativating /krēˈātəˌvāt ING/: 
verb 
1. Apply oneself or dedicate one's energies to bringing something into existence. 
2. Intentionally preparing and acting towards birthing, raising, and/or growing new ideas, art forms, ways of being. 

Creation is the highest form of cognitive, affective, and sensorial ability of a human being. In Bloom's Taxonomy  (1) Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues originally had "Evaluate" as the highest order of thinking. However, "Create" has since risen to the highest ranking of our ability to think and reason. "Create" is defined as "produce new or original work" which includes design, assemble, construct, conjecture, formulate, author, investigate.

As an educator and firm believer that we learn best through experience and doing, its seems to me that "create" is indeed the highest form of thinking and being in which we could possibly engage. Having been in the classroom and an instructional specialist for over 15 years now, I often find myself wondering what would happen if every school was a design school. Not only at the high school or middle school level, but what if the United States of America decided to engage its youth in radical creating from a very young age within the public school setting?

What I am proposing is nothing new, there are countless programs, program evaluations, and research showing that children who engage in play and creative play from a very young age develop a stronger sense of self and often fare better in the academic realm in general. However, a lot of these programs are not public and if they are it is rare that they are embedded in public preschools and elementary schools across a range of communities of all social economic levels.

What I do know from my years teaching, learning, and coaching students (young and adult alike) is that at our core we long to be seen and feel like we matter so that we can exert positive influence within our community (school, classroom, neighborhood, etc). At our core, we want to know that we are seen for who we are and that we belong within the spaces where we live and learn. When we do not feel seen or like we matter, we often exert negative influence within our spaces and rupture the bridges extended to us by well-meaning albeit single-serving community members who are not able to see us or create spaces where we matter. 

This core concept of community building is at the core of my classroom community and relationship with my teachers. I realized this morning that this way of being originating from Responsive Classroom and Tribes is in and of itself a creation of spaces where people can then create positive actions which in turn allows them to exert positive influence within the classroom community. This link between community building strategies and education as a means of creation invites us to rethink school structures and curriculum. 

Our schools are complex systems and capable of housing authentic growth mindset spaces. Many teachers and administrators already support such structures. These spaces often look like studios where students are in charge of their bodies and learning. This is not to say that some do not struggle to focus nor do these spaces come without challenges. However, these spaces embody the growth mindset and flexible thinking that we want of all learners in this day and age. These spaces allow for neurodiversity to exist and thrive.

My musing today is to ponder the following: what would happen if the content that we were delivering to students was done in a way in which the end result was to demonstrate mastery through creating something? What would standards of education and proof of mastery look like in an education system that valued the growth mindset with creation at its highest rank? How can we cultivate more creation in our public schools and learning spaces?

Happy creativating!

(1)  Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching