how many times can you spot the letter i in:

dren: i’m not going to eat this dren!
yotz: where the yotz did you hide my stuff?
hezmana: how the hezmana do you expect me to do that?
you can try some of these or make up your own. it is ok if nobody knows what you mean, these words are for you. my favorite is from the dune books by frank herbert. when i can’t find anything else to say, i just mutter: “shai-hulud!” that always seems to take care of it.
this entry was posted in mother to mother on april 4, 2011 by tbailey.
i don’t really believe in life styles. i would rather live stylishly, if anything. my vision of living stylishly would be having a comfortable home that people could feel comfortable visiting, always appreciating the people in my life — especially my family members and creating value with my life. what is creating value? by helping others even when i am imperfect by example. i work towards helping my community and environment instead of hurting them. i recognize day by day how precious our lives are, how valuable. i try to move forward with joy.
i don’t think about whether my neighborhood is esteemed by others because it is trendy. i don’t strive to have people admire my car or my child’s education. instead i want my neighborhood to thrive, my car to work and my child to become a genius at being happy. i feel truly fortunate that i can make choices about these things and how i spend my days at work and at play. i doubt that i am living a slick or enviable lifestyle. instead, i am trying to live happily and perhaps, in my own way, stylishly.
this entry was posted in mother to mother on march 29, 2011 by tbailey.
the mother is the sunshine of her home. when she cries, the clouds appear on her family’s horizon. yet, she who steps on her misery, stands higher. (this is a paraphrase from the german poet friedrich holderlin.) what causes a mother to cry the most? she worries about her children. if her children are fine, she worries about the suffering of other mothers. that is the point of the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. it is not just your own children who are the future, it is everyone in your community’s children. we need to support those mothers who are struggling in their families. that is one of the things that doulas do. we also point out where help may be needed, so that other friends and family of a struggling mom can bring help. what is help? maybe it is a listening ear. maybe it is joining in with prayers. maybe a hot meal for her family. sometimes, the deepest worries can be lessened by a helpful community of mothers who care.
this entry was posted in doula to doula, mother to mother on march 8, 2011 by tbailey.
my husband, chris bailey, came up with this idea. his idea is that people get seduced into thinking only of “the current emgergency”. a person, family or even nation, can operate for a certain time on the adrenaline of worry about an emergency. we set aside other concerns and make this emergency our top priority. we live our lives on adrenaline. our lives are not normal, but that is because of the emergency. we don’t eat or sleep properly, we don’t worry about the details of our lives, unless they are details about the emergency.
we can as people, families and even as a nation, continue this way for some time. but eventually, we can’t continue to live life on our nerves. the current emergency becomes daily life. now the question is: do we live daily life as if it were an emergency? do we eat badly, sleep less, not care about details of making our budgets work, not keeping our confidences private or allowing joy into our lives? do we grimly live as if we are running through a very long emergency?
at some point, even in the most grim of circumstances, life becomes normal life again. we find joy in small things and we allow ourselves to rest. we stop living life on our nerves. this is natural and normal. we even begin to make small plans for a future without the current emergency in it. what will life look like without the current emergency? will we be able to meet it with joy? that becomes our next question.
everyone’s lives involve emergencies. sometimes it is caring for the serious illness of a family member. sometimes it is a crisis at work or at home. for nations, sometimes it is war or terrorism. but regardless, we cannot live our lives in emergency mode. we have to live our lives.
this entry was posted in mother to mother and tagged the current emergency on january 23, 2011 by tbailey.
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The text includes two hundred and eighty-one "i"s in total.
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