If you’re wondering what mindfulness is really about
Mindfulness is really about love. Love and creativity. I know these are foolish, simple words these days, but sometimes it’s that worn out picture book in the library that speaks truth… generation after generation. When we choose the practice of mindfulness coupled with a daily, contemplative discipline like meditation, we are cultivating our capacity to […]
Diversifying Our Portfolio: Building Resilience and Equity
Wise financial advisors tell us to diversify our portfolio. It offers us long term benefits, reduces risk and increases the potential to perform in a changing market. A fixed mind set with any bias for one type of investment over another can be our downfall. Everybody wants to prevent loss and increase their equity. After […]
Tuning into the Climate of our Era
~Exploring Norms of Engagement Yesterday, the man next to me on the bus snorted, “There is so much hate. It doesn’t matter what side you’re on, what country you’re talking about, there is so much anger and hate.” I had been watching him hover over his device for an hour reading the endless stream of […]
Looking Through the Cracks: Fighting Ignorance with Mindfulness & Critical Consciousness
Mindfulness is a constant unfolding that gives us new sight, called insight. It moves from the inside out, unfolding outward like the petals of a lotus. It is a way to see out, from the inside cracks of ordinary life. Solomon, Emmonds and Paolini wrote a picture book called, Through the Cracks. It is about […]
Muggles, Witches, Wizards and Yoda
“Learning organizations of the future will be centers where Master Teachers and students study consciousness and practice manifesting ideas into reality.” ~Ríos, Mindful Practice for Social Justice What would have happened to Harry Potter if he had not attended Hogwarts School of Witches and Wizardry? Hogwarts is the highly selective school based on a magical […]
Teaching Freedom with Limits
The Vietnamese monk and master teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: “It is an illusion that we are free…” Koan: A statement, a saying, an act or gesture that can bring to an understanding of the truth. Also, a tool used to educate a disciple. In my early morning sleep, I had this dream. I had […]
Common Mistakes When Approaching Race in Schools… What Should We Do Instead?
Race is one aspect of human identity that changes reflecting the politics and science of the times. Now more than ever students are identifying as mixed-race or do not identify with any race category at all. The latter is especially true for Hispanics, according to a recent Census bureau research. Racial categories, which have been […]
Learning from Immigrant Perspectives
“What preoccupies me is immediate: the separation I endure with my parents in loss. This is what matters to me: the story of the scholarship boy who returns home one summer from college to discover bewildering silence, facing his parents. This is my story. An American story.” ~Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory, 1982 When […]
#TeacherSpring
In 2010 when I lived in the Middle East, I witnessed the Arab Spring. People filled the streets with renewed spirit protesting unfair policies. I remember coming back from visiting the pyramids and getting trapped in a cab in the middle of a perfect storm—hundreds of men, women and children filled the streets that were […]
Learning from Mistakes When Stakes Are High
When my son was three and we had just furnished our first house, he took a marker and drew pictures on our new Mexican console. I remember walking into the living room and feeling the rise of heat behind my ears. He was so small and innocent but all I could see were the black […]