Breaking Habits and Starting New Ones

This weekend I spent some time thinking about Rwanda. I am in the sorry habit of thinking that Africa has little to do with me, and I am trying to break that habit. I thank Jen Lemen for living into her gifts, and for giving me an opportunity to make a personal connection to Rwandese girls. Thanks, too, to my friend C, who helped gather together some creative spirits (and markers!) in our mission to grow a little hope, HopeRevo style. (Thanks to you, too, Krystyn!) Cards from our work together are headed your way...


And I'm bookmarking Ode magazine and All Africa for further reading. Any additional suggestions?

~ ~ ~

In other news, we have officially discovered the joy of soccer. Saturday morning soccer is our new habit. And we will apparently be needing to work at keeping the soccer duds clean:

I hope everyone else had as wonderful a weekend as I did.

(Want to try your hand at the monthly haiku contest
I've talked about here? The new call for submissions
is up over at http://haikuworld.org.
On another note, there's also still time to share
your thoughts about educators managing their online identities
over here, as well.)

dogwood blossoms
and the layered space
in between

(Mr. D's comment this morning:
"Tama, I never knew that climbing tree
was so beautiful.")

Leverage

Recently I contributed to Liz Davis' Collective Intelligence wiki with some thoughts about how social networking tools have affected my practices as a learner and teacher. Here's another way the internet is changing my perspective.

Quaker Jonah McDonald was moved by the tragedy of Katrina's aftermath, and decided to go on a personal pilgrimmage. He raised close to $8,000 dollars.

Coudal Partners started thinking about making a short film, and recruited executive producers via their email list and website. The film has now been completed and is available for sale. (Executive producers got a special preview copy and other schwag from Coudal Partners.)

For Christmas this past year, I gave money to Aparicia Ramirez in honor of my brother Steve. Kiva.org helped me find her.

Artist David Horvitz creates artistic collaborations with his viewers... for a pre-determined price.

Violinist Robert Thompson wondered about the reliability of an organization that was collecting money to help support the purchase of livestock for impoverished farmers. His questions ended up leading to a kind of quest (the movie is about 8 minutes long):



And now blogger/illustrator Jen Lemen is heading to Rwanda to connect with her friend Odette's children and to make a difference in girls' lives there. I have been reading Jen's blog and admiring both her art and her spirit for quite some time. I've never met her. I have no overt connection to her. But I feel a sense of connection to her because of her clarity of spirit, transmitted to me via the power of the internet, and I'm about to act on it.

I am making everyone in my family a lunch every day this week so that I can toss a little "lunch money" Jen's way. (You can add your name to the list of folks providing financial support via the J. Lemen -> Rwanda widget in my side bar at right.) Alternatively or additionally, you could spend some time in the next few days creating some hand-written messages of hope for the girls via HopeRevo. What are you doing Sunday afternoon? Wanna come over and make one of these cards? How about after Quaker Meeting?

Haiku - Song Birds

surprising
to think of them at night —
song birds

(Tip o' the hat to Hannah,
who somehow somewhat inspired this haiku.)

Katja, I love your store, Skimbaco.
Apparently, I love it a little too much.
Look what happened while I was absorbed in
shopping on your site.
Too much great stuff = carbon-flavored Pop-tarts.

In other news, here are Mr. D and his fabulous aunt J.
There is nothing quite as wonderful as a friend
who really "gets" you. Our little man is blessed.
Also? In it for laughs, just like his mama.

New Grass Haiku

new grass blades
thread their way up
through rain

(In other news, check out Ikea's brilliant idea
for making inroads in Japan over here.
Hat tip to the incomparable Tara Hunt.)

overnight
azaleas and peonies
make a break for it

(This month may mark the first time
that BOTH of the haiku I submitted
to the monthly kukai over at haikuworld
received more than one vote.
I'm still in awe of many of these haijin,
but it is enough to be alive and trying.
Votes and points are a lovely bonus.)