Beltane Beauty

Lady Slippers, pre-bloom

Our puzzle house

Bella on the back porch

Child's Pose

Rainbow Bella

Fleeing the scene

House head monster Maia

Goji face, salad bin Cutie

Now she can lounge in the rocking chair whenever she chooses

Pillow Taco Cutie

We almost live on that back porch

Rawr!

Luna

sleepy snuggles

Makin Music

One foot on the table with Grammy

Faerie -mouse nest in Jason's Beehive

One of the many trees that snapped in the wind storm

crazy for seaweedz

Climbing to Lonesome Lake

Still climbing

Lonesome Lake

Cannon's beautiful mountain streams

the sun rise over Lincoln and Lafayette

Early morning grins

-Anastasia, from “Who Are We?” pg. 77

“Good shall prevail on the Earth”

Shall we now begin envisioning the micro-organisms and mycelium who will dissolve away all unnecessary plastics, oils, wires and metals? There is no longer any sense in their existence in this form, and it is one of our responsibilities, to our children, our lineage, to cease the production of such toxicity.

“In our view near here in a microcosm is a deep underlying cause of the financial crisis. For decades American industry has been increasingly “outsourced”. What this means is that our industry and “know-how” has been given over to foreigners because they have been willing to work for less.It is in manufacturing and farming that new wealth is created, not in service industries, banking, insurance or any such thing.We were once the workshop of the world-now we’ve become a bubble economy. There was the dot.com bubble, the housing bubble and the stock market bubble. These are tragic attempts to keep the good times coming while the engine of accumulation has deteriorated. Think on it… the shoes you’re wearing, your laptop, your cell phone, even your underwear has been made in China! Is it any wonder then that we are waking up to the fact that we owe them more than $2 trillion!

(Let us avoid the delusion that the crisis is due to “rapacious speculators” or “greedy banksters”. This is equivalent to saying that “germs” cause disease rather than looking at the enervated condition of the body and the failure of the organs of elimination to function normally and eliminate waste. When the waste builds up, a crises arises!)”

http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/store2/product.asp?id=5&catid=17

could be named: “little squeaka”

and said with a air of question, as in, but why? that hurts.

can be found (after brief periods of silence), BACK in the bathroom, with their naked, wiggling butts wavering around as they hold throwing apple cores and glass jar tops on into the bath tub

knocks your town over.

can be located in the house (or around the woods) by the “bbbblbllblblblb’s” made as they crawl.

crawls over to the glass sliding door and screams until it is opened, and hops happily outside.

crawls more like a squatter than a crawler, as if they were about to stand

hangs onto you like a swing, but squatted, as they poop on the ground below (quite the improvement over those diapers, I must say..)

loves being jostled around, tossed about, and squwiggling upside-down in your arms, then snuggled close.

eats ants, nutrient rich dirt, and gnaws on sticks

when you’re asking (nearly 28 times a day) , “Maia, what are you eating?”

In the arms, squiggles, out of the arms, shrieks.

maia.

Turtle Shirt Photo Shoot

climbing

siting around the house

Amy and green monster face Maia

eating some seaweed, going "mmm..mmm"

Maia!

I agreed, but when I really thought about it I realized it has also felt like the shortest winter of my life.

Ever since Maia was born, the weeks, the months, sometimes even the days whip past, just like the super strong winds we have had recently in southern Maine. I have heard of the world literally speeding up, and I felt that too, but nothing compares to how Maia has made the world speed up for me.

I suppose it is the nature of having a child, where you are thrown into the journey, taking out all the stops, even the slows. I also believe that the children being born now embody the new world that is slowly (and quickly) being born through us all, and perhaps that is why being with one feels this way.

What do you all think?

Here is to the gratitude for the coming spring and the hope that it is quickly bursting through you all too!
<3

Genital mutilation. A phrase we usually relate to female genital mutilation. The kind those arabs and african tribes have done for ages. The kind we think is so horrible and inhumane – yet we slice up our own little boys in this civilized country?

Hold the phone.

What’s worse, we are rarely given the true picture. “Circumcision” is horrifically painful – for a child who has JUST COME TO JOIN US – is a terrifying experience, completely unnecessary, risky (kids DIE!!!!), and just plain fucking stupid. Would you ever let 15 square inches of your penis or clitoris be CUT OFF?

Would you let someone STRAP you to a bed, COVER you, POKE and PROD at you with instruments, then CUT your skin, PEEL it back, CRUNCH it in a cold metal device, and then SLICE off the top of your penis? All while you then piss in pain for the next week.

What kind of care and love are we bringing to our children?

You would have to be insane.

We have been, and that’s ok, but it is time to stop.

Stop.

It is time we quit. Like we’re done. We’re fucking done cutting little penises of all kinds.

this is a good synopsis: http://www.intactamerica.org/node/8

So, what brought this up. Well, interestingly enough, the state of massachusetts is considering a bill to end the act of “circumcision.” Intact America, who has taken the forefront in raising awareness to this issue has made it easy-squeezy to submit your thoughts. There are, unfortunately, only a few hours left before this closes up.

Here is what I submitted for their consideration:

There is so much to say, so I will stick to the highlights. First. I am thrilled that this issue is being given the attention is deserves, by even being considered. Genital mutilation is a horrendous, and sickly unnecessary act.

I was rather devastated when I first considered the full reality – of what happened to me, and the “procedure” we are actively choosing to continue against our beloved baby boys.

About me. I felt empty, raped, angry, and sicked. How could my parents hand me over to someone – probably INEXPERIENCED, a STUDENT – with a knife to have my penis mutilated, and possibly for an extra buck (yea, some doctors make an extra $200k to slice penises!!!) How could we continue to think this was even remotely ok, let alone the right thing to do. WHY DO WE NEED TO DO THIS??? WHAT PURPOSE DOES THIS SERVE??? Why, in the most precious moments of my beginning, was I carted off to be STRAPPED DOWN and have my penis taken???

Who thought they had the right to disturb and alter MY body, without my consent???

Would you hold your newborn son while his penis is mutilated? Would you give him up to someone to be strapped down, screaming – if not sedated on LEGAL NARCOTICS – with a sheet over his head, while a knife is taken to his penis?

IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL CIVILIZED???

I thank you for considering our stories and words as you consider this legislation. Please know that I will be thinking about you and this possibility tomorrow, while you congress, and I will actively send the courage we collectively need to face the reality of our actions, to forgive ourselves and our forebears for the choices we have all made, and to bring an end to these practices.

Thank you.

Jason Boyer

You can share your thoughts, stories, etc here

More pictures soon to come! The winter inwardness/laziness is in full effect here. Hopefully with you too <3