Conscious Mom

I've collected some of my favorite quotes about peace for this year's Blog Blast for Peace. If you have any of your own quotes to share, please leave a comment. "It is isolation that is critical to war. You cannot be abusive when you realize your connectedness." -David Kadlec "If you have a gun, you can go out and shoot one, two, three, five people. But if you have an ideology and stick to it, thinking it is the absolute truth, you can kill millions." -Thich Nhat Hanh "War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; ...

I just found out that today is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights day. It's almost the end of the day, and in some parts of the world it is already tomorrow, yet I don't want to let this event pass by without participating, and bringing the famine in Ethiopia to people's attention. Ethiopia is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts it has had in a long time. The death of livestock, failure of crops, and rising worldwide food prices are leading to massive starvation in the southern part of the country. Warming trends due to climate change are said to be causing the drought. A few days ago I blogged about this from a personal ...

A few weeks ago I saw Living on the Fault Line: Where Race and Family Meet, a documentary about interracial adoptive families in racially homogeneous (white) Vermont. I promised a review, but I was VERY TIRED the night I saw this documentary, so tired my poor little neurons were misfiring, ceasefiring, and backfiring, and as a result the details are very fuzzy in my mind. So rather than give the details, I'm just going to encourage you to see it, whether or not you have children, whether or not your children are adopted, whether or not they are same race as you, because it is a frank, accessible, thoughtful look at race in American society. Despite my exhaustion, ...

I once heard a quote, 'sex is like oxygen, you don't think about it unless you aren't getting any.' This post is about neither sex nor oxygen, but two other resources I used to take for granted and am now obsessing over. 1. Sleep: I am still not getting much. Maia is actually a good sleeper for her age. She sleeps for at least 11 hours a night, usually in a row. But she's an early riser and will wake up by 5 AM no matter what time she goes to bed. So when she goes through a teething phase and gets less sleep, I never get to catch up on my own. I am now suffering from a sleep debt ...

Satire? Let's hope so, but sometimes I have my doubts. Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Baby Yogini I entered this in The Twinkies Photo Contest for fun. You can see some adorable kid pictures there.

OK. So yesterday's post was a little harsh. I was still reeling from a particularly insensitive comment made in front of my daughter. Perhaps venting into a blog isn't the best way of dealing with my anger, however! I think much of the reason why I get angry is that I can never come up with a good response in the moment. When it comes to figuring out the perfect thing to say 48 hours later, I'm the queen, but at the precise moment I need the right words I just stand there frustrated and flabbergasted. I've been reflecting recently on the enormity of raising a child outside her birth culture. This is nothing new, there are certain aspects of parenting ...

I'm interrupting my retrospective to express concern for the people in Tibet, and wish for a peaceful, just solution to the decades of repression and conflict. This is Avalokiteshvara, the highest representation of compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. His image can be found throughout Tibet, and his mantra is carved into stones all over the countryside. Background to the China/Tibet situation can be found here. I'm not looking to discuss politics, so I've turned comments off for this post.

I have a soft spot for NPR and I wish I could say it is my primary news source. But as much as I enjoy listening to Carl Kassel and Lakshmi Singh, I always feel vaguely dissatisfied after Morning Edition. NPR does spend less time on local automobile accidents and more time on issues of national interest than the other networks. But it doesn't delve into the issues like I wish it would. Its investigative journalism doesn't investigate enough. Recently I've begun reading Democracy Now. Here I can read about news the other stations pass by, and get in-depth analysis on various issues. Today I read about how several states' laws prohibiting felons from voting disproportionally affects African American ...

Most of Maia's toys are presents from other people. People like to give little girls teddy bears and dolls. Maia has been given four dolls so far; three of them have been Caucasian, one has been African. The African doll is a beauty, traditionally dressed and adorned with earrings, bracelets, and beads. In other words, not something a 15 month old can play with, but perfect for an older child to treasure. It was my favorite present from her baby shower. Until she's old enough not to choke on the earrings, spit up on the dress, and bite off the fingers, it's displayed a shelf and she can see it at every diaper change. On the back of the package ...