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"There's FAMILIES Here, Too!"
"YOU CAN'T BEE A 'BE-ES-ER!' " "I never said I WAS Hunter S.Thompson!" [Olivia Petrus]. Those "Wise Words of Wisdom" were shared with me in my favorite high-school journalism class. Well, "POR LOS NINOS" [ A 'Peggy Hill' phrase. Peggy Hill was a character on "King of the Hill". Co-Written and Produced by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.] [YouTube]. [Google]. Out of privacy concerns, I edited out exactly WHO said it and HOW it was said. But those words STUCK WITH ME...
By Unlisted&Twisted!4 years ago in Families
Public School Killed My Kid’s Love of Reading
I recently removed my kid (a third-grader) from her public school just a half-mile from our residence. Why did I give up the luxuries of a nearby campus, incredible bus system, and sense of tight-knit community?
By While You Were Out. 4 years ago in Families
To Try, Perchance To Fly
Every time I see a hawk in flight, I watch, almost mesmerized. Like eagles and falcons, birds I see less often, the majesty of their form, the strength of their wings and the graceful ease with which they can swoop, then rise again into the wind, are humbling. The skies are theirs, and there they defy the power that gravity imposes on us, the mere mortals.
By Marie McGrath4 years ago in Families
Pushing Forward
A wave of grief hit our family like a ton of bricks a little over a year ago, my brother in-law was murdered on one of the busiest highways in California in broad daylight. We have yet to find answers but even if we did, even if we got them, it still wouldn't bring him back. The loss of him was one of mass proportions. This alone would have been enough to make our world crumble. He was everyone's favorite. I've known him since he was a baby. He was a kind soul, sweet and protective. But with no other choice, we picked up the pieces of our shattered hearts and tried to keep it pushing. The silence in the room as we sit together as a family gets heavy. The things that aren't said weigh a ton. But the one thing I can truly say is I still feel him near. I still see him in all the small details of our every day lives.
By Talisha Reupena 4 years ago in Families
Where I Call Home
When I spent nearly a week homeless on the streets of Surrey, British Columbia, I experienced first-hand the concept of not having a home of my own. For most of my life, home was where I was sheltered and protected; a shield to the outside, dangerous world. But at the age of twenty-nine, I left my childhood home and set out on my own, unsure of what to expect from being outside my bubble. For the first time, my home was no longer the house I lived in, but it became something flexible, carried around here and there like a turtle carrying its shell. I cleaned my clothes at a laundry mat, showered in a recreation centre and stayed at fast food restaurants that opened all night. Home became a patchwork of locations where I spent my day, as well as my vehicle where I slept. Not lasting even a week, I was admitted to hospital, which was essentially yet another temporary home for me. But what I really learned is that my definition of home could change, for better or for worse, and it is that understanding that motivates me to seek the best home I can.
By Jesse Leung4 years ago in Families
I am Appalachian!
I am the Cherokee, the Wataugans, the Scots Irish, the South African and so many more that are as much a part of me as the Mountains themselves. I can be traced back to Spanish Kings and German Queens, but the Appalachians is where I was born. In the dark Coal mines as small boys carried out the Coal their fathers have dug out of the mountains, the father can only look on because it was necessary to survive, always keeping the pain inside so he can keep going. Because knowing that his son, grandson and many generations forward would have a better life than his, this is what keeps him alive. My family and friends who were ripped away from me by the soldiers, to be taken to a strange place they call Oklahoma; I lost them all on the trail of tears. I wore Blue and my Brother wore Gray damn that war. Potbelly stoves, the cinders left behind and the smell of burning coal. The wetness of the fog as I breathe in the Mountain air in the early morning. Squirrel and Ginseng Hunting high up on the Mountain Ridge, on a rainy day I can smell the wet fur of the deer as they approach and wild turkey cannot hear me walking on the wet leaves. Hunting is not my sport; it is a way of life and a way to feed my family.
By Mark S. Collins4 years ago in Families
Heart and Home
It wasn't until I got older and had grown in wisdom that I came to know what 'home' really meant for me. Growing up my parents set out to provide a place that was filled with love, protection and stability. I always thought that home meant the place you grew up in, the house you get dropped off by your friend's mom after a play date. The one you run back to after playing for hours and hours after school. I thought it was like what you see in the movies. Your childhood home that you come back to visit as an adult. A place your parents find and call their forever home, the one you have all your firsts in, the one you do all your growing up and learning in. The one you drive away from as you set off for college and spread your wings only to come back to on holiday breaks. But that fairy tale of a home wasn't anything I would see or know. It never is like the movies portray it to be. Maybe for some but for me it came in the form of the safety and serenity my siblings and I created for ourselves.
By Talisha Reupena 4 years ago in Families
FATHERS AND SINS
It is official. My dad turned 100 years old. He is a centenarian, and I am rightly pissed about his big accomplishment. OMG! All the years of his harping about living a good clean life have, at last, put me into my place. Should I despise the old dude? I guess there is a fair amount of anger riding my back where dad is concerned. I must admit to it for the sake of my mental health. I am jealous and positively green with envy. “Father Knows Best”, for gosh sakes!
By Ibraahiym Kadessh4 years ago in Families
Blood doesn't make a family
"Blood is thicker than water." We've all more or less heard a variation of that saying at least once in our lives. It's said to convey the belief in thinking how family bonds will always be stronger than anything else. You don't choose your family, so family is special, untouchable, and above all.
By Noah Madrigal4 years ago in Families
Home in the Sky
Open doors and climbing steps, were nothing less than my day to day. Inside a magic castle that became a cave and also a chapel. Where I learned to skate on soapy floors, to hide on moldy clothes, to climb those leaning columns of a house stacked on an angle, to swing from trees and ropes, and build with two more foes. All that which led me here away from all those limbs who helped me walk and helped me think.
By Camila Carsolio4 years ago in Families
D1V1NiTY'S WAY
D1v1nitys ways Generational Curses is one of the main reasons we don’t go for what we want in this world. We tend to stay in the energy in which seems comfortable, allowing it to aid the futures we create. Fear of what we do not know seems to stem the emotions from our past. No longer moving forward and sitting in places we are afraid to leave. I feel the way our parents and generations before us molded this world has created so much chaos; causing the mindsets of millions to walk the dimension of earth as vampires and zombies. Stress, anxiety, depression, hate, anger, addictions, etc.… all lead to a quicker death or result in death. Love has been explained in so many perspectives that we only truly know what it is, when it’s expressed through self-first then outwards. Coming into my realization of what Love was and how it can possibly be reciprocated back, started on my self-love journey of Healing Thy Self.
By Melanie D1V1NiTY Montgomery4 years ago in Families
