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Choosing Compassion In a Culture of Fear

March 10, 2016 – 9:57 am

A couple years ago, as I was loading Sophie into the van after a morning of half-day kindergarten, two men approached me. Their car had run out of gas on 27 and they wondered if I would give them a ride to a gas station. I believe most people are good and kind. I give […]

By kara | Posted in All | Also tagged Albert Einstein, compassion, Joe, parenting, strangers, This I Believe | Comments (0)
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    I just realized I’m wearing my feather necklace while riding a , ha! Also, I could people-watch Swifties all.day.long. Their outfits! #hereforjasonisbellthough ☺️ I’m really awful with selfies but this is my new t-shirt designed and printed by my friend @jennfieldssummer who sells the most lovely work online at jennifersummer.com/mothshop/. Aside from supporting a talented artist proceeds also help fund her cancer treatments bc we happen to live in a country in which being unlucky and getting sick can put you hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt but I digress. If you feel like ❤️’ing someone today and buying something pretty, check out her shop. A lot of Lewisburg’s bicentennial celebration was rained out due to the whole park flooding so we weren’t able to sell the things we made for OLOG (an organization created by my aunt, uncle and cousins dedicated to building a library in Belize). But we still saw Aunt Alise and Uncle Tom from Philadelphia, Aunt Janeil from California, Aunt Ann, Kelsey, both of my grandmothers and my parents. And we got to explore the interior of a caboose and eat ice cream. Although my heart breaks for all the folks who put so much time and energy into this, it was still a fun day. It’s beautiful! My mom dyes fabric all the time now. My sister saves avocado pits for her and just the other day my mom showed me marigold heads drying on a rack on her dining room table. They made a dye bath using carrot tops and Sophie used rubber bands to make the design. Here, she’s rinsing. I had forgotten about these pictures! In August my mom taught Sophie how to naturally dye fabric. Here she’s cutting the carrots my dad grew from seed in his garden. Such a sweet exhibit. I had forgotten Robert McCloskey bought actual ducklings and took them home to his studio apartment in Greenwich Village for observation when working on this book. 15+ years ago I would have been drinking a Zima and playing bocce ball at Pompilios with a large group of friends while waiting for the fireworks, our annual tradition. Tonight I’m in the dining room trying to learn Owen’s latest game. I need to gather wood, stay alive (there are wolves) and find the diamonds. These two are in the middle of a battle involving dice rolls, which I only partly understand. At some point we need to build a bridge, and Sophie’s been tasked with designing armor (but we’re not there yet). It’s really hot tonight. And as years pass I grow less fond of large groups of people. And Zima is way too sweet. I’m always a bit nostalgic on this night. I’m sure I’ll someday be nostalgic about these confusing game nights, too. I guess that’s the point of nostalgia. It grows. (Also, to keep the sentimentality grounded, I just got hit with a Nerf bullet while posting this.) She went to her first high school football game tonight. “We ran around and drank slushees!” To quote my mom, make time stop for awhile. Tuesday night we made margaritas with muddled blueberries and orange bitters, and then, on a whim, while listening to The SteelDrivers, we defuzzed our moon pillow with an electric shaver, which was so weirdly satisfying I was half tempted to pull all my sweaters out of the attic and defuzz those, too. I think this paints a pretty accurate picture of marriage, 13 years in. Sophie’s slime collection. Every day, it’s a new experiment. We all watch Andy Griffith and the other night I said, “Hey! Sophie! Opie is wearing your shoes!” I actually love her new school kicks. ❤️ (And long walks together when she talks and talks and talks.) 3rd, 5th, 3rd! James can’t really see (he lost his glasses a couple days ago so he has an appointment to get a new pair tomorrow) and Sophie managed to forget her lunch box (which I swear was in her hand three seconds prior to this pic). But they’re all at school, with brushed teeth, semi-brushed hair and that first-day mix of nervousness and excitement. And James let me hug him in his classroom (a real win). Onward! There was another roll on top of this roll. Pulling it out revealed this tube of toothpaste. Sophie doesn’t approve of the boys’ interactions with toothpaste (they get it everywhere) so she has her own tube and she hides it someplace different every night. This place is pretty clever although I’m regularly impressed with her ability to tuck it away behind the bathroom mirror. (Life with 8-year-old brothers can be challenging. For all. ) Months ago we planned a trip to Atlanta to celebrate Marty’s 70th birthday, which is today. We still went. We visited the aquarium, ate at Mellow Mushroom (a restaurant Marty loved), the cousins played together, Lizz made biscuits and gravy ... wish you had been with us, Marty. We sure miss you. It’s Twin Day! Owen flipped his Gatorade bottle and it landed here and I’m fairly certain he’s never been more proud of anything he’s done in his 8-year-old life.
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  • Favorite Essays

    Choosing Compassion in a Culture of Fear

    Seeking the Bigness in the Everyday

    The Love in Trying

    The View from Up High

    Season of Innocence

    The Huffington Post guest post: Apologies to the Parents I Judged Four Years Ago, a TIME's top 10 opinion piece in 2012

    Simple

    Changing Love

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