Thanks and Giving

My favorite holiday seemed to arrive suddenly this year. Everything wasn’t quite as in-place as I usually like it, but still a great day full of good food and family and gratitude.

This past year we added a table to our living room for the express purpose of being able to eat Thanksgiving not in our tiny kitchen. It was great! (We also use the table for puzzles, homework, games, art projects, etc.)

Everyone who eats fills out a list - and reads aloud - what they are thankful for. It becomes part of my Thanksgiving timecapsules.

I am a huge pie fan, but my littlest prefers cake. So this year I made a chocolate pumpkin cake, and we all agreed it was pretty terrific.

Each year for the past three years, while I’m cooking the kiddos set up Legos to create their own Thanksgiving Day parade, complete with mylar balloon characters. Full video available on Instagram.

And, we always try to get out into nature on Thanksgiving, to be grateful for the natural world. On this hike, the kiddos found an amazing log fort.

As always, we also use this day to remember those who were here first. We made donations to Dig Deep which is helping provide running water to the 30% of Navajo homes that don’t have it, and to the National Urban Indian Family Coalition who are supporting the 70% of American Indians and Alaskan Natives who live in urban centers, like Chicago.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. So much to be grateful for.

Doing Your Best

Don't compare yesterday to today, or today tomorrow. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Affirmation from We The Urban, who is full of celebration for self-love, inclusivity, and marginalized voices.

October is a symphony

My favorite month begins. Even the worst of Octobers is better than almost any other month.

Between Now and Tuesday

Charles Eames was a practitioner of quality. No matter the task, the design, the concept, he approached it with a commitment to putting in the effort. Ralph Caplan, a friend of his, wrote an essay dedicated to Eames’ legacy of “Doing Quality”. Here’s to making whatever we do between now and Tuesday as first rate as possible.

Inescapable

Ursula K Le Guin always brings me hope.

On her way

“The system will collapse, if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notions of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

• Arundhati Roy

Parenthood As amateurs

Alvin Toffler wrote, “Parenthood remains the single greatest preserve of the amateur.” And all of us amateurs have a hard time learning from each other, we have to make our own missteps and craft our own parenting journey.

I’m grateful to have such a great partner to be continually learning it all with. (Today we took him to the bookstore to celebrate.) Happy Father’s Day to all the father-figures out there!

break open

It has been a heavy week, month, year in the United States as gun violence takes more and more lives. We've gone far too long down this spiral of protecting interpretations of second amendment rights over the lives of our children, elders, community members. I continue to donate to Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, with the hope that they are able to fight the powerful gun lobbies. We cannot stay silent. We cannot let our hearts be unbroken.

Mary Oliver wrote the poem “Lead” about environmental devastation at a local level. But I have no doubt she’d be okay with me using these words for this context.

reminded me of you

Found some inspiring writing on Instagram and distilled a bit of it. Tell someone if they remind you or you are reminded of them - it might make their day.

Curious

I’m proud to work for a company that hosts an annual Days of Understanding, attempting to bring together our varied and dispersed workforce into conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion. This year it kicked off with a guest speaker, Paul Martin, Chief Digital Officer at Sony Pictures. He was able to talk to us from his 20+ years in the DEI space about lessons he’s learned along the way. But one quote of his struck me. He said, “You have to more curious than you are certain.” He then described an exercise where you hold up a dollar bill between you and another person and ask them to describe what they see on it. They will either describe a pyramid or a face, but regardless you will see the opposite. Paul said:

Often times there isn’t a right and wrong, just a perspective you can’t see.

And how right he is, whether we are talking about someone experiencing prejudice or bias, or our feelings about masks on public transit. We need to stay curious, stay learning, stay uncomfortable in our journey to understanding.

Disconnect / Reconnect

Like many folks, this year for spring break we took the trip we’d planned to take in 2020. We were a bit rusty traveling as a family (but very excited that now the kiddos are responsible for their own luggage, and we didn’t have any “kid gear” with us). My goal for the trip was to actually turn-off work and be present for my family. Too often my kids will ask for help with something and follow it with “unless you have to work”…or now my 10 year old has begun making my tea in the morning because too many mornings he won’t see me before school unless he brings it to me in my office…too many nights I spend with my laptop instead of my spouse.

But largely this trip, I was able to unplug. There were a couple times I needed to check in, and a budgeting call I couldn’t miss, but for 5 working days away I think I did a pretty good job of tuning out distractions and tuning into those who mean the most to me.

To commemorate and remember, I made a video of our time. I’m hoping it continues to remind me of my real priorities.

IWD 2022

Happy International Women's Day!