Lately on Just Add Light, a few times I’ve chosen a photo from the over-200 people sent me when I asked in November (2015), and written something new to go with it. Then I link to the most-related page.
In moving this quote to the Substance page, I looked at it a different way:
In weaving, one thread touches all the others. At first, learning is in one place, play is in another, and work is in a third. Unschoolers can gradually become people whose lives are made of learning and togetherness. When play has value, and parents see learning in everything, the fiber and substance of the family's life change.I wrote it to go with a photo of a girl at a loom. I was thinking of play, learning and togetherness. And it’s true that those can potentially become a part of the being of everyone in an unschooling family.What is woven into your life is part of your being.
But this morning I saw the last line by itself: "What is woven into your life is part of your being."
It’s true of negativity, too.
It’s true of drama-seeking.
It’s true of cynicism.
Of course I’m aware that some people get huffy and leave discussions when I say “What you wrote is too negative and…” or “If you would change the words you use, your thoughts would change.” It really makes people angry, sometimes. Some of them write me hateful exit messages, when their defensive of negativity is overflowing.
But if negativity is woven all through one’s life—in their opinions of movies, cellphones, music, government, foods, weather… how can they be warm and accepting of their children? How can they create an unschooling nest that is not built with strands of negativity?
Here is that Just Add Light and Stir post, from December 16: Interwoven
A few days later, December 21, I quoted Megan Valnes. At the time, I didn’t connect the two, but as a gift to every reader here: a connection.
"Radical unschooling can bring about such a sense of peace with one's own self, that it can be poured into the being of another."Collect and save what you want to share with and give to your children.
—Megan Valnes
A sense of peace
'You can't give what you don't have,' some people say, and if you want your children to give generosity and kindness and patience to others, you should give them so much they're overflowing with it. —Sandra Dodd