inevitablove

"on the inside I'm dancing in the streets, on the outside I'm pretending I dont know the person inside of me." teacher : creator : lgbtq : jewish

[inevitablove]

This year I have participated in a fellowship called Changemakers. This fellowship is an interfaith fellowship about relationship building. Through the fellowship we have builder interpersonal, interfaith, and interfaith relationships between Jewish and Muslim participants. As the fellowship comes to a close, we are releasing the culminating project we have created to bring some of the work we have down together into the larger world of our expended communities.

We have created a podcast discussing mental health in these communities with the hope to bring awareness of some of the challenges folks in these communities, destigmatize the presence of mental health challenge, and provide resources for practicing mental wellness.

We will be releasing our podcast at our graduation next Monday evening with four episodes highlighting topics we found important. From that point forward the podcast will be live for your listening pleasure.

[tylerknott]

“How is it that still, after all this time and ache, I see only joy?” … Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson https://www.instagram.com/p/BsJPib8hiRL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gy3jdpou7swy

[inevitablove]

This Baby Was Photographed With The 1,616 IVF Needles It Took To Conceive Her

Creating life isn't just a miracle, it's a triumph.

This is painful and beautiful and jarring.

When I asked where babies come from I was met with honesty, sort of... I was taught biologically how a baby is made, that was reinforced with sex ed, health, and biology classes throughout my schooling. However, no one ever spoke of miscarriages or other means of getting pregnant. On some level I knew it happened, but the stories were few and far between, only mentioned in passing, and only mentioned amongst the closest of circles. As an adult I am amazed by the prevalence of friends and family’s difficulty conceiving. As a woman who will likely end up with another woman, my options are already minimized and the cost exponentially increased. It is so important to normalize this reality and talk about it so that we are prepared and we don’t feel isolated in our own journeys of trying to conceive a baby.

[inevitablove]

Jo Eberhardt's answer to How do I tell my wonderful 11 year old son, (in a way that won’t tear him down), that the way he has started talk

A beautiful conversation between mother and preteen.

[inevitablove]

NewYou

Pink's empowering speech about embracing your individuality #inspire #loveyourself #embrace #pink Credit : MTV

Thank you Pink again and again for reminding us of the permission we have to be ourselves, that beauty is not objective, and to keep living our truth. This is beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved watching the cuts to Willow throughout the video.

[inevitablove]

Ayudas Más

Infinite flow, An inclusive Dance Company. France, Piotr Iwanicki and Marisa Hamamoto.

I recently found out about this all inclusive dance company. This is so beautiful and moving. I am so excited to learn that they are based in LA and a friend of mine knows someone in the company. Hopefully going to a performance sometimes soon.

[inevitablove]

Photographer Removes Phones From Photos To Highlight Our Terrible Addiction

How addicted are you to your cell phone? The real answer may surprise you. “Removed” is an awesome photo project by American photographe

[inevitablove]

Today my friend took me to the ONE Archives at USC, a collection of fictional and non fictional lgbtq resources. We spent some time looking at the free book shelf, the only thing really available to us at the time we went in. As I perused the shelf, among other things I noticed a theme: masks. Title after title had something to do with hiding behind the mask or revealing the mask. This hit me because for so long I characterized myself as living behind a mask. I used this as a tool to protect myself, my identity, and my self worth. As I began doing the work to love myself and accept myself I no longer needed this metaphor. Although my masks were not exclusively representative of my struggled with gender and sexuality, it was interesting to find this parallel.

[teachingliteracy]

“What can we make of the long-term effect on children of sending emoji? The true effect of these texts may be bigger than any single message. […] The adults texting the kids back sometimes replied with emoji, but many times they also replied with words (“Hahahaha. Dinos and dino food!”) or a mix of words and emoji—even when the child didn’t know how to read yet. Presumably, the other adult whose phone the kid was using would read the words aloud. Think what this is teaching kids about reading and writing. When I was a kid, the written word was a thing of picture books and stop signs and cereal boxes and ABC fridge magnets. Writing often came with colorful, child-friendly illustrations, but it wasn’t often created specifically for me. Writing was created by professionals or incorporated into a literacy lesson: Here’s a story about talking animals; here’s how you write your name. Writing wasn’t used to communicate with me—after all, why would my parents leave me a note before I could read it? Kids still get picture books read to them. But now that we all communicate in writing so much more often, kids also get read text messages. For a kid to get a text message written directly for them, and read directly to them, which they can reply to in some fashion, it teaches them something powerful about the written word—that it can be used to connect with people you care about.”

— Gretchen McCulloch, Children Are Using Emoji for Digital-Age Language Learning (My latest Resident Linguist article for Wired.)  (via allthingslinguistic)

[inevitablove]

Literacy at the Laundromat

A new program in Chicago transforms a chore into a chance to learn.

This is my Dream. I want to bring literacy and education into the mundane. Make it a part of daily life. Make it the relief in a not so great situation.

[tylerknott]

New Year means new roads. New roads means new choices, new choices mean new versions of ourselves every time we choose. This year, this time, let’s resolve to be braver, more adventurous, more open to being transformed by this beautiful world. Let’s explore more and worry less, say more I Love Yous and have less reason to say I am Sorry. It’s time to wander out into the wild spaces, and in doing so, meet ourselves again. Happy New Year everyone, this year, I hope you have so many beautiful roads to choose to run down. I hope you pick the ones that scare you, and I hope you fall in love with every moment along the way. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsGT8gxhgwF/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yqbkejvj7dyu

[inevitablove]

Mic

Breast cancer impacts 2.1 million women each year. Dove celebrates the beauty and strength of these women. Made by Mic and Dove

Whatever the journey, dysphoria is real and impacts the way we walk through the world. It is painful to live in a body that you feel has let your down, that is ugly, that doesn’t match what society tells us it should look like.

[inevitablove]

Body-Positive New Year's Blessing

Body-Positive New Year's Blessing

[humansofnewyork]

“I’ve always wanted to be a dad early in life.  I want to be energetic and active and mobile.  I’d like my parents to experience being grandparents.  My dad was thirty-three when I was born, so that’s always been a bit of a benchmark.  And unfortunately it just passed by.  But it’s not something I have any control over. In every other area of life, I can make progress by putting in work.  I can practice.  I can gain new skills.  But the harder I pursue having a family, the further away it seems.  It’s difficult to enter a relationship with children in mind.  It complicates things.  You ask heavy questions a little earlier than you should.  So I just do my best to put it out of my mind.  I’m in town for an engagement party right now, and last night I crashed with an old college friend.  This morning I helped feed his baby son.  I was pretty good at it.  He’s a picky eater, so I had to pretend to take bites myself.  I had to make funny faces.  I had to ‘boop’ him on the nose with the spoon.  But I got him to eat his breakfast.  And I guess it was the novelty of feeding someone, but the whole experience just rekindled the notion of: ‘I want this for myself.’”

[inevitablove]

There is an impending teacher strike in Los Angeles for when we get back from winter break. I have mixed feelings and lots of anxiety about going back to work in the midst of all of this.

I agree with the platform for which UTLA is fighting. We absolutely need increased wages; reduced class sizes; more allied professionals such as nurses, counselors, and librarians; more special education, early education, bilingual education, and adult education support; reduced testing; and strengthened parent and educator voices at schools.Sadly however, the access and resources I have seen in public schools far exceeds some of the other schools I have worked in outside of the district. With that perspective it has been hard for me to actively stand behind this fight and it is sometimes painful to stay the extra 15 minutes of faculty meetings for the UTLA update. Nevertheless, we got to where we are now, this place that is better than other schools I have worked at, because of the tireless negotiating and not settling for less.

Working at a charter school we are still part of UTLA, but we have own delegations and negotiate our contract with our admin and board. We have reached an agreement and are not going on strike. However, my site is co-located on an LAUSD side which will be striking. I am filled with anxiety about returning to work and having to "cross" the picket line in essence to get to work even though we are not striking.

It has been reassuring to see the overflowing support from friends who are adjacent to the education world, teachers in other contexts, and parents. Keep fighting the fight to make better schools.

[campgender]

My straight friends tease me because all my best friends are my ex loves, but a wise heart told me it’s the most tender part of queerness—how we’ve all lost so much family when we find people we call family, we’ll do almost anything to not let go.

Andrea Gibson, “First Love”

[inevitablove]

my life.

[inevitablove]

A poem I have been working on...

As I walked down Main Street,

Thalia and Melpomene stared at me through a store window

I knew I must adorn myself

With these masks that became a metaphor

That framed the way I walked through life

A straight face

Hid all my thoughts, feelings, and opinions

I feared my laugh would be misplaced, inappropriate, misunderstood

Crying deemed me overly sensitive, reactive, a baby

Still facial muscles left me parve to the world

I hoped this would be the key

That opened the door to human connection,

An abundance of safety in sharing life,

No room for disagreement or upheaval.

Instead it built walls that made my experience invisible,

My voice silent

Life blinked with the banner, “connection error”

De-masked and walls shattered

My voice quivered

We made eyes across the room and cracked a smile

The moment was ours, shared and treasured

Vulnerability and trust woven into bracelets

Hanging the pendent, “friend’s forever”.