Change for the better

With apologies to male readers... adjust as necessary.

You don't have to change everything. You can't change everything at once anyway. If you start acting consciously and mindfully with a goal in mind (more peaceful, richer environment, more patient, more gentle—whatever direction or combination of principles you want to hold as your guiding lights), you can and will be a better (more conscious, more thoughtful) mother, and a better person.

SandraDodd.com/choices
photo by Sandra Dodd
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I wrote "have to."
Perhaps it was in response to someone having used it in her "yeah but..."
I could have written "You don't have to change everything, yet everything will change."

Be generous.

"Whatever lights them up, spend as much as you can on it—time and money and creativity and the rest. Don't worry if it's more or less than someone else. Be generous. Fill them up to the brim."

—Meredith Novak

SandraDodd.com/unschoolingcost
photo by Sarah Dickinson
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Easy, but wait...

How many things do you do because you're supposed to, because your relatives and neighbors expect it, because it's easy and you don't have to think about it? How many of those things are taking you and your kids in a positive and healthy direction?

SandraDodd.com/joy
photo by Sandra Dodd of mugs by Brenna McBroom
The image refers to something later in the linked article.
My bamboo spatula looks like a piece of toast here, but it's not.
I didn't realize this photo would need so many notes!

Trivia is knowledge

Trivia is knowledge that connects things to other things, and ideas to images, and sounds to places.

SandraDodd.com/connections
photo by Janine

Don't talk it. Be it.

Some unschooling parents talk too much to their children about unschooling. Just DO it, don't talk it. Be it.

SandraDodd.com/deschooling/
photo by Rippy Dusseldorp

TWO steps, maybe; then more and more

There are several sayings about the journey of a lifetime beginning with a single step and such. One step isn't the beginning of a journey if you keep one foot in the yard. You have to get away from the starting point completely.



SandraDodd.com/peace/newview
photo by Colleen Prieto
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Moment of sweetness

"Everything you do now, when your kids are young, matters. All the little kindnesses matter, every little moment of sweetness between you, every time you choose to be thoughtful of the smallest things."

—Deb Lewis

SandraDodd.com/youngadults
photo by Sandra Dodd
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