I’ve been busy lately with a bunch of different community-based projects. I’m not sure exactly why I’m feeling motivated to do these things (and all at once), but I thought I would tell you a bit about them. Part of my motivation probably has to do with just being more able to do projects like these because my daughter is now 4 yrs old.
One project is that I’m slowing gathering the resources to create a (free) health and healing group for single mothers. At some point, I’m going to try and do a post about why I think this is necessary, and about the format I think would be ideal. As one part of that project, I created a new site:
www.single-parent-resources-toronto.com.
Another is I’m starting (also very slowly!) the process of creating a chapter of Many Mothers in Toronto. The original organization is in the US – www.manymothers.org – and they support people to create postpartum support networks in their own communities. Once the network is set up, volunteers visit a family with a new baby for the first three months of the newborn’s life, usually twice a week for two hours. They do things like light housekeeping, holding the baby while the mother takes a nap or shower, prepare meals, or do activities with older siblings. They can provide a listening ear, and information about community resources.
Many new mothers today do not have the extended family that once would have supported them. I also know many women who are single parents from the beginning, and there are many families having multiple births. Having support can reduce stress, isolation, exhaustion and the possibility of postpartum depression (often a result of the first 3 conditions!). Encouraging women to focus on bonding with their babies is essential to the well-being of the child and also affects how easy it will be for the mother to parent that child. In the end, whether we collectively support mother-child bonding determines the emotional direction of our society.
So okay, on to the next project: some of you might know how obsessed I am with the Reggio Emilia theories about learning. One of my dreams is having a Reggio-inspired community learning centre in Toronto. I’ve been organizing a once a week homeschool drop-in at a democratic school in the East End. One of my main purposes is to facilitate an on-going discussion about creating a community learning centre. I’m practicing my listening and collaborating skills (a big part of the Reggio approach).
Why am I so obsessed with Reggio Emilia? Because it’s so sophisticated in it’s way of creating structure while respecting the rights and opinions of children; because it encourages you to observe at a micro-level where you see consciousness arising and therefore witness the genius inside each child; because it avoids the dualistic pitfalls I see happening when people polarize against the oppressive elements of traditional schooling. It’s not dogmatic – it’s open to constant evolution. It values individual choice and the learning that happens in groups. It’s all about creativity. I really believe it’s the education of the future. (Oy, I’m such an aquarius!)
Right now, part of me is interested in taking what I know from energy-reading, that way of functioning and trying to move it into the world a bit more. As you can see, all of these projects are connected and are part of my journey around being a mother – what that means, simultaneously negotiating my needs and my child’s, how to navigate the intersection of nature and society that ‘mother’ represents, the gaps in awareness that I have found in myself and others when occupying that role. Being a mother has pushed me farther than anything else, to reconcile what I know in my heart, with what is possible on a material level.
