Posts

Showing posts from June, 2020

"Learning to Crawl..."

Image
  Shared by Kristina Smedley Kaden has been blowing our minds with his persistence in learning how to crawl. I don’t know why this is surprising. For some reason, I expected that babies just crawled… not that I would see his very visible effort into actually learning and practicing how to crawl. #newmom ;-)   About two weeks ago, he started getting further up on his hands. And started a little rocking back and forth. Then slowly we saw a knee pop-under him.   Then a little lat pull-down type action to use his arms to lunge himself forward. Then all in about 24 hours he was army crawling, then getting his legs into it, and then suddenly he was coordinated and crawling around. I loved watching him figure this out.   And watching him struggle a little with something until he got the next piece down, and the next, and the next. And honestly, Kaden has been a great reminder to me that I too have to learn to crawl first, before I can walk and eventually run. And even ‘crawling' isn't

"Am I an Antiracist?"

Image
  Shared by Kristina Smedley The most direct answer is no. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’ve been actively doing anything to fight against racism.   Yes, I’m kind and accepting, and empathetic. I’ve never considered myself a racist. I’ve never done anything racist intentionally. And I’ve done some work in the past on becoming mildly aware of my privilege. But do I embrace and embody antiracist values and views? Do I take antiracist actions?   This is something I’ve thought about and maybe even written about in the past. But have I done anything differently since then? No.   I continue to sit comfortably on the sideline as an empathetic observer. I continue to sit in my easy chair, watching what is going on around me.   A chair that is reserved for people who look like me, people of white privileged. As long as racism and white supremacy continue to go unchecked, ruining communities and lives, it’s safe to say that a majority of people who look like me (myself included) haven’t appro