Paper Boat Races and The Floor Is Lava...

 

Hi!

Well, it's been a week of learning how to make paper boats and racing them down the rivers that only exist during a good Spring thaw, and in the imaginations of littles. There were also some games of checkers, crokinole, trouble (the Frozen edition of course), intense rounds of Uno, the floor is lava, and the first dip into the scrabble pool for people who, until very recently, struggled to tell the difference between numbers and letters. 

It's been a week filled with fruit and yogurt snacks, banana pancakes smothered in syrup, sprinkled with nuts,  and topped with whipped cream. It's been a week of chicken quesadillas, grilled cheese, sloppy joes, pizza, and a newly discovered favourite... croissants. 

As you might have guessed, I had the privilege of spending the last several days with three of our grandbabies. These three, aged, 11,9 and 7, still like coming to Grandma and Grandpa's for sleepovers. Who knows how long it will remain a desired destination. We are thrilled to take advantage of their enthusiasm for however long it lasts. 

Meanwhile, the outside world kept turning. Humanity kept showing both ends of its spectrum and everything in between. Some of those considered powerful are inching ever closer to accountability. Some of those considered powerless have demonstrated their strength, and willingness to use it. 

I am cautiously optimistic that real change is coming. Kindness and acceptance are slowly turning the tide on those who want to ban books, dictate gender and sexuality, and tell women what they can and can't do with their own bodies. 

Those who spew hate against anything and everything they don't understand, which could fill entire libraries, ironically enough, are finding that mistaking kindness and acceptance for weakness is, was, and always will be a huge blunder, a concept with which they should be coming all too familiar.

The most oppressed groups, when they band together, become the majority. Of everything. All of it. 

So, show your rainbows. Dress how you wish, love who you love, be who you are. Be who you aspire to become. Be that. Read what you want to read, show your children ALL the history. the good, the bad, the light, and the dark. Be a parent, or not. Be married, or not. All of it.

The ugly underbelly of humanity has been revealed, brazenly, because they seem proud of their hate. Once shown, once thrown in our faces, we can no longer let it slide as just a few bad apples. The underbelly is showing, it's time to put an end to the hate, once and for all. 

Vote.  

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May your spring be filled with puddles that call your name.

May you jump in, you know you want to, embrace your wild, set aside your tame. 

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