SEED: Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems

There is a lot of talk these days about how everything is connected to everything else. Most of the time these connections are hard to see. But we now know that the kind of car I drive in Boston, Massachusetts, may affect the health of polar bears in the Arctic. Whether they’re found in nature, your body, your family, your organization, or your country, these interconnected networks are called living systems. Living systems are all around us. When you work on a SEED project—for example, a water project—you are deeply engaged with many living systems, including your local river, canal, lake, or watershed, as well as your school and community.

 

Why learn about the laws of living systems through folktales? Folk wisdom—whether it comes from the myths and tales of ancient Greeks, early Africans, fifth-century Chinese philosophers, or Buddhist masters or from the sages of Native American and other cultures—has long been a way to pass on wisdom from one generation to the next. Many folktales and myths, including those in Connected Wisdom, were used by the ancients to explain and understand the physical world around them.
We invite you to explore, through timeless folktales and modern examples, how the principles that guide living systems can also guide how we live and learn. Connected Wisdom contains twelve folktales from around the world that have been adapted to illustrate the different principles influencing how nature works. The book is available in seven languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, from SWPS and the SEEDSTORE.

SEED collaborated with Linda Booth Sweeney and storyteller Courtney Campbell to record all 12 folktales, with adapted explanations of the related systems thinking. The CD is available in English only from SWPS and the SEEDSTORE. Catch a sneak preview of one chapter from the Connected Wisdom CD.

 

 

 

Why I'm Switching to WordPress...

First let me just say this is quite a process and if it weren't for Sarah I'd be lost!   She's amazing!   Also, A Royal Daughter wrote some great articles on why she switched from Blogger to WordPress.   I think they are great, either way your blog will do just fine....it's a personal decision.   You can read her articles HERE and HERE    

Moving to WordPress..

So, I'm taking the plunge and moving this lil blog that I've had since 2006 over to WordPress.  I have been wanting to do this for awhile because I've heard from a lot of you that it's a great thing to do and I'm looking forward to all the new things I can do with WordPress. 

  Have you switched? Are you thinking about it?   Thoughts?    

Breaking Out the Bubbly

A little wordless Wednesday...

Love him to pieces.

Easter 2013 Recap

Yay!  We have a new decent family photo!  

My brother in law took this Saturday night after the Easter egg hunt.  We went over to T's parent's house for  a pre-Easter dinner and egg hunt with all the cousins.  It's so nice to get together with everyone, we are so blessed to have great families on BOTH sides of the coin.

We had a great church service and met a couple new people.  Hopefully we can start going to a home group during the week.  I know this would be good for us because it so hard to carve out time for dishes & laundry.....let alone a weekly Bible study.  So, pray for us that we can get that started and get motivated to join a home group.  I'm nervous.....but I know Terence and I both have felt called to get more involved in our church lately......and thanks to his Aunt and Uncle for keeping us accountable.  Sometimes you need that one person to say "Hey, listen this is what you need to do!"  And for that I'm thankful!  It's going to be hard with both our jobs to work around the schedule, but I guess it's okay if we are late as long as we both show up.  Terence has over an hour commute each way every day....sigh.....hoping one day things will get a little bit easier.

Okay, well, I didn't mean to get into all that but it's just something I wanted to write about :-)

After church we ate lunch at Madeleine's   I love this place.  It's a French bistro restaurant and they have great sandwiches and salads.  

Terence's Mom took me there for the first time. Just me and her while Terence and I were still dating.  She probably doesn't remember this....but it looks like a buffet when you walk in.  You get a tray and they have pastries, yogurts, salads, quiches, etc. to choose from. I had never been to this place before, and actually you are supposed to pay for each item separately   I loaded up my tray with all this food thinking it was part of the buffet.....I'm sure I had like a $40 lunch that day and I was so embarrassed, but she never said a single word!  Ha ha!  I'll never forget that.  

 Grana and the kids make Resurrection rolls while we hid eggs.

 Sweet nephew Levi

 The trio of cousins

Macy, Katy, Lesley

 Look at all those eggs!

I love the way their little faces are pressed against the door ready to run!

 Off they go!

 Someone is digging into their candy???

 Alisha counting her eggs

 We hope ya'll had a blessed Easter and a BLESSED year ahead!!!

xoxo Becky

 

Easter Basket 2013

We had a great weekend with a family dinner & egg hunt, along with a beautiful church service today.  I'm missing my family back home today, especially on Easter where we would always go to the farm.  So thankful for Jesus sacrifice so that we can live.....I'm so not worthy of anything.  Thank you Lord for my beautiful family and friends and this life you have given,

  Hope you all had a great Easter too!!!!

Although we don't really do the Easter bunny, we did do a basket for the lil guy and here are some pictures I took....I'll post the rest of our Easter weekend later. *Cherishing this age and these moments*

"Oh my gosh a fire truck"

Bunny love

He loved these little mini slinkies

"Is there any more?"

 "You mean there's CANDY inside?"

And of course every child must have the gigantic chocolate bunny...obligatory of course ;-)

(He shared with Mom)

Too Cool For School

Connor started a new pre-school this year and he's really loving it.  One of his favorite things is having his independence and his own cubby to put his "things" in.  He gets so excited when he goes to his cubby every day.  

 

He's a typical 3 year old.  He loves carrying around all his toys with him all the time!  Everywhere we go.  So, with Connor starting school he needed a backpack to store all those tiny toys and maybe even carry a few pull-ups of his own now. 

 

PatchPak sent us this fun new backpack to try and Connor hasn't taken it off since.  I kid you not, he literally loads it up with toys and take it with him everywhere.

 

Just look at that face??? Is he excited or what! ha ha!

Connor picked the color, green, his favorite.  PatchPak also has a wide variety of patches you can buy to customize your own backpack.  Your kids can pick out the first letter of their name, their age, or a picture they like.  PatchPak has large and small backpacks, lunch packs, and binders to customize.

 Yep...I'd definitely say he's "too cool for school"

(We were given a free backpack for this review)

PatchPak is offering (1) reader of The Java Mama a $75 credit to their site!!!

 

Woohoo!

 

Thanks so much PatchPak.  We love our new big boy back pack!

 

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