68 HOURS

My cousin Diane volunteers for a New Hampshire program called “End 68 Hours of Hunger.” If you, like me, were unaware of what “68 Hours” signifies, think about a student’s schedule. They spend weekdays in school, and weekends at home. For most students, weekends are a time of family togetherness, relaxation and fun, with special times around food such as Pancake breakfasts, Pizza nights, and Sunday barbecues. For some students, however, those central themes of fun and family are not punctuated by food. In fact, food deprivation makes the weekend interlude more of a countdown in the number of hours until a solid meal is once again provided... a countdown from Friday school lunch to Monday school breakfast... a countdown of 68 hours.

Can you imagine seeing the school cafeteria as a safer, more nurturing place, than the home where you spend your weekend time? Can you envision hearing the rolling cages clank down on Friday and looking up as you leave the cafeteria with a longing for the moment they’ll be lifted on Monday for your next meal? Consider that those able to take for granted the earnest time and effort invested in cafeteria food preparation are privileged... that they are going off to better smells, better food, better homes.

If you have never thought of any of these things, a look inside your local school might surprise you. Those familiar with the underlying meaning of “68 Hours” may be able to better define it for you. And if they don’t have any solutions, perhaps you can find some kindred spirits in your community and develop solutions yourselves.

Here’s some information about the New Hampshire program:

https://lscpagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=564964&ver=html5#{%22issue_id%22:564964,%22page%22:36}

And here’s some information about another program, “Blessings in a Backpack,” a not-for-profit in Louisville KY:

https://www.blessingsinabackpack.org.

If you are moved by this information, especially comparing your family’s surplus with those of the children who may go without, you may start investigating.  Alone, with a group of like-minded friends, or even with your children, you may ultimately choose to donate, shop, sort, pack, or deliver.  But for this engagement to begin as a thought experiment that truly touches your soul, I recommend you start, as I did, by saying aloud the mantras contained in these two websites. 

”A hungry child cannot learn.”

SO…

“Who will feed the kids this weekend?”

COME. MORE. BYE.

Just in time…

Yiayia retired from her career of changing young students’ lives to change the life of her own granddaughter.  And Tango took an important role in an adjacent town to also reap the benefits of his granddaughter’s presence.

Just in time…

Because Zoe is an active, rugged 2-year old toddler who braves the cold and snow (or the heat and humidity) to enjoy the outside… despite New Hampshire’s sometimes-unpredictable weather.  She is interested in everything, and participates gleefully (and seemingly-insatiably) in all the adventures set out for her by her parents and grandparents.

Just in time…

Yiayia and Tango can fully participate with Zoe’s parents in snow days, beach days, and overnights… which involve snowsuits, snowballs, bathing suits, pails and shovels, toys, wagons, special utensils, and lots and lots of time (and no doubt patience).

So we listen in to a typical encounter with Zoe.  She is walking away and wants Yiayia to follow. 

“Come.”

She is eating the delicious mixture of healthy veggies Yiayia has prepared for her and reaches the bottom of her bowl.

“More.”

She is exhausted, lying down and ready to fall into sweet slumber.

Or, she has played with Yiayia or Tango or Mommy or Daddy or Uncle Jon or Penny and is ready for the playing to be over.

“Bye.”

Zoe came on the scene 20 months ago.  My cousin Diane (“Yiayia”) and her husband Tim (“Tango”) had become caretakers of Diane’s mother, who was in failing health, just as Zoe was born.  Diane’s mother lived to see only the first 6 weeks of Zoe’s life.  And Diane had lost her father 7 years prior and her brother 2 years prior to Zoe’s birth. So Zoe’s entrance into their lives, which they had hoped would coincide with the time when they were prepared to turn their attentions to retirement and the joy of a growing family, was a blessing they could not have foretold. 

Zoe came… Just in time.

Life and death are two sides of the same cosmic coin.  They come unannounced, and we can but hope to be prepared.  But when a soul like Zoe makes an entrance just as three older souls in her genetic lineage depart, there is a heightened awareness… a renewed hope… an assurance that the future is at hand and needs our full attention.

And so we listen more closely, touch the story more reverently, and watch more expectantly.  If we’re smart enough to pay attention, we’re learning. 

I hear stories of Zoe’s words “Come, More, and Bye” and I kid around with my cousin that maybe those are the only words we really need anyway.  Maybe those words signal to us that it is in the simplicity of life… a child beckoning her grandparents, or petting her dog, or spooning more sand into the bucket or more food into her mouth, or shooing us away or nodding off to sleep, that all of living is encapsulated.  We mustn’t miss those moments.  They signify who we are, and point to, when all is said and done, who we might wish to become.

Take a look around you today. 

To whom would you say “Come?”

To what circumstance or event would you say “More?”

To what activities or habits would you say “Bye?”

Isn’t it time to take on the courage of a little girl, who came just in time to a loving family, to learn how to say those words for ourselves?

SHAKE MY SILLIES OUT

Let’s have some fun. 

Let’s follow along as Raffi sings his terrifically relaxing and freeing song (intended, I think, for the child in each of us) “Shake My Sillies Out!”

“Gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out

Shake, shake, shake

my sillies out

Shake, shake, shake

my sillies out

And wiggle my waggles away

I gotta clap, clap, clap

my crazies out

Clap, clap, clap

my crazies out

Clap, clap, clap

my crazies out

And wiggle my waggles away

I gotta jump, jump, jump

my jiggles out

Jump, jump, jump

my jiggles out

Jump, jump, jump

my jiggles out

And wiggle my waggles away

I gotta yawn, yawn, yawn

my sleepies out

Yawn, yawn, yawn

my sleepies out

Yawn, yawn, yawn

my sleepies out

And wiggle my waggles away!”

Don’t we all need that? It has the perfect ingredients for well-being: it’s inspirational for the soul, healthy for the body, and rejuvenating for the mind.

I could say so much more about how we can carry those feelings and thoughts into our day today. But I think I’ll say only this:

Waggles are everywhere.

If you can’t shake them out,

Clap them back.

If you can’t clap them back, 

Jump all over them.

If you can’t jump on them,

Yawn.

It will frustrate the heck out of them and they’ll slink back to where they came from.

Because they’re sillies.

Not to be taken seriously.

ALL THE BEAUTY THEY POSSESS INSIDE

“I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be.”

-      Greatest Love of All" by Michael Masser and Linda Creed

These lyrics, made popular by Whitney Houston, were actually written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed and originally recorded by George Benson for the 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest. The song was released in February 1985 by Whitney Houston under the title "Greatest Love of All," reaching the top of the Billboard charts then and again after her death in 2012.

Nearly four decades have passed and the lyrics can still inform our culture.  The message is clear – see a child, love a child, prepare a child, and through that child recall the sweetness that life showers on the young.  Yet Creed actually wrote the lyrics in the midst of her struggle with breast cancer. Her intent was to describe her adult feelings about coping with great challenges, being strong during those challenges whether you succeed or fail, and passing that strength on to children to carry with them into their adult lives.

As a TV special this week memorializing the life of Whitney Houston fills our family rooms with these lyrics yet again, the children of 38 years ago (now adults and often parents), and the adults of 38 years ago (now senior adults and often grandparents) will recollect and sing along with this musical hit from their past.  How will their experiential and anecdotal personal narratives, formed in that 38 year interim, meld with the implied concept  that life showers sweetness on the young?  Doubtless many of the social, political and economic issues that exist today existed in the 1970s, but the world has changed in both the macro- and micro- sense. On a global scale, we are all so much more interconnected, and so much more information is available to us about our planet, its citizens, and their lives.  And in a personal sense, that world affects how we live our lives, informs our dreams and aspirations, and feeds our personal circumstance.   

I think of those who teach, guide, care for, and minister to our children today.  Whom do they see when they look into the faces of the children in their care?  I imagine their view, rounded out by personal information as to the child’s living arrangements, personal challenges, and emotional strains, can only be respected as more correct than ours.  When we attend a youth concert or car wash, a race or a recital, a play or a play date, we might see only the expected exuberance and energy, and when a glimpse of unexpected behavior pops in, we might react with judgment, expecting suitable reprimand.

In speaking with institutional leaders who face such adult expectations, I conclude that we are projecting who we want our youth to be, and what we want them to do, without knowing what brings them to where they are. Recently a friend who directs a children’s chorale shared with me that volunteer adults assisting with the group can sometimes demand that she discipline or even reject children whose behavior does not meet a standard of the volunteer’s choosing.  My friend sees both sides of the issue, but her reaction to any child’s behavior is first to minister with love and outreach, as such ministering is often missing in the home.

Let’s look to the lyrics, again…

“I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way.”

Because the future absolutely belongs to our children, they will lead the way, whether we teach them or not.  It’s what we teach them that matters.  And if all the teaching that might be done at home is not being done there, or if family issues or social betrayals have erased positive words taught and replaced them with indelible negative experiences… on whose shoulders does the re-teaching fall?  I believe it falls to the teachers, the ministers, the counselors, the caregivers, the guides whose maps and lesson plans must be flexible rather than fixed if they are to make a difference.

  
“Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier.”

When a father and mother find joy in balancing a child’s life with fun and challenges and the ability to face victory or defeat with equal confidence, that child will no doubt learn all about real beauty and pride.  Yet how many of the children in the care of our heroic ministers, teachers and guides experience such a joy-filled two-parent family life?  Many parents never experienced such a life themselves and thus have no paradigm to follow; many struggle economically, emotionally, or spiritually themselves and therefore find more obligation than joy in raising their children; and sadly, many abandon their responsibilities and relinquish their child’s care to others (with outcomes ranging from wonderful to tragic).  Whose joy will replace that which we would have expected to come from that child’s home? That of the teacher, caregiver, minister, or guide.

“Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be.”

Given the scenarios above, how many adults raising today’s children hear laughter and are not reminded of how they used to be… in fact how many succumb to the very human instincts of envy and resentment when they hear the laughter and are reminded of its lack in their own upbringing?  The potential damage to children in the care of adults for whom laughter and joy are neither familiar nor desirable can be deep-seated and even irreparable if not diagnosed and offset.  And once again, it is often the guide, the caregiver, the teacher or the minister, thanks to acute and well-honed skills, who detects such situations and addresses them.

Each of us might do well to adjust our personal lens – the one through which we see our children.  The next time we are in the presence of a child whose 

behavior does not seem to conform to the group setting, perhaps we might see that child through the lens of understanding and forgiveness, in the perfect knowledge that we do not have perfect knowledge about the settings and circumstances surrounding the child’s life.  And the next time that we are in the presence of a person in whose care we place our children, we might do well to see him or her through that adjusted lens as well… with respect and gratitude, and always with the benefit of the doubt that his/her decisions, reactions, and leadership are based on the greater good of the group, as well as the intensely personal story, known only to him or her, that each child presents.

My fervent wish is for us to empower each child we love, indeed every child on the planet, with the tools and gifts to come to know, to use, to depend upon, all the beauty they possess inside.  Let us look to the teachers of those tools and the givers of those gifts with the support and love they so richly deserve.  

BELIEVE

Today I share with my readers a story our priest, Father Mike, asked me to write for our weekly parish bulletin.  It recounts an actual incident which happened at 10:30 Mass a few weeks ago, written by my hand but punctuated by Sydney’s faith.

"Believe" is the song made popular from the Christmas movie “Polar Express.”  As a doubting boy boards a magical train headed to the North Pole, we hear the lyrics,

“Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe.”

But what do we as Catholics think of when we hear that word?

On a recent Sunday an unusual event occurred during our 10:30 Children's Mass. A bit of consecrated wine was unintentionally spilled on the transfer of the chalice between the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and the communicant. Immediately our Liturgical Director Jean Sawyer (nearby, thank God), stepped onto the altar to take one of the altar linens (called a purificator), brought it to the spill, and reverentially blotted then covered it. When communion ended, the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion started to pick up the cloth, but Jean and Father Mike simultaneously told her to "leave it."

What unfolded then was a living testimony of faith in action, as the congregation watched Father Mike kneel down at the site, wash it with water, and then take the water back (to be poured into the sacrarium in the sacristy).

My grand-niece Sydney had been singing in the choir, and she, like so many of us, was totally attentive to this intensely spiritual moment. After Mass, Sydney, who made her First Holy Communion here at St. Teresa of Avila just over a year ago, recounted what she had seen, especially impressed by the reverence with which Jean and Father Mike had handled the matter. I asked her why she thought such care was taken. Her response: "because it is the blood of Christ."  She did not say "because it is a symbol of the blood of Christ." She did not say "because we think it is the blood of Christ." She stated that it is the blood of Christ.

Out if the mouths of babes we hear the consummate representation of the foundation of our Catholic identity. At the consecration, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.

It is what we believe.

IMAGINATION

My great-nephews attend a Waldorf school.  As with most parents, my niece Holly and nephew Christopher have made education a priority in their household.  In fact Holly, a gifted writer, has turned her pre-occupation with parenting (she has 3 boys under age 10… if that doesn’t put the “pre” before “occupation” I don’t know what would) into a website http://hollykorbey.com and several articles embracing all aspects of children’s education and development.  Speaking about the Waldorf experience on which her 2 sons have embarked this year, Holly is enthusiastic.  In a recent article “Babes in Fairyland,” she writes:

"Now my sons’ childhoods are back… It’s as if the fairies visited them while they were sleeping, and filled their heads with poetry, art, and music. It’s as if they woke up from a dream and realized, like Peter Pan, that they didn’t have to grow up. Not yet."

Imagination gives us the power to see the unseen, to know the unknowable, and to solve the unsolvable.  As Holly describes, following the pursuits of imaginary characters transforms the educational experience: “My sons are all in for fairies, too. In school, they have locked eyes and hearts with elves, woodsprites, and most especially, knights who slay dragons.”  The gift, indeed the magic of imagination, links children like my great-nephews to the world’s great thinkers by an unseen thread that transcends time and space. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” “A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.” - Freedom Fighter Nelson Mandela “Seeing through eyes of wonder, children notice things that adults can no longer perceive. But sadly, the shelflife of wonder in most children is quite short.  The diminishment of our natural capacity to see the truly wondrous and to dance in enthrallment with the world begins when wonder is replaced by rationality. This happens to all but those who are fortunate enough to be encouraged to maintain imagination, curiosity, and creativity. In them, the roots of wonder may grow deep enough that it will persist through life. Many of those people become artists and poets. It is from them that we can learn the most about wonder if we have lost this natural childhood gift and wish to recover it.” - Psychologist Dr. David G. Benner "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious...Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are diminished." -Physicist Albert Einstein Holly encourages any tool intended to develop a child’s imagination. “Make it anything where kids are awakened to the wonder of everything they see, and more importantly, everything they can’t.”  Holly’s niece (my great-niece) Sydney is studying piano under the tutelage of Miss Peach, a kind, compassionate teacher whose love for music seems eclipsed only by her love for her students. Mrs. Peach's home is an almost-mystical setting brimming with possibility. There, children connect with music in different ways, and she fosters all connections and encourages the diversity of expression. After each music lesson, every student (and parent and sibling) is invited to choose from Mrs. Peach’s broad collection of instruments from around the world and create a rhythm for herself.  Speaking about the freedom she gives her students to create their own interpretation of songs, Mrs. Peach characterizes her endeavor as a channeling of their innate talent, and herself as a guide. As she sees a student settling in to a calm oneness with his instrument, she steps aside. The student knows she is never out of reach, but knows more importantly that the musical journey is his own release. Of course, there is the added element of innovative ability which equips a child from the “outside in” in concert with imagination, which equips a child from the “inside out.” Michael Fox, professional coach and trainer and founder of m·agine!, writes: “Imagination and innovation are each a reflection of a creative spirit. To imaginate is to dream, to think outside the box--way beyond the box--even, perhaps, to forget there is a box; imagination yearns for abundance. To innovate is to design, to think inside the box; innovation, no kidding, thrives in scarcity. Imagination, at its best, results in innovation. Innovation gives shape to our imagination. Many imaginate; relatively few innovate. An imaginative spirit, ironically, dreams of a bigger box. A bigger box shows up differently in each of our imaginations. For some it might mean a collaborative, creative muse--or, at the very least, someone who'll hold us and reaffirm us when we fail, or when we're so afraid to fail that we fail to try. For others it might be a space free from responsibility and interruption. With lots of green plants that never die. And, please God, no clocks. An imaginative spirit often sighs and thinks, "If only..." Imagination without innovation can be devastating, for it taunts us with our limitations. An innovative spirit, whether inclined to the right or to the left side of the brain, acknowledges the box. With a nod to our Eastern friends, the innovative spirit embraces the box. Whether a painter or a writer, a CEO or a stay-at-home, an engineer or a manufacturer, the innovator makes the most with the least. Or at the least with what's available. An innovative spirit often sighs and thinks, "What's next...?" Is the teacher’s role one of midwife to the birth of new expression, or trainer to honing a talent into a prodigy? Does she seek for her students a deeper level of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-esteem?  Does he allow that his students’ paths are their own, their expression unique? Are some students so naturally imbued with extroverted gifts that teachers need only to coax their imaginations outside the box?  Are other students more naturally introverted and thus dependent on their teachers to help them innovate inside the box?  Or are the lines more blurred than that? Betty J. Eadie said in "The Ripple Effect," "We live and thrive by doing things, by testing our limits, by opening ourselves up to new experiences and challenges, by seeking joy and even happiness as we step out—not in fear or anxiety, but in faith. Faith opens us to new and sometimes wonderfully crazy ideas.” The world that awaits today’s children will be competitive and demanding.  Encouraging imagination in their pursuits seems a healthy preparation for a future filled with exploration and peppered with challenge.  Nurturing faith in their inherent innovative abilities may be just the ingredient to handle the range of results from defeat to success.    As we nurture the children in our lives and contemplate the effects of the exposure we give them in every learning environment, I conclude with an illustrative story told to, and related by Michael Fox: “While on a trip to New Orleans, I listened to a local gentleman tell of growing up, impoverished, in the city during the Great Depression. The winters were cold, and his family couldn't afford coal to heat their small home. He and his brothers ran to the railroad tracks every day after school; there they cursed the engineers as their locomotives slowly traveled the tracks running along the Mississippi, between the river's bank and Jackson Square. The engineers, angered by the boys' "nasty" taunting, reflexively hurled coal at the brothers. After the train passed the boys gathered up the coal in their shirttails and carried it home to their family's empty furnace. Some people imagined heat; the brothers innovated.”

CUKE AND CUMBER

CUKE

AND

CUMBER

****************************

"LET - US"

INTRODUCE OURSELVES!!

We are fruits and veggies,

so good for you, that’s true.

But in this story you may find

we’re fun to be with, too!

We’ll say a bit about ourselves,

we hope to be your friends.

Please bring us all

right home with you

we’re healthy ‘til the end!!

****************************

VEGETAB-LY

VEGeTABLES

****************************

I'M CUKE!       I’M CUMBER!

We always stick together

on your grocery list!!

We’re buddies

and we’ll make you smile,

So let’s be friends and talk awhile!

Just munch or dip us,

slice us too… we promise

we’ll be GOOD for you!!

****************************

 

I AM ESPERA! 

I AM GUS!

If you are in the produce aisle

you’ll bump right into us!

We’re long and green and slender

and ready for your meal.

So steam us up for dinner

and see how proud you feel!

****************************

MEET MY FRIEND TOM 

AND HIS COUSIN MAYTO!                 

 When they are in your dinner 
you won't want to be late-o!

They make your salad pretty
and taste delicious, too.
And you can make a sauce of them, 
or mix them in a stew!

****************************

HI COLLIE!             HI FLOWER!

We saw you in the supermarket 

taking a nice shower!!

Now jump in our cart

and we’ll cook you up right,

to go with our healthy

fish dinner tonight!!

****************************

HEY BROCK!                    HEY KOLIE!

You’re good for us

and tasty, too.

We crunch and munch

and smile with YOU!

We dip you, steam you,

head to toe.

You are a veggie

set to go!!

****************************

!CHILI, RED, & JALAPENO!

Peppers every one.

You’re cool, you’re hot,

but one thing’s sure…

You’re zesty on the tongue!!

****************************

I AM POTT

AND GRANDMA'S TETA

We’re on the menu,

so don’t be late-a!!

French fry, bake,

mash or hash,

We're a yummy

tummy stash!!

****************************

I AM STRING AND HE IS BEAN

We get steamed

but we don't get mean.

Cooked up for dinner,

or dipped as a snack,

we’ll make

your happy lips

SMACK, SMACK, SMACK!

****************************

PARSLEY, BASIL, & THERE'S THYME!

Herbs for flavor, fun to rhyme!

Added to our meals they add

flavor that will make us glad.

Sprinkle them on salad or soup.

They are an important group!

****************************

GARLIC!    

ONIONS!!







Don't be shy!!
Garlic makes things taste good,

(Oops… onions make you cry!)

But really, 
they’re so tasty

just cooked 
into your food,

you really need 
to try them

(you don’t want 
to be rude!)

****************************

FRUITY

FRUITS

****************************

Pssst...This fruit name is backwards!

Can you guess what it is??!

SAY 'HI' TO APPLE!

SAY 'HI' TO PINE!

With an outside that’s prickly      

but an inside that’s fine.

Here’s a fruit for your sweet tooth

and your tummy combined.

Its yellow rings give us

a juicy surprise.

So don’t you be fooled

by its prickly disguise!

****************************

"OR-ANGE"

YOU SOMETIMES THIRSTY FOR JUICE?

Then reach up and grab

‘til this fun fruit comes loose!

Peel it or slice it

or squeeze it real tight,

and you’ll smile as you taste it

with pure fruit delight!

****************************

WANT TO FEEL JUST "GRRR...APE?!"

Sink your teeth into us,

red, purple, or green.

We’ll spurt out a flavor

that tastes pretty keen.

Now want a sweet drink

with that flavor as well?

Your supermarket will show you

the grape juice they sell!!

****************************

WE'RE POME!

AND GRANATE!!

It’s nice to meet!

With us on your list,

your shopping’s complete!

Our seeds are tasty,

we make great juice.

So try us today.

We can’t be beat!!!

****************************

HERE AND THERE,

YOU'LL MEET A PEAR!

Our colors vary,

but we’re great to chew.

Tasty fresh or cooked,

and SO good for you!

Try us in salads

with nuts and cheese.

You’ll have a meal

that’s sure to please!

****************************

EVER DONE THE TANGO?

EVER TRIED A MANGO?

 SCARED OF DRAGONS?

 WHAT ABOUT DRAGON FRUIT?

EVER HEAR OF A GUAVA,

OR A MAMEY,

OR A TAMARIND? 

These are tropical fruits

from exotic places.

Give them a try!

You'll put smiles on your faces!!

**************************

LET'S SHOUT FOR KEE!

LET'S SHOUT FOR WEE!

LET'S SHOUT FOR KIWI!

Great-tasting and good for you!

Kiwi has vitamin C, too!

Eat the skin, bite in, okay?

Inside’s a fresh start

to your day!!

 **************************

"STRAW-"       "RASP-"  "BLACK-"  AND "BLUE"

All these BERRIES are just for you!!

****************************

WE HOPE YOU HAVE 

ENJOYED OUR TALE, 

SO YOU'LL EAT HEALTHY  

WITHOUT FAIL.

ADVENTURES ALL START 

WITH TRYING NEW THINGS.

SO WAKE UP YOUR TASTEBUDS

AND SEE WHAT IT BRINGS!!!

HAPPY EATING!!!