One of my favorite places to be after a long day of ups and downs is with my boys as we write, build, draw, and collaborate on all manner of creations long into the night.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Unschool Therapy
Rebel Poetry
Eat ice cream
Doze in the sun
Dance with caution tape
Digging for Courage: The Advantage of Not Knowing
I’m a better home educator when I know what I don’t know. That’s the space where I can get curious with my sons and discover alongside them, modeling the paths toward knowledge.
I’m living in that space now. Information about the biggest event in my lifetime is changing and contradictory at every turn. I’m teaching myself to embrace the uncertainty and remember that it is the place where we discover the most truth.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Digging for Courage: This Is Not Homeschool
I’m borrowing the title from the latest episode of The Harmonious Homeschooler.
We haven’t “homeschooled” in years. Before my wife died, we were trying to figure out how to explain our educational philosophy briefly. “Unschool” fits by definition, but denotes a negative. Although we intentionally discarded many of the assumptions of twentieth century schooling, our focus was not merely against the status quo. We were focusing on a love of learning fueled by our love for each other as a family. We discovered that our philosophy was greater than educational, it was holistic. Or it aspired to be, at least. We came up with “learning lifestyle.” It’s not very good as a conversational shortcut; but then again, nothing in the realm of home education lends itself to shortcuts.
Two years after losing my wife, I was embracing child-led learning and ambition more each day. My sons continued to train in jiu-jitsu and desired to compete in tournaments, where they learned how tough winning and losing can be. They took theater classes and learned discipline, history, narrative, and the nuts and bolts of production. This led to a taste of bigger stages and an urge to pursue professional acting, so I took them to an open audition where they earned a spot on a talent agency roster. Road trips, nature hikes, museum meanderings, gymnastic classes, quidditch…the adventures were countless.
Then the restrictions of governments in response to fears surrounding a novel coronavirus shut down all of our pursuits.
Our Learning Lifestyle changed over a course of days. The grounding consistency of training sessions at Elevated Studios, the new challenge of classes at Olympiad Gymnastics, hosting a growing Lego Club in our home, church services and Sunday School, and the excitement of getting ready for their first professional acting auditions…all gone.
For four weeks I have sought some reordering of our lives. Most of that time has been in search of meaning. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” I was searching for the wrong why. I wanted to know why the world had gone mad with irrationality, forgetting that the world had never been rational. To expect that now was my own madness.
The why I need is, “Why the Learning Lifestyle?”
The answer is within me, in need of revisiting, refreshing, and retooling. It’s exciting and scary to work on the fundamentals, especially when you’ve already built so much on the existing paradigm.
This isn’t homeschooling, this is something new.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Digging for Courage: Prayer for Bullying
I see a lot of people concerned with the actions of others. You cannot control others. This attempt to restrict free movement and free speech is creating a trauma that has already damaged society.
I am uplifted by Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s quote:
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”
I have been using the term “bullies.” It is an unfair label. It is my reaction to the bullying tactics almost universally employed by those who act to enforce government mandates through coercion and shame. These tactics are fed and driven by fear. That line between good and evil shifts in each heart as Fear and Love move within us.
Solzhenitsyn reminds us that even the most fearful heart can shift back to a loving place.
Today I’m praying for Love. Firstly, my own. I will feed my body good food, exercise, positive and powerful information, quiet, gratitude, and self-love. I will explore new places in my mind as I too am fearful of the social consequences of adventuring to new physical places.
I pray for compassion and healing.
Prayer is active. It orients your body toward the good.
Go inward, find that big ball of Love that isn’t getting enough attention, spend some time with it.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
https://youtu.be/MaaB6ZlakgA
Digging for Courage: The Wim Hof Method Challenge Day 6
“Digging for Courage” started as my floundering for a COVID-19 theme. I was lost in the confusion and hoping to find what I needed in writing.
On April 1st I heard Russell Brand speak with Wim Hof. I had heard of Hof from my sons’ Ripley’s Believe It or Not books and a conversation with Stephen Plyler, their Brazillian jiu-jitsu mentor at Elevated Studios.
Hof’s testimony about his ability to defend against disease was compelling. Couple that with learning that his journey began when his wife committed suicide and I was ready to explore what he was offering.
My journey is at once spiritual, psychological, and physical. They are not separate in my quest. Tonight, as I lied on my back under a nearly full moon with my sons by my side, I let the air out of my body and stared into the cloudy sky. I didn’t just contemplate the infinite, I felt it pass over, carrying me along.
Shortly after, I stepped out of a hot shower and turned the water cold. I eased back under the water and breathed into a standing prayer position. I thanked God for my health and safety and for giving me a body primed for my crazy endeavors. I thanked Him for my sons, my angel of a girlfriend, and my late wife.
As I write that, I thank God for a heart that can hold these gratitudes and loves at once.
Breath is spirit. It gives us access to ourselves and is a conduit to the Divine.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Digging for Courage: Setting the Stage
It was a day more of preparation than action. As unschoolers, it’s not unusual for a Monday to be a prep day. Although, recent events have made arbitrary divisions of time more irrelevant.
We slept in, cleaned up the backyard, filled the bird feeders, set up a ninja rope course, did 3 rounds of Wim Hof Method breathing together in my bed, and admired this evening’s Pink Moon.
My sons also got to work on their second box fort, a movie theater in our living room.
Our lazy days can be rather productive. Tomorrow we’ll figure out if the ground is too soft for a tether ball rig and try to make an outdoor training area for jiu-jitsu, yoga, boxing, and general physical insanity.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Digging for Courage: Feeling Myself for the Ambushes
We watched a new movie, Onward, and a new show, Tales from the Loop, in the last couple days. Both have dead od missing parents. I cried at Onward, but Tales is a bit too what’s-going-on for me to care about the characters.
I’m back in my skin this weekend. The first couple weeks of the isolation orders were tough on me and my sons. I didn’t know how to move forward or respond to the madness around us.
A new self-improvement challenge has brought me back to trusting and loving myself. I’m taking on the Wim Hof 40-Day Quarantine Challenge and feeeling the positive effects in significant ways.
My focus is back on finding answers within. Getting quiet, looking inward, and seeking wisdom from God. The warm sunshine inspired me to take my boys and a couple of their friends out to a soccer field to kick around. It’s an intentional enacting of the extremes of my life: lying still and focusing on nothing, then taking that energy and inspiration out to go full speed.
It is a joyous thing to rediscover myself.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Digging for Courage: The Turn
Only three days into my Wim Hof Method Quarantine Challenge and each day has seen a profound change in my world.
I’ve started each day with an energetic positivity, ready to combat an ever present atmosphere of fear. I’ve had more love to share with my sons, friends, and girlfriend.
I’ve had the three best days since governments started suspending our rights. I see a path for me and my family through the confusion. I feel confident that we can weather this storm in a loving way.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
Digging for Courage: Beginning the Embrace
I may have started to buy into this isolation crap today. I may have stopped saying, “I’m an effing widower, I’ve been isolated enough, this is bullshit.” I may have seen the blessing in the two women who bless me with their company. Check that, I hit my knees and thank God for these women.
Julianne is a singular friend. We were introduced through a shared widowhood and I recognized her as a powerful healer at our first meeting. Her sons became fast friends with mine and are the only companions they get to spend time with these days. In a world that looks upside down to me, Julianne stands upright and unashamed against popular currents. She is a model of living in the world, yet not of it.
Maureen is an angel. Her heart shines with white light behind a soft curtain of quiet understanding. Her smile clears my mind and leaves me only with the present. Her patience and grace bless me in difficult times. She subverts convention and breaks all the right rules. Her subtlety balances my brashness, but doesn’t aim to collar it.
It’s not isolation. It’s social distillation, removing impurities and revealing the truest nature of friendship and love. The love warriors are elevated, rising above the morass of fear. They’ve shown me, reminded me, why I’m here: to be the love and share the love.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason