Tessa, You’re amazing. You bring perspectives much needed at this time. Your background allows you to SEE before many of us who haven’t lived through the current type of tyranny. Thank YOU. 💜
I think maybe it takes as much strength to ask for help as it does to struggle on alone. I too, would tend to choose the solitary struggle over reaching out; maybe I can learn from your example.
So darling and cute. That picture could be exchanged with some of mine; black-and-white from childhood in Wisconsin (parents immigrants from Austria and Germany). The pictured young children, young adults, perhaps a parent––doesn't matter if manifested in Russia or USA. We are all human individuals branched into families sharing this amazing experience of living lives that appear strictly material––but anchored in an ancient foundation of Cosmic evolution of the spiritual.
You are a jewel among stones. Not to denigrate stones-they can be beautiful too. But you shine.
(Translation: there is so much negativity and anger out there, sometimes very pertinent. I get caught in it too, just like everyone else. Your work is different.)
that picture brought to mind a book I read at least twice called "bridge of clay " featuring an immigrant to Australia from Soviet Russia who made it across the border thanks to her piano skills...
glad you are feeling better, I know it's very hard for you to ask for anything!
Dear Tessa, I have a friend here who has a similar background coming from Moscow, now living in the mountains near us. Her tenacious love is so steadfast because she is at peace in the one who made her. I am thankful for you and pray you can also know the Healer who works through all of us. Love never fails. Thank you for your lines and courage to speak out. Ollie
Tessa : I’m subscribing because of John Taylor Gatto. A beautiful gift you gave to your readers. I had never heard of him before. Some of the insights he gained as a teacher were insights I gained, too, and in the same way: by listening to what the students had to say. I learned nothing of any usefulness about education during teacher training, or from college, for that matter, but from teaching itself, and listening to and thinking deeply about what the kids said. My own learning experience in the public schools came to an end during fourth grade, with the teacher from Hell, and the rest of the years I was an indifferent student (although I did have a few marvelous teachers), but it mattered not because I have always been a self-motivated learner. It began when I learned to read, and we as a family went to the library every week or two. Over my childhood years I read every book in our public library on whatever subject interested me at the time. That is the key to education: libraries, not Prussian education. What I learned as a classroom teacher, and it took a few years to figure it out, is that every child is intelligent, and every child can exceed anything they’ve done before. C students can become A students. You just have convince them they’re smart and they will bloom.
Thank you for subscribing, Gary!! And also thank you for sharing your story!! It is very insightful, and I completely agree! The brightest kid can stop caring if treated like a defective kid, and inner genius is something present in all of us! I am curious, have you seen a change over time with the ability of kids to focus? I wonder if a part of "learning disability" is a result of environmental or similar toxicity? I know that when I was a kid in Moscow we had kids who did better or worse at school, but there was no ADD, and no autism, etc. etc. And now is very present. I wonder what your observations are.
Tessa: While ADD is one of those made-up new diseases to sell more drugs, it is true that both kids and adults today have less ability to pay attention to anything for very long or to sustain interest in anything for very long. I think TV started this decline, then video games and all the personal electronic devices developed over the last thirty years or so increased it rapidly. This is scary because these devices, especially the dumb phone, which so many are hypnotized by, actually rewire the neural pathways in the brain, and (I think) preclude people from seeing and recognizing the reality going on around them, essentially turning them into zombies. Nothing to be done about it but maintain a heightened awareness that lots of perfectly ordinary-looking people we mingle with on a daily basis are not quite right in the head. These are the sheep, who put on face diapers while driving solo or on a deserted beach, who lined up for the jab, and did so repeatedly. I grew up in a different time and place than you (’50’s U.S.), but with similar values. You were expected to work for your daily bread, and if you whined, you were told to put a sock in it, tough it out. The decline here started in the ’60’s with LBJ’s “Great Society,” and the handouts and entitlements have grown to the point of absurdity since. Today the U.S. has become a caricature of what the founders envisioned, the entire media Pravda. Putin is right that we are becoming the Soviet Union. It’s just nuts. Enjoyed the photo of you tickling the ivories, something I once did, although I was mainly a brass player. Music is about the best thing in life.
Forgot to mention autism. This epidemic (which is growing exponentially, but ignored by the medical industry) is, without a doubt caused by environmental factors, chiefly the vaccine schedule, which is up to 72 now (birth to age 18), not counting the covid jab, which will bring it up to 80. Most American children are mandated these to attend school. The Old Order Amish (a traditional, conservative Mennonite sect) rarely vaccinate their children (they have their own schools), and autism is unknown among this community, while among the general population of eight-year-olds (the age at which the autism rate is determined by HHS), it is now 1 in 42 (>2%). This is the real pandemic, but there is no money to be made out of it, so it is ignored, and the burden of caring for them falls on the parents. The first wave of them have reached adulthood, and there simply aren't services available for them. It will soon enough become a tsunami, and we as a nation will not long survive it.
Tessa, I was a nurse under very difficult circumstances in inpatient psychiatry where if we did not stick together as a team you got hurt or worse. There was a Russian Supervisor and a Russian Charge nurse who I was assigned to as a new member of the team. They put me through some very big challenges and tested me in every way you can test a nurse. But when they had finished and satisfied that I was good enough to be on their team I knew that I would always have their loyalty and friendship and that they had my back on the battlefield. I appreciate the Russian values and how they have had to learn love from suffering as I did. I would love to donate to you and this great sharing you offer of yourself and life. Sharon
Thanks for the photo image, Tess; I love how you are engrossed in the song, and most all the kids and teacher are focusing on something out in the room, probably a student who is acting out....that look!!
You are much needed and loved for our collective fight for our humanity. Keep fighting
those robots.
Thank you, Arlene!!
Your strength feeds my soul.
Thank you, Mike!!! Your strength feeds many people's souls, too (including mine)!
Tessa, You’re amazing. You bring perspectives much needed at this time. Your background allows you to SEE before many of us who haven’t lived through the current type of tyranny. Thank YOU. 💜
Thank you!! 🙏🏼
I think maybe it takes as much strength to ask for help as it does to struggle on alone. I too, would tend to choose the solitary struggle over reaching out; maybe I can learn from your example.
I think you are right. I usually ask for help only when I am a loss. We are all learning from each other!!
God bless& thanks for doing your part, fighting for our humanity.
Thank you Rosalind!! xoxo
So darling and cute. That picture could be exchanged with some of mine; black-and-white from childhood in Wisconsin (parents immigrants from Austria and Germany). The pictured young children, young adults, perhaps a parent––doesn't matter if manifested in Russia or USA. We are all human individuals branched into families sharing this amazing experience of living lives that appear strictly material––but anchored in an ancient foundation of Cosmic evolution of the spiritual.
You are a jewel among stones. Not to denigrate stones-they can be beautiful too. But you shine.
(Translation: there is so much negativity and anger out there, sometimes very pertinent. I get caught in it too, just like everyone else. Your work is different.)
Thank you, VJ!!! Hugs!
You're welcome! I always enjoy your work.
Thank you Dave!!
that picture brought to mind a book I read at least twice called "bridge of clay " featuring an immigrant to Australia from Soviet Russia who made it across the border thanks to her piano skills...
glad you are feeling better, I know it's very hard for you to ask for anything!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7767276-bridge-of-clay
Enchanting picture
Thank you, John! :)
Dear Tessa, I have a friend here who has a similar background coming from Moscow, now living in the mountains near us. Her tenacious love is so steadfast because she is at peace in the one who made her. I am thankful for you and pray you can also know the Healer who works through all of us. Love never fails. Thank you for your lines and courage to speak out. Ollie
Thank you Ollie, and your friend sounds like a wise and wonderful human being!!
I love that picture! Speaks absolute volumes!!!
Thank you, Bretigne!! Yep, this is how I grew up. Very serious. :))
I love the contrast between you and the others. You're already tuned into your own thing!
And thank you again!
:)
Tessa : I’m subscribing because of John Taylor Gatto. A beautiful gift you gave to your readers. I had never heard of him before. Some of the insights he gained as a teacher were insights I gained, too, and in the same way: by listening to what the students had to say. I learned nothing of any usefulness about education during teacher training, or from college, for that matter, but from teaching itself, and listening to and thinking deeply about what the kids said. My own learning experience in the public schools came to an end during fourth grade, with the teacher from Hell, and the rest of the years I was an indifferent student (although I did have a few marvelous teachers), but it mattered not because I have always been a self-motivated learner. It began when I learned to read, and we as a family went to the library every week or two. Over my childhood years I read every book in our public library on whatever subject interested me at the time. That is the key to education: libraries, not Prussian education. What I learned as a classroom teacher, and it took a few years to figure it out, is that every child is intelligent, and every child can exceed anything they’ve done before. C students can become A students. You just have convince them they’re smart and they will bloom.
Thank you for subscribing, Gary!! And also thank you for sharing your story!! It is very insightful, and I completely agree! The brightest kid can stop caring if treated like a defective kid, and inner genius is something present in all of us! I am curious, have you seen a change over time with the ability of kids to focus? I wonder if a part of "learning disability" is a result of environmental or similar toxicity? I know that when I was a kid in Moscow we had kids who did better or worse at school, but there was no ADD, and no autism, etc. etc. And now is very present. I wonder what your observations are.
Tessa: While ADD is one of those made-up new diseases to sell more drugs, it is true that both kids and adults today have less ability to pay attention to anything for very long or to sustain interest in anything for very long. I think TV started this decline, then video games and all the personal electronic devices developed over the last thirty years or so increased it rapidly. This is scary because these devices, especially the dumb phone, which so many are hypnotized by, actually rewire the neural pathways in the brain, and (I think) preclude people from seeing and recognizing the reality going on around them, essentially turning them into zombies. Nothing to be done about it but maintain a heightened awareness that lots of perfectly ordinary-looking people we mingle with on a daily basis are not quite right in the head. These are the sheep, who put on face diapers while driving solo or on a deserted beach, who lined up for the jab, and did so repeatedly. I grew up in a different time and place than you (’50’s U.S.), but with similar values. You were expected to work for your daily bread, and if you whined, you were told to put a sock in it, tough it out. The decline here started in the ’60’s with LBJ’s “Great Society,” and the handouts and entitlements have grown to the point of absurdity since. Today the U.S. has become a caricature of what the founders envisioned, the entire media Pravda. Putin is right that we are becoming the Soviet Union. It’s just nuts. Enjoyed the photo of you tickling the ivories, something I once did, although I was mainly a brass player. Music is about the best thing in life.
Forgot to mention autism. This epidemic (which is growing exponentially, but ignored by the medical industry) is, without a doubt caused by environmental factors, chiefly the vaccine schedule, which is up to 72 now (birth to age 18), not counting the covid jab, which will bring it up to 80. Most American children are mandated these to attend school. The Old Order Amish (a traditional, conservative Mennonite sect) rarely vaccinate their children (they have their own schools), and autism is unknown among this community, while among the general population of eight-year-olds (the age at which the autism rate is determined by HHS), it is now 1 in 42 (>2%). This is the real pandemic, but there is no money to be made out of it, so it is ignored, and the burden of caring for them falls on the parents. The first wave of them have reached adulthood, and there simply aren't services available for them. It will soon enough become a tsunami, and we as a nation will not long survive it.
Tessa, I was a nurse under very difficult circumstances in inpatient psychiatry where if we did not stick together as a team you got hurt or worse. There was a Russian Supervisor and a Russian Charge nurse who I was assigned to as a new member of the team. They put me through some very big challenges and tested me in every way you can test a nurse. But when they had finished and satisfied that I was good enough to be on their team I knew that I would always have their loyalty and friendship and that they had my back on the battlefield. I appreciate the Russian values and how they have had to learn love from suffering as I did. I would love to donate to you and this great sharing you offer of yourself and life. Sharon
Thank you Sharon!!! And I love your story. And wow, it must have been very tough to be a nurse in inpatient psychiatry!
Hi tessa, what a beautiful family you have. :)
Yes, so beautiful!! I am so grateful
Thanks for the photo image, Tess; I love how you are engrossed in the song, and most all the kids and teacher are focusing on something out in the room, probably a student who is acting out....that look!!
Thank you, Jacquelyn! xoxo