Less than a week ago, I walked beside the hospital bed as my seven-year-old son was wheeled down the hallway to the procedure room where he would spend the next few hours. There, a catheter tube inserted through an artery in his leg would enter his heart and small pieces of tissue would be taken… Read more »
Author: Lisa Vallejos
Be a Force of Beauty
“Pretty attracts us. Beauty changes us. Be a force of beauty” –Bare Escentuals I was walking through Macy’s and saw a box with this written on it and the words arrested my attention. I paused, pondered, and snapped a photo so as not to forget the message. I started to think…what would a force of… Read more »
Freeze Frame
I cleaned my daughter’s closet tonight. She’ll be 2 in December but has already outgrown her 2T and is on to bigger and better clothes. My son is not yet 4 and wears 5/6. Maybe only a parent will understand this but I think anyone who has ever realized just how FAST time goes will… Read more »
On Teaching Diversity
Photo by the New York World Telegram and Sun. I grew up as a young girl in a small town in Southern Colorado. There, we were one of very few Hispanic families, and I was extremely aware of how different I was—my dark brown, almost black hair, stood out like a sore thumb amongst the… Read more »
When Your Best Is Not Enough
One of the dictates of our day is to “do your best.” We encourage children, students, athletes, and employees to do their best. We console ourselves after a loss that we “did our best.” While “doing your best” can often be honorable and true, there are many times that doing our best is not enough,… Read more »
Self Expression, Shame, and Gender Constructs
Photo by Chelsea Kennedy. My six-year-old son got his first pedicure this last weekend. He was with three women at the nail shop, and initially, he decided against the pedicure but quickly grew bored with his video game and elected to join us. He chose blue for his nail color. Since then, he’s scarcely noticed… Read more »
On Parenting and Responsibility
Lately, I’ve been tossing around the idea of Existential Parenting—that is, parenting from an existential philosophical base that, ideally, will instill a sense of existentialism in children as they grow. It is my belief that children who are raised in such a way will be better prepared for the challenges and joys of living as… Read more »
Happily Ever After?
As the mother of two young children, I am much more aware of the new children’s movies that come out. Most recently, I took my kids to see The Croods, an animated film about a “cave family” facing the end of the world, as they know it. The movie is really quite good and addresses… Read more »
Living on Borrowed Belief
A good friend of mine recently commented that she had always known I was bigger than my surroundings. This comment struck a chord with me in a much deeper way than it had before. I paused and reflected on my life, and recalled how, as a young woman, I was filled with self-doubt, lacked confidence,… Read more »
I Still Believe
Photo by Aaron Tang. I was in Boston this last Sunday and barely made it to the airport in time for my flight…the last one to leave Logan International to Denver. I was literally minutes away from being stranded but thought, on the bright side, if I did get stuck there, I would at least… Read more »