These past weeks, unless you were living under a rock, the already scary, unpredictable, and unfeeling world we’ve been living in got worse. Then a few days ago, one of my teenage daughters was assaulted by a former friend over a false rumor.
Nine days ago, a handyman came to our house. He replaced five broken panes of glass, and two broken storm doors.
Today, I got my answer to the unspoken question, how long will our house remain in one piece?
It’s Native American History Month.
At the beginning of this year, I published a list of books by Native American authors to introduce kids to the original inhabitants of our country. People who were abused in every way, and yet survived and are still telling their stories.
Here are three more titles to read with your kids.
Just wait.
Your teenagers will make you laugh. Sometimes it will be because they were trying to be funny, and sometimes not. You’ll typically know the difference, which will make it even better.
They’ll introduce you to music you didn’t know existed. You’ll hate some of it, but sometimes, you’ll listen to the playlist they made on your phone even when they’re not around. Sometimes they’ll even surprise you by knowing one of “your” songs.
They’ll impress you with their perceptiveness. They’ll observe things about themselves, and you, your family culture, and the world, that will make you stop and think, or laugh in recognition.
Back when I was on FB, it was pretty easy to make the decision only to connect with people I knew in real life. On IG, it’s a little easier to slowly add folks who have interesting style, pursuits, or perspectives. So there are quite a few people on my feed who I don’t know personally.
That’s a little weird for me. I like that I can connect and be inspired creatively by these folks, but sometimes they share their opinions and then I quietly set my phone down and have an existential crisis.
