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Ellen Sauer

  • Blog Connected At Our Cores The Inner Self Writings and Art From My Colleagues

    An Interview with MacKenzie Sanders

    I met MacKenzie Sanders about five years ago when we moved into the West Central neighborhood where she and her family lived...…

    July 14, 2017
  • Blog Connected At Our Cores The Inner Self Writings and Art From My Colleagues

    An Interview with Dr. Ruby Cain

    I met Dr. Ruby Cain earlier this year when I accepted an open invitation to attend her monthly community dialogue, It Is Well With My Soul...…

    June 19, 2017
  • Blog Connected At Our Cores The Inner Self Writings and Art From My Colleagues

    An Interview with Summer Lydick

    I metSummer on Instagrama year or more ago and was intrigued by her colorful, layered art and her buoyant approach to life...…

    May 19, 2017
  • Blog Connected At Our Cores The Inner Self

    The Sacred Feminine Today

    I used to shy away from the term Sacred Feminine. Three reasons. One: It so often seems to elicit only religious connections for folks…

    May 4, 2017
  • Blog Connected At Our Cores Out and About

    Women’s March and Sister Marches – January 21, 2017

    There is a long history of gathering en masse to shift energies and paradigms, legislation and belief structures...…

    January 15, 2017
  • Blog From Mother to Mentor Lessons from Alzheimer's

    Mom

    My mom turned 94 years old yesterday. 94! If you caught a glimpse of her now, you would see someone doing simple puzzles, reveling in sing alongs, loving her sweets, repeating the same questions...…

    January 4, 2017
  • Blog In Summary...

    In Summary…Keeping the Peace

    This week was all about Keeping the Peace, or rather, keeping the connections, or rather, seeing where we've forgotten the connections and illuminating them...…

    December 9, 2016
  • Blog Uncategorized

    When a Three-Minute Writing Challenge Turns Into One Minute Poem

    Keeping the peace at all cost means peace is lost to a sincere respect for fear. Smoothing over hurt, anger, hate – Just see and wait. Normalizes. Compromises. These shadowed oppressions need voice. I…

    December 8, 2016
  • Blog Connected At Our Cores

    A Community of the Spirit

    Rumi. I always come back to Rumi...…

    December 6, 2016
  • Blog Connected At Our Cores

    Keeping the Peace

    That phrase - Keep the Peace. It's been something I've done all my life. I'm a mediator...…

    December 5, 2016
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ellencsauer

Shout out of gratitude to @eyeseeme_bookstore for Shout out of gratitude to @eyeseeme_bookstore for the old-fashioned phone call to do a double check on my order when something was out of stock. And also for choosing some great subs for us. My grandkids’ Easter baskets will be full of good reads. They’ll love them all! #eyeseemebookstore #saveindiebookstores
This book is billed as a 'remix of Stamped From th This book is billed as a 'remix of Stamped From the Beginning' - written for kids age 12 and up. I started with this one, i.e. I read it before I read Dr. Kendi's Stamped From the Beginning original. This one by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (@jasonreynolds83 + @ibramxk) is fast-paced and written with teenage lingo and just plain, straight talk and I wish I could have read it when I was 12+. But I didn't/couldn't. NOW is the next best time. I also wish I would have read it with my kids when they were teens. It just opens us up to talking about race in clear, honest ways (not whitewashing.) It's won all sorts of awards. And it has an educator's guide so if you're a teacher or a parent or an aunt or uncle or lead a book club, you can download the guide for free and enhance your discussion which is super helpful for us white folks who aren't used to discussing race with the kids in our lives or at all. (Also, Jason Reynolds has a slew of other books that look great, so keep digging into his website and social media, etc.)⁠
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#tellthetruth #dismantlewhitesupremacy #connectedatourcores #antiracism #letstalkaboutrace
I read this book by Dr. Kendi (@ibramxk) over seve I read this book by Dr. Kendi (@ibramxk) over several weeks as it's a long one and every page is FILLED TO THE BRIM with history - dates, people, events, stories. Now, if you like history, you'll love this book just because of that 'filled to the brim' part. And if you're already overwhelmed reading this, please know that I’m not an official history buff per se, but I am realizing that’s because the versions of history I learned were not accurate or truthful. Thus I loved the truthful connections this book made and the flow of it all. It brought our nation's history together in a unique way - featuring five Americans that we all may know, but delving into them and their influential time periods in more subtle ways, how their views and other events and people surrounding them factored into their influence. I very much appreciated the overflowing presence of Black leaders and people - their influential presence and stories told truthfully rather than as footnotes or erased altogether which is typical of the white history we all learned growing up. I learned the clear as well as nuanced distinctions between segregationist and assimilationist views as well as abolitionist and anti-racist. Valuable because those terms and those views are prevalent today and get all mixed together in confusing ways. I wrote down so many things to remember and look up. I definitely recommend this book. Take your time. Enjoy the nuances. Admire the deeply researched and assembled story (aka brilliant.)⁠
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#tellthetruth ##connectedatourcores #antiracism #dismantlewhitesupremacy #letstalkaboutrace #dismantlewhitesupremacy #breakthesilence
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mamm Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals by @alexispauline. This book is so beautiful. So meditative. So whole. I felt it deeply in my body as I read. Some of it was for me/us, the whole of humanity, yes, and some allowed me to feel the Black feminist vision and healing and wisdom that the author expresses with creative, flowing eloquence. It felt powerful to be allowed to witness and feel. Her wisdom and insight in linking Black feminism to marine mammals is so deeply connected and just stunning. If you pick up this book to read, remember to do so without focus on cognitive understanding and opt to FEEL your way through. And consider doing the exercises she offers in the back of the book to deepen each chapter. Just. Simply. Beautiful.  #undrowned #BlackFeminism #connectedatourcores #blackfeministlessons
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Ellen O'Connor Sauer