Slice of Life

Today for BTL's blogging challenge we are writing our Slice of Life. Just a slice, a glimpse, a little insight into our lives. So I'll continue blogging and practicing the discipline of writing with Michelle and I'll also link up for Slice of Life.

Today I am overwhelmed with "deep thoughts." I had originally planned to write about self-care and pets. But I'm really fired up about "Black Lives Matter" vs. "Blue Lives Matter" vs. "All Lives Matter." I not black or hispanic, but I'm really mad at my white brothers and sisters and their take on if we would just start to respect authority again then all would be right in our world. The problem is much, much larger than this and has developed over many years of police oppression and brutality and many years of blacks (mostly) being kept in the ghetto by the way we have waged our "war on drugs." Are all police corrupt? Absolutely not. And many who are corrupt on some level are corrupt with the best of intentions. They are not bad people and not trying to perpetuate hate, they are doing what they have been told is right, and what they've been taught. This is ginormously huge issue. This is only the tip of the iceberg. One that we cannot really understand if we are white. What? Why? Well, because certain privileges are ours just because we were born with white skin. Poverty is somewhat of an equalizer, but some privileges belong to us simply by our birth. Okay, rant over. For now. It will resurface, I'm sure.

Moving on to self-care. One of my favorite things in the world is tie-dying. It is relaxing in an exhausting perfectionistic kind of way. Tie-dying takes HOURS. And a lot of effort. It is really hard on my carpal tunnel syndrome. My hands are swollen today. Technically I didn't tie-dye yesterday. But the things I tied on Sunday I rinsed out yesterday. I rinsed, and I rinsed, and rinsed some more. And then I wrung them out, and rinsed them, and wrung them out and.... are you starting to get the picture? But I am SO pleased with the finished products! Thanks to a friend for contributing to the "grateful dyes" fund and to my bestie for pushing me to buy quality dyes from Grateful Dyes in Colorado. I learned a new technique (thanks youtube tutorial) called fish-scaling. And I was pretty successful making a star! It is not as crisp at the top as I wish it was, but it is still pretty good for my first star!

Sorry about all the grass in the pic, but this is the photo that turned out the best! The blue/green one is the fish scale technique!

This little slice of my life is something that makes me feel happy and excited and successful. I'm not always successful at parenting, at teaching, at friending. Well, I'm not always successful at tie-dying, but I feel a real sense of accomplishment when I do it successfully.