Tag: Parenting
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Keep being child-like as you fly your kite!
My daughter got a very intricate dragon kite for her birthday last month. It was complex to me. It has 2 large green and black wings. Four long red ribbons lined the 2 edges of the wings. There were black wires that one had to put end to end so the wings stood in place.…
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Keep creating art and words for life!
I have been excavating other ways of being lately. Other ways of being together too. Other ways to imagine interior lives seldom shared. This unending murmur is part of the noise I narrate. Of motherhood, for example, for mother’s that are black, mothers in academia, mothers with little children, mothers finding themselves still, while being…
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Keep Dahlias in mind for mother’s and their journey!
Dahlias are intense flowers like mother. A league on their own, each petal is a colorful ray, of doubled flowers, in yellow or purple-ray florets, whites, ivories, and scarlet rays too. All in multiple whorls of ray flowers, all forming circles, forming clusters, forming bunches so compact, that it can only be described as motherhood.…
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Keep stories of mothers, airplanes, and children!
On nights we make believe, I tell the story of the old lady who lived in a shoe. It’s a short story and my kids seem to like my many take on the lady. Like why a shoe, or why so many children? Why even feed them one by one? Why didn’t she even know…
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Keep the joy of first moments with newborns!
The first moment they laid eyes on him was breathtaking. Because of the pandemic, no visitors were allowed around hospital grounds for the pandemics grip was ground breaking, heartbreaking too, for all the lives lost to poor leadership and decision-making. That we were heading home with baby about 36 hours later following his arrival was…
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Keep an oasis of light for a mother’s love.
I see life as a journey. For some, that journey may take up to 86 years. For others, few months. Last year, my little nephew completed his journey in 10 years. He returned back to the one who first called him, first framed him, first loved him. We all have to return back to him.…
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Keep a mother’s love and happy 1st birthday my Ranyenna!
My awakening summer was 2020. Like the entire country, I was literally in labor. Something wonderful was born on this day, by 9am last year. We became parents to our fourth child. We call him Ranyenna. In Igbo, it means giving him back to God. His hair was full, short, brown and crinkled. His eyes…
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Keep grace in mind!
The idea that grace is all we need has been stuck in my head since Sunday mass. Three times I asked to take it away, the reading said. But the answer, was my grace is all you need. My power is greatest when you are weak. I was weak this time last year, waiting for…
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Keep knowing that we are never meant to walk alone!
Our room was shaped like a square with a baby cribbed next to a wall covered in grey paint. There was a grey rocking chair for breastfeeding and a silver and white changing table stood next to the window awaiting the arrival of baby. There were no baby rooms. I was never a decorator mom.…
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Keep the beauty and brilliance of black mom light!
I begin this week in awe of becoming a mother for the 4th time. My last baby arrived this week, last year. The pandemic kept us all distracted. This was the 4th month of mask wearing, social distancing and lockdowns. It was also a time where the virus was so debilitating that I feared a…
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Keep the brilliance of Hibiscus for mother’s during summer days!
As a flower, Hibiscus ranges from white, to pink, to orange and red. It’s beauty greets your eyes and leads you on a journey where your heart is fully fed. The diversity of its shape, it’s size and it’s color, even it’s shrub is outstanding, full of brilliance, full of elegance. My hands touched a…
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Keep positive affirmations with children!
I often underestimate the power of positive affirmation with children. I got a brilliant reminder from a letter in the mail today. It reminded me of why saying positive words to children matters always. Especially in cards. The letter was from my son’s school teacher. It stated that he followed directions. He was also kind…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 