kim through
   the looking glass

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I’ve been doing a lot (and I mean a LOT) of thinking lately. And lots of talking. Lots of good, deep, thoughtful and thought-provoking conversations with good friends. Also, a few disappointing ones.

Mostly I feel on the edge. On the edge of an adventure - a beautiful opportunity. On the edge of today and tomorrow.

Of yearning and contentedness.

Of living and life.

But not yet able to step off.

I leave you with a story: The Mexican Fisherman and the Investment Banker.

I’ve been doing some reading on co-sleeping and found a great article called “The Con of Controlled Crying”. Here’s an excerpt:

Controlled crying and other similar regimes may indeed work to produce a self-soothing, solitary sleeping infant. However, the trade-off could be an anxious, clingy or hyper-vigilant child or even worse, a child whose trust is broken. Unfortunately, we can’t measure attributes such as trust and empathy which are the basic skills for forming all relationships. We can’t, for instance, give a child a trust quotient like we can give him an intelligence quotient. One of the saddest emails I have received was from a mother who did controlled crying with her one-year-old toddler.

After a week of controlled crying he slept, but he stopped talking (he was saying single words). For the past year, he has refused all physical contact from me. If he hurts himself, he goes to his older brother (a preschooler) for comfort. I feel devastated that I have betrayed my child. - Sonia

Can you imagine? I can’t. I’m so glad that I read this article - on the nights when it’s the hardest, I’ll be able to remember that quote.

For more articles on baby sleep, co-sleeping, baby training, etc. check out this page. Enjoy!

My local healthfood store has a sign up reminding patrons that it’s Fair Trade Month. More specifically, this Saturday, May 9, is World Fair Trade Day.

So I ask my readers - do you pay attention to fair trade labels?

Which products do you buy fair trade? Why?

For us, I buy bananas, cocoa/chocolate, and sugar exclusively fair trade because they’re all cash crops that ensure that developing countries stay just that - developing. Each of these products use up the resources of the country to provide for our western way of life while those resources could easily be used to provide nutritious food for the inhabitants. Sadly, our trade system has exploited developing countries to the point that they rely basically on the cash derived from selling all their resources to developed countries and have to import most of their food. If I drank coffee, that would be another one on my list.

(p.s. Does anyone else think the words ‘fair’ and ‘trade’ look funny when you’ve read them that many times?)