Clare Consultation, LLCPosted on March 11, 2013 by Mary Clare
Ready to Learn
Today I was a peripheral part of a discussion on schools – specifically that now familiar notion applied to preschool and kindergarten aged children, “readiness to learn.” Hmmm. Ever since G.W. Bush announced the launch of “No Child Left Behind,” with its guarantee of advancing the fiscal security of the standardized test industry nationwide – ever since he said as part of that initiative that “every child will come to school ready… Read More
Posted on March 3, 2013 by Mary Clare
Unlikely Connection – Natural Kindness
On Wednesday of last week I heard a story. It was a story of a little boy, a four-year-old skipping and playing and laughing because he had completed two chemo-therapy treatments and for the first time in almost as long as he could remember, he didn’t feel icky. He felt great! Despite his cancer, and almost as if he’d forgotten he had it, he wanted to jump and run and swing with… Read More
Posted on February 25, 2013 by Mary Clare
The Paradox of Thrift
My grandparents survived the Great Depression. My parents were born into the close of that time, but like any time of stress linked with austerity, the aftermath of that economic trauma was evident in newly and deeply established habits of caution. My farming grandmother could make anything out of anything, or so it seemed to me. She made quilts from squares of rag scraps stuffed with old nylon hosiery (among other softish… Read More
Posted on February 10, 2013 by Mary Clare
Liberating Leadership with In-State Tuition for Children of Immigrants
Note – Last week a young woman from the Student Alliance Project contacted me to request I write testimony in support of legislation to be proposed this week making available in-state tuition for young adults who live in Oregon and are children of immigrants. This is what I wrote. My name is Mary Clare. My ancestors of record came to this continent as early as the 1600’s. They came from Europe… Read More
Posted on February 3, 2013 by Mary Clare
Listening to Rivers
Last week I had the chance to catch up with a friend, Antone Minthorn (Cayuse), former Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). He told me a story of the Umatilla River. The focus of the story was Salmon – the fact that Salmon were not able to make it up the Columbia as far as the Umatilla River for more than 70 years while the combination of… Read More
Posted on January 27, 2013 by Mary Clare
On Coming Full Circle
On a walk through Laurelhurst Park, I run into … well, first the bouncy affectionate force field of a German Shepherd named Roman and then the woman at the other end of his substantial chain leash, my friend Raquel. “Hi!” we both call out at the same time, finally able to identify one another across the giddy animation of 75 pounds of smiling, jumping, licking canine. “Roman!” Raquel’s voice is stern as… Read More
Posted on January 21, 2013 by Mary Clare
“Good Job, Dad” — Change 4 Years Later
“The first step is faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Martin Luther King, Jr “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” Barack Obama Sasha Obama hugged her dad after he took the Presidential Oath of Office yesterday. “Good job, Dad,” she said. “I did it,” her father responded. Then today, President Obama stood before… Read More
Posted on January 6, 2013 by Mary Clare
Listening Made Easy — Re-release of 100Voices Podcasts
So, every day this week, the initial seven episodes of 100VOICES via Podcast will be released — all starting right now!! Just go HERE for Chapter 1 – Voices from the Northwest. Then come back tomorrow and I’ll add Chapter 2, then 3 on Tuesday and so on through the whole week. By Sunday we’ll be onto the first launch of Chapter 8 followed the next three Sundays with 9, 10 and the super… Read More
Posted on December 31, 2012 by Mary Clare
Thirteen Ways We’re Not Helpless – Notes from the Edge of the Cliff
There are a lot of things that could be said about right now, today, December 31, 2012. For starters, we in the Northern Hemisphere are in the darkest time of year. In Portland, Oregon the days are short, and most often gray and wet. Nonetheless, we, like all of us, are in a great series of collectively signified moments that invite suspension of despair and the joyful tending of possibility. On December… Read More
Posted on December 24, 2012 by Mary Clare
Holy Days
Here on the eve of what Christians recognize as the day for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ – here on this 24th day of what people all across the globe know, each in her or his own language, as December – here in the moments of reading these words on this page is the source of the idea — holy. In the mystery of one moment passing to the next I want… Read More