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Category Archives: parenting and climate crisis

The Day the Sun Didn’t Rise

 Soft hair on my face tickles me awake
 A small voice Mom
 there is something wrong with my body
 I’m wide awake, but it is still night time
  
 The clock, the only light
 teases us with its numbered face, 7:15
 No sweetie I reply it is morning time
 it’s just dark outside today
  
 Sleepiness, my costume, mirrors calm
 we read morning stories by lamp light
 time to get ready for school!
 discordant in the dim room
  
 The soft padding of small feet on stairs
 I leap from bed to window
 the sun hangs feebly in eastern sky
 red disc muted and dull 
  
 It is day two of zoom school
 and feigning normalcy 
 is the new gold standard of parenting
 we turn on lights, power the screen
  
 I want to shout it is not your body 
 that is wrong, child, it is the world!
 I kiss soft hair as I walk past
 turn the air filters up high
  
 the darkened windows 
 reflect her image
 body dwarfed by the monitor
 which she stares at dutifully 
  
 distant as the hidden sun
 a teacher attempts to wrangle
 a class of 6-year olds 
 from her square in the box
  
 All day we are flooded with photos
 the golden gate bridge 
 the blood red light
 and the word “apocalypse” 
  
 Inside homes across the bay
 we make forts, play dance games
 smoke so thick it erases the sun
 is just another day 

Trauma Anniversaries in a Changing World

Originally published in the Climate Psychology Alliance-North America blog Spring has sprung early again this year in Northern California. And with temperatures at a record setting 90 degrees last week, it appears to be ending early too. It took my New York body a long time to adjust to California’s Mediterranean climate when I first…Continue Reading

Teaching the Love of Plants: Nature Therapy with Children

Originally published in the Climate Psychology Alliance-North America blog By Jenni Silverstein, LCSW, Santa Rosa, California My  new “office” is a garden hidden behind a berm at a therapeutic farm. The farm rescues animals and brings children from foster and group homes to tend them. Each creature comes with its own story of being saved from…Continue Reading