I'm reading Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts for a ladies' book club, and this is proving to be more door-opening than I thought. For one, I do feel like a Sister Goddess who deserves to indulge in all the pleasures of the world, but for two, I have the opportunity to help plan next week's Life class (read..Sex Ed) for half of my school's 7th grade girls and I feel this overwhelming urge to get up and tell them how beautiful they are. We always assumed our Health teachers were just making up rules because they liked to tell us "no." I've realized that one of the hardest things about being a teacher is convincing your students that you're there to help them, not torture them. I want to tell my girls that they need to support each other, but more importantly, they need to love themselves before even thinking of giving a part of themselves to someone else.

I tutor one seventh grade boy for much of the day, and today he wanted to write a love poem. In retrospect it was fitting that I thought of this line to write on the board for him to copy:

And in the end the love you take
Is equal to the love you make.

I got him to identify that take and make have a long aaa sound and are rhyming words, but the underlying concept was easy. You have to give love to get love.

But you need to save plenty for yourself. I'm wondering if this education-based trip to Palestine and/or the year that follows will include some work with women's empowerment.

That's a much larger fish than I expected to fry. But it's a thought. I'll post more after next Life class.