Dear community,
Angela Carolina and I have been working quietly this summer, like spiders, weaving ideas into a web that is just now ready to be seen. And here it is…
The first news is that my book, Tiny Humans, Big Emotions: How to Navigate Tantrums, Meltdowns and Defiance to Raise Emotionally Intelligent Children, has made it to the New York Times best seller list for August 17!!!! I almost fell over when I saw the email from our editor a couple of weeks ago. I’m feeling so happy and moved that so many caregivers around the world are open to exploring the connection between their own growth and that of the children they care for. Thank you for your support!
Next, I’m excited and grateful to share that I was invited to join the inaugural cohort of the Acosta Institute Fellowship! As you most likely know, my work lives at the intersections of early childhood education, mindfulness, caregiving, and healing so of course I signed up. The fellowship is a container (for our Engage long-term vision) where I can slow down, listen more deeply, and share space with others who are reimagining education from the inside out. It’s a gift to be part of this community, and the impact is already felt by Angela and I:
- We wrote our mission statement! Our mission is to nurture a community’s capacity for reckoning, transformation, and thriving by creating space for adults to cultivate their own healing in relationship to children’s development.
- We changed our name from “Engage” to “The Healing Helix”! The “healing” part is because we have become healing centered educators. In another blog I shared the words of one of our Acosta Institute peers, ‘What if we’re not the healers, we’re the healing?’ The “ing” emphasizes the process-oriented nature of our work. If you’ve been listening to our podcast you might have a feeling about why we chose the “helix” part. It keeps coming up that like the strands of DNA our own development is wrapped up with that of the children we care for. Our mission statement is based on this understanding and we think our logo of the spiralic wave also embodies this understanding (among other things we’ll share next month). I think of a few Sacred episodes in particular that this reminds me of: Season 1 E6 with Latifah Hassan, Season 2 E1 with Dr. Junlei Li and E2 with Dr. Michele Coleman, and Season 3 E1 with Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz.
- We plan to open our first physical space in Chaparral, NM (Angela’s community) this winter!! This feels very significant in our journey to realize our mission. Lot’s more to come on this but you can find out the basics on the new “Special Projects” page on our website and follow us on Instagram.
- We have a goal to launch a “Healing Parents” workshop series for parents who are experiencing vulnerability in their parenting role. We’re in the process of match-making with potential partner organizations and hope to get started this November.
Angela Carolina will be waking up our IG page to keep you updated about the special projects we’re getting going this fall and editing our Sacred Youtube channel, so I’ll keep writing the blogs for now.
With love and gratitude,
Lauren