This site evolved from a previous site called Pendulum Parenting which was specifically written as more of a support site for people who were working through issues with mental illness while parenting children. I eventually found the format too narrow and oppressive to keep up with and abandoned it. I maintained an interest in writing, however, and decided that a new domain that more accurately reflected my identity and not one small part of it would better serve me in the long run. I started lunasmom.com so I could write about anything that struck my peculiar fancy, but with my personalized stamp.

» Continue reading “A Spammer Asked Me Why I Started This Site”

Earlier I blogged about community; one of the ideas presented was the idea that neighbors should “build a database of house locations, contact info, number and name of family members, number and name of pets, emergency numbers, etc for use during fire, earthquake or other disaster.”

When I opened my front door to see a geyser of flames shooting out from the chimney of the house across the street, I thought two thoughts. 1) Jiminy Crickets, is everyone OUT OF THE HOUSE?? (they were.) 2) We need emergency personnel, where’s the phone, I  need to call 911 (I did and fire trucks were already en route). Once over the initial shock and emergency response, however, my next thoughts were how scarily appropriate my earlier post on community was. Our entire neighborhood turned out to help our unlucky neighbors, one neighbor with a flashlight, everyone concerned as to whether our neighbors got out of the house before it erupted like Vesuvius. We prayed the wind died down, loaned out driveways to get cars off the street so emergency vehicles could get through, and generally gathered in fellowship with a general air of “Do you need anything? Is there anything I can do?”

» Continue reading “Fire Across the Street Highlights Need for Disaster Preparedness”

Yesterday I came across this story on NPR:

A Social Experiment: Communes In Cul-De-Sacs : NPR.

The story is about “cul de sac” communes, planned neighborhoods where people share resources. Different from the Utopian societies of yore, where the main requirement was isolation from the rest of civilization, this cul de sac commune idea integrates modern culture with communal living.

» Continue reading “Commune vs. Community”

I see a therapist to help me achieve specific goals in my life. I am past the point in therapy where I want to talk about my daddy issues; I don’t need insight into my illness, I have it seeping out of my pores. What I need now are results. I know what’s broken; I am looking for tried and true approaches for achieving a higher level of function. I need to replace old coping mechanisms, or areas of my life where I have no coping mechanisms at all, with ideas and practices that work. I need an action plan!

» Continue reading “Turning Thought into Practice”

Not in my top ten list of things I want to discuss loudly while on the pot in a crowded tourist bathroom:

“What is that thing with the blue string?”

“That’s a complicated question. Can we talk about it later?”

“What is this box on the wall?”

“It’s a little garbage can.”

“What is it for?”

» Continue reading “Mothering Dilemmas: Sharing a Toilet with My Son”

Don’t Neglect Your Body as You Develop Your Mind.

I was talking to my husband late last night about the things that are preying on my mind these days. He leaves for a contract job 1000 miles away from us next week and I am hunkered down trying to ride out the emotional turbulence leading up to his departure: all of the last minute home improvements, the disorganized clutter involved with finding passports, social security cards, etc., the cleaning and packing.

» Continue reading “The Mind-Body Connection”

When I was in elementary school, I had a falling out with my circle of friends. It is a scene I have since seen played out on many different stages with many different girls in very similar circumstances. The social hierarchy of young people is unstable and unforgiving. My circumstances seemed particularly harsh and I would be dishonest if I didn’t confess that the effects of the treatment I received at the hands of my former friends didn’t leave me traumatized.

» Continue reading “Looking for Injury: A Self-Centered Perspective”

Are you defined by what you lack or by what you have?

In an economy that continues it’s journey up Shit’s Creek with no paddle in sight; in a country that values consumerism and capitalism as fundamental pillars of society; among people who define success according to wealth and status, it’s no wonder a lot of people are depressed. We often define ourselves, or allow others to define us, by the things we lack. We often take what we have for granted.

» Continue reading “Question of the Day”

The other day I read an observation about how adults teach ourselves that our bedrooms and beds should only be for sleeping, but then we turn our childrens’ bedrooms into playrooms and wonder why they fight sleep. Personally, I don’t know that I have ever personally had a problem with my boys sleeping in their rooms after playing in them, but I have historically had problems with insomnia that were exacerbated by treating my room as an office or student lounge and not a bedroom.

» Continue reading “Bedroom or playroom?”

It’s a Tibetan saying. I thought it was doubly apt as the Dalai Lama is set to celebrate 50 years of exile from Tibet and the people of Tibet labor under oppressive restrictions on basic freedoms that we take for granted. But, I also found other meanings to it; I am sure that I could find a million ways to apply this saying to my life. Today, this one application trumped: I wanted to apply this idea of compassion to myself and others who tend to view themselves or others with a critical, skewed, even pessimistic perspective.

» Continue reading ““Who looks not with compassion sees not what the eyes of compassion see. “”