This photo was taken a few weeks ago at All Souls Night in the ghost town, Hornitos.

All of the orbs were not present when I looked out to click the camera. Could it be the ghosts? It was an amazing evening in this small town, as we all walked up this hill to the cemetery, all carrying small candles. Just one more thing I've discovered to love about this part of the country. There is also the yoga studio I joined last week with the best teachers I've ever had. A group of us are looking at property and I'm playing a game of finding the perfect place for us to buy collectively. The dream is to spend my summers here. Three weeks until I return to New York city for a quick trip to see my son receive the Rockefeller Foundation's Jane Jacobs medal for new ideas and activism. What an amazing honor! I'm also looking forward to being at Occupy Wall Street. Then it will shortly be time to pack up and drive to Utah to spend Christmas before heading home to Newark. Getting lots of reading, writing, and reflection time and this is exactly what I believe to be the purpose of sabbatical. Love to all, Carolyne

More . . .

Another highlight was that this week I met my quote of 25 pages of writing. I'm keenly aware that my sabbatical will come to an end in a few short months so time to bring the "A" game to writing, to my workouts, to every part of my life here in Mariposa.

The final highlight for this week was Occupy Wall Street. Thank you to friends who are posting photos on facebook. I am inspired and overjoyed, just wish I could be there in person. I see a trip to San Francisco in my near future!

P.S. I forgot to say in the the bubble photo and a former water photo were taken by my artist friend Bruce Campbell. Please check out his website at brutoca.com

Opps!!

Another week in beautiful Mariposa. A highlight of this week was that several of my friends from the training program joined my water aerobics class. Their presence just about doubled the size of the class and the instructor was particularly pleased that I bought men. My friends brought so much fun and play to the class that I now call it kiddie aerobics instead of "senior" aerobics. My cross fit coach even came and admitted that the class was more challenging that he had expected and said he got some good stretching from the workout. Aside from the pure fun of it, being in an outdoor pool surrounded by pine trees is simply glorious!

Another highlight was having my first skype conversation with Anna Jane, my granddaughter, and her mom, Zoe. Anna Jane asked that we all take on different personas: she was Jazzie, I was Zoe, and Zoe was CeeCee (my granny name). Anna changed into a different outfit with an animal print and a tail and began barking. It was a great conversation and after more than 30 minutes, she simply said, "I don't want to talk to Cee Cee anymore." Imagine how simple our lives could be if as adults we were as straight and clear in our communication with each other! The photo here is the playhouse my sister's husband, Billy, built for his grand kids. The model is my beautiful daughter, Christina.

Another week in Butterfly Land

I'm Back

Yes, I'm still here in magical Mariposa.

My intention to blog weekly disappeared for

several weeks.

In those weeks many things happened.

Some of them I'll share with you now.

Jazzie and I went on a short road trip with two of my Mariposa friends. We drove through Yosemite and spent the night in Lee Vining. Jazzie was thrilled to be one of the "girls" as she joined me sitting in the backseat of the car, walking around Mono Lake, eating dinner in a restaurant that had outdoor tables, and sleeping on my bed in the motel. We also visited an old gold mining town, Bodie, and then headed home.

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Jazzie and I took another much longer road trip to Utah where we spent three weeks visiting family. We learned that one of my sisters has stage four ovarian cancer. A few weeks later my daughter, Christina, flew to California and we drove back to Utah for another visit. My sister had her first chemo treatment and lost some of her hair, so I bought her a bunch of scarves. I was showing her my favorite way to wear a scarf when an idea emerged to have a gathering of all of the sisters (there are six of us) wearing scarves. A hospice worker was giving my sister a massage at the time and said a photographer works with hospice; she arranged for him to take photographs for us. We had a fabulous evening being models for the photographer, eating great food, and hanging out together. At 10:00 I left to go home and sleep; my sister with cancer was still there, laughing and having a great time. Cancer is a strange journey. It has brought this sister back to me

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More family news: At the end of the video listed below my son and granddaughter are show riding te $15+ million carousel! Anna Jane makes news!!

Brooklyn's new carousel a labor of love - CBS News Video

www.cbsnews.com

CBS News video: Brooklyn's new carousel a labor of love - Jane Walentas purchased a damaged carousel and spent the next 22 years - and $15 million - to restore the ride back to it's original condition to have it sit in a new Brooklyn park. Charles Osgood reports.

And the announcement below is about my son's amazing work in New York City. So very, very proud of him, inspired by what he is able to inspire for our world!

The Rockefeller Foundation Honors De Niro, Rosenthal, Sadik-Khan and White with 2011 Jane Jacobs Med

www.rockefellerfoundation.org

I've been enjoying small town life, cross fit workouts in the morning three days a week, water aerobics in the early evening in the city's outdoor pool, many walks around town with Jazzie making new friends. What hasn't been going so well is my writing. Did blogging seem too much like writing?? Lately I've been interested in the developments about brain patterns and the idea of giving your brain a job to do while you sleep. So a few weeks ago I asked my brain to solve my writing block. When I awoke the next morning the first words in my head were, "Writers write." How perfect is that? I'm back in action, excited about writing. I have several articles in the works, amazing friends supporting me with inspirational texts, phone calls, and offers to read and critique my work. I'm cultivating the practice of writing five pages a day with no suffering and no critique. Just putting enough words on the page to fill five pages each day. It's generating excitement; I feel like I'm cheating when I take time to edit or do research. What a great game!

"The only flower known to have wings in the butterfly . . ." The Book of Tea

MaripoMariposa means butterfly.

Yes, flowers, woods, mountains, and snow melt greater than it has been for more than 50 years so the water falls in Yosemite are spectacular. My family lived near here one summer when I was about 10. My brother closest in age to me is coming to visit and we plan to drive through the town. They had a peach cannery and we would take a wagon and get free peaches (the rejects). People here are quite open, friendly and white. I've been making inquiries about the whiteness and don't yet have a satisfactory understanding of the absence of diversity. Evenings are quite cool and days have gotten to 100 but of course its a dry heat so much more bearable. Jazzie has many new friends and listens for the woman next door to come home from work as they have e routine of playing ball in the yard before dinner. There's a school across the street that reminds me I am here to write, not simply play. I've been off caffeine for two weeks and developing new strategies to get me engaged. These include meditating twice a day, keeping a journal and working toward a set number of hours of writing each day with the willingness for it to be good or bad. Working on completing several incomplete projects: an article started about 8 yrs ago with Hopi and Navajo students who have since become teachers, about how they define teacher professionalism within a context of indigenous sovereignty. Working on the textbook with Guy Senese titled The Teachers Conscience. Working on an article about the neoconservative agenda nationally and how it is being fostered by Booker and Christy juxtaposed the agenda at Central High School with Ras Baraka. I interviewed Ras before leaving town and part of it will be woven into the textbook, as will the other article. Inspirational stories from practicing educators is crucial! I was asked to make my dissertation into a book when I completed it all those many years ago and I resisted. I've been re-reading it and searching out the people who were involved in the research to explore the possibility of adding more longitudinal information and turning it into a book. So far I have located two of the people on Facebook and we are back in communication. I am confident I can find at least six more and may take a trip to the Navajo reservation in the Fall. Several projects at once will keep me writing and they all feed into a central focus about radical democracy. Hope life is fabulous for you! Carolynesa means butterfly.

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Yes

Consultant's Training Program

You may be able to discern from this photo that I'm attempting to capture myself in the mirror. This is a suggestion of my experience in the Consultant's Training Program. I am getting a deeper sense (although still fuzzy) of who I have been in the world, gaining clarity about the world I've been creating for myself and the spaces I've made up as available. Not very clear, yes? How about this: I am happier that I remember being in possibly 60 years. I am loving the people in Mariposa. Out of the experience, I am choosing to challenge myself in numerous ways. Last week I dead lifted 85 lbs (never knew the rush that comes with dead lifting). Two weeks ago I gave up caffeine. I'm preparing for serious cross fit workouts: learning the correct way to do squats, aiming to be able to do burpees and pull ups, jumping rope, jogging, etc. But that's easy compared to learning to communicate in more honest and direct ways. Its a grand adventure into the unknown and I'm loving it, when I'm not resisting the hell out it!

Welcome to Mariposing

Welcome to Mariposing, a public conversation about my six month adventure in the Landmark Education Consultant's Training Program while on a sabbatical from my professorship at Rutgers University.

Mariposa, California is a magical place. I can literally walk from one end of town to the other and everywhere I gaze, I find beauty.

As I was driving across the country last month, making my way here, I learned that the change of address card I submitted with the U.S. Postal Service was not working. Mail is not delivered in town. I spoke with a man at the Mariposa Post Office and he said I would need to get a post office box, free of course. When I inquired about why no one had alerted me to this reality, he said, "You're coming to Mariposa. We do things the Mariposa way here!" Instead of being annoyed, I was laughing out loud, eager to meet this man in person. So this blog is my learning to do things

the "Mariposa way."