Thursday, April 30, 2020

Little things in the wrong places.

This week has had a few little things in odd places, places where they shouldn't have been.

The first one was a 1X1 green Lego brick. I was attempting to close the dishwasher and for some reason I couldn't get it to close. It would not physically fit where it was supposed to and I had no idea why. My honest go to is to shove something into place to make it work, but it honestly wouldn't go here. And so I called down my husband telling him that the dishwasher was broken. I was convinced that somehow the counters had swelled and warped. Newsflash, they did not. But the dishwasher would not close. So Keith examined it further and it happened that a tiny Lego brick found its way into the crack between the door and the rest of the washer. I didn't see it, it was small, but Keith found it and the dishwasher worked again.

The second one was a toothpick. Apparently, Keith was fixing our breaking dining room table with toothpicks and wood glue. All the screws were coming plum out so Keith was trying to make the holes more sticky and smaller. So somehow a toothpick traveled upstairs to our bedroom carpet and lodged itself in the carpet. I was in the act of collecting books for our local chapter of forest school's remote circle time that day. I went to reach down for Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, and felt a sharp pain in my foot. I exclaimed my pain and then tried to figure out what it was that my foot had encountered. Whatever it was, had gone straight through my sock into the ball of my foot. When I looked at it, it was a stick of wood, a half toothpick to be exact. So I had Keith play immediate surgeon, and he pulled out some of it. But then part was still stuck, so I got brave and took it out myself. I cleaned the wound and bandaged it.  It was pretty sore to walk on for the rest of the day but is much better since then.

The last one was an ear bud cap. I had been using an old pair of headphones, because I haven't found a my newer set and there is no way I would trust myself with Airpods. So I have been listening to audio books as background noise to learn something and feel like people are around me. This requires my phone to be attached, so one time it fell straight to the ground and the headphone ripped right out of my ear. I saw it in pieces and thought, well, I guess I will just throw these out now. I went drop off food to a new mama and went about my day. Much later in the day, Helena exclaimed that I had a really weird earring in my ear. And I had no idea what she was talking about. But I asked her what ear, and apparently she was right, I had the outside covering to the earbud stuck right in my ear. I had no idea!

So hopefully these stories make you cry, laugh or think I'm crazy. Any of the above or outside this range of reaction is totally acceptable. I hope you have a great May Day tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Existential Crisis Mode

I miss my life. I miss Forest School and community building. I miss making Little Free Libraries for people and teaching at co-op. I miss it. I miss Jesus and Sunday church community.

I am feeling like I have no purpose, because it just feels like I can't do the things I want to do and I am so ready to do things again. I guess instead I have to be creative and do them differently, and I have been. But then it comes back to the hard things, the things that I have always struggled with and those things are so hard. That it feels like there is an inability to fit in and that I will never been good enough to feel proud of myself. That I am totally terrified of what others think of my heart projects. That maybe, I am just that terrible at English that I can't write a children's book anyway.

And today there was the conversation that made me feel like I didn't belong, everyone else agreed that the world should take into account population control to solve climate change, and its just not true. Instead we have to go and make the big players change their policies. If the little guys can only change the climate by 6 percent, then we definitely need to adjust how the big players see it. My dear husband told me that a lot of excess energy is spent on military operations, and yet a lot of things are not necessary to be what they are.

I do think that scientists are trying, even if sometimes the headlines for the masses may blow up a small finding as huge. I do think we care about this planet, but also we need to care about our people. There's no use having people die in Malawi and then tell them the solution to their problems is to live a westernized way when that's not even on their radar and doesn't allow them to be them.

I was reading the Encountering the Saints Series book on Saint Issac Jogues, and man was he ever tortured. It's hard to think about how the colonizers interacted with the natives with a clear head, knowing what we know now. But at the same time, its really not respecting another human to bite off his thumb or club him in a gauntlet. I remember from the baptists of being told to meet people where they are at when trying to share the gospel with them. I think they tried, but yet they were so different and also associated with their enemies that they just had different ways of thinking about a non native.

I want to be able to approach topics that are hard, that I disagree with others without wanting to say you are dumb for thinking that, because that's not respectful either. I think perhaps its hard though when it attacks your core, and a core that you are unsure of yourself in a way that plays at your weaknesses. I for one do not like to rock the boat, because anytime I have done so, its had major consequences. However, if something is blatantly false, how do I approach someone with dignity but also say you should look at this through a different angle.

I also like books, but most folks don't like to read books that challenge you to think deeply. Most adult fiction is written at a 6th grade level of reading, no higher. Why do you think that is?

So here I am, in existential crisis mode wondering why I will never get over not wanting to be praised and liked. That I will fail here and now and this will make me stronger, even if I don't like it.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

But why? For the Pandemic

But why? For the Pandemic

By Kiera Kurak

Why can’t I play with my friends?

Why can’t I play on the slide?

Why can’t I give my grandma a hug? 

Why can’t I go to the store with you?

Why can’t we go to church?

Why do I have to wash my hands again?

Why can’t I go to the zoo? 

But why is this so hard?

Because it is hard,  little one. 

But you can do hard things. 

And in doing hard things you are showing your love for another.

Maybe you have never met them, 

But they are just as important to and loved by someone else as you are to me.

So, we spread love in our sidewalk messages.

And our window decorations.

And in our waves from across the street.

And by staying home doing our part with school and chores

and by playing with mom and dad.

We keep us and others safe this way. 

And it will be okay. God is bigger than this.

And he doesn’t forget us ever.

We will give hugs again soon. 

But right now it’s a lot of patience, waiting and praying, and you can do this. 

We can do this together, little one.


Sunday, April 5, 2020

In hopes of being truthful -A story of Keith

In hopes of being truthful to my hopes of being a published children's book author, I decided that I will put out stories that I write on here. These will not be ones that I am not trying to get published at the moment, but have been helpful along the way. And I will help with context, as there are no pictures, by telling you a little about them prior to the post.

This first one is "The Story of Keith Kurak", which happens to be my husband. I was playing around with picture book biographies a bit because I absolutely love them and they have absolutely captivated me many times. Anyone read Mo Willems "Because"? This is the type of book I am talking about here. Or has anyone read "Star Stuff" by Stephanie Roth Sisson, a biography about Carl Sagan. If you haven't read either of these, you probably should. And this is the light that I wrote this next bit.

The Story of Keith Kurak

by Kiera Kurak

There was a little boy named Keith.


Keith liked to play with cars and blocks. In it he could pretend he was in his own world. 


As Keith grew he would enter in his own world in other ways.


With his friends, he built forts in the common woods behind his house.


He would often find himself lost inside video game. 


He loved everything about the worlds that he would enter into in these places.


It always let his imagination soar.


Someday he knew he’d like to create something on a computer for someone.


As Keith got older he studied computer science.


He programmed computers for an industrial company for a while, but it wasn’t what he really enjoyed.


One day a friend asked him if he would like to make a mobile application with his company.


He said yes.


Now Keith makes a mobile apps to help people, and still enjoys a good round in the imaginary world of computer games.

Especially when he gets to play games with his kids, and help their imaginations soar too.

The End



Perhaps I will upgrade this someday with little drawing photos, but here it is for now, keeping me honest.