This is what happens when you show up to dance early and have to fill some time in the car…

Esme and I attended the Boston Protest Against Muslim Ban and Anti-Immigration Orders this afternoon. We read signs, we chanted with the crowd and we stood respectfully as our Muslim brothers and sisters knelt to pray. We had some new and meaningful discussions (with each other and also with those around us on the T and in Copley Sq.) and we listened closely when other told their stories.

The New Colossus

By Emma Lazarus, 1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Welcoming in the year of the Rooster at the Peabody Essex Museum with the only all-woman, Lion and Dragon dance troupe in the US, Gund Kwok. Their performances never fail to fill the atrium at the museum, year after year. I am so appreciative of their performance and their work and how they add to the diversity of female role models for girls and women everywhere.

If you have two minutes, watch this video from their founder. Her dedication and passion are so inspiring to me. She spoke and performed today and had the audience eating from the palm of her hand…and we left knowing much more about Asian culture than when we came in.

Gund Kwok Lion Dancing – An American Mulan Story from Mei Lei on Vimeo.

She loves it, and that’s what counts. I don’t want to color her impression of it by listing the things that I wish had turned out differently.

We had day passes to Great Wolf Lodge and today seemed the perfect day to redeem them. Lots of fun was had, many waterslides were slid, and much time in the hot tub was spent.

How I yoga.

I love watching her confidence grow!

I was so happy that our Monday hiking group was willing to brave the weather today. It was sunny-ish when we left home, but on our 25 minute drive to the trail we had rain, snow and something in between.

The kids hopped out of the car and played in the field, in the rain, with their friends. By the time the group was assembled, the rain had stopped, the skies lightened up and we hit the trail.

It was cold and a bit damp, but the conversation was uplifting and the kids were unstoppable. Great morning!

And almost as soon as we were in the car, the rains came again. It couldn’t have been timed better.

Better late than never!

A beautiful day for a peaceful rally and march on Boston Common. Specific politics aside, I was so proud to be part of a peaceful protest/rally in which many different opinions were expressed in so many varying ways. I was proud of ‘our city’ for showing my children that they have a voice in our country and that there are civil was to demonstrate. Everyone we encountered today was polite, passionate and engaged. They spoke to my children with respect and kindness and in a crowd of >150,000 there was no pushing, shoving, harassment or arrests. It was a monumental civic moment.

“Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.” Barack Obama

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