H a l f M a g i c

Time and The Walrus: more exposure for Kim Payne, Dr. Lipton and Chris Turner

All three of the experts we have interviewed for this documentary. Chris Turner, Kim John Payne and Dr. Bruce Lipton, continue to influence our culture in profound and meaningful ways and are attracting attention whenever they speak! Check out the latest video clips on the home page.

Time magazine featured an article onThe Backlash Against Helicopter Parenting and quoted Kim John Payne and his new book, Simplicity Parenting. Kim John Payne is one of the most engaging speakers on parenting and his insight reassures parents, makes them laugh and truly inspires and motivates parents to explore a deeper perspective on raising children for the twenty -first century.

"Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny." I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw that the cover story on TIME magazine was about epigenetics. Dr. Bruce H. Lipton was the first person I had ever heard talk about this relatively new science that is putting into question Darwin and his theory on evolution and bringing to light the previously dismissed work of Jean Baptiste Lamarck(1744- 1829). It was exciting to see it featured on TIME. Dr. Bruce Lipton is the author of, The Biology of Belief and has been featured on numerous radio shows including Oprah.

The Age of Breathing Underwater by Chris Turner for the Canadian magazine, The Walrus. Chris is a can-do guy and his investigative jounralism gives us hope for the future and the desire to evolve. He was by far the most popular and engaging speaker I saw at an Environmental Series at University of Toronto but it was his book, Geography of Hope that set me on this path.

The Politics of Baking Bread With a Sourdough Starter

My precious, precious single loaf after a week of preparation; it was consumed within an hour!

Baking Bread With Children, by Warren Cohen was my inspiration. The act of creating your own sourdough starter is very symbolic on many levels:

1. It is understanding history by recreating it. What you gain from making your own sourdough starter is an understanding of human ingenuity. Yeast did not come in a package.

2. The genius in simplicity: two ingredients are required to make a sourdough starter; flour and pure water(not chlorinated). To make the bread you will need more flour, water and some salt.

Starting the sourdough starter- takes about a week.  The completed starter mixed with flour after 12 hours.

3. What is natural is good for you. Sourdough bread is easy to digest- the process has already started so the body can easily assimilate the nutrients.

4. A humble activity for children that leads to a sense of confidence: Why? On a very deep level Humans need to know they can provide for themselves. Children baking bread lays down a foundation that they can look after themselves and could very well prevent them from feelings of depression and hopelessness as adults.

Lessons I learned:

Don't speed read a recipe. I skipped the part about increasing the amount each day so ended up with only a 1/2 cup of starter. This meant I had to half the recipe and didn't have enough to keep some of the starter in the fridge. Now I will have to go through the week long process all over again.

All I had was organic white flour but turned out great.

Next time try rye flour but can I use that in the starter...? Back to the recipe- refer to first lesson learned!

Redefining Fun

Then....

Now...A 6 year old and 9 year old kayaking on their own!

I grew up spending summers at my Grandparents cottage being tugged around Lake Muskoka on a giant inner tube behind a gas guzzling motor boat and it was fun and a part of our family lore! My Aunt Nancy took 40 tries to get up, my Dad lost so many lawn chairs trying to do tricks off the disc he made, Mike was 15 when he did a dock start,and there was the summer three of us slalemed behind a jet ski. So I grew up believing that a cottage, a motor boat, and a jet ski were signs of success until I read Chris Turner's book, Geography of Hope.(See an excerpt of his interview )

I needed to somehow invert this deeply held value and let my children experience a different value system that didn't have such a massive carbon footprint. But this is the catch- do I keep my past a secret or lie? And how much do I want to compromise my own experiences with my children. As Chris Turner said in my interview with him, " You don't have to lie or hide your past but tell them you weren't aware of the consequences. Sure, it was fun but we know differently." And then I began to realize that it wasn't about the boat or the cottage but getting together with family and spending time in nature.
My Uncle skiing 50 years ago

Motorboats do not have the monopoly on fun. In fact this past summer we spent time camping, kayaking, canoeing, trekking and I started to plot with my sister-in-law some major backwoods tripping with the kids. In fact I now resent the fact that I didn't learn to sail or go on more canoe treks! But as Bruce Lipton would say- don't look back and blame, start doing it now!
 It is a challenge when I think of my extended family's carbon footprint- especially for my children- we don't live in a bubble and they can see the fun of waterskiing, hottubs and cottages but what is amazing is I don't envy it anymore and am so excited about exploring different ways to connect to nature and family- and I know my enthusiasm will spread and have some influence in their adult lifes. Next summer's challenges- swim tripping and sailing.
A waterfall slide.

Why Parenting Matters

I just finished reading Mark Bittman's new book, Food Matters; A Guide to Conscious Eating and feel inspired. He really is saying the same thing I want to present in this documentary: If you could raise your kids based on a sustainable lifestyle they would be healthy, smarter, you would reduce their risk of long-term or chronic diseases, save money, and help stop global warming. As well, this change, while not effortless, would be easier and more deeply gratifying and would require no sacrifice. Wouldn't you want to see this documentary and see how you can make a difference? For example if you are feeding your children cereals, and bacon and eggs for breakfast there are two things going on here:
1. You are perpetuating a relationship to food that is not healthy.
2. You are succumbing to the greatest marketing assualt in history.
The food industry knows exactly what it is doing when they target young children- they are ensuring a brand loyalty for life. The patterns you setup for your children from birth to 6 will be with them forever and the big brands know this. Parenting matters because we are particpating in the evolution of humanity.

New Interview Excerpt coming

Interview excerpt coming next week. Meet Bruce H.Lipton  and discover why millions of people read his books, listened to his interview on Oprah and particpate in his conferences. I can be a bit nervous about interviewing people I respect largely because I don't want to discover there is a disconnect between what they are preaching and how they are living. Bruce did not disappoint. He is genuine and without an ego. His home is pretty well off the grid and he is open and generous to anyone who wants to make this world a better place. But best of all he is a really smart guy with a twinkle in his eyes.