In the beginning....

Early Morning Brilliance: the name, the blog, the curious impulse which drives me to continually be striving toward greater levels of awareness, and alertness.

My son, 8 in just seven days, and I dreamed up the moniker "Early Morning Brilliance" one quiet morning in our Talequah home on Vashon Island. Essentially, I've been awed by his brilliance since his birth. His brilliance and his outright radiance and the way his life opens the doors of my perception to the brilliance of other kids and - if truth be told - to other adults.

Early Morning Brilliance is my research trail as I talk to other minds about educating children. This process of copious interviewing I inherited through my journalism work for the Seattle Times, the Seattle P-I, the Tacoma News Tribune and others. As a real-life researcher, I began to learn pretty early on that nothing is true except for the truth of the heart. Ultimately, I gave up my journalism career and began working around stories. What are the stories we tell ourselves and others? My research led me to talk to a couple hundred women in West Seattle for the Envision Women project, and now roots me here on Vashon this summer working on education for Early Morning Brilliance. As people tell me stories, concerns, hopes, fears and delights, I am putting together a presentation. This presentation will occur Friday, August 20th, 7 p.m. at the Vashon United Methodist Church 17928 Vashon Hwy SW.

I've intuited quite a lot of information regarding education through experience with public school and large state universities for my own education, and then extensive physical study through years of yoga, dance, massage and slow muscular release work, as well as a practice I call mind yoga. This practice challenges the mind to show how a stressful belief is no more true than its opposing and much kinder belief. My own child has gone to Montessori, public school and private school. I've taught at South Seattle Community College and tutored middle school kids in public school. I know a little about education but certainly not much so I'm going to the people now to glean more information from their experience.

Early Morning Brilliance.