Sarah Poe

“• We are a community of possibilities, not a community of problems. • Community exists for the sake of belonging and takes its identity from the gifts, generosity, and accountability of its citizens. It is not defined by its fears, its isolation, or its penchant for retribution. • We currently have all the capacity, expertise, programs, leaders, regulations, and wealth required to end unnecessary suffering and create an alternative future.”
― Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging

“Chronic stress in infancy and early childhood has been identified as a major contributor to adult health problems. In 2009, Jack Shonkoff and colleagues published a major review in the Journal of the American Medical Association that stated that "adult disease prevention begins with reducing early toxic stress." Considering the state of American's health, this is something we should take quite seriously. A recent report from the Institute of Medicine (2013) noted the following:

"For many years, Americans have been dying at younger ages than people in almost all other high-income countries. This disadvantage has been getting worse for three decades, especially among women. Not only are their lives shorter, but Americans also have a longstanding pattern of poorer health that is strikingly consistent and pervasive over the life course."

One way we can improve the health of the next generation is to challenge the hegemony of the cry-it-out advocates. We need to stand by the others we serve as they make the decision to defy cultural norms and respond to their babies. The health of the next generation depends on it.”
― Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Impact of Sleep Training and Cry it Out: Excerpt from The Science of Mother-Infant Sleep

“Most of us are living as though life were happening to us rather than through us. We are not present to the fact that we are constantly generating our lives, as though they were great works of art. The tools we are given from which to create are our thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, actions, decisions, and words. Love is letting go of fear. —Gerald Jampolsky”
― Katherine Woodward Thomas, Calling in "The One": 7 Weeks to Attract the Love of Your Life

“The key to creating or transforming community, then, is to see the power in the small but important elements of being with others. The shift we seek needs to be embodied in each invitation we make, each relationship we encounter, and each meeting we attend. For at the most operational and practical level, after all the thinking about policy, strategy, mission, and milestones, it gets down to this: How are we going to be when we gather together?”
― Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging