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Explaining genetic engineering so kids can understand it….

I’m thinking of including genetically engineered seeds into the plot of my next novel in the KyRose middle grade series. STEM/STEAM. Yes! Want to prepare kids for their future.

Here’s one way of explaining it. Genetic engineering is when scientists change the DNA of living things like plants or animals to make them different in some way. Just like how you can change the way a Lego toy looks by taking some parts away and adding some new ones, scientists can change the way a living thing looks and acts by changing its DNA. This can be done to help make things better, like making crops grow faster or making animals healthier, but it's also important to make sure we are careful and think about the consequences of changing living things.

What questions might a child come up with after reading this? What is DNA? What else?

[cicekb]

Habits and Subconscious Memory...how our brains use patterns and habits that may or may not be serving us...

Memories are fascinating, intricate parts of the human mind (and of minds of animals too). They allow us to recall past experiences, emotions, and knowledge, and help us navigate the present and plan for the future. But how do memories form, and why do some of our actions become subconscious habits?

When we first learn a new skill or perform a new task, it requires a lot of attention and focus. We consciously think about each step and consciously execute it. But as we repeat the task over and over again, it becomes easier and easier, and we begin to do it almost automatically. This is because our brains are wired to conserve energy by developing efficient neural pathways for common actions.

These efficient neural pathways, also known as procedural memory, are stored in a different part of our brain from conscious memory, known as declarative memory. Procedural memory is responsible for the subconscious execution of routine tasks, like brushing our teeth or driving a car. It allows us to perform these actions without conscious thought, freeing up our attention for other tasks.

The patterns we develop through repetition become ingrained in our brains, creating what is known as muscle memory. This type of memory is especially prevalent in activities that require physical movement, such as playing a musical instrument or playing sports. Muscle memory allows us to perform these activities with greater ease and accuracy, even without conscious thought.

However, the downside to muscle memory is that it can also lead to bad habits. If we repeatedly perform a task incorrectly, our brain will develop a neural pathway for that incorrect action. This can be difficult to undo and can lead to a long-term bad habit.

So, how do we stay conscious? By staying present and understanding the way our brains store memories and create patterns, we can consciously work to develop good habits and avoid bad ones. What habit (that does or doesn't serve you) will you notice in the next ten minutes or ten days?

[cicekb]

Meet Jane Goodall, the Woman Who Inspired a Generation of Young Innovators

Jane Goodall is a renowned primatologist (that's the study of primates) who has done pioneering work in the field of animal behavior and conservation. Her most notable research was with chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Africa.

Jane's interest in animals began when she went to live with her grandmother in rural Bournemouth during World War II. Her grandmother had two dogs and Jane would often play with them by taking them for walks or going to the beach with them. At the age of 12, she decided that she wanted to be a vet but her parents said it wasn't a practical career for a woman. Jane pioneered on and blazed her own path! She uncovered the intelligence and loving nature of our animal cousins.

Who's your hero? What animal fascinates you most, and why?

[cicekb]

Empowering kids, with mindset and skills, for a new school year and their future. #kidsmakingadifference #kidpower #herosforgirlsandboys #STEAMParents #STEMParents #STEAMKids #STEMKids #ProjectsForKids #ProjectBasedLearning #ChallengeBasedLearning #DesignThinking #KyRoseFreeToBeMe #KyRoseTakesALeap #maker #fablab #girlpower (at Venice California 90291) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChNV7hLJz7A/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cicekb]

Interconnected All

We are all connected in obvious and mysterious ways. Examples abound. Think of naturals resources we gather from ecosystems across the world to manufacture into products that we then sell to one another. And, the fungi networks wound together beneath the soil working in partnership with trees in the forest. Or, the downpour of clouds in the Amazon Rainforest that drains nutrients into the Pacific Ocean causing ginormous blooms of phytoplankton and, therein, a rich supply of food for fish. Ecosystems alive competing for balance and survival. Our threads are intertwined. 

I reach my hand out today and await with wonder who will shake it and what invisible impact it will make...like the batting of butterfly wings in a grandma’s garden on the other side of the world.

[cicekb]

Today I’m exploring digital tools to communicate in the ever-changing landscape of social media. I’m currently using Crowdfire and will try Buffer. Please share your favorites in the comments below. Would love to hear from you.

Oh, and I’m so lucky I’ve got my pal Bogie 🐶 who reminds me to balance my (online) time with precious moments in the garden.

[cicekb]

Nature’s bridge inspiring us to take a walk. Photo By Taylor Davis | Unsplash - via @Crowdfire #nature #conservation https://www.instagram.com/p/CLNdKe-J3aI/?igshid=1xfr4cqqgvkk6

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NoCode Revolution | Where to start with NoCode Tools

Today I started my research on how to integrate all the tools available in the No Code revolution coming up the pike. I love Jesse Showater’s explanation and fav tools along with his clear metaphors (like climbing on the bus, and tailors vs automation to make a custom suit). There seems to be a place, tool and line of code for every need--available at our fingertips. Delicious like taffy for this home maker.

[cicekb]

Looking for love

...in all the wrong places, including my in-box. Luckily, I can take a breath and feel love within. That's also inner strength. But it's still cold outside. That might be winters rub bearing down.

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Day at the Beach

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How to Start the Day

Should I begin with a list (of things to do) or a bit of bliss (sit quietly and rest)? Careful, or before I can even decide I might find myself at the will of my intellect and habits...thinking and listing for sure.

[cicekb]

Those Last Two Minutes

When the space between Kairos and Kronos begins to narrow (and Kairos is pushed into the Kronos state), the transition could feel quite tumultuous. Imagine a wide, open bay that at one end channels into a narrow river. As the waters begin to converge, currents rise and pressures mount. The transition feels curt and choppy. A panic might even ensue...especially if you're actually in the water trying to swim - worse yet, caught off guard.

 I garner to guess that many of us (and not just I) experience this kind of panic in our day-to-day lives. One morning this past week I had a “little” episode. That current pulled me under for a couple minutes. When I caught my breath, I was very curious: “What up with that?” The story goes like this...

 It was a weekday - our family was up early - 6:45 a.m. "Morning everyone,” kisses, cuddles, “time to get dressed, school day,” I heard myself say. Our carpool pick up was the usual 7:30. My kids were trailing a bit but made it down stairs. We had 20 minutes left and breakfast (cereal and fruit served) coffee brewing for me, we assembled round the kitchen island. We even chatted, “What's for lunch?” “I dreamt of snow last night.” “Is there a football game on tonight?” All seemed smooth sailing until 7:28 when we were down to those last two minutes before the eminent honk. Ride's here – you’ve gotta go. Go, go, go. And, oh yeah, don’t forget to say "Goodbye."

 But rewind: back to those last two minutes:  My husband and I calling out, “Have you brushed your teeth?” “Get your jacket on. Shoes. Shoes. Shoes!” But wait. My daughter Melise is still in Kairos. She's not flowing into 7:30 punctually. She's in a trance, watching her jacket warm up and blow up like a hot air balloon over the heater vent. Mesmerized, fully engrossed, she's having a full fledge Kairos moment. What? “You're not listening to me,” I blurted out (of course, I said that more politely the first time). “Ah, put that jacket ‘ON’ - and get your shoes on,” I insisted crouched down holding her shoes waiting for some feet. (By the way, not that she asked for any help putting on her shoes in the first place.) Now time’s closing in; I can't breath, we have 30 seconds and I swear I can already hear the impending honk. Panic. Bard louder. Then, thankfully (though, it didn't seem nice at the time), my husband intercedes. Phew! “Bye kids, I’m leaving,” and I walked off to my bedroom.

When all got still again, I took a moment to reflect. What’s with all that heightened anxiety? Hmm, is this a leftover issue from my childhood, or something? You see, I had just started reading "Parenting from the Inside Out" which begins with advice to each parent to try and understand their reactive patterns as they play out when with your kid(s). The idea is to know the pattern, somehow break it, and then our children will be free to discover and express their true selves - instead of adopting the parent's reactive (and restrictive) behavior - probably handed down to them from generation to generation. So, I sat quietly, breathing and remembered this...

Hmmm, I see a little girl (me) watching my father sipping his tea in the morning, still in his pajamas and robe. He's enjoying his Kairos moment and he doesn’t want to give it up. The clock, however, keeps ticking away, and he's now decided to call and cancel his first meeting of the day.

Unconsciously or subconsciously he's prolonging the morning - putting off facing the “real” day - the “Kronos” day. He's a civil engineer - and the office is now calling him (either telepathically or by phone, I can't say). He’s feeling that need to leave. I now recall, he once told me he always wanted to be an actor instead of an engineer, but one was a solid career so, well, he became an engineer. But maybe sitting on the sofa, sipping tea and (what I call ‘dilly dallying’ to my kids) was a creative, right-brain yearning to be met and discovered and expressed). That hefty left-brain activity of drafting and calculating was weighing him down. So maybe lingering in Kairos was his method of compensation. Ah. But the clock is still ticking. “Reality” is closing in, and it’s getting harder to breath in here. “Stop day dreaming and get to work!” some demon calls out. And then begin those last two minutes of full throttle anxiety, a panic filled acrobatic flight through the house until he finally somersaults out the door into his car and drives off (pretty much keeping that “I'm late” hysteria until after lunch when physical digestion sets in and slows everything down, again).

Oh geez. I definitely need another breathe after that story. So, does this play sound familiar? I wonder how many generations in my family tree this goes back? Maybe just one. I'll have to ask my dad.

Kyrose to the rescue! She sings her song into the wind “Aaaaa Yyyaaaa...” It comes from her throat (what chakra is that?) and it echoes and trails off at one with the wind and the air and everything. The goblet of fire and the fairies, they hear her. My daughter Melise can hear her.

I ask this question now: how can we hold Kairos and Kronos together? How might they be symbiotically intertwined so the transition is more peaceful? A dissolve verses a cut. What if all time was happening simultaneously, and we could breath and feel it all? Try this experiment (I just did): Take a deep breathe of Kairos (be here now). Now a deep breathe of Kronos (moving forward, the next minute). Now take a third breathe holding the two together.

That's the power of Kyrose.

[cicekb]

Curiosity...taking flight, alive in each of us

Kyrose is curious in the moment. She is inquisitive and inviting to all that is (happening) in and around her. She follows her breath curiously. She listens to friends curiously. From the tweeting of a bird - to a tweet received online, she allows her curiosity to bubble and lead her inward and outward, as she rocks in the wake of the moment - open to follow its lead even further. The seed of curiosity is planted in her genes. It dangles like tendrils of a jelly fish seeking experience - as she feels her way through the universe and through daily life. Yesterday, I was an enabler of this kind of curiosity. My kids' enthusiasm to see the bald eagles featured in the morning paper, led us on a trek out to the Orange County Zoo. The female bald eagle that lives there in captivity (because of a loss of vision in one of her eyes) is now being, what seems to be, courted by a wild bald eagle. Zoo rangers suspect it's a male. He visits her cage three to four times a day. Upon hearing the story, my kids instantly wanted to go visit them. I conceded and let curiosity drive us (...and I played my part dutifully behind the steering wheel). An hour later, we pulled up to the zoo entrance just as it began drizzling rain. It was a short walk to the female's cage (essentially a large netted habitat that included a few trees) and then we saw, perched on a tree about 10 to 15 feet away, the male. Such regal creatures, symbolizing leadership and free spirit - and in ancient times the sun. The drizzle now turned into a downpour. Dressed in our rain gear under umbrellas, we stood gazing up at them. They each sat calmly and still. I could see the raindrops dripping down the female's feathery face and wings. Her name is Olivia and she's six years old. When the sky cleared, we looked for a rainbow but didn't seem to see one. Our curiosity soon led us elsewhere. Yet, now I wonder, if that net that lay between the eagles was ripped or should magically disappear, would they run off together? Would Olivia's lame eye hold her back - or might she rise up and beat the odds? Might she have other talents on which she could focus and excel? If free, would curiosity swell (within her) and creativity soar setting her on a new path? I wonder, and so does Kyrose as she lie on the grass looking up at the open sky. Link to the LA Times eagle story: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-eagle-20110130,0,2814303.story

[cicekb]

"Soften...and Flow Like Mercury"

Mercury heated up is a liquid. When we heat it up from its solid form, that's how we're able to shape and mold it. I recently read a comparison of mercury to being human. Which form do we take, solid or fluid (rigid or soft)? Can we (remember to) soften ourselves and, in turn, create fluidity (flow) and openness in our lives?

Our superhero Kyrose knows how to do this. She can stop long enough to live in the moment and let the feeling of loving kindness swell and consume her. She is open, available and truly alive.

The other day, I was helping my daughter get dressed for school, while she was lying in bed pointing to all (the clothes options I was holding up) that she didn't want to wear. Frustrations mounted and she began yelling at me. Instead of reacting by yelling back, ignoring her, or storming out, I calmly reminded her that she was yelling at me. And when yelled at, I prefer not to help her. Then I gave her a chance, a moment while I stand there looking at her - to ask for help kindly. She couldn't do it. She sat still, quiet and glazed over. I left. Ten minutes later, she still sat there on her bed (or probably lay there as I was now downstairs fixing breakfast). I did hear her, however. She was calling out - this time to her dad - for help. Finally, she made her way downstairs, dressed - but grumpy and blaming me for her "inability" to get up and move along. She was stuck. As she sat eating what was now a rushed breakfast with teary eyes, I leaned down to her cheek-to-cheek, and I whispered, "I care about you because I love you. If you yell at someone, you can say I'm sorry, right away. You don't have to wait until later when it becomes even harder. Just say sorry - right there and then - and move on." Yet, I know the feeling all too well: yelling and shaking up the place and then stuck and unable to even fathom an "I'm sorry" coming from my mouth. That's because sorry doesn't come from the mouth. It comes from the heart. Kyrose, our superhero, knows this and practices it like second nature. She is our hope and she shows us how to build this skill. She shows us how to stop in that moment and feel our own pain. She is compassionate, but first with herself, meeting her life and her experience rather than holding on tightly to the story of her pain. Kyrose feels and meets her pain with loving kindness. She meets it until it dissipates; and she is left open, loving, welcoming and available. This is how our superhero stays fluid and in flow. Let go of the past. Let go of the ideas we hold: that things should have turned out this way or that. It is what it is. All we really have is this moment. Be in it. Live from it. Open to it, and (all) opportunities become available. Kyrose says, "Live like a soft sprouting branch, reaching and growing in every moment, expressing full aliveness. Feel and open." Stay fluid.

[cicekb]

Mercury

Click here to download:

Mercury.pages (293 KB)

[cicekb]

Mercury

Click here to download:

Mercury.pages (293 KB)

Cicek

-------------- Cicek Bricault

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“A New Superhero Named Kyrose is Born”

Recently, my family was called in (on a fluke) to our first-ever audition for a Disney World theme park commercial. They were looking for a family with two kids 5 and 7 years old: the ages of my kids  Destin and Melise. [I dragged my husband along - in both my secret ambition for fame, and as I figured that being paid might be the only way to persuade him to step foot into a Disney theme park. You see, though my husband loves new experiences, he has a serious aversion to crowds...and standing in long lines. I get it. The Disney theme parks are noisy and packed, not to mention overly commercial, and fake and fantastic all at once. Nonetheless, I have a nostalgic sweet spot for Disney World in Orlando. Growing up in Miami, I spent many a vacation there with my family. My favorite memory being our stay, outside the theme park itself,  at the old treehouse villas that were nestled in a balmy forrest with roaming peacocks.]

Fast forward - it’s time for our audition. We hadn’t prepared much at all, outside of getting dressed up like we were going to a fancy dinner party. We hadn't prepped or coached our kids - who had only visited Disney once before - two years earlier.  We’ll just be ourselves, I thought at the time. The director began with a few casual questions and then things quickly headed south. “Do you like Mickey Mouse?” he asked, and my son blurted, “No.” (You see, he really prefers the Dallas Cowboys...to just about everything.) Next he asked, “Do you like princesses?” to which my daughter quickly snapped, “I don't like princesses!” At this point, my husband must have been thinking “What are we doing here?”

Yet, I was smitten (think red roses and hearts floating overhead). Me, in a real audition with a real director. So, I kept smiling and answering questions about our favorite family vacations; nonchalantly, downplaying our adamant preference for smaller, quieter boutique hotels and eco-lodges. We left...and an hour or so later reality finally set in. There is NO WAY they’ll be choosing us. No Mickey, no princesses. That won’t sell, baby.

Emotions and regret ensued. We blew it. I should have coached our kids and reminded them of their favorite Disney characters. “Melise, come on, you like Snow White, right? She’s a princess,” I asked afterwards. “Yeah, I like her because she loves and talks to animals,” she agreed. Hmm, where had I missed the boat - or should I say Jungle Cruise boat? Leave it to destiny? Act natural, be ourselves. Yeah! “Let it go,” my husband said. But I was somehow stuck in a loop - playing the story over and over again. Sick to my stomach, crazy. Until enough was enough and I reached for an extraordinarily, simple meditative tool: breath, open, and meet my experience. Meet this gnawing feeling inside me instead of chastising myself and avoiding it. I sat quietly and met the feeling in my tummy - breathing, aware and fully in the moment. I had to do a couples sessions of this until I finally began to feel a shift and more at ease. This is a practice I learned from my meditation teacher, Peri. Thank you, Peri.

Later, over the next few days, I began to process. I recalled how my daughter for some time now, had been shedding her predilection for princesses and how my sister and I had even (a year earlier) conceived of a superhero character for girls who (like our daughters) are looking for their next, new model (post princessdom). We wanted a truly inspiring hero, who could embody the essence of being a girl in these times, and who was intuitively in touch with life “by being fully in the moment” (verses the commercial external motivations that, all too often, seem to shape and define girls and women today). It was a tall order. So, we put it on hold.

Yet here I am now feeling the time is right. The Disney audition has been a trigger like the lighting of the stick of dynamite from those old Bugs Bunny cartoons. My explosion translates to the coming out party of a new superhero that carries the wisdom of our ancestors adapted to the now. I call her Kyrose, inspired by the ancient Greek god of Kairos. May she live and breathe. May she find her way back to this world - out of the folds of yesteryear. Stay tuned. She’s out there and alive in the hearts of all our daughters. Help me, and let’s invite her back.