tamarjacobson

It seems that my reflections back in spring and summer of this year about turning, becoming sixty years old, have been helpful to other people in the same boat! So I am making a list of relevant posts right here, with a link to each. I invite all those caring and loving daughters (out there), who might want to share these ruminations with their Moms (or Dads), who seem perplexed or bewildered about reaching this ripe "older" age – to link in … with great love. For, folks, what can I say? I am having the time of my life! 

Here goes:

• Becoming strong to say goodbye (November 15, 2008)
• Count down begins (April 10)
• Quote of the day (April 16)
• Count down continues (April 19)
• Gaining on pain (April 20)
• One more month (April 24)
• Faces of sixty (May 2)
• Giving it all away (May 5)
• Keep it real (May 7)
• Pre and Se … Quels (May 17)
• Being me (May 28)
• Post Quel to turning sixty (June 2)
• Holding still (June 7)
• See you tomorrow (June 10)
• Love, love, love (July 8)
• Pleasure in the small stuff (July 16)
• Pieces life takes out of you (August 7)
• Reviewing the situation (August 16)

In conclusion:

Here I am … right here and now … Yes indeed, I made it through! … to … the new and improved sixty year old Tamarika!

[Early September – four months after turning 60 – thanks to Mark Anderson]

[September 19 – taken by a colleague at a conference in New Jersey]

And … finally … September 25 … taken by colleagues in Buffalo this past weekend …

Well, dear readers, I am honored and joyful to have my profile published at my brother's blog this morning.

Yes. at the normblog

 For me, this is a great day indeed! Thanks so much, Norm!

Recently I was invited to share a profile of me. As I was writing out my answers to some very interesting and sometimes soul-searching questions (well, what can I say? Any question becomes a soul searching one for me. I mean, that is just the kind of gal I am!), I realized that there are still some blog posts in me yet! And I can't wait to start writing them. Work, other writing commitments, and speaking engagements have been keeping me away from my blog. Also, I am thinking of ways to write my "diagnosis of me" while keeping others safe. But writing about me in this recent profile has made my blog-writing-juices start flowing. Tomorrow, I will let you know where you might find my profile. It is very exciting for me to have been invited to write it … and I cannot wait to see it … so … adieu until tomorrow.

And now, off to my dear old Buffalo I shuffle … a bientot!

It is that time of year again. 

Rosh Hashanah. 

And I want to go home.

I want to be surrounded by family large and small, wide and thin, happy and sad. I want to be enveloped with noise of laughter, shouts of young children, sunshine, the sea, and eating all together. 

I cannot help it. 

And I just want to say …

… I want to go home.

[CD cover]

My son's latest CD available for download only – right here … 

And, just a note to add, for those who "know" me – I am emotionally "handling" the beautiful cover … honestly … I am … 

Back in 2005, I wrote a post about how I used to play with dolls … 

They have followed me throughout my early childhood career, as a teacher of preschool and kindergarten and also as a teacher educator. Lately, my concern about playless classrooms in the early grades has me digging out my old presentations and writings about using dolls as a socio-emotional, and cognitive learning experience in early childhood classrooms. I am back on the road again! Some teachers in Pennsylvania have already taken on the project.

In December, Teaching Young Children will be publishing an article that I wrote together with my friend, Donna, about this very topic. And, we will be presenting about it in New Jersey and Washington DC in October and November.

But … here's the thing! How exciting! Donna has created a website about the dolls with a link to a blog about them! 

Ooh, I am jumping up and down with glee …

Update:

Here are some shared dolls stories I received from Facebook friends in response to this post:

i loved my dolls as a young girl and have several of them here with me now, all dressed beautifully and all very special. my favorite "baby" doll is about 50 years old and looks almost as good now as she did when she was new. she is newborn size and is wearing an antique christening gown i bought for her 15 years ago and sleeping in a wicker cradle, covered with a baby afghan i crocheted. i have the teddy bear bought for me the day i was born and several others given as gifts later, all resting on the arms of a child-sized, wicker rocker where my huge raggedy ann sits. our home office holds a combination of technology equipment and books, and is a gathering place for my dolls!

I had a much beloved doll called Catherine, who had only one arm…now I have a teddy bear called marmaduke but I Pretend he is for young visitors. I love him VERY dearly as he is now 45 years old.

I always preferred stuffed animals to dolls – and here I is all middle aged w lots of animals and no babies LOL I guess we are who are from birth.

Quote of the day:

You gain strength, experience, and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt (From CCIE)

… ready for school … me …

… me again …

… and once more for the camera …

… are made of this: [how strange]  a year ago exactly – at Mining Nuggets: News Flash

I have been thinking about my blog, comments from readers, and suggestions and ideas from friends and family. 

I do, so, love blogging. 

I do, so, have a lot to say about all manner of thought, feelings, ideas and so on. 

[me and a mime in Montmartre in May]

And so, I will continue blogging – right here – at this site. But, first, I must get this semester started off. It feels so busy and overwhelming at all sorts of levels and soon I will have organized and compartmentalized all my urgent as well as not-so-pressing projects and assignments – and, well, yes … will be back right here to blog again.

Thanks so much to a number of people for your constant support of me and my blog! I will be back very soon.

Update

In error, I posted this piece twice and people have commented on each one. I do not want to delete one of the posts, thereby deleting comments.

I think about this blog a lot. Daily. When I am out walking, or driving alone in my car. I wonder when I first started writing it, and reflect on how so many subjects of my life, thought processes, or the course of my emotional development have featured here in this public forum. Indeed, the sub-title of this blog is "my diagnosis of me," and I have certainly been on a self-exploration journey with it.

My blog has been my companion through some very painful emotional times these past four years. It has served as a connection to the outside world when I felt abandoned and alone. Indeed, here on this blog I was able to work through and confront some key psychological barriers that were really opened up for me with Bob-the-therapist back in my Buffalo days.

This ever-so-personal, while also extremely public, format helped me improve my writing skills, enabling me to complete a second book, and an edited collection of essays.

In short, this blog has supported my personal, social, and professional growth in ways that I could never have imagined. I am ever grateful for it. Now, however, I feel I have reached a cross roads of some kind. At the very least I think I have to find a different purpose for this blog – perhaps even a name or site change – if I am to continue at all. For, if I want social Internet connection, or to keep friends and family updated about my life, Facebook has become a perfectly satisfactory venue for that! Personal ruminations of one kind or another are suitable for my private journal writing, and in any case, I have been thinking about writing a memoir at some stage.

Turning sixty has had a major impact on me. I feel emotionally opened, grounded in a different reality, and at the same time, free to be all I can be. For example, one of the things I have been thinking about since I turned sixty is that I do not seem to need as much emotional support or acknowledgment as I did when I was younger. It is almost as if I am finally able to give up my old longing for parents. Indeed, I am able to parent myself! I have allowed myself to become an adult. So many of those ancient, unrealistic, and adolescent or childish expectations I had of significant people in my life have dissolved and gone away. I seem able to meet others in an emotionally mutual space, where I feel equal and more confident in who I am.

Perhaps I could name my new blog (if I decide to continue blogging) something to do with being in my sixties. 

Hm … more to think about!

A year ago at Mining Nuggets: Went away … and – More hats …