Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Almost back

I am slowly working my way back to being able to tend to this blog again. The situation with my daughter is ongoing, but at least we now know what's going on. this is going to be something she'll have to manage for the rest of her life, so now we're all working on establishing a 'new normal' baseline.

I was able to attend an advocacy training course at Boston's Childrne's Hospital, and it was amazing. I look forward to being able to put what I've learned into action.

In the meantime, I am grappling with the meaning of lactivism and the state of the lactivist movement. I am saddened to see some people trampling over individuals under the guise of furthering the cause.

I have a little prose piece taped to my printer which is titled, "What is support?" And after reading about the events of the past week, this one leaps out at me:

We are here to discuss steps with a woman... not to take steps for her.

I also think of the great document, "What is advocacy?" and to one of the advocacy pitfalls:

Advocacy is not an opportunity to make yourself feel powerful at the expense of others.

And so I continue to grapple in my own little corner of the world, and hope that this is just growing pains and that we can move beyond it.