On a Tuesday evening, the GameStart School, located in the Plymouth Mall on Ann Arbor’s northside, was bustling. Students stared intently at their computer screens, testing out the video games they themselves have created. One teacher, wildly enthusiastic, bounced back and forth between a girl and a boy who were trying to complete their game level. She managed to support them technically and emotionally at the same time, stepping in to offer quick coding advice, troubleshooting, encouraging them (“Sure! You wanna try a new thing? That’s cool!”), and then cheering with them as they reached their goal. The kids leaned back in their chairs, clearly satisfied with their progress.
Leslie Science & Nature Center: Adventures and Education in a Park in the City
My kid is a dynamo at Minecraft. She can virtually engineer her way around fire and lava through complicated structures at rapid speed with pals twice her age. For fun she reads Minecraft manuals and watches advanced tutorials on YouTube. Learning how to master operations and obstacles built into the game gives her energy, increases happiness, and grounds her. Minecraft is bonding with her pals at school and a planned highlight on play dates.
Great Tastes in Local Food
The space at 113 E. Liberty Street in Ann Arbor has been home to a few different restaurants over the past five years. It isn’t a big space, but the current resident, Spencer, makes excellent use of what they have, and I hope they stay with us.
Fluffy Bottom Farms — A Buddhist-inspired Dairy Farm Begins its Life in Chelsea
“It’s definitely a time game,” Kelli Conlin says, sitting across from me. She is a woman with a kind face, working hands, and an indescribable amount of caring energy emitting from her heart. From our conversation, I gathered that Kelli was referring to the amount of time and care it takes to run a farm like Fluffy Bottom, one where treating animals with kindness and compassion and providing products that are fresh and delicious are top priorities.
Exploring our Community’s Rich Cultural Diversity Through Ethnic Food Markets
I recently explored many of our community’s richly diverse, ethnic, and locally owned specialty food markets with an open mind and curious palate. I was eager to find not only exotic foods but also interesting proprietors, insight into other traditions, and a sense of connection in an all-too-divergent society. Inside the following three Ann Arbor markets, I found exactly what I went in search of.
Sustainable Health — A Radical Act of Self Care
It is not safe for women to go to Status Quo Health Care alone. Status Quo Health Care, or SQHC (my term for the “doctors at the top and patients at the bottom” current mainstream health care system), is set up to work against people in the patient role, especially women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people. (In this article, whenever I use the term “women,” I am referring to “women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people.”)
A Permaculture Perspective — The Production of Our Choices
Is it important to you that your daily life reflects choices that care for the Earth, its people, and our future? If yes, then you are already one step closer to deeply living in the ways of an ecological culture design science called Permaculture.
Crysta Goes Visiting
Crysta Coburn visits crazywisdom-esque people and happenings around Ann Arbor.
Leaps of Faith - Tales of Local Businesses
Writer Mary Runser meets the owners of Ypsi's new CULTIVATE COFFEE & TAP HOUSE and Ann Arbor's new THISTLE & BESS.
Falconry — Words from a Master
Rupert let out a low hoot as he shifted his position on Master Falconer Craig Perdue’s wrist. “That hoot means he’s getting agitated. He doesn’t like everyone making a fuss about his prize.” Craig was referring to the lure in the bird’s talons. As if on cue, Rupert the Great-Horned Owl clutched it more tightly, letting out a high-pitched screech.
PTSD and Animals
Your animal friend does not have to be in a disaster or war zone to develop PTSD symptoms. Common causes include accident, surgery, attacks by other animals, human-inflicted abuse, life-threatening illness, separation or death of a loved one, getting lost, or even moving to a new home.
Katie Hoener Answers Your Yoga Questions
Whether you’re a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time, you’ll find a variety of tips from local yoga instructor Katie Hoener.
What's New in the Community
This ongoing column features upcoming events within Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County and surrounding areas’ Body/Mind/Spirit communities, new (during the past year or two) practitioners and holistic businesses, new books written by local/regional authors, new classes, as well as new offerings by established practitioners and holistic businesses.
Breaking Boards, Breaking the Cycle — Instructors Work to Keep Girls in Martial Arts Longer, Citing Physical and Mental Benefits
Eleven-year-old Melanie Kwierant moves to the center of the studio, a little reluctant to show off her black belt karate skills. But as she begins, her pre-teen shyness fades away. She kicks. Punches. Maneuvers a graceful turn. She’s calm and confident. When finished, she’s slightly out of breath. She bows to the small crowd that has gathered and sits down.
Grasslands
I learned firsthand that grasslands can dance when I was sixteen or seventeen. Sure, I had heard as much, and probably had read it, too. Yet growing up in Southern California, such things seemed mysterious and distant, evocative of vast plains and wagon trains. I was hiking with Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles. We had puffed our way up the Chumash Trail, a dusty climb without switchbacks from the sea into the coastal hills.
The Human Body— A Symphony in Sharps and Flats Getting to Know Dr. Diane Babalas, Chiropractor and Healer
Overheard:
—I don’t want to go to the reception. I hate these things.
—Leave early.
—But I don’t know these people!
—Just go up to the first interesting person you see and ask, “How’s your back?”
Dance Meditation Technique: Dance Your Way to Self-Realization
On an unusually warm Sunday in January, people are milling around inside Detroit’s archaic Scarab Club (the sign out front notes, “The scarab, an Egyptian symbol of rebirth…”). True to the venue’s name, a tribe of Dance Meditation Technique (DanceMT) practitioners, as participants are called, has been showing up every Sunday for a chance to be reborn with more vibrancy and vitality.
Making It In Ann Arbor: Maker Works Give Your Creativity Space to Flow
We are in the midst of a quiet revolution, creeping from the secret places of our souls into the light of daily life: the desire to create, to build, to invent, to explore the world using our hands and our senses, and to do it in community. While sprouting everywhere, in Ann Arbor this “Maker Revolution” has the possibility to grow in bigger ways.
A Family Art Exhibition ~ Three Sisters and Their Mom
Wanetta Jones is a firecracker. At eighty-seven years old, her voice floats and delves octaves with stories of herself and her three daughters, all of whom are artists. Sitting in her Ann Arbor condo surrounded by her oil paintings, she explains the way she encouraged her three girls to become artists: “I said, you kids have to pick out art. I’m not going to have my children grow up just using one side of their brains.”
Yoga: A Practice to Enhance Relationship
When people say, “I’m in relationship,” they usually are referring to a relationship with another person — perhaps a friend, an intimate other, or even a business partner. Most people would agree quality relationships of all kinds matter and have real value. So, have you considered how you relate to yourself? As a yoga teacher, this has become a curious question I often ask myself.
