I just finished reading What Is the What by Dave Eggers, published as a novel, but a true story. I started reading it then didn’t want to continue. I didn’t want to know in real words what happens in the world–what happened to the Lost Boys of the Sudan. I didn’t want to create in my mind the horrors these children endured, or weren’t able to survive. It’s unbelievable what we allow to happen. Here is, I think, one of the quotes of the book: “…every international body that monitors or provides for the displaced, customarily place their refugees in the least desirable regions on earth. There we become utterly dependent—unable to grow our own food, to tend our own livestock, to live in any sustainable way. I do not judge…, but I do pose the question.” In this man’s story, there are people trying so hard to intervene in a way that matters. But it is clear that good intentions are not enough and taking action is complicated.

There is a short piece in Time, January 30, 2012, that talks about the slow response of the international community to “last year’s brutal famine in the Horn of Africa” and the subsequent deaths of as many as 100,000 people, mostly in Somalia. The report goes on to say that “over half the fatalities are likely to have been malnourished children.” It just struck me that there wasn’t an exact number of those children, that they weren’t counted, that they were summed up in an approximation. Each and every one of those children, every child, must count. We are responsible because each child matters.

January seems to have taken on a life of it’s own and here comes February. We had snow–lots of it–that closed our offices and made little things big. Roger and I did our first grandparent trip, taking Schon to visit Zachary and Caroline in DC–now that was fun. Roger turned 65 with love all around him. Kirsten Haugen and Christa Griest were at the office to move Global Leaders and World Forum Working Groups forward.

And then I flew to Lincoln, NE, for meetings with Nancy Rosenow and her Dimensions team. Lots of brainstorming and thinking and good times later, I left feeling supported and energized by the many ways we collaborate, both on Exchange and the World Forum. Here are some photo highlights for you to enjoy.

Ken, Stacy, Me, Nancy, Julie, Tara

Chris, Tina, Nancy

Tara, Me, Stacy, Nancy, John

At World Forum Office: Christa, Kirsten, Roger, Jennifer

This morning I received a typical message from Amazon. This one was promoting a new book by Andy Andrews. It wasn’t the book or Andy that caught my attention; rather this phrase: “Andy Andrews is first and foremost a Noticer.” It set my mind to thinking about all the emphasis we in early childhood education place on observation, but I’ve never heard anyone speak about being a “noticer.” We are very skilled noticers who have trained ourselves to act when we notice something. We turn noticing into observing and observing into learning and seeking understanding. Noticing by itself is only the beginning. The words we choose to define ourselves and our work make a difference in setting up frameworks for thinking.

We have had kind of a tech summit at World Forum headquarters the last two days with team members Josh, Jennifer, Scott and team members in town for the meeting, Kirsten and Christa. It’s exciting to see all the possibilities for connecting and communicating that technology offers collaborative global work such as ours. It’s overwhelming to make the necessary choices and choose a pathway that honors and enables our mission. We talked quite a bit about how hard it is to create new habits–that’s true whatever we are talking about from making wise food choices to learning new ways technology skills. It’s hard for everyone, but technology habits are especially difficult to change for those of us who understand it only so much as we use it. I looked around the room at all the eager young faces and felt safe and confident as they guide us forward–because they know, but they also listen.