Having our mentor from Starfire there to offer communal repentance, practice forgiveness, discuss culture, and imagine together a place of belonging for our daughter was life changing for us and for her. Throughout our journey, our regular life continued to be assaulted with experiences of segregation and exclusion. Now in our third year, we invite families to come back every December to take their Christmas tree (if it’s tall enough) or just to check in and take a picture with their family. We talked with neighbors that that evening and we really got a sense that they want more community connections also. We had art, luminaries, paths through the fields, Christmas music, a baker who baked Christmas cookies, and hot cocoa and a bonfire. We wanted it to be a healing experience for everyone, so we brought the five senses into the experience. Our mentor was right to encourage us to look for beautiful surprises along the way. Before you knew it, we had more people than we ever imagined! However, as the event began, car after car started pulling in. We had no idea how many peo- ple would come. We invited people using our neighborhood Facebook page and hung flyers in the local coffee shop. In our rural town, there’s one coffee shop, three fast food restaurants, two gas stations and a library. Gradually, our eyes were being lifted off what we had perceived as a problem, our daughter’s disability, and refocused on the beauty of our world and community.
His family invited their friends and family. His grandsons prepared the ground and unloaded the trees. Where would you suggest we get the trees from?Įventually, our neighbor and his family were beautifully and organically invested. We visited with our next-door neighbor regularly and asked his advice: Can you plant trees in December?
We started our Christmas Tree project with the idea to invite families in the community to come and plant a Christmas tree on our land. Those things required so much energy, I didn’t think I had any more energy to start something new. And I thought I was preparing her to engage in community by going to therapy and regular appointments. We went to storytimes, library events, Mom and Me classes. I Am Not Starfire is a story about teenagers and/as aliens about knowing where you come from and where you are going and about mothers.I had a sense early on that my daughter belonged. When someone from Starfire’s past arrives, Mandy must make a choice: give up before the battle has even begun, or step into the unknown and risk everything to save her mom. Or she did until she gets partnered with Claire, the person she intensely denies liking but definitely likes a lot, for a school project. Everyone thinks Mandy needs to go to college and become whoever you become at college, but Mandy has other plans. And ever since she walked out on her SATs, which her mom doesn’t know about, Mandy has been even more distant. To Starfire, who is from another planet, Mandy seems like an alien, like some distant, angry, light-years away moon. She’s a kid who dyes her hair black and hates everyone but her best friend, Lincoln. Starfire is gorgeous, tall, sparkly, and a hero. Seventeen-year-old Mandy, daughter of Starfire, is not like her mother. I Am Not Starfire (2021) : From New York Times bestselling author Mariko Tamaki (Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass) and artist Yoshi Yoshitani (Zatanna and the House of Secrets) comes a story about Mandy, the daughter of super-famous superhero Starfire.
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