<!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?--><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>6-acknow</title> <link href="../Styles/9781459736283_INT.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <meta content="urn:uuid:12c8ec05-f31b-4537-8d40-fbd507a4c0a4" name="Adept.expected.resource"/> </head> <body id="x6-acknow"> <div class="Basic-Text-Frame"> <h1><span class="chaptertitle">Acknowledgements</span></h1> <hr/> <p class="initial">Am I the only person in the world that reads acknowledgements (I mean the ones you know you aren’t likely to be in)? Just in case I’m not, I’ll keep it short. Just like a person is multi-faceted, so is any book. I am grateful to all the people and talents that helped make this book happen. In my children’s school we say education is the work of the head, hands, and heart. This book, which I hope will educate and inspire you, represents a great deal of generosity from others that shared in all three areas. </p> <p>Thank you to the Head. By that I mean all of those scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and health experts who toil to give us a greater understanding of ourselves and our world. It is humbling, awesome, and inspiring work. Some of the heady-folks that gave graciously to the creation of this book include Dr. Bruce Lanphear, Dr. Bethany Hays, Margaret Floyd Barry, Kate Koyote, Dr. Spence Pentland, Dr. Katie Dahlgren, Paul Hawken, Kim John Payne, Jennifer Block, Susun Weed, Geraldine Matus, Maggie MacDonald, Rick Smith, Ralph Danyluk, Heather Gibson, Sonya McLeod, Jem Terra, Jingo Lewis, Summer Knight, Insiya Rasiwala-Finn, and Cassie Rodgers. I am also thankful to all the many green mamas and The Green Mama helpers who have given some of their life energy to bringing their own experiences, inspiration, and research to the world. </p> <p>Thank you to the Hands. Writing is a craft and it takes practice and guidance. For this, I am most thankful to my readers, editors, agents, and publishers. This includes the magical and mighty Cary Saxifrage, the indomitable Chris Cassucio as well as Hilary McMahon and the entire gang at Westwood Creative Artists, and my lovely team at Dundurn publishing, including the amazing editorial team that helped with my book — Allison Hirst, Kathryn Lane, and the “Jennys” — and the many other talented folks that helped with all those behind-the-scenes details from art and layout to marketing and distribution, in particular Margaret Bryant and Jaclyn Hodsdon. </p> <p>The hands also hold cameras. The photography time and talent that goes into the creation of the Green Mama books is a tremendous work of creativity, love, and generosity. Thank you for this Vanessa Zises Filley, Roxanne Engstrom, and Cassie Rodgers. </p> <p>Thank you as well to <span class="italics">EcoParent Magazine</span> for permission to reprint an earlier version of the Green Baby Shower Handbook that I had previously published in their wonderful magazine; to Susan Weed for allowing me to reprint her incredible recipes; and to Bruce Lanphear and Little Things Matter Productions for the use of their graph on page 81.</p> <p>Thank you to the Heart. The more I learn about life, health, and the art of parenting, the more grateful I am to my family of origin and my family of creation. I am so grateful to my ancestors for all they did to make my life possible, especially my grandmothers Rose Gillespie and Ethel Mae Hansen. My grandma Ethel Mae died during the writing of this second book, but her wisdom continues to influence how I look at the act of parenting and the art of home-making. Thank you to my mom, Karen, for that loving womb and for generally being such an inspiration of how to gently question the status quo. Thank you to my dad, Mike, for all that healthy sperm and for gifting me with your whole-hearted smile. A special thanks to my siblings — and my in-laws, in-loves, steps, and D.G.s — for teaching me that love is not born of genetics. A special thanks to my sister Tosha, who kindly got pregnant and had a baby while I was writing this book so that I could be reminded of all the details involved in the hard work of growing life. </p> <p>I thank my lucky stars everyday that I somehow managed to marry and stay married to the world’s most awesome man. I love you Sadhu and I thank you for helping give me the world’s two most interesting and loveable children. Thank you Zella Rose and Maela for choosing me. I love being your mama with my whole self: head, hands, and heart.</p> </div> </body> </html>