mind in the making

Grab a pen. Hold it in your hand and raise your hand above your head, pointing the writing end of the implement at the ceiling. Imagine a clock face with the tip of the implement pointing at twelve o'clock. Look at twelve o'clock and begin to circle your pen past one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, and so forth. As you circle your pen, slowly lower your arm, all the while pointing your pen upwards at the ceiling. When your hand is at waist height, look at your pen circling. What direction is it going?

Counterclockwise.

When did you change direction? You didn't.

What changed? Your perspective.

Today's professional development is applicable to all my life, not just my job as a preschool teacher. Ellen Galinsky proposes 7 essential life skills we as early childhood educators should be intentionally teaching children:

1. focus and self control
2. perspective taking
3. communicating
4. making connections
5. critical thinking
6. taking on challenges
7. engaged, self-directed learning

Marry these 7 essential life skills with developmentally appropriate practice and systems thinking as propounded by Tracy Benson and Shari Marlin, and you got way more to think about than you're capable of on a Saturday afternoon.

say uncle

OK.

You win, vile viral or bacterial infection. You wake me with chest-racking coughing spasms and turn my bones to lead. All day my skin prickles or chills at your whim. My eye sockets throb.

I have succumbed and submitted to the doctor, who prescribed cipro. I have vowed to rest, drink lots of fluids, and perhaps eat raw garlic. Of course I'm not willing to strike anything from my calendar.

Nor am I willing to play your games. That's why I jogged to Walgreen's to pick up my ammo. I'll go to handbell practice tonight. I have laundry to do. Tomorrow I'll go to work; I'll go to dinner with my friend, the one who turned me on to Richard Fariña's Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. When I sit down to read it tonight I'll fall asleep after a paragraph, I'm sure, so you'll keep me from my reading but the sleep I get will help me vanquish you. You'll keep me from reading Mind in the Making by Ellen Galinsky, but you won't keep me from going to Phoenix on Saturday to hear her speak.

I'm armed with good intentions and antibiotics and the desire to crochet a baby afghan. Just try to win against that.

struck a chord

Way over yonder in a minor key, this article struck a chord with me.

shape of my heart

Yesterday I arrived at work on time but walking across the yard toward the school felt like swimming in molasses. Performing the morning duties was more of a chore than usual, even for the first day back after a 3 day weekend. When the first parents arrived I found I couldn't focus on conversation, my eyes were bleary and hot, and my body felt as if my bones had been plated with lead. After an hour I gave up and went home. Rest, chicken and garlic, immune boosters, and tea. I awoke feeling fine.

This morning at school I prepared the room for the day, setting the stage for the children to make their magic. My little friend Ada arrived as I was making playdough. She helped me knead in the flour, making little hearts that inspired me to form a big one. Ada helped. We talked.

"What did you do at school yesterday?" I asked.

"I don't know," she replied. Standard response from a 3-year old.

"Did you have fun?"

"Yes. You weren't here."

I did not take offense. Yet. "Did you miss me?"

"I didn't miss you one little bit," she said. I began to feel my feathers ruffle, but before I could reply Ada said, "I didn't miss you because you were in my mind."

Oh sweet one, you have shaped my heart in so many ways.

30 Challenges: choose one

I'm beginning to see that if I adopt all 30 of these challenges I'll likely need much more time in the day. I realize now that these challenges are suggestions: choose one and stick with it for 30 days. Okay. I'll choose two:

1. Pay down debt and don’t create any new debt for 30 days. – Live well below your means. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Sleep on big purchases. Create a budget and savings plan and stick to them. For the next 30 days pay for things in cash and micro-manage every cent you make and spend. Read I Will Teach You To Be Rich. [actually 27]
2. Document every day with one photograph and one paragraph. – For 30 days bring a camera with you wherever you go. Do your best to take one photograph that represents a standout experience from each day. Then, before you go to bed each night, write one paragraph in a notebook or journal that highlights your day. If do it all digitally you can unite your daily photograph and paragraph in one digital space (like a personal blog), which can be easily reviewed in the future. Many moons from now these old photos and journal entries will ignite your recollection of interesting memories you would have otherwise forgotten. [actually 30]

I'm ashamed to admit I'm 40 years old and have never kept a budget. I'm like Foofie, as described by Stanzi in Amadeus: "I don't mean that he's lazy, because he works all day long. It's just that he's not practical. Money simply slips through his fingers. It's ridiculous."

I'm ashamed to admit that I am lazy. If I weren't so lazy, I'd track my spending and understand exactly how much I can afford to pay for rent, utilities, groceries, etc. I'd know where I spend each of my pennies, even the ones I find. Time to go read I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

30 Challenges:

Try one new thing every day.  Variety truly is the spice of life. You can see or do something a million times, but you can only see or do it for the first time once. As a result, first time experiences often leave reflective marks in our minds for the rest of our lives. Make an effort to try something new every day for the next 30 days. It can be a whole new activity or just a small experience, such as talking to a stranger. Once you get the ball rolling many of these new experiences will open doors to life changing opportunities.

There's some things that are fit to blog about, and some things that ain't. I think of Mammy in Gone with the Wind when Rhett is teaching Bonnie to ride her pony: "It ain't fittin'. It just ain't fittin'!" I'm learning.

Yesterday my friend James took me for a motorcycle ride through Gates Pass. In the rain. That was the first time I'd done such a thing. Today we went for another rainy motorcycle ride, this one in town. When passing bicyclists and joggers getting soaked I thought to myself, "That must be miserable." And then I realized riders in cars might think the same of me, some sad sap on the back of a motorcycle, caught in the rain.

But that's not at all how I felt. I felt free and exhilerated and nourished by the offerings of the heavens. I wanted to be caught in the rain. That's something new.

one of the ten

Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Choose thyself some good neighbors.

30 Challenges: use words that encourage happiness

This year 2012, the year I hoped would be easier after last year's separation and bankruptcy, has proved to be even more difficult. My own shizzle I can dizzle with, you know? But the shizzle of someone else, especially someone I love... when I can't fix it I descend into a funk. As Mandy struggles with her own marriage and choosing her own path, the best I can do is walk by her side and cultivate my own strength.

In that spirit, I'm embracing the 30 Challenges over at Mark and Angel Hack Life: "...make small, positive changes every day over the course of at least a 30 day period." This post appeared on Christmas last year, but seeing as today marks the 1 year anniversary of the first night I spent in my own place, by myself!, it's as good a day as Christmas to start.

Use words that encourage happiness. – Typically, when I ask someone “How are you?” they reply, “I’m fine” or “I’m okay.” But one lazy Monday afternoon last month a new colleague of mine replied, “Oh, I am fabulous!” It made me smile, so I asked him what was making him feel so fabulous and he said, “I’m healthy, my family is healthy, and we live in a free country. So I don’t have any reason not to be happy.” The difference was simply his attitude and his choice of words. He wasn’t necessarily any better off than anyone else, but he seemed twenty times happier. Spend the next 30 days using words that encourage a smile.

Yesterday at Target I ran into a preschool mom from five years ago! I couldn't remember her name, but I remembered her daughter, Kelsey, who was in my second preschool class. We spent a good deal of time talking there by the registers beneath the fluorescents. She said I looked good. We talked about her daughters. We talked about the preschool, where I no longer teach. She asked after my husband, because she remembered he was on the school board and the playground committee. So I told her, "We're in the middle of a bankruptcy suit and when that clears we're filing for divorce."

Words that encourage happiness?

Sometimes I think I divulge too much in talking with acquaintances, or people I've just met. I'm a firm believer in presenting myself honestly. I'd be glossing over a big part of who I am right now if I didn't talk about the bankruptcy and the divorce. Those are big topics, though, and conversants don't know what direction to take that. Kelsey's mom was awesome. She said, "Well, bankruptcy and divorce look good on you!" I smiled and thanked her, following up with, "Financial difficulties were just a catalyst for divorce. It was brewing for years."

You can encourage happiness even while acknowledging difficulty. Happiness is an embraceable state even in the midst of opposition. Happiness isn't always words, but finding vocabulary to express happiness helps deepen appreciation of it. Happiness is an attitude, an awareness. Happiness is gratitude for the sweet pink cast of the sky at sunrise, the three little birds singing by your doorstep, the hitch of breath as you push yourself to finish the last mile of your run. It's a sip of hot coffee. It's a sing-along-song on the radio. It's a conversation with someone you haven't seen in years and don't even know all that well, a conversation in which you reveal the truth of your being and smile in the revealing.

surprise

airport security

HNY

Each year I resolve to write more. Is 2012 the year I make it stick?