Mad Lib

 Inspired by January O'Neil's poem "Mad Lib for Ella"

It's already 3:30 on a Saturday, 

the one before kids come back. 

I want to feel at rested and ready, 

 

but I don't. Spent way too

 

much time making docs and trying

 

to make sense but honestly,

 

I don't know what anything will

 

really be like. So now I look at

 

the fluffy afternoon August clouds

 

and realize it's almost September

 

in the weirdest year of my life --

 

in all our lives. Everything we took

 

for granted -- movies, concerts, parties,

 

and school events -- have disappeared.

 

Every day is a new lesson in unanswered

 

questions and wondering and just

 

trying to be present in our own

 

hearts and minds and to be

 

present for others. 2020 appears 

 

to be one long Mad Lib that keeps

 

going and going -- we never know 

 

what word will appear next.

 

And we've given up trying to make meaning.

Onward! (7 Lines/7 Days #15)

 #108Weeks

August 23-29, 2020

 

 I get to go to work today. Thank you God!

 

Life is changing rapidly. Who knew?

 

Today is the two hour blah blah blah that will just piss everybody off.

 

This weekend I need to treat myself.

 

 I've already confused students by changing something on Google Classroom 

I wasn't supposed to change. Ha ha.  Just the beginning.

 

Feels like this week evaporated.

 

Onward!

200 Kids (7 lines/7 Days #14)

 #108Weeks

August 16-22, 2020

"The future -- any future -- depends on our understanding the true value of the good reader, and the role of deep reading in how we live out our lives." (Maryann Wolf)

We can't check out books to the kids, so I am purging old ones and will give them away for free. Best compromise I have, and still puts books in their hands.

I have really done a lot of good work on being calm and clear in my purpose. At the same time I need to stay aware of the dangers.

Despite it all, I am happy and feeling productive and my body is a good kind of tired. I needed this.

The acronym I created a couple of years ago applies to everything!

BR -- Build Relationships

ID -- Illuminate Discovery

GE -- Generate Expression

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." (Albert Camus)

Got my rosters. 200 kids!

Sunday Rain (7 Lines/7 Days #13)

 #108 Weeks

August 9-15, 2020

Sunday rain 

Heard the call 

Everything Changed

"Either we connect to the deeper roots of imagination and become greater vessels for genuine visions and the flow of life, or else we shrink and become trapped in ever smaller patterns and fearful containers."

Everything changed in 24 hours.

"Adversity reveals genius. Prosperity conceals it."

I was jamming myself into a smaller vessel. I was focused on what wasn't going to be, instead of using my ingenuity to create anew.

Now my classroom calls to me. It is where I need to be.

Resilience

Rooting Down

Radical Acceptance

Do the next right thing.

Ode to Joy Harjo

 Thank you, Joy Harjo

Poet Laureate and saxophone player

for your perspective on

American life that reaches

all of us with kindness and

                      spirit and

                     sometimes uncomfortable bluntness.

Thank you, Joy Harjo

for announcing the moments we become human

and declaring when the sunrise will burst forth.

Thank you, Joy Harjo

for reminding me that we all have

a Council of Guardians watching over us,

gently pushing us to be the best version

of ourselves, and never letting us get 

away with less.

Thank you, Joy Harjo,

for helping us to remember 

                     to dance

                    and chant

                    and allow the rain of

                   history to drench us in

                  forgiving truth.

 

 

                    

 

Write Around the Corner Meeting Prompts August 8, 2020

 #WriteAroundtheCorner

 

 

Invitation to Write.  

A poem by Wendell Berry.

 

Laurie also recommended this article as a place to find some inspiration.

 Wild & Domestic

#2 From the Alliance for the Arts Creativity Crate

CREATE HAPPINESS

Make a list of things that make you happy in two minutes.

Choose one or more to write about in any format you choose: ode, haiku, mini-memoir

 

#3 The Action of a Sentence from Writing Down the Bones (Natalie Goldberg)

Enduring Advice on a Birthday Week (7 Lines/7 Days #12)

 #108Weeks

 August 2-8, 2020

 

"If you're going to pray, don't worry. If you're going to worry, don't pray."

 Not sure exactly why, but fear has flown away. I'm sure whatever happens is all in Divine Order.

I am feeling positive this will take us to the place we need to be.

"Do everything as if it's your last time doing it."

I will know what to do when it is time to do it.

Going back through my journals and papers has helped me see part of me -- some I don't like too much -- but it definitely was a worthwhile project. I feel better about everything because of it.

"Just keep swimming."

Windows (7 Lines/ 7 Days #11)

#108 Days

July 26 - August 1, 2020

I am very happy I went to my Power Spot yesterday.

And seeing the butterfly really made it.

Lin-Manuel Miranda says teaching isn't about performing, like he thought.

It's keeping the ball in the air, and having their back.

I did restorative yoga yesterday and yes, it did restore me.

Sorry I didn't do it sooner.

My journal project was worth the time sludging through the mud and the muck

to find gems, to hold them closely once again.

Wrote a story called "The Window."

It makes me feel happy to write.

Feels good to be in a new phase here, reading and writing short stories.

Keep the good stuff. Release the rest.

Stay focused on enjoying summer and

creating a newly-organized life.