What Life Can Be

 I finally got in the car

And drove down to Fort Myers Beach

I was motivated by a book signing at

Annette’s Book Nook 

As well as the collection of books I’ve

Had ready to take to the her

Since last June.

Going over the bridge, colorful building were still in sight

Margaritaville squeezed in

And then a long stretch

With a lot of open spaces.

Only the sturdiest building remained.

I contemplated how I can bring a more youthful approach

To my life

And make more space for fun

I suppose in a way I was hit with my own kind of hurricane

This year

The changes, the losses, the realities

But the Architect of the Universe

Has built a strong structure inside of me

Everything will take time

And that is what I have

Time to create openings for new visions

Of what life can be.

2025 will include plenty of reading & writing

That Part of Me

While reading a novel yesterday,

the book The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion was mentioned.

I knew that she wrote it about the year after her husband died,

and even though it was published in 2005,

and I had avoided it until 2022, when I faced my fear

and read it.

There was a singular part

that stood out to me

when I read the memoir,

and I needed it yesterday.

See, I’ve been feeling off balance and unable to determine why.

But now I know.

The part of me reflected in Jim’s eyes

is gone.

It can’t be otherwise.

It’s what we lose and have to repair when someone dies.

I’m finding it difficult to lose the anxiety on this.

I looked up the review I wrote on Good Reads,

and just as I suspected

I had documented the part that mattered most.

That spoke the loudest.

As it does today.

I have to allow the mourning is not just for Jim,

but for who I was in his presence.

My anxiety is that I am not sure who I am without him. 

I am hoping that knowing this will help me move forward

without looking for something that is no longer there.

Intuition

 Way back in 2003, a friend gave me a dystopian novel called Just a Couple of Days. This book has been on my shelf all these years and I finally read it over this past month.

The book held my attention, although I actually wouldn’t recommend it. But last night while I was reading, something jumped out at me and it made me wonder… How is it we find what we need at the exact moment we probably need it?

It was this quote on page 329:

Faith is the genuine trust in intuition.

This year I have thought a great deal about faith and trust, but I haven’t thought a lot about intuition. But isn’t that what’s always happening?

Yesterday was a great example. Right before I went to church, I was having trouble with my printer. I looked up how to fix it according to the error code I was getting, and decided that I would figure it out when I got home from church. There appeared to be several steps that were unnerving me. This caused me anxiety. Right now I don’t need anything going wrong, even an error code on my printer. I would just like to get through a day without having to handle some kind of a crazy thing.

So it was on my mind while I was at church, and I found myself praying for an answer. I’m not sure why it had me so upset, but it did and I was trying very hard to hold it together.

Near the end of the service, I heard a little voice tell me that when I get home do research again and go from there. I realized that the information I had was from 2019, and I thought well, I’ll look and see if there’s anything more recent. Well, there was and it fixed the problem pronto with a couple easy steps. Where is my faith? My trust? Am I selling myself short?

Were my prayers answered in church? Or was it my intuition?

Are they the same thing?

“And yet the books…”

 This poem inspired by “And Yet the Books” by Czeslaw Milosz.

And yet the books will be there on the shelf, separate beings

My best laid plans to read them stolen from me

Concentrating on fiction now is particularly tough

I do hope someday to return. And when I do,

The books will be there on the shelf, well born

Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.

Another Day, Another Retelling

 I have two long time favorite columnists from Cleveland. They are Connie Schultz and Regina Brett. They are both inspiring to me as women, as writers, and as people who deeply plumb their experiences and put them in words.

A bit over a week ago, Connie quoted musician Nick Cave in something she put on Facebook. She now writes for Substack and teaches writing at a university in Ohio.When she quoted Cave, she mentioned that she had been told about his book Faith, Hope and Carnage from sister writer Regina Brett.

So, of course, I had to check out the book for myself. 

To be clear, I've never listened to Nick Cave's music. I guess he's from Australia and was kind of post-punk? I don't know. All I know is that what Connie posted got my curiosity up.

The local library had the book, and I've been working my way through it. It is a conversation, not a memoir. And it is full of beauty and awareness and the power of writing music and being a human being who grieves. (Cave's 15-year-old son died falling off a cliff.)

There are many things I want to share about what I've been reading, because some stuff is really sticking with me. I plan to just take one at a time. Today, it is this quote that begins on page 68. 

We should never underestimate that sense of being in the groove of life, of moving from one situation to another with the wind at your back, of being purposeful and valuable, of life having some semblance of order. It's really something, that feeling, made all the more profound because you know how transitory and easily broken it is. It seems to me, life is mostly spent putting ourselves back together. But hopefully in new and interesting ways. For me that is what the creative process is, for sure. It is the act of retelling the story of our lives so that it makes sense.

This week has been one of trying to get my bearings in what feels like a different life in many aspects. What “I am” has appeared to change. But yesterday, after a text conversation with my friend Kate, I realized who I am is not different. It’s the things I’m feeling that are different—feeling I haven’t had before that grow, change, and take me by surprise.

As a caretaker now, I realize that naming my feelings is essential to staying in a loving mode. I did that yesterday, and hope to do so going forward. Doing that helped me make a few decisions yesterday that needed to be made, and set me on a path forward to accomplish some things around here. I had been blocked. There is some relief now.

I kept thinking to be creative I needed to find a way to do something different. But right now, I’m creating a new life seemingly every day depending on the needs around here. As usual, it comes back to the present moment and knowing that in that place, all is well.

I was trying to figure out how to wrap this all up, and came upon this. I will let George have the last word.

It’s being here now that is most important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.

 

 

Learning to Read

I purchased this book years ago at a used book store, and every summer I vow to read it. But until Friday, I had not read a word.

I finally ventured into this novel on Friday, and returned to it yesterday. It was around page 50 when the frustration set in. Like, what the heck is going on? I considered abandoning the book, but went looking for advice instead.

This is a common problem for people reading this Nobel Prize winning novel, I discovered. Someone had encountered the same issue as me, and asked about it on a GoodReads forum. There I found a lot of useful advice:

—Don’t look for plot. This is a telling of a family through time.

—Read it like it’s a dream.

—Don’t try to keep track of the characters, many that have identical names. Just enjoy each little story.

—It’s like stream of consciousness. Relax into it. It will pay off.

—Watch how often Marquez uses the words “solitude” and “solitary.”

—If it bothers you, don’t read it. Life is too short to spend reading books you don’t like.

It’s not like I haven’t read Latin American literature or magical realism before. But this Marquez book is clearly something else. I was looking for experience like I’ve had with other literary classics, like when I finally read The Color Purple in 2020, or The Grapes of Wrath in 2022. But I didn’t expect I’d have to learn how to approach it. That’s a new one on me! 

I’ve decided to continue, but I let myself off the hook as far as how fast I will read it. Some said they had read it off and on for a year. It is that type of book for sure. 

What I’m not sure of is reading it before bed. I read several pages last night before turning off the light, and I had crazy dreams all night! I actually felt it was disruptive. So maybe I still need to learn how to read this book.

Challenge accepted.

Don’t Waste Your Life (On Saying Yes, Part 2)

On Saturday morning I went for my biweekly massage. While I was there, I realized a couple of things, one being that I need to reread Thich Nhat Hanh's book Being Peace. I first read this in 1992, bit by bit, and have returned to parts of it many times. This time I knew I had to read all the way through.

 

After I returned home, I got right on it. It wasn't long before I wrote this in my journal:

 

I have already started reading and my eyes are opening. 

I'm realizing just how much I've let the current circumstances give me "permission" to be a bitch.

I knew it felt wrong. But it was easier.

Thay (his nickname) suggests doing "gathas" -- four lines that help you focus. Here is an example:

Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment

I know this is a wonderful moment.

Thay is very big on smiling, focusing on breath, and being aware of suffering. 

It is the last one that has had the most impact on me. 

This is the thing I turn away from consistently. I ignore it and focus on other things. But it is always there and by the time I finished the book, I knew it was the thing I've been missing for a very long time.

I am now practicing my oneness with suffering--my own and others. I now can see more clearly how much impact this has on me, and how healing it can be. It brings peace.

Thay mentions that in every Buddhist monastery they have an 8 line poem posted. It ends with the words "Don't waste your life." I cannot waste this opportunity for growth.

 

*

Sunday morning I read Mary Oliver's essay on Poe, entitled "The Bright Eyes of Eleanora: 

Poe's Dream of Recapturing the Impossible."

My first thought with the word "impossible" is that it is possible to ignore the suffering, but not possible to escape it. On page 91, Mary expresses this perfectly in relation to Poe:

We do not think of it every day, but we will never forget it: the beloved shall grow old, or ill, and be taken away finally. No matter how ferociously we fight, how tenderly we love, how bitterly we argue, how persuasively we berate the universe, how cunningly we hide, this is what shall happen. In the wide circles of timelessness, everything material and temporal will fail, including the manifestation of the beloved. In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and scorch us. This is Poe's real story. As it is ours. And this is why we honor him, why we are fascinated far past the simple narratives. 

He writes about our own inescapable destiny.

Wow.

If that doesn't make you cry, nothing will!

 

*

This connected back to reading Being Peace. The suffering is around us. Impermanence is the law. 

We share an inescapable destiny. We can be in the moment. Smile. Breathe. Love.

We can be One.

And this was the takeaway -- one with everything. 

One with the minor irritations.

One with nature.

One with fear.

One with joy.

One with worry.

One with the Sacred.

 

I am nature and nature is me.

I am joy and joy is me.

I am the universe and the universe is me.

 

No matter what comes up, I apply this non-duality.

 

I am cleaning the pan. The pan is cleaning me.

I am listening to music. The music is listening to me.

I am my orchid. The orchid is me.

 

 I have to record this today so I may refer right back to it at any time. 

*

Mary ends her essay on Poe saying his words and valor are all he had. She ends by referring to a character in one of his stories, rushing forward and battering hopelessly against incomprehensibly, 

with frail fists, with "the wild courage of despair."

I feel for Poe and his characters.

But I don't want that to be me.

I've had enough of that already.

So I will live these words from Thay instead:

 

Guiding Principles

 I have been a fan of Jean Shinoda Bolen since I read Goddesses in Everywoman in 1994. She has been my companion through aging, with such books as Crossing to Avalon (about midlife) and Goddesses in Older Women. Today I completed a short volume for people in my age group: Crones Don’t Whine.

This book really came through at the end, when she played on the four guiding principles of life by anthropologist Angeles Arrien:

1. Show up

2. Pay attention

3. Speak your truth

4. Don’t be attached to outcome

Bolen changed this a little bit, and it’s definitely a good reminder for me these days:

1. Show up

2. Pay attention

3. Speak your truth

4. Pray for best outcome

Her reasoning for changing the last one fits with my belief: we don’t know exactly what ours or anyone else’s journeys are. All we can do is live and love the best way possible. 

In the final part she added this question for living as well: I wonder what is going to happen next?

As I head into work today, and the week ahead I am taking this question with me. 

My Happy Place

When I was a child, my father would sometimes take me to Lakewood Library after dinner. He'd drop me off in the children's section and go to seek out books for himself. Lakewood Library at that time (built by Andrew Carnegie) was like a palace. The children's section had a huge bay window that overlooked the front lawn, full of trees. A huge marble winding staircase took my dad to where he would find what he was looking for.

When visiting my grandparents in Columbus, I would often see a huge stack of library books in the corner of their living room. My mom's parents were always old, so I pictured their weekdays sitting and reading these books. It was astounding to me. I had no idea you could check out and read so many books!

I thought about these things yesterday as I finally gave in and drove to South County Regional Library, since my happy place, Lakes Library, remains a Disaster Recovery Center. I know it is needed but, dang, I miss my library! I miss the OPTION of my library.

I have specific reading goals this year that are mostly focused on reading a long list of books I've been meaning to read for years. To read these books does not mean to purchase them all, although some I do have to buy. It means checking them out from the library.

Before heading out, I looked online for the specific books to be sure they were available. Then I drove down on a sunny day, listening to Classic Vinyl and feeling so...happy! I wasn't even in the library very long, but I got what I went for...four novels and a Book Page. It made for one awesome afternoon, as I perused the Book Page and started the Jennifer Weiner book. 

And in a small way, it brought back a little more wholeness to my life which was stolen on that gray September day.

"Dear Parker" Project Introduction

This past spring and early summer, I was rereading a book by Parker J. Palmer called On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. This book contains a series of essays based on letters Parker wrote to friends of his. He gathered the ideas together into a book that is a wonderful manual for growing older...how to act, how to think about things, how to reflect. It's the second time I read it in less than three years, and couldn't believe how much more meaningful it was to me at 66, compared to 64.

 

I decided at that time to read Parker Palmer's seminal work: The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. I had read sections of it many years ago, before I actually started teaching. I figured there would be valuable information for me, and decided that I would use that book as a springboard to a series of Dear Parker letters.

 

 

Every day I read a section, and then write a Dear Palmer letter in my journal. I came into the project knowing I'd write a letter every day, applying the information to my teaching life. But I quickly realized I didn't need to post every single thought here -- just ones that stood out to me as being most important in revelation or in future remembrance and application.

This past Sunday I came across such material, and wrote a letter I felt fitting to officially begin the project on this blog. Today I share that in my first Dear Parker letter on the next entry in this stream.

 

#DearParker

59. Shakespeare & Hip Hop

 #66Challenge

Today I pulled out and oldie but goodie—lines from Shakespeare’s plays and lyrics from hip hop songs.  This is something from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and was squirreled away in a free kit I got from them many years ago. Our school is currently participating in One Book, One School, and the text this year is Shakespeare’s Secret, so it gives us opportunities to do some Shakespeare-related activities.

The process works like this: learners get a stack of strips with the lines. They randomly choose 10 to make a found poem. When done, they use the leftovers to form more purposeful poems. 

Here is a random:

(Take note: the bold lines are Shakespeare, the regular text strips are from hip hop songs.)

Here are a few more created “on purpose” today:

The kids were surprised at how these random lines could actually “make sense.”  Perhaps we took a short step to helping them not be afraid of the language of Shakespeare. Even if that did not happen, this tactile activity had them smiling! 

56. The Darkest Corner

 #66Challenge

Today I had the honor of attending a 10 year class reunion brunch for the class of 2012 at Lehigh Senior High, where I worked from 2007-2013. There wasn’t a huge turnout, but I did get to see a few students I taught back in the day, and we had some good conversation. One of these students was Ashley, a girl I taught for 3 years during my tenure there.

The principal (JC) was there, and took us on a tour of the school, which has changed dramatically since I worked there and the class of 2012 attended. Many of the attendees were former athletes, and hearing their reactions to the way school is done these provided some hilarity. I have been part of some of these changes at my current school, so to hear their comments made me realize how many things have changed in a short time.

When we got to what had been the library back in the day, JC explained before we even went in that students no longer check out textbooks or library books: everything is online. This puzzled one young man who couldn’t understand where all the AR books went. We walked into a stark white room with gray tables and suspended black chairs, and little else. JC had to keep emphasizing to the confused twentysomethings that books were no longer needed, that the students can read everything on their chrome books and personal devices. Ashley gave me a pained look, and I said, “Yeah, I don’t think this is entirely a good thing.” She responded, “I kind of like the Dewey Decimal System.”  A girl after my own heart! 

Then JC explained that in-school suspension is in the old TV production room—the only room with no windows, and the coldest room in the school. When we walked into the dark room the guys noticed that there was a shelf of old paperback books. One of them said sarcastically, “Oh, so you’re allowed to read in here.” That had the group howling with laughter.

All in all, was a fun visit. I will give credit where it is due—the school really is beautiful, and the changes are positive. Well…except that the only books in sight were shoved in the corner of the darkest room on campus!

Yes, I can’t get over the loss of the books that once graced that library. I know this has happened at many high schools, and it still feels like it’s wrong somehow. I’m grateful my middle school still has a regular library where kids can pick up a book, study the cover, hold it in their hands, and check it out. 

Some things just shouldn’t be discarded when it comes to education. 

How I Spent My Spring Break (7 Lines/ 7 Days #97)

 #108Weeks

March 20-26, 2022

Brunching with friends

Catching up on writing projects

Uncovering my natural gifts and creative approaches

Exploring art and books and Asian food in St. Pete

Planning my trip to Ohio in June

Making decisions about my teaching life—all good

2021 Wrap-Up (7 Lines/7 Days #85)

 

#108Weeks

 

December 26, 2021 - January 1, 2022
 

As I did last year, I'm including my musings on some favorites of the year, and my focus for the coming year.

I’ve had a wonderful final week of the year, full of time with friends and setting the best direction for myself. This time has been healing.

 

I’ve heard this quote a million times, but this week it hit me deep inside as a message I need to embrace: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

 

My favorite books published in 2021: The Lost Apothecary and Ground Zero

 

My favorite albums released in 2021: Blessings and Miracles by Santana; Wary + Strange by Amythyst Kiah; and Renewal by Billy Strings.

 

My word for 2022 is FAITH.  My guiding concept is WILD JOY. My question is WHO BENEFITS?

 

My motivational song for the new year is "Blow Away" by George Harrison

 

My Native American Medicine for 2022 is Dog which stands for Loyalty, Service, and Remaining True to My Personal Truth.

Perfect! 😊

 

 

 

Love & Faith & Joy (7 Lines/7 Days #84)

 #108Weeks

December 19-25, 2021

I've been revising my reading goals for 2022, and liking the direction.

I came face-to-face with the fact that I need a major mental adjustment.

Atomic Habits by James Clear is helping me make small changes to get my physical strength back in a manageable way.

On Solstice Day I wrote this: I commit more fully to the life I know I can live. I commit more fully to vulnerability, innovation, creation, and joy.  I commit more fully to cultivating my heart, leading with my heart, shining light from my heart. And I seriously commit to not blaming others or myself for what is. I welcome it all -- every ugly and beautiful moment, encounter, and feeling -- as TEACHER.

I must continue to look at each moment with love and faith and joy. I'm calling it WILD JOY.

Progress, not perfection.

Have faith and be the change!

Thinking Out Loud on an Auspicious Solstice Morning

 Written 12-21-21

I am finding inspiration and motivation from every direction.

A few days ago I realized I was ready to move on from the place I've been, which has been rather stuck. I knew this was coming, but I did not have a vision.

Today the vision began to form.

First, with Atomic Habits by James Clear. I'm thinking What kind of person do I want to be? And What habits will get me there?

This motivated me to get on my exercise bike, and I put on a podcast from Michael Meade called "The Cultivated Heart: In Loving Memory of Robert Bly."  I have met both of these men before, and Robert passed a month ago today.  In the podcast, Michael focused a lot on writings Robert did for a poetry anthology they worked on together called The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. It has always been one of my favorite collections.

What was helpful to me is that the topic of cultivating our hearts caused Michael to focus on a few specific poems, two of which really spoke to me.

 

I think I will also take a moment to mention why I knew I was stuck, even as I knew it was time to move on. First, I had a meeting with some friends where I found myself blaming a lot of others for things I'm encountering. This left me emotionally reeling for at least 12 hours, and was not a pleasant experience.

Second, I met a friend for lunch and a Broadway show, only to find myself surprised that she brought me Christmas presents. Why I was surprised baffled me. We always exchange gifts. How is it that I have not even given it ONE thought these last few weeks when I knew we had this event coming up?  My only answer is that I have become ridiculously insular and selfishly focused that even things that should be evident go right past me. Not a good feeling. I blamed myself deeply for the neglect of this important exchange.

Another thing I encountered recently that brought me up short was revisiting other blog posts from Decembers of previous years. It is there I found something I wrote on December 9, 2017 called "On Questions and Contradictions." In this post I discovered that much of what I keep complaining about now are the exact same things that were happening then. Have I not even figured out how to do better?

In the blog, I referred to the poem "The Sunflowers" by Mary Oliver, in which she suggests we ask sunflowers questions:

Come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy
but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young –
the important weather,
the wandering crows.
Don’t be afraid
to ask them questions!
Their bright faces,
which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds –
each one a new life!

I then proceeded to ask myself a lot of questions, many I still have today. Things like...How do I get through to my students? Why do I go through this every year? What will make real change? 

And most importantly, Why can't I be you, Sunflower?

Coming upon this blog post was unforgettable in this current quest.  Leave it to Michael Meade to pick up the pieces for me when he read this poem:

This poem connected everything together -- all my tears, my grief, my vulnerability, my blaming of others, and a good comeuppance on how wrong my view can be. This is about seeds being cultivated. It has been too easy to tighten up and not let that seed explode into something wonderful. After all, everything real in life is about breaking open to the moment. Without it, there is no creativity, no innovation.

Michael goes on to explain:

[We must live] with immediacy of the soul, that rare sense that the next moment can break open. And that we must...marry it, step into it, and become ourselves in that moment of opening and awaking. If we fail to do that we have not fully participated in the world.

It is obvious I have to do that which is really difficult for me -- truly open up, live more fully, love more actively. I have been saying this for years, and I think I'm doing it, but recent events have found my fault lines. And recent events have also taught me I have no time to waste. I look ahead and I see an end line. This is a new feeling, and one I must reckon with.

But Michael wasn't done. Then he introduced this poem, which gave me further marching orders!

To Be a Slave of Intensity (Kabir, trans. by Robert Bly)

Friend, hope for the guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think...and think...while you are alive.
What you call 'salvation' belongs to the time before death.

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
Just because the body is rotten -
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity. 

JUMP INTO EXPERIENCE WHILE YOU ARE ALIVE.

BREAK THE ROPES.

I simply LOVE that! 

"So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is, Believe in the Great Sound"

Welcome it all--joy and sorrow. Don't ignore any of it. ENGAGE!

So the answer to Why can't I be you, Sunflower?

is

I AM. I just don't activate it.

*

I'm not quite done, even though that seems like quite a lot.

For the first time in a long time I pulled a Rune stone. And the word was perfect, of course: FAITH.

This is already a word I have embraced during the journey over these past few months. I discovered it when I did the 33 Question Cards to find my word. When the Rune divination said the same, well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

And I still needed these words:

Faith encourages us to believe that we can make a difference -- in ourselves and in the world.

And so, on this auspicious solstice day of 12-21-21, I commit more fully to the life I know I need to live. I commit more fully to vulnerability, innovation, creation, and joy. I commit more fully to cultivating my heart, leading with my heart, shining light from my heart. And I seriously commit to not blaming others or myself for what is. I welcome it all--every ugly or beautiful moment, encounter, or feeling-- as TEACHER.

I needed to identify the turning point, and this has been it.

11:05 am  12/21/2021

 

Be the Joy (7 Lines/ 7 Days #78)

 #108Weeks

November 7-13, 2021

 

 

There is a way, and it's called Surrender to God.

I spent most of the week with little energy.

This quote from a young adult novel* I was reading stopped me in my tracks: What if the whole world is actually powered by secret rage?

My spiritual landscape has been made anew.

I have faith I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

I read an essay** by an elementary educator in Alaska and she came to the same conclusion I have come to: We must be the joy we want to see in the world. No one is coming to save us.

Saturday I woke with a return of my energy. I am grateful.

 

 

* Of a Feather by Dayna Lorentz 

**Anyone who knows or cares about teachers should read this blog post: https://jenabenton.com/2021/10/21/its-time-to-talk-about-whats-going-on-in-school/

Blessings & Miracles (7 Lines, 7 Days #74)

 #108Weeks

October 10-16, 2021

Every choice is a chance

Started the week physically worn out from an active weekend

The intensive reading classes are averaging 60% on the interim

By Wednesday I was feeling better—wore a bright dress and a smile

Books save lives!

Finally got my classroom library arranged so we can find what we’re looking for!

The new Santana album Blessings and Miracles is both. Love it!

Wildflowers (7 Lines/7 Days #71)

#108Weeks

September 19-25, 2021

 

I'm starting to think of my learners as wildflowers

My heart brims with affection and expansion

Things are moving along well

Heard "Daydream Believer" on the way to work and got all green lights

I'm falling behind on my personal reading

Love the Lucinda Williams song "When Your Way Gets Dark"

The week ended with the feeling of accomplishment and completion

6. New Growth

New orchids on my lanai inspired this piece

 #66Challenge