Brilliant Blue (a haibun)

 This morning I clearly remembered seeing a Blue Jay in my dream.  It looked like this:

I was so delighted to see it! I did register, however, that it didn’t look like most Jays I know…the typical Blue Jay or even the Florida Scrub Jay. They both have a bit more black and/or white. I knew in my dream the bird looked different. It also was fairly large. The feeling I had seeing this bird was pure joy.

The photo above is Unicolor Jay. It lives in Mexico and other parts of Central America. I have never heard of it, nor did I know it existed. Yet, there it was making its presence known in my dream.

I looked up what having a Blue Jay in a dream means, and was glad to see it was positive. I will end this with a haiku I wrote in honor of this small experience that looms large inside me today.

Feathers brilliant blue

Bringing me perseverance 

Peace and harmony

BREATHE (7 Lines, 7 Days #88)

 #108Weeks

January 16-22, 2022

Best movie in a long time: The Tender Bar.

Real laughter is the best way to breathe (Thanks, Natalie).

Everything out of order with my classes is mind-boggling. Glad they’re now back on track.

And reading out loud to them is so fulfilling!

Thich Nhat Hanh, who taught me so much about BREATHING, has left the planet. His teachings will never die, as they are vital to our existence.

Happy surprise when a few changes made one class take off— and on a Friday, no less!

Every morning Wordle gives me a great challenge. Love it!

Between the Branches

 [Note: Sunday morning I arrived at Six Mile Cypress Slough, read David Whyte’s poem “The Thicket,” walked and meditated and took photos, wrote this, and then added quotes from Whyte’s poem in italics.]

I took my meditation to the slough…

free and observant

Contemplated the nature of all things being evolutionary and revolutionary…

surveying the tiny stages and the curtained dramas

Such as the Spanish moss hanging from tree branches…

 every further stage of vision leading me back to smaller and smaller worlds

The Pilated Woodpecker busy on his branch, finding breakfast, preening himself…

Always two realities…action or non-action.

never leave the branching world...a kind of enclosed womb-like eternity

What changes things?

Ideas. Curiosity. Faith.

The trees are both able to be touched and observed in a watery mirror.

Is the reflection telling the truth? 

searching between the branches... the knowledge of some immanence

When it was time to leave, the sun in the Cypress pond lit the way…

 

brought clarity to silence, set me to grow

Heart lifted. Exhilarated. A quiet mind.

Taking all the necessary actions

To meet the revolution.

Quotes That Keep Me Going (7 Lines/7 Days #86)

#108Weeks

January 3-8, 2022

From Kara Vereen

Will you lose your balance?

Will you stumble and fall?

Don't give up

You have a reason to carry on

Lucinda Williams

 

 

Literacy is power.

Kylene Beers

 

 

One energy connects us all,

linking us soul to soul and heart to heart

Julia Cameron

 

 

All I've got to do is to love you

All I have to be is be happy

All it's got to take is some warmth to make it

Blow away, blow away, blow away

George Harrison 

 

 

I am alert to the good in every moment.

Julia Cameron

 

 

You can't just love your country when you win.

Joe Biden 

Beneath the turbulence of daily living, there is a longer, slower pulse of perfect timing

It is to that rhythm I give my soul.

Julia Cameron

 

17. The Heart is a Rainbow

 #66Challenge

 A few weeks ago I was inspired to write based on an ancient poem by Sun Bu-er. That post was #8 The Heart is a Gateway.

I read this poem every day, and have for years, so imagine my delight when I finally start understanding how to apply it to my life. It happened again today.

As last time, the bold parts are the poem, the italicized parts are mine.

Cut brambles long enough

sprout after sprout

Look deeply into the brokenness of the system.

Do not be afraid.

In the cracks the light will shine.

And the lotus will bloom

of its own accord

It suddenly seems obvious.

The recognition comes with a sureness of purpose

and a storehouse of courage.

 

Already waiting in the clearing

the single image of light

 

Where before the path was dark and rocky,

there is now this rainbow of color leading me forward.

 

The day you see this

that day you will become it

 

I am leading with my heart.

My heart is the rainbow.

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!

Keep Walking

A Caboose poem from Grace Butcher's "On the Necessity of Snow Angels for the Well-Being of the World."

Here is a link to the reading of the poem. My poem is below.

 

 

Keep walking

towards the next beautiful thing

you will do

Be it meditating in silence

Stretching your body

Eating your Cheerios.

Be it motivating a reader

Listening to a stressed coworker

Taking another deep breath.

Reminding all that integrity

                   and kindness matter.

Keep walking

5. Challenged and Changed

 #66Challenge

 

These are a few poems representing some of what has been happening since September began. These short poems are written by jumping off a line from a poem I just read. The lines and poets are noted at the beginning of each poem

 

 

9.1.21 

danced up to the moon and stars and galaxies (Angle)

I need to remember to dance.

I'm truly NOT having enough fun with my students.

I'm letting tension seep in.

I'm not taking the right steps again.

Today I will wear my feather earrings and remember to keep it light.

Smile. 

Smile.

Smile.

(behind the mask! ;-)

 

9.2.21

break back into the world (Smith)

Yesterday

I had to be reminded 

to do what works.

Wasn't I the one who

wrote a poem about that?

Even had it published:

You know what to do...

Do what works.

You know what that is. 

 

9.4.21

Time and how are the mysterious

elements of any life

I will find my way home to you (Harjo)

 

Finding my way home

Over and over again

Aware it is never as easy

as it appears on the surface.

 

That's okay.

 

I am challenged.

        I am changed. 

 

Writers Write (7 Lines/7 Days #69)

 #108Weeks

 September 5-11, 2021

 

I had an epiphany about how I spend my time, which sent everything into a better motion.

I haven't been living my creative life.

Writers write. I wrote.

I voice the universe in an original way.

At school, I'm keeping learning and real reading in the forefront.

Getting prepared for my first Creative Writing Club meeting coming up!

I bring my brave face and loving heart each day, and I move forward. 

Making Things Beautiful (7 Lines/7 Days #67)

 #108Weeks

August 22-28, 2021

 

Ted Lasso, my inspiration for all things positive

Observe the obvious.

I will use the ingredients I have to make things beautiful.

Books are window, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.

To improve things, I ask WWTLD? (What would Ted Lasso do?)

Serving the whole I feel myself to be a cherished part.

I started randomly choosing students for "Appreciations" a the beginning of class, complete with a handwritten note from me. Connections!

This year is about effort, focus, and perseverance.

 

 

 

 

 

4. My Heart Knows Its True Name

 #66Challenge

Today in my journal I wrote a long letter to myself.

It seemed like a perfect entry to include as part of my #66Challenge

 

Dear Helen,

It's dawning on you more and more that this school year is about love and safety and kindness. But you can see we can't get there directly. It has to be done from several directions.

One is the overall focus school-wide, which is community. Good start. 

Second, the classroom FLOW which includes how we listen, speak, and conduct ourselves. This has been the current focus and it will probably go on for a while. 

Next up -- empathy and power through reading. Getting a book in the hand of every student. One they want to read, above or below their "level."

Essentially, Helen, you've been given a gift -- these kids you've taught before, those who have been affected by the pandemic for the entire time you've known them, need you more than ever. You have a chance to make an impression on them in roundabout ways. The Read 180 program is what we DO. The WHY of what we do will need to be addressed, and not just once, but over and over again.

You joked about coming into the school year a hot mess and finding a beautiful direction. But look -- it's working. Over the summer you would have never gone this direction, taken this path.

This is the crux of it all:

BEING PRESENT.

Thursday was a turning point -- when you broke through the reliance on the program. It isn't the curriculum.

Kindness is the curriculum. And caring. And believing.

You're being reminded of your first year at Lehigh, how it was a few weeks in when you got the grip of what to do with those seniors to provide what they needed. That year, too, you didn't come in with preconceived notions because you truly did not know how you were going to reach and teach them.

But you sat down Labor Day weekend and made a plan to help them comprehend text and by October some were passing the FCAT on the fourth try, leading to the promise of graduation. And more followed.

You put their interests first. You made it accessible. You took the difficulties of studying British Literature and lightened it up. Made it about being a hero of your own story. Doing right. Not shying away from poetry.

And you believed in them, and they knew it.

This is still the message we need over and over and over again.

They were far from easy.

The kids in front me you now...far from easy.

See the rainbow path.

It is always there for you.

It is real.

It is accessible.

Do not resist.

BELIEVE.

Signed...Your True Heart

 

2. Getting Started

 #66Challenge

Walked the beach this Sunday morning as a way to get a grounded start to the new week. Things have gotten started, and I'm feeling great.

The return on Monday seemed weird somehow. I found myself feeling near tears at times, for absolutely no reason I could discern. Thankfully, it subsided and I've been fine ever since.

My mind has been quiet for the most part, and all the hours of training have just been washing over me. It wasn't until around 3 a.m. on Wednesday that I found myself getting up to make a list of things to do.

I live and die with lists, and hadn't made one at all until that moment!

I'm teaching a course called Global Perspectives and intensive reading course with a program called Read 180. The reading course concerned me, as the independent reading portion relies on learners answering questions for the books they read. That irritates me to no end, since that is NOT the way real readers read!  I don't take quizzes on the books I read. Why should they?

But, even though I know they have to do that, I also have started to figure out ways to include some real world reading. Funny thing is, when I talk to others on my team about it, they are thinking the same thing. I think that is what I like best so far -- a lot of us on the same page.

I have awesome teammates in these courses, one in particular who is a whiz at technology and has already set a lot of things up for us. There were concerns about how to grade within these courses, but we will figure that out. It seems that when someone starts getting freaked out about how something will happen, or when, I get calmer, and in turn calm them down. I came into this school year wanting to be more peaceful, more kind, more aware of the moment. And so far, so good. Seriously. It's been working so far.

Open House was fun. I got to see and hug so many returning students and talk highly about them to their parents. I felt like I was truly being myself, and even with returnees who may have been less than ideal last year, we were able to talk openly about it and set a new course. Incredibly cool!

The other thing to note is that there is a lot of emphasis on building a loving, kind, and empathetic community at our school, and I couldn't be happier. I already wanted to do that, and so I'm glad to know I won't be alone. There will be some school-wide lessons coming, and I have some productive ideas up my sleeve to implement. I hope to write about some of these in the coming days.

I know I'm in the glow of the new school year, and that's fine. I'm going to enjoy this feeling while it lasts!

 

Back in Balance (7 Lines/ 7 Days #63)

 #108Weeks

 July 25-31, 2021

 

 The trip put me in Zen mode.

This is my final week of the summer and the focus is self-care.

It's nice to be lazy!

I'm feeling a desire to get back to writing, but just can't grab on to anything. Who am I as a writer?

In a poem I read, the word "balance" stood out to me. I contemplated all the ways this applies right now.

It's really about watching my mind and responding to where it leads me.

Living the question brought me an answer. I have a new, solid, meaningful writing project on the horizon, and its making me feel connected and whole again.

The Purge (7 Lines/ 7 Days #61)

 #108Weeks

 

July 11-17, 2021

 

 

Discovered an awesome talent: Amethyst Kiah

Feeling rested and grounded

It's purging time: books and clothes

Knocked out all the safety trainings :-)

Discovered a funny TV show on Prime: Loudermilk

I'm always most productive before leaving town

My shelves and dresser drawers are organized finally!

 

Raising the Vision (7 Lines/ 7 Days #60)

 #108weeks

 

July 4-10, 2021

 

I realized walking fuels my writing. Riding the exercise bike does not.

Enjoyed a delicious Cuban lunch at a new place called Cubans Be Like

I made a list of things to do to keep me grounded, since I was feeling pretty anxious. Haven't really had to use it because one yoga session fixed the issue

Every time we recognize a blessing, it increases our capacity to receive a blessing*

Finally read the book Pride and Prejudice and find I'm not terribly impressed

Clarity + Confidence = Vision**

New guiding question: What does it mean to live in harmony?

 

 

 

 

Quotes:* Julia Cameron   **Angela Watson