In Praise and Love

Praise to those doing our lawn care today
Praise to the meal delivery service who keeps fresh food in our home
Praise to my writer friends who express and share
Praise to those working hard to figure out the next step
Praise to musicians who keep sharing their talent
Praise to those who understand our responsibility to each other

Love to all who are suffering
Love to all who feel lost
Love to all taking care of children
Love to all who stand up for others
Love to the kindnesses that hold the world together
Love to those we cannot reach, but who are forever in our hearts.

Tiny Changes (7 Lines/7 Days #4)

#108Weeks

I haven't been able to get out and walk because of the rain

It will be cloudy and muggy again today. No sun to dry the air.

Today today today I will eat at a restaurant for the first time since March 13th!

Things are quiet within me & that's cool.

For whatever reason I slept better last night. Okay maybe I do know the reason.
I didn't drink wine.

Yesterday I decided to restrict myself to two times a day on Facebook.

Looking at the weather, it will be nice to get out and walk.

Write Around the Corner Meeting Prompts 6/13/2020

#WriteAroundtheCorner

Note: Beginning in two weeks, we will be moving from a weekly meeting to twice a month --the 2nd and 4th Saturday, same time.


Invitation to Write

#2 Before I Die I Want to...

 

Based on a worldwide project:
https://beforeidieproject.com/

NOTE FROM HELEN: Amy told us about this project having connections to the Stoics from Ancient Greece, and suggested this video. I found it super informative. I've always had kind of a negative understanding of Stoicism, but once I started watching this video I could see immediately that it is very much like Buddhism!

I highly recommend watching this 5 minute video.

#3 List of nouns that could prompt writing, or be titles of poems, essays, or stories.

With Pockets

Special thanks to Laurie Kemp for this writing prompt. It caused a whole flood of memories, and ideas for blog posts.  What could be better?

Laurie's prompt was simple: What clothes do you put on when you want to feel especially good?  She asked that we really think of the reasons for these particular items to make us feel uplifted or powerful or whatever we feel when we dress this way.

I immediately thought of my long pocket dresses. And here I want to give props to my friend Annmarie who introduced me to the Auselily brand available on amazon.  Casual dresses in a variety of colors, super comfortable and practical, a teacher's dream. And I want to emphasize -- POCKETS.

I immediately purchased some of these dresses and, lo and behold, discovered they had a line of maxi dresses as well.

The Maxi!

For years I have tried to find comfortable maxi dresses. It is a style I have always adored. But many of the dresses on the market were too dressy or the material was weird or they had plunge necklines or spaghetti straps or they just weren't considered in style, so not even available.

I not only purchased many knee-length dresses, I also purchased many of the long ones. Dresses with flowers and 1960s style designs, dresses in deep purple or indigo, which prompted our school counselor to tell me that wearing those dresses made me "look like the queen of CLMS."

So yeah -- I guess the good feeling translated to the outer world.

Then came quarantine, and my dresses languished in the closet. I swear, I cannot see those long dresses hanging there without a longing to wear them.

On a Sunday in April I decided enough was enough. Yes, like most people I had been dressed in casual clothes, sans bra, for weeks. But on this particular Sunday I was making a nice dinner and decided, heck, time to dress up!

I showered, dressed, poured myself a glass of wine and took this photo and posted it:

The response was immediate. I received over a dozen comments and over 133 likes/loves.

This small act seemed to reach out to people who were probably in the same place I was -- in a holding pattern. Something had to be done to break through.

Now back to the prompt. Laurie says to think deeply about WHY wearing this clothing is important. And then I was transported to another time.

Long flowered skirts were popular when I was in high school. In sewing class my sophomore year I made a maxi skirt and a peasant blouse to go with it. The skirt had a green background covered with  a variety of tiny flowers. The peasant blouse was a complimentary shade of spring green. To my knowledge there is no picture of me in this outfit, but it is one I fondly remember.

**
As I grow older, I am learning that aging is about finding pieces of yourself from the past, and applying them to life today.

And that takes me to June 19, 1971.

This was an evening that I went on a double date to dinner and to see Elton John, someone who was just breaking on the scene at the time. The other girl on the date was Ellen, a friend from school. The guys went to one of the all boy Catholic schools. These weren't great romances or anything -- we had gone through a common experience together which I now plan on writing about in another post.

Anyway, Ellen and I both decided to wear long dresses. We were being taken to one of Cleveland's premier restaurants, Pier W. It was a perfect summer evening to sit in this exquisite restaurant that sits right on Lake Erie, with a view of the Cleveland skyline. I know I had rarely, if ever, been in such a fancy place.

Then the concert, which was unbelievably fantastic and made me a hard and fast Elton John fan.

But it is what happened afterward. The concert was at Public Hall in downtown Cleveland. The auditorium is on what is called "the mall" -- a walking place and public area. It features a large fountain.

And that is where we founnd ourselves after the show -- along with many other fans. We saw that a ton of people were hopping into the fountain, dancing in the water, joyful and a bit crazy, singing Elton lyrics at the top of their lungs. Ellen and I didn't hesitate -- long skirts and all, we found ourselves in the fountain, dancing with abandon.

Just writing about this is bringing tears to my eyes. A piece of my past came into full relief today.

Why does this clothing make you feel good? is now easy to answer.

When I put on a long, comfortable dress,

I'm fifteen,

enchanted by music,

dancing in the water...

and this time...

with pockets.

64. Those Final Days

#64Challenge

Well, here I am. #64.

I don't need to say again that this was an incredibly intense school year, and that the lessons learned  will stay with me for a long time. I think I've stated that plenty during this project.

I've been holding this one for the end. Before I get to "those final days," a little backstory.

*
The National Writing Project used to sponsor a professional development every February at Florida Gulf Coast University. There was always great workshops and a nationally known keynote speaker. During my first year teaching, I attended the conference, and the keynote was given by Brod Bagert, an animated and fun-loving poet, who taught me something essential I have never forgotten:

Young people need to hear their voices reciting poetry out loud. Once they hear it, everything else you want to teach them becomes easier. The meaning and power moves beyond words on a page.

I took this and immediately started Poetry Fridays. At the time I was teaching three double-blocked 6th graders, 90-minutes every day, Language Arts and Reading. Giving a half hour on a Friday seemed like the perfect thing to accomplish what Brod had promised.

And yes, I think there was a pay-off. At the time, the classes were mixed ability -- so I had gifted in with kids who couldn't read a lick. I was scrambling to make it work.

They took to Poetry Friday like birds sailing on the wisps of wind high up in the sky. Brod had said the kids needed to memorize the poems, but I knew that was not going to work. I would not get enough participation.

Instead, they had time to look up poems in the several poetry books I had, mark the page, give me a card with their name and poem, and then we had our presentations. I amplified the response by providing a variety of shaker instruments. No matter how good or bad someone read their poem, everyone cheered loudly.

Soon, a deeper community was being built, and I had girls who would regularly SING together during Poetry Friday. I cannot hear Ciara's "One Two Step" without thinking of them. A boy named Kenny in one of the classes became the emcee, including his own stand-up comedy every week. The connections between us became stronger, given the power of words in their voices. And when I introduced the Town Project, they sailed right into that as well. They had learned to raise each other up in ways that had not been accomplished up until that point.

*
Fast forward to this past January, when I decided one of the focuses of my Creative Writing classes would be to "publish" in some way. I had witnessed and given in to kids being afraid to share their writing, and I decided to take some steps to move them beyond that fear. I had taught long enough to know how to take baby steps, and it actually worked. Pretty soon some of them were volunteering to  present slideshows, or asking me to read something out loud to the class they had written, and their typed out poems with artwork decorated every bit of wall space.

But the big challenge was yet to come. I decided at the end of 3rd quarter we were going to do Poetry Out Loud. They would have to get up and read their poem, and no one was exempt. I presented several options so everyone could find a place to fit -- one of them being a dual poem, written and performed with another writer.

On March 11th and 12th, the last days before spring break, we did the performances. I provided the shaker instruments, cookies and brownies, and lots of encouragement. A few writers had confided to me that they'd rather not do it, but once we got going everyone participated.

The timing had been perfect. After this, we were no longer together in the classroom. I was so grateful that I had pursued this, and that we had a chance to hear each others voices before we were all quarantined away from each other.

On the survey I gave the class at the end of our course, many students mentioned that they liked the event the best, especially the kids who had written and performed with others. It had given them a great memory. And as I reflect back on the school year, it is my most cherished memory as well. I love that I had come full circle on this, from those rough and tumble days of 2005, to nurturing classrooms of creative writers in 2020. There just could not have been a more perfect conclusion.

*
And thus concludes my #64Challenge.

63. Note to Self

#64Challenge

Note to Self:

Last September when the school year was just beginning, your "Dear Teacher" letter was published in Voices from the Middle journal.

This is worth revisiting today.

Among the things you wrote:

You know what to do.

You know you have to follow your heart and soul to give your students what they need.

You know education is about "How can I help you?"

You know things that can be measured are not the most important.

You know whose story to believe -- or at least you make a concerted attempt in every instance.

You know the purpose of education is to make good citizens. People worthy of being Americans. People who know the past, but believe in a better future.

You wrote all these thoughts over a year ago, a note to teachers everywhere. Your vision.

They all still apply -- in fact, in some ways, they apply more than ever.

Epilogue:

The only thing to add now is three questions. Three questions that get to the root of it all, that apply in nearly every piece of literature, every work of art, every conversation, every quest:

Where is the power?

Who can you trust?

How can you love more deeply? 



Documented here, this day 8 June 2020

Words (a nonet)

Inspired by this quote:

"Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, [she] would hold them in their hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain."

 (from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak)

The words arrived like Florida clouds

I held them in my hands, calmly

Wrung them out until they dried

Set them on a glass shelf

Where they could shine through

Carry their truth

Tenderly

Sadly

Safe