Mar 30, 2010

Just A Thought


Isn't it awesome to have an appreciation for life's lessons learned? It especially rocks when you see how using wisdom enables you to truly shine and love the skin you are in.

Now, I need to summon this good feeling into motivation to get this house in order. It's a mess up in here!

Mar 17, 2010

Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins


Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi, one of the most influential figures in modern social and political activism, considered these traits to be the most spiritually perilous to humanity.

- Wealth without Work
- Pleasure without Conscience
- Science without Humanity
- Knowledge without Character
- Politics without Principle
- Commerce without Morality
- Worship without Sacrifice

Source: Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins

Mar 8, 2010

Forty-Deuce


I turned 42 today! I was rather low-key about this milestone. My 40th birthday was more of a celebration. I'll save the next extravaganza when I embark on my 45th year on this earth. As I reflect on moving further into mid-life, here are some thoughts:

- I actually truly feel cute! I made peace with my lips, my tits, my body and my hips. I am grateful to accept myself in a way that allows me to navigate, with self-love, the moments of feeling the ups and downs of seeing yourself.

- I am extremely grateful that I have developed a relationships with my nearest and dearest where I brave being honest about myself . I show them the madness and they have returned love with no judgement. In this honesty we have found many moments when we say to each other "you too!"

- I'm still excited about experiencing that loving someone allows learning from seeing that person raw and real and smiling about the gift you are given. The gift of seeing realness gives me a connection to that person, and the ability to understand my own life-journey.

Mar 5, 2010

The Ying and Yang of Teaching: 1


For the past several weeks, I've been working at a new high school. It's a very different environment from the high school I've been at during the past four years. This school is very small, and has a rather relaxed attitude towards managing the student body.

What remains the same is that I still get immediately invested in seeing my students do well. There is also a wide-range of academic ability and interest among the students.

There are four students that I absolutely enjoy working with, because they are in a headspace that makes them available for learning.

Today, I had to spend the entire school day with one student that has written off the whole learning thing. In fact, when we first met in January, and I brought class assignments, he looked at me with a smirk and said, "Didn't they tell you that I don't do work?" To which I said, "Oh really, well that's not going to work with me."

He has been fighting me all along, and it's been a struggle. Today, while he was confined to one room, due to an in-school suspension, I made that boy work. He showed a level of ability and potential. I acknowledged this to him and encouraged him to keep trying to get back into his studies.

The fantasy in my head is that our day together will become a turning point for him. Then, I snapped myself out of Oprah mode, and realized I need to be ready to see him roaming the hallways and cutting class on Monday.

What I do know for sure, is that when I see him I will urge him to go to class, and I will always have a stack of class assignments ready to engage his mind. I will not be another adult that threw their hands up in surrender when it came to him.