Thankful Veteran's Day

I am grateful for many things today :

1. Time with my family

2. A day to wear sweats and rest and fight off a cold

3. The general safety of my country

4. The sacrifices of our military service personnel

5. And the sacrifices of their families

6. Living in a free country

7. Cough drops

8. Signs that my son is getting better, not worse

9. 10 hours of sleep last night

10. Home fried potatoes for breakfast

Thankful

Coming down with you cold, so I'm going to dive right in. I am thankful for:

1. My students' enthusiasm for card making today (and their general good-naturedness)

2. The many men and women of the armed services who do jobs I would never want to do

3. My MIL for picking up my sick boy from day care

4. My son's good spirits despite a seemingly constant cough

5. The promise of sleep

6. Mac-n-cheese

7. Starbucks gift cards

8. My husband for putting dinner on the table almost every single night

9. Three-day weekends

10. Sweat pants

A Thankful Reminder to Self: You Got It Good

Lately I have been thinking about responsible shopping, which got me thinking about from where my things originate, which got me thinking about disparities inside  the world, which got me thinking about all that I have that mothers in many countries don't. Most of it pertains to the relative certainty of my life. Nothing in life is completely certain, but it is true that my life breeds fewer questions than it might had I been born elsewhere.

For these reasons, I am dedicating today's thank-full post to the questions I don't have to ask:

~ Will we have clean water tomorrow?

~ Will we have food on the table?

~ Will my daughter get to attend school?

~ Will my children have the freedom to choose their faith?

~ Will my daughter never have to engage in prostitution for survival?

~ Will my children work as slaves?

~ Will my husband have to go to war?

~ Will we have access to medical care?

~ Will my children be allowed to participate in their political system?

~ Will they have the freedom to speak their minds?

What questions do you not have to ask?

Grateful Monday

Today I am grateful for the following:

*  My big news: I am going to China!

*  Hot mint tea

*  Antibiotics for my doggy's ear infection

*  A daughter who is feeling better

*  My new tote bag for work

*  My parents for watching my sick kid

*  The promise of sleep tonight without a dog who is up with a sore ear every hour

*  Dharma Zephyr

*  Central heating

*  Roasted pine nuts from my mom

*  My school's new vice principal for his tact and diplomacy

Are you thankful?

Thankful Snowy Sunday

1) A warm bed

2) Finished plans for my boy's birthday party

3) Happy children

4) Breakfast out with the family (a rare occurrence)

5) My iPod and podcasts

6) An extra hour to tackle my to-do list

7) Albuterol for my sick girl's lungs

8) My parents

9) Yummy Cracker Box omelets

10) My husband for splitting an omelet with me

Thankful Birthday

Another post for Thankful November.

1) A great 41st birthday

2) A productive day

3) A lovely dinner courtesy of my mom: barbecued lamb chops with cranberry sauce and pine nuts; vegetable rice; salad with pears, apples, and blue cheese crumbled on top; my brother's homemade sourdough bread with peach chutney; wine; and spring cake

4) Fun presents: a briefcase, a Cuttlebug with dry embossing cartridges, a journaling book, and a case of various colors of glitter

5) Afternoon naps

6) Afternoon double-tall lattes with an Equal

7) Reading Matilda with Roz

8) The health of my family

9) Playing matchbox cars and stamping with Sawyer

10) Layers of blankets on my bed

Do any of these strike a chord with you?

Thankful Friday

So many things to be thankful for today:

1. Hope for the possibility that a later school start time might actually happen

2. A great meeting to end my work week

3. A dog that seems fine without the pain meds I forgot to give him this morning

4. A full weekend ahead of me to spend with my family

5. My husband for taking my daughter to the doctor so I could attend my meeting

6. Stimulating conversation with colleagues

7. The cute, glittery and buttony picture of a fish my son made

8. My mother-in-law for watching a sick kid for us today

9. A shopping trip at the scrapbooking store with my girl

10. The Sierra Nevada beer that awaits

Blog Your Heart Challenge and Thankful November

One of my favorite blogs is Just Me, My Soldier and our 4 Little Chicks written by the sweet, funny and crafty Stephanie Howell. She has put forth a challenge to other bloggers to "blog your heart," a challenge to blog what's honest, what's real, what's in your heart. And me, I am never one to turn away from a blogging challenge, so here goes:

• I am tired. A lot. It's not my iron level or my thyroid or my blood sugars. At least I don't think so. It's life and not enough quiet time and lack of sleep and too little play. When I first started attending Dharma Zephyr, I had trouble understanding how people could fall asleep while meditating with the group. Now I fight the nods every single week. It's miserable.
• I am buried in paper. At work. On my desk at home. In my craft room. And I hate it. It gives me the shivers. I should put in effort to fix this problem, but I'm tired. (See #1.)
• Recently, my uncle passed away, furthering my desire to connect more with my extended family, to reach out to them, but I haven't. (See #1.)
• I have slowly started losing touch with the outside world. Two years ago, I read the paper cover to cover daily and Newsweek and Time every week. I followed politics (maybe too much). I was in touch. Not so much anymore. We quit Time, and I haven't even opened the last four issues of Newsweek. And you know what? I don't really care. (See #1.)
• I do, however, read crafting blogs and humor blogs and parenting blogs and educational blogs and psychology blogs and dharma blogs. On my phone. Before bed. When I should be sleeping. (See #1.) And I love it.

For this month, I want to focus on that which I feel gratitude for. Here are today's thankful November items:

1. A patient co-teacher
2. Watching Sean the Sheep with the whole family tonight
3. Spending yesterday doing puzzles with Sawyer
4. My parents and Jason's mom for taking care of Roz after school this week
5. My own courage to speak face-to-face with a higher up about what has been really bothering me
6. My higher up for his open-door policy and his ear and his calm demeanor as we disagreed
7. Photoshop Elements for finally running (even though it promptly crashed - at least it was running)
8. Spaghetti for dinner two nights in one week!
9. Time to create a syllabus for my seniors
10. Roz and Sawyer's pictures that they drew for me and their dad
11. A new dentist who didn't make me want to bolt out of the office and who understood all the concerns about my previous dentist. (That's a-whole-nother blog post.)

What are you thankful for?

Thankful November: try again

Sorry about that last post. I can't delete with this app. Anyway, ten things for which I am grateful:

1. The health of my family

2. The warmth of my dog curled up next to me

3. Everything my husband does around the house

4. Dharma Zephyr

5. Holidays

6. Being 40

7. Health insurance

8. Graphjams making me laugh

9. My colleagues

10. Time to read with my kids

Senior Academic Letter Night Speech

Last night I spoke at the award ceremony for seniors receiving the academic letter. Although I was nervous, it was fun, and the entire ceremony was over in less than twenty minutes, which gave us more time to mingle and enjoy cake. It was a great experience for me because I was very nervous, which I needed as a reminder for how my seniors felt today as they gave their senior board speeches.

Here is my speech transcript:

I would like to start by thanking Melissa James for asking me to be here tonight. It is an honor to be here with you all. But I also want to thank all of you for being who you are. I think I can speak for the entire staff of Carson High School when I say that over the last four years, you have brought us a lot of joy with your enthusiasm for life. Looking back on the last four years, I think of the homecoming assemblies, theater productions, musical performances, art shows and athletic competitions in which you have demonstrated your passions.

You have brought us pride by working hard and excelling in what you do – all of you – that’s why you are here tonight. Looking back on the last four years, I think of all the novels you have read, the A.P. government essays you have written, the debate cases you have developed, and the smelly science projects you have completed. You have completed trig problems that look like a foreign language and written essays in an actual foreign language. You have designed web pages in Dream Weaver and architecture in CAD that rival that of professionals in those fields, and you have made us proud with your efforts in your athletic endeavors, knowing that even when you didn’t win, you represented your school with dignity.

You have brought us inspiration by demonstrating kindness and generosity to others. Looking back at the last four years, I think of all the money you have raised for organizations such as the Invisible Children Foundation, the canned foods piled high at Thanksgiving, the adopted families at Christmas time, and more recently the generosity and love you have all shown Mrs. Peton as she prepares for her heart transplant.

But now that you are leaving, you bring us great pride tinged with sadness as we see you leave our small school community to explore the world at large. Our one hope is that you continue your patterns of joy, hard work, compassion and generosity. If you always look to your heart when making a decision, you will not go wrong.

I know you are all being showered with advice right now – everyone wants to tell you what to major in, how to be successful, and what NOT to do at college, but I want to take a moment of your time to share with you the lesson that teaching has continually presented to me. And that is the importance of remembering to always be kind to others because you never know what may be going on that you don’t see.

I am reminded of particular student – Armando – who was in my freshman English class. He was enrolled into my class a month into the school year. I didn’t think to ask why. He rarely smiled. I didn’t think to ask why. He never did his work – in class or at home. I didn’t think to ask why. I did try, however, to get him to work. I first tried joking with him. That didn’t work. I tried befriending him. That didn’t work. Finally I tried being aggressive with him and insisting he do his work. As you can probably imagine, that didn’t work.

Ultimately, I decided to let him be. I reasoned that it was his prerogative to not do his work. But then one day, I assigned an essay written in letter form. Students were to write to their parents asking for something. When I walked past Armando, he said to me, “Miss, I can’t do this assignment.” I wondered why this was different than any other assignment. A few minutes later, he repeated his claim, “Miss, I can’t do this assignment.”

Now, you think by now I might have keyed in to his need to tell me something, but I kept walking.

Finally, Armando asked to talk to me in the hall. There he said to me, “I can’t do this assignment because my dad’s in prison.” And then he paused, “And my mom died of cancer in August.”

At that moment, it became clear to me why Armando wasn’t doing his work. He felt like giving up because he felt life had given up on him.

From that moment on, our relationship changed. I looked forward to seeing Armando every other day. This change was not because of something he did differently, but because I saw him as the human being he was – a person just trying to get by.

Armando is fine now – every now and then he sends word to me about where he is and what he is doing. And I am grateful for those updates and for having known him.

I know that many students have walked in and out of my classroom who have struggled just as Armando had, and I probably never knew it. I stumble a lot with this lesson, but I do try to remember that every person is fighting some battle, and I hope that as you explore the larger world, you make it a better place by always remembering to forgive and to share your time and compassion with others.

Congratulations and thank you.

                 

More Reverb 2010 Questions

Here's another one:  Body Integration. This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present? (Author: Patrick Reynolds)

At first, I thought I would just pass on this prompt, but when I think about it, I would have to say there have been times when I was working out when I had this cohesive ME experience. And there have been a few times cuddling with my kids or in the classroom when things seem so natural and at ease. 

Action. When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step? (Author: Scott Belsky)

My next step is more about inaction than action. At least personally it is. I want to scale back, to focus on the people in my life and to not always be so concerned with accomplishing something. In the long run, reading a book with my kids is more valuable than accomplishing the task of emptying the dishwasher or folding laundry. But, dang, that is so much easier to say than do. At some point, someone has to empty the dishwasher or fold the laundry.

Or maybe not.

Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it? (Author: Victoria Klein)

This has been hard for me to answer, but I think the Dharma is something I continue to be grateful for. I know it sounds cheesy, but what I have learned and what I am hoping to someday more successfully practice are concepts that affect every moment of my life. Compassion, for example, applies whether I am in my kitchen, in my car, in my classroom, or in the boardroom. On the cushion or off, the teachings have affected my life and effected change in my life.

How do I express gratitude? Well, not well enough. I do say a little thank you for this opportunity to meditate at the end of every meditation. But there is so much more I could be doing to express this gratitude from saying thank you to those who have made it possible for me to learn and practice to giving back more to my community to making more of an effort to live what I am learning.

So with that, thank you for this opportunity to reflect on what is important in my life.