Rules to live by… March 5, 2009

I am not sure where I found these rules, they are something I have had taped above my desk, forever. I haven’t posted in a  long while – I have been trying to ignore the elephant in the room  – a.k.a. my dissertation – which has, as promised by legions of other doctoral students, taken over most of my waking moments! However, I want to, in fact I need to, commit to posting at least twice a week – my brain needs a rest from researching the “borrowing and lending of early childhood education programs in post-socialist countries” – or at least I think that is what my dissertation is supposed to be about…

Rules to live by

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

2. Memorize your favorite poem.

3.Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want.

4. Talk slowly, but think quickly.

5. Remember that great love and great achievement involve great risk.

6. When you lose – don’t lose the lesson.

7. Remember the three R’s – respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for your actions.

8. Spend some time alone.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Read between the lines.

11. Read more books and watch less T.V.

After awhile… April 22, 2008

A) I realize that is has been a long while since I have posted.

B) I also realize that it is kind of cheap to re-enter the world of blogging by posting someone else’s words, but…

C) April is poetry month, and this is one of my favorite poems. Not very uplifting, although it is in a roundabout way, and as someone who is soon to be pushing 40, I realize it is my defeats, much more than my successes, that have allowed me to expand my thinking and my growing…

 

After Awhile

by Veronica Shoffstall

After awhile you learn the difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul

and you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning

and company doesn’t mean security,

and you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts

and presents aren’t promises

and you begin to accept your defeats

with your head up and your eyes open

with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,

and you learn to build all your roads on today

because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans

and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight

and after awhile you learn.

That even sunshine burns if you get too much

so you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers

and you learn that you really can endure…

that you really are strong, and you really do have worth

and you learn, and you learn, with every good-bye you learn.

These words still sound right… February 13, 2008

I was cleaning out my old teaching file this afternoon when I stumbled upon the following words. They were handed to me shortly after September 11, 2001. At the time I lived three blocks from the World Trade Center, and I actually still do. I watched as our downtown world became forever altered, and I have watched over the years as children and families and life have all returned to our once empty streets. These words gave me hope then, and they continue to ring true these many years later….

“Stop thinking this is all there is…Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and Iraq attack plan, there are a thousand counter-balancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flower box to cathedral…Resist the temptation to drown in fatalism, to shake your head and sigh and just throw in the karmic towel…Realize that this is the perfect moment to change the energy of the world, to step right up and crank you personal volume; right when it seems dark and bitter and offensive and acrimonious and conflicted and bilious..there’s your opening. Remember magic. And finally, believe you are part of a groundswell, a resistance, a seemingly small but actually very, very large impending karmic overhaul, a great shift, the beginning of something important and potent and unstoppable.”

Author – Mark Morford