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we’ll take a cup of kindness yet . . .
January 1, 2013 2:00AM All is quiet – the right time for taking stock. My parents are here, fast asleep having brought in this New Year far from their Castledawson home with the fireworks we’ve been saving for a special occasion and, for luck, my husband designated as the ‘first-footer’ after midnight. Sweet relief to shut the door against the worst of 2012 together, a year which started ominously, each of us terrified by the idea of breast cancer tearing the fabric of our lives to shreds. Cancer. When I heard it got me, I cried as though I had just found out that someone dear to me had died. Inconsolable…
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christmas past
During a staff meeting today, the conversation turned to what we were doing this time last year, and I realized that I couldn’t remember much about it. Looking around the room at the faces of people I see every day, I wondered if any of them could detect my unease. Could they see that I am much different today from the woman I was last year? Does it even matter? Surely changed and unsure, it was with some trepidation that I headed home to search through over a year’s worth of writing. When I landed on my first blog post, entitled “My New Pink Ribbon,” I held my breath. Not…
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when the shoemaker’s child goes barefoot
We know that from the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents—it is the teacher standing at the front of the classroom. ~ Arne Duncan, Secretary of United States Department of Education When the proverbial shoemaker’s children go barefoot, it is because he is too busy making shoes for other people’s children. Sometimes I think the same might be true for the children of educators. Ask anyone who has spent a decade or two in the classroom, and you are sure to find someone who has, more than they might care to…
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say thank you . . .
I’m supposed to be doing an assignment for my photography class. Weary of predictable photographs shot straight on, our instructor has assigned a prepositional scavenger hunt requiring us to shoot from various angles – against, across, beyond, beneath, around, behind, below, between, inside, outside, on top of, toward, through, and upon. And so it was that I found myself wandering the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol yesterday afternoon, eventually sitting below a canopy of shimmering green and pink. I don’t know how long I sat there, but long enough for prepositions and perspectives to give way to gratitude and grace, Amazing Grace and thoughts of Van Morrison in full flow at…
