Diary, the 22nd is about to leave us. Have you ever thought about how
people spend their precious feelings and thoughts? Today my heart and mind
were focused on "mindful," which is still my "Word for the Day" for the next
few hours. Yeah, I take my cards with me wherever I go. Why do I have them?
It's because our lives flow from and unfold through our thoughts and feelings.
We live the images we create and feed. I mean where our feelings and thoughts
go, our actions are sure to follow. What I feel and think has a direct and
undeniable connection to what I do. It's not technique, method, or technology
that provide the stage upon which I perform. It's the thousands of thoughts
and emotions that I think and feel each day which are the script of how my life
will play out. That's Jon Kabat-Zinn means when he says, "wherever you go,
there you are."
So, diary, it pays for me to keep my mind focused on the highest and
the best, for get me to get to and keep in an empowering, meaningful, and
purposeful place. My "Word for the Day" is my way to greet everything and
everyone, especially each student, with a sharp stillness and keep focus that
cut through distracting noises. That's why I still can't get Tom out of my
heart and mind. I'm not sure I want to because his message is for me a
reminder about what would happen if we always accentuated the positive and
meaningful, if we were always on the lookout for wonder and awe, if we never
succumbed at the first hint of challenge, if we weren't dismayed or resigned or
annoyed, if we never gave up no matter what.
So many people think that the way you feel depends on how things are
going when the exact opposite is true. I mean the likes of Tom is what could
happen if we enjoyed the journey. You see, diary, I refuse not to be awed by
each and every student, to find warmth and joy even on the grayest and coldest
day. Yeah, diary, it's wonder and awe that drive me on. They're the
alchemist's lodestone: they convert the dull into the sharp; they turn a
leadened classroom into a dance class; they transform a heap of coal into a
treasure chest of sparkling diamonds; they loosen the vise grip of a boring
rut; they break numbing routine. They force me to wonder what each could do if
I gave them a chance. They give me a craving to do better and to see each
student do better; they open me up to new and exciting experiences; they keep
me awake and alert in class; they unmoor me; they let me be and feel free; they
create a reality that is better than anything I can dream. My feelings and
thoughts are my deepest and most sincere expectations. Every fibre of my being
picks up on these expectations. Now, diary, there's lots I can't control.
But, I can choose the way to see things and people through the lens of my "Word
for the Day, and how I respond to them. So, I can make the classroom into
anything I wish--and do. Think about it. In the dead of winter there is
always the promise of spring; when all seems lost, there's always something to
be found. In nearly dying of a cerebral hemorrhage I found how to live even
more in the "now" more intently and intensely than I have since my epiphany in
1991.
You know, diary, I love whom I see. I delight in the beauty of every
little simple detail of each student. For me, diary, a student is not an
object to be judged, but rather an aspect of my wholeness. She or he is not
apart from me, for whether we see value or worthlessness, we see who we are.
Whether we know it or not, we each have our "words for the day," that determine
how we choose our perspective, our feelings, our thoughts, our words, and our
actions. So, we each have the power and potential, no matter what the classroom
sends our way, to choose how to look at it and what to do with it. But, it
depends on the nature of our feelings and thoughts, on our sense of meaning and
purpose, and whether and to what end we tap them. We just have to work hard at
consciously choosing and living by the right words--everyday.
Make it a good day
Louis Schmier http://www.the
randomthoughts.edublogs.org
Department of History
http://www.valdosta.edu/~lschmier/publicity
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
(O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ /
\
(C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \
/\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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