617. Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. ~Anne Frank

The opening quote gives rise to realizing that many people have so little and much is uncertain in their lives. Anne Frank had considerable uncertainty and sought to understand the beauty that existed despite the dire circumstances she lived in. Martin Luther King predicted he might meet a violent end. Living in the present and seeing its beauty is a wondrous place to live.

Sacred Touches

Life is full of beauty.
Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee, the small child,
and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
~Ashley Smith

DSC_0053

Oh, the green, green, green of fresh growing things; the scent, scent, scent of fragrant flowery things; and the buzz, buzz, buzzing of little, busy bees. But wait, wait, wait! Back those “wagon” up and hold on just a minute! It’s still January and therefore wintertime. So what’s up with the green, the flowers, the aromas, and the buzzes? Ah the joyous blessing of a greenhouse filled with thriving, flowering, sweet smelling things! The only downside to such is that the bees seem to think the greenhouse is solely their domain and object to a human interloper’s pottering visits. But then again, I seem to be developing a history outside the garden of adverse encounters with the wee buzzing folk. In my recent…

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About ivonprefontaine

In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms. I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders. I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs. I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry. I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry. I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.

9 responses »

  1. Thanks for the reblog, Ivon! Hugs, N ❤

    Reply
  2. To be stung first thing in Paris! Oh, my. Thankfully she isn’t allergic to the venom.
    I am glad of the reminder to appreciate the beauty.

    Reply
  3. Very nice.

    Look at some of the most fulfilled, satisfying lives, they had tremendous adversity, Lincoln, Mandella,,Martin Luther King and so so many others.

    It is easy to read and learn but to let go and be in this moment, ready to experience now, is rare for humans.

    Reply
    • Adversity may require us being present and letting go. It is perhaps only then we come to terms with the adversity and are fulfilled realizing it will pass like the good moments do as well.

      Reply
  4. An angel is a terrible dark world. ghouls and misanthropes….

    Reply

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