Kathy and I are doing some house cleaning and it is interesting what we find.
Kathy looked through some papers we had stored and found poetry I wrote in 1969, in Grade 10. There are things that are consistent in life and one of them is seeking moments of solitude and silence, which I wrote about in this poem. I took liberties and edited the poem, orginally called The Simple Life.
It is good to be alone at times,
Sheltered by comforting trees,
The wind singing a song,
Here, I experience freedom and peace,
For the moment, worries set aside.
Minnows dart at the water’s edge,
Dancing between light and shadows,
Seemingly, without a care,
There, they experience home’s safety;
Its primal call.
Here, this is me,
I experience a simpler life;
An unseen hand beckons me,
I wave to this simpler life,
Enjoying it each time I return.
I took this picture in Waterton Lake National Park several years ago. I came around a corner and there was a doe and two fawn. I could have touched the one fawn it was so close, but it was separated from its mother. I stood as still as possible, moving slowly to get the camera ready. The mother whistled to the one fawn and waited until the young one found its way over to her, back to the safety of where it belonged.
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.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
beautiful
Thank you.
Guess you were in touch with your feelings at an early age and have continued that same line of thought throughout life. Not many can say that.
There are certain things that have remained consistent.
Beautiful…
Thank you.
Great capture – they are beautiful animals.
Thank you. They are beautiful.
those deer are great
teachers of simplicity 🙂
They are.
I thoroughly enjoyed that, Ivon.
Thank you Carolyn.
Simpler life. Moved from Miami to Greensboro, NC 3 1/2 years ago. This morning got some cash out of ATM and topped off the gas tank. Mailman hasn’t come yet today. Yankee game at 7:10 tonight. That will be about it for today.
I think we have a similar life Carl. I have a routine each day that allows me to just be more easily. Sometimes, it is location that makes a difference. For me, it is age and location. I used to find my first days in Spokane each summer, working on my PhD, I scurried around like I would in school. Once I noticed this, I made a point of slowing down regardless of where I was. I discovered that I was not getting anymore done rushing.
This poem is wonderful! It is amazing what we can find by just digging a little 🙂
Thank you. It is always interesting to look through what we have put away.
You must have been so surprised!
I was.
Even at an early age, you knew what freedom meant being closer to nature!
It does.
👍
Very Impressive, sir.
Thank you Lvsrao.
Reblogged this on Stephen Page.
A lovely share.
It’s a wonderful thing to look back at your adolescent poetry. I kept a folder of mine and every 6-7 years, I take a walk through it. Better than any keepsake for documenting where you’ve been and who.
It reminds me of what has been important to my life at various times.
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE BETTER THAN A DEER FAMILY IN YOUR BACK YARD!