Kathy took this picture on a trip out to the farm several years ago. Her and others spent the day cleaning up the farmhouse and, as they finished, the sun made an appearance. It had been a gloomy day.
Sometimes, we feel this way in whatever we do as much as we might love it and feel called to it. I remember days in the classroom when I felt I inhabited a gloomy world. I love teaching and learning. They are parts of what make me whole and I think, to paraphrase Parker Palmer, make us each larger than life. When we love doing something or being in a particular relationships, we find voice and those things are inseparable from who we each are. On those gloomy days, it is essential to remind myself to be mindful and give thanks for the sunlight that shines into my life.
Fleetingly framed,
Golden skyline on horizon,
Invisble hand painting.
Thankful moment,
Golden light awash,
Bringing end to day.
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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.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Somehow sunlight does have a beautiful way of banishing gloomy moods. Just picturing a green meadow with tiny wild flowers blooming in apparent disarray, soaked completely in the bright sunshine with the wind playing through the fields, lashing against our face… can make us feel strangely content.
The imagination is a powerful space of reserve energy that goes untapped.
Love this poem. It works perfectly with the photo.
Thank you Emilie.
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Being mindful and grateful and, if I may be so bold as to also emphasize, living in the moment can have such a HUGE impact on our lives. Not always easy though. I get caught up in the frenetic pace this life sets so quickly and often forget. Thanks for the reminder. And another wonderful post to think about. What you say certainly sticks with me.
Oh. And I’ve never heard of Parker Palmer. So I’ve learned about someone new too. And I do love to learn new things. (Uh. Thinking about it. How would I learn “old things”?) 🤯🤨
LL 🤔
Thank you Laura-Lee. I am grateful you find what I write to be of use.
I met Parker several years ago and he is a wonderful human. He is not a prolific writer, so only has a limited number of books. His most recent one, On the Brink of Everything, is about aging. When I bought it, I found it had larger print. Initially, I thought I made a mistake. After some thought and checking it out, I realized the target audience are people, who like me, are aging and eyesight might be in decline.
Yes. Gratitude is always in season. Well done, Ivon.
Thank you Bela.