Our wedding anniversary was a couple of days ago. In the busyness of the last few weeks, winding down supervising student-teachers and dog sitting, it slipped past me, not unaware. Without disclosing which one it is, this a milestone anniversary.
The Prayer of St. Francis is a touchstone in my life and in the family. I refer to it in my writing and presenting. It served as a reading at our wedding and it is used at celebrations of life, particularly in my family.
I remember our wedding day clearly. There were interesting happenings. A friend got off the bus in a town an hour from where we had the wedding. Kathy drove to get him. Although others told us it was bad luck to see each other on our wedding day, we organized going to pick him up. Despite ourselves, the luck has been good as we are together and enjoy each other’s company.
Sitting in the front pew of the church, I heard the organ began to play the wedding song and I rose, shaking like a leaf. When I turned to look at Kathy and her dad, I stopped trembling and understood this was the right person for me.
Kathy and I enjoy music. We attend numerous concerts and our tastes are an eclectic, mix of genres and artists. We had the good fortune to see John Prine before he passed away. He was a singer you could not easily fit in a box with his quirkiness, while singing socially relevant songs. One song we enjoy is this tongue-in-cheek duet with Iris Dement. The night we saw him he sang the male and female parts of the song, adding to the humour.
In spite of ourselves, we found happiness, friendship, and love in our own quirky way.
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, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
Loved the prayer. I need to say this one every day. Loved the song, had me cracking up. Am sure you were forgiven for forgetting. Sounds like you two had a lot of good years together. I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing.
Pat
Happy Anniversary! So nice that you found each other along life’s road. Wishing you happiness in all your future adventures. The Prayer of St. Francis will always be one of my favorites.
Chris and I, too, are a quirky pair. But I think what works for anyone is individual to each. I love that we still make each other laugh, that we are both bonded to the natural world and its creatures. And we just get along so well in daily living. He does his thing, I do mine, and in the middle we meet with mutual respect and tenderness. We are both committed to working out the inevitable misunderstandings.
Nobody gave us very good odds. He is 20 years younger than I am in a culture where that is uncommon. But most people just see us as who we are, and living in this small community on Hawaii Island, we just fit. We’re all quirky souls around here!
Blessings for many more years with your dear Kathy. All the best!🙏🌏❤️
Thank you Bela. I think the overlooked piece of long-term relationships, and you point to it, is friendship. We like each other and grow to look past each other’s annoying idiosyncrasies. Kathy’s Mom and Dad were that way. I learned so much from them and am grateful to them for being role models.
Like yourselves, I found out Kathy and I were not supposed to last by my family. We were doomed to going our separate ways. In spite of ourselves, we become the big door prizes.
So glad to hear it, truly. Yes, given any day any time, we prefer each other’s company. I’m glad you had role models. Neither of us did. We set our own example, I guess! 💜
Loved the song/video, Ivon – it speaks volumes in regard the differences between, but also the love and friendship that can develop for the fortunate who survive (and work toward overcoming) the ups and downs of togetherness. As with yourself and Kathy, Keith and I have become good friends; we enjoy being together… A good foundation for a lasting relationship… Happy Anniversary!
Thank you Carolyn. I think friendship is the ground on which enduring relationships of any kind thrive and flourish. Friends tend to see each other as equals and that can change the nature of a relationship from a hierarchical one to one benefiting from the complementary strengths of the partners involved.
Thanks for the music with John Prine. One of my favorites. On my trip three years ago, I got to visit John Prine Park and see his memorial. I spent about an hour there just communing with John.
You are welcome. He is one our favourites, as well. We had a chance to see him several years before he passed away and after his recovery from cancer. The performance was remarkable with social commentary and humour all in one evening. He sang both parts of In Spite of Ourselves, which was the best part of a great evening.
As a response, I put our wedding and life anniversary story in poetic form—of course—right after your’s. “Live long and prosper…” in the happiness of your blessed unity! I can’t go home yet to be with my lifetime love—people would put me back on a mental ward if I tried—-just got out of one, for medication adjustment! Going to walk hand in hand with my God till the day I can be with my Diana again in the glory of His Presence. Continue to be good to each other, as I know you will be! That’s a mighty fine prayer, sung well. I’m glad to be back in my church again and singing His praises! God bless you both for hanging in there all those years—it’s worth it, isn’t it?
Teacher as Transformer 
Love this prayer of St. FRANCIS. He is one of my favorite saints. 🍃🍂
Thank you. We have a small, inexpensive plaque in our bedroom with the prayer on it.
Loved the prayer. I need to say this one every day. Loved the song, had me cracking up. Am sure you were forgiven for forgetting. Sounds like you two had a lot of good years together. I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing.
Pat
You are welcome and thank you. Prine had a way with levity and also with serious topics.
Happy anniversary.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this lovely post. Happy Anniversary to you both! Glad you had a good time together.
Thank you and you are welcome.
How beautiful, I am so happy for both of you. Enjoy the rest of your lives together. ❤
Thank you.
Happy Anniversary! So nice that you found each other along life’s road. Wishing you happiness in all your future adventures. The Prayer of St. Francis will always be one of my favorites.
Thank you. It is always a sense of accomplishment and wonder to share the journey.
Congratulations! ❤️❤️
Thank you
Happy Anniversary! Beautiful post, Ivon.
Thank you Michele.
Happy anniversary.
Thank you.
😊
I love this prayer, Ivon. Happy anniversary!
Chris and I, too, are a quirky pair. But I think what works for anyone is individual to each. I love that we still make each other laugh, that we are both bonded to the natural world and its creatures. And we just get along so well in daily living. He does his thing, I do mine, and in the middle we meet with mutual respect and tenderness. We are both committed to working out the inevitable misunderstandings.
Nobody gave us very good odds. He is 20 years younger than I am in a culture where that is uncommon. But most people just see us as who we are, and living in this small community on Hawaii Island, we just fit. We’re all quirky souls around here!
Blessings for many more years with your dear Kathy. All the best!🙏🌏❤️
Thank you Bela. I think the overlooked piece of long-term relationships, and you point to it, is friendship. We like each other and grow to look past each other’s annoying idiosyncrasies. Kathy’s Mom and Dad were that way. I learned so much from them and am grateful to them for being role models.
Like yourselves, I found out Kathy and I were not supposed to last by my family. We were doomed to going our separate ways. In spite of ourselves, we become the big door prizes.
So glad to hear it, truly. Yes, given any day any time, we prefer each other’s company. I’m glad you had role models. Neither of us did. We set our own example, I guess! 💜
Happy Anniversary! I love this prayer, too.
Thank you Dawn, It is beautiful and with so much packed into it.
Loved the song/video, Ivon – it speaks volumes in regard the differences between, but also the love and friendship that can develop for the fortunate who survive (and work toward overcoming) the ups and downs of togetherness. As with yourself and Kathy, Keith and I have become good friends; we enjoy being together… A good foundation for a lasting relationship… Happy Anniversary!
Thank you Carolyn. I think friendship is the ground on which enduring relationships of any kind thrive and flourish. Friends tend to see each other as equals and that can change the nature of a relationship from a hierarchical one to one benefiting from the complementary strengths of the partners involved.
Thanks for the music with John Prine. One of my favorites. On my trip three years ago, I got to visit John Prine Park and see his memorial. I spent about an hour there just communing with John.
You are welcome. He is one our favourites, as well. We had a chance to see him several years before he passed away and after his recovery from cancer. The performance was remarkable with social commentary and humour all in one evening. He sang both parts of In Spite of Ourselves, which was the best part of a great evening.
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Thank you Jonathan.
As a response, I put our wedding and life anniversary story in poetic form—of course—right after your’s. “Live long and prosper…” in the happiness of your blessed unity! I can’t go home yet to be with my lifetime love—people would put me back on a mental ward if I tried—-just got out of one, for medication adjustment! Going to walk hand in hand with my God till the day I can be with my Diana again in the glory of His Presence. Continue to be good to each other, as I know you will be! That’s a mighty fine prayer, sung well. I’m glad to be back in my church again and singing His praises! God bless you both for hanging in there all those years—it’s worth it, isn’t it?
It is worth it. There has been much more good in it and growing old together brings much joy and blessing.
IT IS INDEED!