Category Archives: Uncategorized

Prayer

Posted on March 8, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Enjoy the day as If it was the last one for The dawn is so far. Be patient and take care A prayer flies to Heaven. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Source: Prayer

Prayer is about listening. When we just speak, we cannot listen as closely and attentively as we need. Esther used the words patient and care in her beautiful poem. When I am patient, I listen more closely and take care to hear what is said and what is unsaid. The spaces between words, lines, and stanzas call to me, but in the busyness and noisiness of the world I can lose my way.

When I have faith and accept that my prayers will be answered in inexplicable ways, ways that I cannot understand, I find my way by being patient. I trust what is intuitive and I cannot possibly know fully. I walk the path carefully, but not alone. When I walk with others, it is an ethical journey where I take responsiblity for my actions and hold my hand out to the others I journey with.

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On Being

Posted on March 6, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

I am a little late. This was originally posted as a seque to 2016, but John O’Donohue’s poetry works for any time of the year.

Wildflower Women

Bennacht

Blessings for the New Year! The words of John O’Donohue are so beautiful to bring us into the new year. To hear the full poem as read by John, please click on the above link.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

images

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Roofless School

Posted on March 5, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

a dictionary of true mirages bird songs instead of geometry plus a clock with no hands many very magic felt pens words like primrose or rainbow painted on a huge whiteboard come into the roofless S…

Source: Roofless School

John Dewey suggested education is not preparation for life, but life itself. The poem, Roofless School, extends that metaphor to poetry.

Poets sit under the sky and experience the world in the most complete ways, but their poetry is subject to diverse interpretations. When I go back and read a poem, I find new meanings.

Each time we experience the world, we experience something new. Regardless of how familiar it seems to be, an experience can only be experienced once, in the moment I experience it. We re-experience the experience retrospectively and find new meanings in a new, reflective experience.

When I taught, I tried to begin each day fresh. It was not erasing the past, but I realized how the past informed my relationships with students, curriculum, and digital technology in the present moment. In those moments, being mindful and sensitive was paramount.

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Mountains Speak

Posted on March 4, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Mountains Speak

Let the mountains speak and share their story. As leaders, we must let the world and people speak to us and be sensitive and attentive listeners as it shares its stories.

I enjoy traveling through mountains. It is hard work, because heights terrify me. Kathy and I tell others that she drove on the Going to the Sun Road, because the driver has to have their eyes open. There are places that the drop off of a narrow road is thousands of feet.

The beauty of mountains is hard to fully describe in words. It is an experience, soaking in the moment. We lived in a small town, McBride, BC, for 2 years. It is in a mountain valley.

Mountains speak to me. The wind is different. The weather socks in for days and weeks. Animals appear at the door and appear unthreatened by human presence. One Sunday morning in McBride, I waited for Kathy on the front steps and about 20 feet away was a young cow moose, eating, and keeping a close eye on me. She moved when we decided it was time to get in the car. We were not separate from nature, but part of it in those moments.

When we are sensitive and mindful of the environment, so much of it speaks to us. This includes nature, the workplace, our families, and in our communities.

I did not take that picture. Kathy did as she drove through Glacier National Park, MT.

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…HEALING…

Posted on March 2, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

🍀 I HAVE PICKED UP THE PIECES 🍀

Source: …HEALING…

The words healthy, heal, whole share a common etymology about wholeness. It is in picking up the pieces and making ourselves whole that we find good health and heal.

This includes being in community whether we are face-to-face with each other. Parker Palmer suggested “Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people-it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.”

When we connect with each other, we become whole and belong to community. When we are mindful and attentive of the other, we become whole and belong to community.

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Spring

Posted on March 1, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Spring

Mary Oliver is one of my favourite poets. There is something deeply spiritual about her poetry that finds its way into my heart.

I was not familiar with this poem. Poetry allows us to imagine that we have wings. With those wings. we tap our experiences more fully as we fly with others who join us. When we share the journey with others, it becomes much richer. It is not only our journey.

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Simplicity is Beautiful

Posted on February 27, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Simplicity is beautiful. We find beauty in things that just are whether it is a sunset, a smile, or the kind word someone shares. Despite the simplicity involved, these are full of complexity. There is paradox in much of what we experience in life. But, it is that paradox of simplicity and complexity that rewards us in our living.

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nature is never finished. – robert smithson

Posted on February 26, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

out walking with the kinders we happened upon a white swan happy and in between seasons. the same as us.

Source: nature is never finished. – robert smithson

When I saw the title of Beth‘s post and read her poem, I thought what a profound moment. Nature has many stories to tell us and many ways of telling them that leave a mystery in each story. We are always between the moments and seasons that desribe the beauty of nature and who we are becoming.

Several years ago, I took a picture of a mountain face. I did not have any idea why I took. It just spoke to me, like the swan in Beth’s poem. I used the picture in a presentation about eco-ethics, after I read an article about geologists who use the striations of a mountain to allow it to tell them its story, knowing it can never be completely told.

When I look at that picture, the mountain tells an even less complete story. The mystery in the story is what draws me back to the picture and maybe is what drew me, without knowing that, when I took the picture.

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Prayer to Mansur Al-Hallaj

Posted on February 24, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Prayer to Mansur Al-Hallaj

Prayer is about listening to the world and is part of an internal conversation. The Sufi prayer is about listening closely. Each stanza of the poem begins with a word that entreats God guide me in sensing the world more deeply, not as something I hear, but as something all my senses are able to engage with.

We think of leadership as action and speech, but it is about sensing the world in a sensitive and mindful manner. Leadership is about a conversation and the questions we ask. It opens up space where there are no preconceived answers and followers can be part of conversation and lead, as well. Leadership and its communication is about community, a gathering of people who do not always agree, but hold something in common.

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Dreams To Reality Take Determination

Posted on February 23, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Dreams To Reality Take Determination

The Jesse Owens movie that is coming out is a reminder of the importance of dreams and a person’s determination to follow those dreams. We often forget his story and how he helped break down race barriers in a quiet way with his dreams and determination.

He attended Ohio State University without a scholarship, working several jobs, married, and found time to practice and compete. All this in an era when it would have been unusual and challenging for an African-American to attend an NCAA school like Ohio State.

Kathy worked with one of his grandchildren who told her that Jessie Owens was a quiet and humble man. He worked as a playground supervisor giving back to children and providing a positive role model for young people to follow. Jimmy Carter suggested Jessie Owens did more to break down racial barriers through his determination and his efforts were “a prelude to helping others.”