I posted this on the whiteboards in my classroom several years ago. Parents and students would stop and read it occasionally and I would remind students about it. It is interesting how childhood stories have deep and lasting meaning for us. We only have to be open to the messages.
Have faith on yourself.
A Tai Pei Personality
It took a couple of weeks to re-blog this, but I held onto it because it is a beautiful play on words and the way we see the world. I often refer to myself as the prototypical Type A person who is blessed with a a Type B person in Kathy. But, we both enjoy Tai Pei.
Men Say They Know Many Things
Henry David Thoreau wrote this poem at a time he could not have foreseen where we are with the thousands of appliances. He thought it was only a thousand appliances. There are times I get lost in them and forget they are separate from me and only tools that enable a particular job. At the same, I realize used wisely they advance life and the tasks involved.
The arts and sciences blend together, but I would take it a step further and suggest that the spiritual and the sciences are not separate from each other. When I take time and see life through a lens that allows me to understand what is at hand, I can make wiser decisions and feel that wind blow.
Men say they know many things;
But lo! they have taken wings, —
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that any body knows.
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, THOMAS MERTON and OFF-GRID LIVING
Technology is here and keeps moving forward. It means we should consider the ways we use the tools and ask questions about their impacts on us as humans and the world we live in going from local to global. I loved the quotes from Thoreau and Merton which points us towards use of technology requiring a mindful stance. We sometimes forget that part.
Wordless Wednesday 2-26-14
I am not sure where this is located, but it is spectacular. I was reminded of La Chute Montmorency which is just outside Quebec City. Despite the power, during the winter they partially freeze up which contrasts the power of the falls during the summer months.
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry is one of my favourite poets. I have many favourites. It is much easier to find a poem when you have many.
We spend time each summer wandering through nature. I think for Kathy and I it is a return to our roots. We grew up in rural settings and were outdoors a lot as a result. I think as we mature, getting older is so passe, we look for the roots that connect us to the universe. Nature is one those things.
Alfred North Whitehead suggested we only need to look at nature to find the patterns we need in life.
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Bubble Curtain Bear Drugs
It is nice to begin the day with humour. Here is some from Bizzaro via Todd.
Dusk Hues – 1 – Ajaytao
We are always in the process of change, but do not see it clearly as such. It is often incorporated into the world that is our lives and stays below the surface. The challenge is to surface the change and work with it seeing that it is always happening and the dark side will move along just as the bright side does.
Snow
I chose this poem by Louis MacNeice for various reasons which is one of the poem’s underlying themes. The poem is about the fragmented ways we see the world. Humans are limited in that sense, but being mindful, present, and attending to our immediate world begins to offset this and present a more complete picture.
There is always a (w)hole in the hole, a sense of mystery, but it seems less challenging and we see the extraordinary we might otherwise miss. We are in the world not separated from it by windows and walls we construct.
Spokane received snow yesterday and it is easy to wish spring were here or summer. But, the snow added a backdrop and left provided a crisp world that has lasted into today.
This morning, I watched a squirrel tentatively climb snowy tree limbs. It moved slowly, but eventually reached its food. It was a blessing to be in the world and not outside.
The room was suddenly rich, and the great bay window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural, I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than an one supposes–
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one’s hands–
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
In Love’s Name
The Allen Ginsberg quote and the beautiful poem are simple messages about being whole. Who we are is not something to be hidden, but something to be brought out and shared in the light of the moon perhaps at first and gradually in the light of day.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 