Fairy Names

In an effort to direct attention away from the fact that Jonah kept killing fairies by saying he did not believe in them, I asked the kids what my fairy name would be.  Their answers were immediate and in rapid succession:

"GLASSES!"

"CRACKER!"

"HOWITZER!"

Yeah, Howitzer.

Then, after a thoughtful pause, and some discussion, they settled on "Peppermint Rose" and I would be a garden fairy.  

I'll take that.

Two Goals with One Stone

I wanted to do two things this summer and never got around to them.  Okay, I wanted to do probably 3,500 things this summer.  And, regardless of the length of the list, I didn't get them all done.  But!  One thing I did finally finish this week was to make some quote posters for my classroom.  I went through a summer's worth of photography and picked images that were tied to specific positive memories that were moving in some way.  Then I went through my current journal to cull some quotes.  The more I learned how to navigate pixlr and the more I cultivated my eye, the better they started turning out.  here are two that I liked a lot.  Tonight, I put ten of my favorites up on Teachers Pay Teachers because I think they'd make people happy and, after spending several hours working on this project, the idea of saving other people the time makes me feel happy too.  If you ask nicely, maybe I'll tell you the stories of some of these pictures.  But not tonight, because there is ice cream to eat!

One step in the right direction!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Inspirational-Quotes-for-Older-Students-High-School-College-1403390

Cicadahh

I walked over to the park today to do some prep work for the new school year.  It was fruitful and both cheaper and pleasanter than sitting in a coffee shop.  As an added bonus, I found this fallen cicada on my way home.  Fortuitous timing after weeks of the kids asking questions about cicadas.  

 

A Play in One Act

Scene: It is a bright, sunny, 80 degree summer afternoon. Two teenage boys loiter across the street in their black hoodies.  A woman walks out into her yard.  She is barefoot and in summer attire.  

Boy 1: Hey!

Woman ignores him as she retrieves her trash can.

Boy 1: louder  Hey!

Woman turns and looks. 

Boy 1: Hey, how old are you?

Woman: Older than you.

Boy 1: What's your name?

Woman: sets down trash can So... do you go to Garfield High School? nods toward high school up the street.

Boy 1: Yeah an--

Woman: Cool.  I'm a teacher there.

Boy 1: Ohhhh shit

Boy 2: BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Woman:  See you in two weeks!

End scene.

On the Blog Title

I went for another walk yesterday and I was thinking that I ought to explain from whence the name of this blog came.  Let’s breakitdaahnnow (say that fast, like a hep cat.  There you go.)

Walking: I like to walk.  I need to walk.  It’s how I keep my brain working and my legs from being restless.  It gives me a chance to pray (the listening part of prayer, especially), think, and listen to music.  I walk to work more and more.  It’s one of my favorite things to do because it gives me a chance to notice.  Stay tuned for a blog post called “Walking Like a Sailor.”

Awesome: On a simple level, walking is awesome, so there is that.  But what makes walking so awesome for me is that it fills me with awe.  Pretty much no matter where I am walking or what I’m thinking about as I truck along.  For instance, I was recently marveling at the way the unmown grass by the pizza shop became a beautiful urban meadow.  I wanted to sink down into it and do some photography because the fire hydrant in the midst of the flowers would have toyed with perspective.  I never went back to do the photography because they mowed it down the next day, but just observing it filled me with awe at how much beauty can reside in a neglected tree lawn.  If I’m thinking about work, my family, God, or my own little aspirations and desires, it makes me see how amazing life is.  It fills me with awe.  But “Walking Awe Full” would have been a pretty bad name for a blog.

Walking Awesome:  It also makes a little play on words for Walking Dead, which Munk and I watch regularly and analyze enthusiastically.  When I started this blog, I had designs to write up my own analyses after each episode because I see so much more happening than is being discussed by the analyses that are out there right now.  Who knows if that will happen once school starts and life gets crazier again.

So there it is- Walking Awesome.  

I wrote this entry a few weeks ago.  The day I wrote it, I had an awe-some walk that went a little like this: Scene: Evening and a particularly good itunes shuffle. I saw the adult twin of one of my students from last year.  He seemed so happy walking his dog and walking in the park I just hoped that the same future would lie ahead for my student.  He was making some bad decisions for himself, but I’m hoping he turns it around and that someday he is walking his dog in the park like that guy.  Then I briefly spoke to some Mormon missionaries, which made me feel good.  Then I ran into two former AP students and got to chat with them.  I saw a parent of another student (except I couldn’t remember which student was hers! Eep!), and met a nice dog named Jake.  And by nice dog, I mean horrible creature, but less horrible than most dogs.  The whole package left me in awe of the fullness of my life and so happy to walk in the door and hear the laughter and feel the hugs of my children.  I realize this doesn't make a good story and that most of this seems trivial.  Maybe that's the point.  That's where a lot of the awe lives.

And since we're talking about titles of things, here's a song for you:

Unlikely Meadows

In my awesome walking this summer, I have been noticing a bunch of meadows in unlikely places.  Some of them don't really look like meadows in all their splendor unless you look from the right angle.  And, like Leandro Carvalho of Brazil Butt Lift fame says, "It's all about the angles." Let's not discuss how I know that.

"It's all about the angles." Or rather, with the endearing accent, "Iz aw about de angos."

Back to the meadows.  Here's one I found in Pennsylvania this week:

Looks pretty idyllic, right?  So where was it?  Some mountain hollow in the ol' Keystone state?  A little knoll by a creek?  Nope.  Try in the cracked foundation of an old, burned down Arthur Treacher's in Breezewood.  

Zoom out and this is what you'd see.

I'm a big believer that your life is how you choose to look at it.  Finding this unlikely meadows is a good example.  I don't usually walk with my phone, and I wish I did so I'd have more examples for you.  Maybe I'll do that.  The point is that the beauty and calm of the meadows is everywhere.  Beauty doesn't hide in remote places and the sublime is all around us.  All it takes is to get down on your knees in gratitude and awe of the life we've been given.   Your eyes open as your perspective changes.