Saturday, August 23, 2014

ok it is Saturday and hot

I am in exile. The heat is keeping me inside. I just do not function well when it much over 85 so triple digit temperatures can actually destroy my mental attitude. So I was up and out early this AM. BreaKfast at Brewed Awakening was a belgian waffle and then off to the big Dillons. I do not go there often--- too many temptations. Home before 9:30 and now I only venture out to help Boba potty. Zoe and Winston go out the door, and come back quickly to plop by the nearest a/c vent. Believe me I understand.

Thursday and Friday were pre-school meetings and so will next week. The keynoter on bullying made us think and may be rethink some of our precepts. Enjoyed him immensely. I think this will be a good year and next year Buhler High will be 100 years old. Nowhere near as old as Eton and Harrow but old for our much younger Country.

This is short. I will try for a longer one but today is other writing, bill paying etc.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

two days until

Two days or rather what is left of today and all of tomorrow then it is back to a daily set routine. I will be teaching from 10 AM to 3:30 plus one night class this semester. In October I will pick up another night class until December. I am ready to go back. Yes, age wise retirement should be my goal but the classroom makes me alive. So back I go until the kids no longer relate to me;so far that luckily has not happened.

Also a daily routine gives me a focus. that means I am less likely to stay up all night to read a book which I did last night.Summer is a relaxed "me"time but to be truthful I am to push myself to accomplish anything.During the school year the routine gives me boundaries and I use my free time better. maybe this is true for others?

Friday is memoir session 2. Never sure how many people will be there but it is a fun night for me. It is my firm belief that we all have a story to tell and a memoir is a way to tell it. While some may say life or my life is ordinary,
but in truth no one not even identical twins will see things exactly the same. Telling your story leaves a legacy for your family and perhaps for more people than that. Watching people write their story , helping them do it , and seeing the result excites my mentor soul.

Speaking of memoir I am in the throes of writing mine. No extreme dysfunction such as drugs, alcohol or abuse exists so it is more a collection of the funny and sad events that were relived around the supportable when the family gathered. It amazes me how one memory spurs another and a pattern emerges. Also questions arise and only some of them can be answered. So I am seeing my life, my relatives, and my friends in a new light and realizing while my life is not dramatic it is and has been incredibly rich. When done I will see that each of my girls gets a copy and even perhaps each of their children so they will see what makes me up. Still a caution if you try this route, remember we see things through our own filters and that influences how the story is told. Make sure your potential readers understand that.

Enough for now. I have set a daily goal for my memoir and/or fiction work and I must get to it. Later readers.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

karma

Amazing as it may seem small things can hurt deeply and often those things are done with no real intent. Aye as the Scots say I know that sometimes they are done with the intent to hurt, but I prefer to think that most times they are not. Still I am growing scab tissue at the moment over a small event that robbed me of a bit of joy last night. Being a survivor, it will not hurt long but after so many little ones , I tend to grow cold toward to those who deal the blows. Now I forgive them because it heals me me even they are unaware of being forgiven.. Carrying the anger inside me only hurts me and though I am not bitter,I will not put myself in that position again.

However, it really rankles me when a friend is hurt and the hurt was intentional. How can people be so snarky and especially when it serves no purpose and is patently untrue. It reveals more about the doer than the one it was done to. What is worse in this case is that the I would never had guessed the person who did it could be so small and so openly mean besides the fact the statement was a bold faced lie.

There is something dark in all of us. Something dwells within our deepest soul that wants to lash out with petty pointed barbs aimed at hurting someone else. Admit it there have been times when the sharp retort or the sly innuendo has been just ready to jump out of your mouth;it is true of me also. It is part of the human genome but something stops us. It stops us if we want to live with ourselves-- if we do not want to rue the act and its results. Animals attack and it is the ability to control the lurking meanness in our system that raises us above the snap and snarl. We can reason and estimate the results of our actions. Choosing not to do something so petty makes our lives better.

The Lakota have the medicine wheel which says that what you put out into the world comes back to you in some way. The Hindus I think call it karma. So essentially if you do good, good will come to you and often more than you put out there. So far I have found this to be true, and so to be petty, be snarky, and to hurt by intent or carelessness is daring fate to really lift your buns in the air with a navy kick and some serious pain. No, thank you. I try my damnest to not do the ""little thing"". I do not care to have it come back at me. It is not easy as sarcasm is my talent , and I have to work at it. It helps to remember if you have to bring someone down to feel better or bigger yourself the action says more about you than it does about your victim. And on that note enough said.












Thursday, August 14, 2014

a bit in the evening.



So I have a webpage. Techy I am in Yoda speak but I am not really. Wix made it easy, and now I feel semi-professional. tree s a storyteller website and FB page. What will one next? Actually next is a memoir writing workshop on the 22nd of this month at Studio 13 in Hutchinson,KS. it is the second and I am hoping for a bigger turnout but love doing it for any number. It spurs my own memoir and that as The Martha says so often is a good thing.

Dogs have retire for the night. At about eight the head for their kennels and Winston whines to go to his bed in my room. he goes in and then comes out to stare me down. Snorts and returns to the bedroom only to repeat the action. I may have mentioned this before but I get such a bang out of it. All three will come to the bathroom with me if the door is not shut tightly and if it is all three are lying near when I emerge. Honestly it takes me back to the years when the girls were all under ten and privacy for Mom was a non-thing.

Lunch tomorrow with a fellow teacher--- a much needed girl time so we can touch base before the school year begins. School started in Hutchinson today for real but Buhler will not get the full student load until Sept fourth. Teacher meetings begin next week for Buhler and my night college classes begin the 26th. This year my classes at Buhler are form 3rd hour to 7th. So things will be a bit different.

Going to end this now. winston just came running form the bedroom , tail( if he had one) between his legs. Boba is being vocal. Wonder what set all this off, but winston is glued to me right now. Did it lightening and I miss it? At any rate even though it is early I have been sleeping until about 1 or 1:45 when I come awake and am awake until 3 or 4. Have not idea why this is happening, but it makes for a short night. so tonight I am going to read later than ususal and see if i can sleep the night through. I promise to post some memoir shorts tomorrow. Until then tata.

website: http:// kspaloma.wix.com/the-muse-meanders

Monday, August 11, 2014

gratitude

This is one of the writing prompts of my online group this month and it brings to mind many things. Caution semi rant coming here.

Thank you notes, where are they? One of my memories is writing thank yous with Mom standing over my shoulder to supervise. It is hard to say thank you sincerely for footed pajamas at fourteen when they were packed with a little golden book and a stuffed animal, but Mom made sure I wrote a thank you even if all I could say was “It was nice you thought of me.” Now if I get a thank you I spend some time considering whether I should frame it. Even a thank you face to face is tough to come by, and somehow makes the gift seem more like an expected donation than something I spent time shopping for and delivering. Oh well, this battle is probably lost.

On a positive note the gratitude I feel for small kindnesses cannot be measured. The pal who uses messenger to talk to me in real time, the phone call to see if we can have coffee, the compliment on a blouse, all these little things lift me. They cannot be taken for granted; they are the happy bonuses of everyday life. How can the givers be thanked? A smile and saying thank you works but a return of the compliment, call or message is another way of saying this means so much.

Spiritual gratitude is a daily part of my life. The house I live in, the food I eat, and the clothes I wear are all gifts. Yes, I work to earn them but the health, the intelligence and the desire to work are gifts from the power of the universe. The serenity of my soul comes from my belief that when I can no longer move the mountains that block my way, He will do it for me. So I say thank you daily.



Sunday, August 10, 2014

thoughts/

Well like the Terminator, I am back. It is Sunday, and frankly,I have been having a lazy day. Dana and KK were here, and we ran,ran, and ran some more. ( notice the Oxford comma LoL )Actually we were scouting out a project which may have to wait.Still we squeezed in some serious sight seeing, shopping scoping out project ideas, and morning coffee at Brewed Awakening. As a finale we went to Guardians of the Galaxy at 10:17 Thursday night because Zoe had a photo session with Gale Wall for her forever homes project. Busy week therefore I decided to do nothing major this weekend. Monday is the start of preschool cleaning and preparations. Teachers begin the 22nd and students ( all grades) come into the schools on the 3rd of September which is my birthday. A good present as the students keep me young and connected to the world outside of books and my own writing.

So many of my years have been behind a desk. It is never easy to do the job well but it is one of the most rewarding of careers. The instant a student understands a concept being presented is so fulfilling. He/she has it, and you have done your job. The reward is instant. The students come and go, but there are always the ones who touch your life and surprises when you find out how you touched one life and did not know it. These are the real rewards of the teacher's life. Money and riches may be nice( as a teacher this may never be a concept I will know),but being a part of someone's life, being recalled as a positive thing can never be bad.

The writer is slowly replacing the teacher in me. I enjoy it and others who read my work seem to like it. That is another blessing. Hopefully I will be able to do a good job on the projects under way. Will Put some of it on here. But now it is time for coffee. have a good day