Back Into the Hurly-burly of Crowded Mornings

Posted on September 4, 2007 by randomyriad

My 15 year old is going back to school tomorrow, which means I need to make space in my morning for a grumpy teenager. My mornings have been sanctuaries of serenity this summer as no one is up before I go put coffee on for my wife and get her moving at about 8:30 or 9:00. I was getting up at 7:00 and had 2 hours some mornings to drink my coffee and ponder, cogitate, meditate and generally prepare my mind for the day. Now I will have to get up at 6:00 and have only an hour to prepare for the boy who slept in all summer. He was up at 8:30 today so I have hopes that 7:00 will not be impossible. Then I will have to leave for work before 7:30 so I can get him to school. At least that means I will get off earlier in the afternoon. But I am grieving the loss of half of my precious tranquility. Oh, well I will just have to make it quality one on one time with Dustin. He is a fine boy, a little surly at times, but he has an interesting outlook on life, and we like a lot of the same music: Gorillas, Radiohead, The Shins, Arcade Fire, Flaming Lips etc. as well as some of the bands from my youth: The Who, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin etc.

Tonight his sister, who has bright green hair, shaved off most of his bright pink hair and they are busy dying it some other unnatural color (that I have not yet seen) in honor of the first day of school. My daughter is 18 and a home schooler, attending the local community college through a high school program, but she is going to the high school for the first day assembly. So I will have two children with festive bedhead to awaken at an hour they have not seen in years. They are both enrolled in school as home schoolers and so have been going on a later schedule for the last two years.

I am sure I will adjust (as they will adjust), and even find positives in this change. Life is change. Now I must to bed, so I will be well rested and rise to greet the dawn which I have not seen in a while.

Posted in change, conversations, developing relationships, Family, House and home, music, Teaching and Learning, Telling Stories, thinking in words, working world | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Two Random Observations In an Otherwise Lost Day

Posted on September 3, 2007 by randomyriad

This Morning As I Came Downstairs

From the top of stairs I saw the shadow of the bird outside the warped glass window next to the front door. The bird was flinging itself, thump-thump, at the glass in an irregular rhythm. It pecked and fluttered around and pecked again. I walked down and opened the door and looked around the door frame. The bird was gone.


This Afternoon As I Waited for A Light to Change


The man wobbles to a strange rhythm. His clothes and flesh under the clothes hang uncomfortably on his bones and sag here and there. He totters toward the busy intersection on a stretch of sidewalk that he navigates as if he were using a dream compass. He hesitates, glances back at a small metallic object slightly off the middle of the square of sidewalk that he had just successfully traversed. Now he girds up the small cardboard package he holds tightly to the side of his body, and turns unsteadily. He glances casually as if there is nothing of interest on the sidewalk. Then with the grace and skill of a dancer, he crouches and snatches the shiny object, and all in one motion straightens and slides it in his front pocket and continues his wobbling progress to the intersection through the wild white desert of the sidewalk.

Posted in House and home, internal landscape, mindworks, my life, paying attention, pieces of the mirror, Telling Stories, Wacky World, Walking, Wild Life | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wherever You Go, There You Are.

Posted on September 1, 2007 by randomyriad

I just felt like saying that. It needs to be said every now and then, ” Here and there. Funny things are everywhere.”

Dr. Suess

“I have nothing to say, and I’m saying it.”

John Cage

“Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.”

Steven Wright

Posted in funny stuff, mindworks, Other peoples words, thinking in words, Wacky World, Walking, whereever you go there you are | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dark Eyes and the Chicken Dance

Posted on September 1, 2007 by randomyriad

Today during the lunch break at our training today, I walked down the street with my friend and colleague who is a lovely woman from India. She has great dark eyes that grow moist when we talk of children we know. She loves each child like her own grandchild, the more difficult the child, the greater the love. Whenever I need a little refill of patience and understanding. I try to connect with her. She breathes fire into me and shows me why I do this job that is so often discouraging. She must get the same from me, or I hope she does.

Last year I was lucky enough to work with her at the same site. It was the one thing that saved me in an almost impossible year. Whenever I was at the end of my patience with my supervisor and struggling with challenges in the classroom. She would tell me a story about India or a child she struggled with, or she would just look over at me and say, “I don’t know how you stay so calm when he gets like that. You are like a silver lake.” And, I had to smile. Then she would tell a joke, and I would have to laugh. And, then I would watch her make big eyes of surprise and say, “Oh, my gosh!” when a child told her something special, and all those problems were shoved so far back I couldn’t even see them anymore. Whenever I had enough of paperwork and phone calls, I would go out and watch her do circle with her class. Nothing was more important than the Chicken Dance or a child’s feelings. It was like taking a reality shower in the dusty muddle of a day. I will miss working with her, and I know I will be calling her and having lunch and hearing about her problems. But that also means I get share her love and joy and those big eyed surprises.

Posted in developing relationships, music, paying attention, Teaching and Learning, thinking in words, working world | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A More Successful To Do List

Posted on August 30, 2007 by randomyriad

This is a list of things I am usually successful at getting done every day that make my life better.

  1. Sing out loud or make some music
  2. Dance a little
  3. Make someone laugh or smile
  4. Do something nice for someone I don’t know
  5. Create something: drawing, writing, putting something together
  6. Teach something and learn something: usually at the same time.
  7. Take at least 5 minutes to just be and listen to my own rhythm inside the heartbeat of the world.
  8. Listen, look at, absorb something that inspires me or makes me feel at ease in my life.
  9. Let little irritations pass by.
  10. Kindness, kindness, kindness, because the world is hard enough to live in sometimes.
Posted in dancing, Drawing, lists, mindworks, music, my life, paying attention, philosophy, Self-Experiments, Singing, Teaching and Learning, thinking in words | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment