Archive For The “mindfulness” Category
I can’t stop thinking today about my friend Jan, who died nearly seven years ago. Breast cancer. She taught music at my school and lived two houses down the street from me. We shared walks, meals, and moments. A teacher always, she started each class with “ponder this.” Why do we climb mountains? Can there [...]
I noticed a tweet from Dean Shareski today, indicating he was beginning his eighth year as a blogger. Curious, I checked the month I began. March 2004, a month after Dean began his blog. Not as organized as Dean, I’ve lost much of my earlier writing. While becoming a runner, I shared my ups and [...]
If Once You Have Slept on an Island If once you have slept on an island You’ll never quite be the same; You may look as you looked the day before And go by the same old name. You may bustle about in street and shop, You may sit at home and sew, But you’ll [...]
“we are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. as we were. as we are no longer. as we will one day not be at all.” ― [...]
As I approach 60 (coming soon), I am beginning to look backward, wondering how in the world I’ve ended up where I am. Today I read this in Falling Upward by Richard Rohr: Basically the first half of life is writing the text, and the second half of life is writing the commentary on that [...]
Tuning In
By scm | April 29, 2011
Sometimes I forget how much I love music. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? My husband has been working from home most Fridays. While I sit in the quiet living room so I can see our backyard growing in green leaves and tall grasses, he settles in at the dining room table. But he also clicks on [...]
Stopping
By scm | April 8, 2011
Part of my quest to be more “in the moment” is to take time to watch, listen, or read something unrelated to schools, education, leadership, or community. Sometimes that means heading out the door with the dog. More often than not, I stumble upon something in my Reader or in a link on someone’s blog. [...]
I am totally depressed by rain. Gray days make me gloomy and lethargic. So when we headed out the door to go see James (and Ben) Taylor in Richmond last night, I wasn’t excited. Now I love JT, so this was kind of unusual. I found myself grumbling about how cold it was, how I [...]
Ah ha! I knew it. There’s value in my distractibility. Or at least there’s value for some. Check out Jonah Lehrer’s piece in The Wall Street Journal: In recent years, however, scientists have begun to outline the surprising benefits of not paying attention. Sometimes, too much focus can backfire; all that caffeine gets in the [...]