5%

I have always enjoyed my students.
My daughter and I saw one of my former students last night. I was so excited that 10 years later his face brought his name to mind immediately(his brother said there was a reason for that;) I understand that children just fascinate me. I don’t think I realized that LEARNERS fascinate me…even when they are my grown up college students. The meaning we are making together is so very powerful. One of my students shared words from her music professor at a perfect moment.
We were talking about teacher sensitivity and regard for student perspective. She spoke of 5%. Each of us comes into this world with a gift…something that we excel at…to the extent that we are better than 95% of the world in this area of expertise. Our job is to find our 5%. What is it we excel at? If those around us don’t treat us as if we have a gift to share, why would we ever try to find it? How many gifts were left unopened and further returned to their sender?
I might hate to know.
What is your 5%?

Lessons

We teach
and guide
and support and hope
for the best…
for success and happiness.
Manners, concepts, songs, simple tasks…
We teach many many things.
Today,
you taught me…
the most beautiful lesson I might ever see you master…
is love and care for self
that put a smile on your face
and peace in your hug
the likes of which I have never seen before.

Want to change the world?

This just came to me…
It’s an easy thing really.
Want to make a difference?
Help a kid out?
Build self esteem?
Teach empathy?
Here it is:
Eliminate every situation EVER where we pick partners, groups, or teams.
It is not necessary.
There is a way to notice who enjoys working together and create opportunities for that to happen.
Why must anyone endure this?
Why should someone pick?
Why should others worry they won’t be picked?
There are 80 bazillion ways to make this happen creatively and quickly too.
Coaches, teachers, anyone who works with groups of children and the situation presents itself…
PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE.
Erase this one little moment that happens again and again and again year after year.
Isn’t that simple?
Rock on:)
Now go get you some joy today;)
I did.

Flippin Clippers

grrrrrr…
Is a haircut really such a big deal?
yes.
I KNOW!
It’s just…we get to this point where it is TOTALLY time to either trim or braid or something.
They HATE combing/brushing…anything.
ok.
I get it.
I retired the clippers to Kirby.
The first cut was $7.
I gave a nice tip because he spent a long time on their hairs.
They looked GOOOD!
Next time I went back the cut was $14.
No big deal…still looked good.
Last time we went there it was over $20 and that was it.
Time to dust of my clippers.
I have a little one (really nice to maneuver) with a wide variety of guards.
Then there is this big fella…only two guards. REEEEAAALLLY long or REALLLLLY short.
BB does not like haircuts…never has.
MC doesn’t mind…but he is VERY particular.
Then he has to get used to it for a few days.
Today was haircut day. I let them choose trim or cut.
BB wasn’t too bad, but the clippers were acting sort of funny.
The little ones weren’t really cutting, and the big one was either too short or too long.
We trimmed up BB with the too long but he looks good.
Then it’s time for MC.
Sometimes he goes with a mohawk, but that needs to be on a Friday night so he forgets about it by Monday morning…too silly at school.
I’m thinking a fade might do the trick.
I start working on his hair…I bet I switched guards and clippers no less than 10 times!!!
Nothing was working!
I even used a comb and was going to cut with NO guard (brave, aren’t I?).
I went to Sally to get either different guard sizes for the big one or a new blade for the smaller one (NO I didn’t bring the clippers with me…I guessed – wrong).
It took FOREVER and MC and I were both over it.
I had to finish though.
A little here, a little there…free hand to blend it just right on top and smooth it all out.
It might be the best haircut I have ever given him.
I’m worn out!
He’s happy.
We’re good.

30 Mirrors

I have 30 mirrors in my home.
This does include one in the garage, but it is hung. This does not include my creative inventory.
I only realized this when we had our cleaning party last weekend.
I was cleaning mirrors after children had cleaned mirrors;)
I started counting and was a bit taken aback.
Then I started thinking about my life the past few years…
How things are drawn to a person…
How who you are and what you are about seems to surface both literally and figuratively.
In an introduction to some journaling time at work I shared this…my 30 mirrors.
They might have categorized this as one of my randoms thoughts pulled from the air.
You cannot force reflection…being reflective.
I can ask you to look at yourself…30 times.
It does not mean you will see…or even truly look.
Having 30 mirrors does not give me reflective children, or even children who truly see their beauty.
If it is possible to be too reflective, I am.
Perhaps my mirrors were to bring light to behavior in my house that wasn’t working.
I’m not sure the mirrors were what changed things.
I like the idea of the symbol of a mirror…the meaning and possibility.
Father Greg Boyle quoted Mother Theresa when he said, “we forgot that we belong to one another.”
He went on to say that we are called to reside at the perimeter. Invite others in. He says serving others is the hallway to the grand ballroom of kinship. We should show up, hold a mirror up so that we might help one another remember who we are and why we are here.
I like that…very much.

I’m Concerned

How often does a problem go unnoticed until it invades our personal world…our comfort zone? A lot I suppose.
My world has been full of young people and urban education and democracy and social justice for many many years.
This moment is when my own personal safety is called into question as a mom.
I have been all over Houston…once even to pull a student out of a potential gang stand off. I remember wondering as we drove if I should have the window up to slow a bullet or down so I could hear it coming. These are the moments I look back on and just shake my head. I wasn’t a mom. I was only responsible for me (I use that word loosely, clearly).
In Kansas City I would go all over town at all times of day…picking students up…dropping them off. I wasn’t a mom. I was only responsible for me.
When I happened to catch the story about concerns of violence on the Plaza, this caught my attention. That is 5 minutes from my house. 5 minutes from where my babies sleep.
My friend asked if I wanted to go to the Plaza art fair. I said sure! but wait…
If this is my response…then it is time that I put in one place all I know and have read that just might impact this situation.
I heard on the news they were talking about imposing a 9pm curfew. I think they did this in Westport when there were issues with violence. Kids just find somewhere else to go. A curfew does not send people home…just away. Away would assume they have somewhere to go…something to do…or implies perhaps we do not care if they have somewhere to go or something to do…just don’t be here. Go and “be” somewhere else. I don’t like that message. Neither do kids.
I don’t know who it is hanging around on the Plaza. I do know that I used to hang around when I was in high school. I wasted a lot of gas driving around and up and down Welch Avenue. There was nowhere to “be”…nowhere that reached out to me…that captured my interest. I had a home to go to…loving parents…family…friends. I wanted to socialize and hang out.
When I moved to Houston in 1995, one of the first places I felt comfort was at the community center near one of my schools. There was always something going on there and lots of families and friendly people about. It was a place to be with things to do.
I do not know where my points of reference fit into this situation, but it seems one or more may be pertinent.
This is what I am wondering:
1. Who is hanging around creating a problem?
2. What do they like to do?
3. Do they have a job?
4. Are they in school?
5. What do they think might be some solutions to this situation?
6. Did this situation migrate from Westport? If so, how can we handle things this time in a better way?
Here are the things I was thinking in connection to this situation:
I don’t even remember what was going on with the economy when I was “hanging out” but I did have a job and was in school. Is the economy and a lack of money for social activities a factor? Or is it that there isn’t somewhere to be to begin with?
When the hanging out involves gun violence this results in death or at the very least a probably costly and inconvenient recovery for someone that would be nice to avoid. It also might involves the cost of incarceration which I think runs at about $60,000 a year.
I started searching for information on big cities with low crime. I wondered about what they were doing that we may or may not be doing.
I thought of Airick Leonard West and was interested in his insight on the situation.
I wondered what Father Greg Boyle might suggest we do. It isn’t gang violence, but his capacity to connect and care and listen is just the thing.
I was brought to tears by Jeremy Gilley as he shared about his one day of peace and what he was collectively able to accomplish.
No one comes into the world wanting to create a problem or bring harm to others. How did we get to here? Since we are here, where might we go so there are plenty of places to be and things to do?
I wonder…

The Pantry

Ideas simmer and roll around in my head for a long time before they come to pass.
What might look like an impulsive project explosion has actually already been finely executely from start to finish in my head many times over.
Sometimes I look for ideas and think and don’t know what “finished” looks like until I get there.
This time, I have been thinking about my pantry and browsing on Pinterest and dreading the excavation required to even see the back of that space to overhaul it. It is a project with layers of purpose:
1. It was really gross and needed a fresh coat of paint.
2. The shelves were bare wood.
3. The remains of many organizational overhauls needed to be tended.
4. It feels like the hub of our home…if we can think through this space, the rest of the organization will follow from this place.
5. It needs to be arranged for children who are able to do much in the kitchen.
6. We need to think through what we nourish ourselves with…really (instead of grand plans waiting to expire).
7. From this place we live purposefully, aware and together.
8. I want it to be pretty, and blue, with lighting.
The end of the summer might not have been the best time…but I wonder if there is a good time to explode a pantry all over the kitchen and dining room and paint and add shelving and lighting and reorganize in an amazing way with my A Team. The time is now. We must. Another school year is upon us. If I wait, it will be BB’s graduation from high school and who wants to do all this with no comedians around? I told BB I MUST finish the pantry. He told me with his two fingers gestured from his eyes to mine, that he had his eyes on me if I thought about slacking off;)
So, with pantry all around me while the paint grudgingly dries…I am working on my pretty light fixture. It is just for us. Not many others will see it I imagine. Maybe that is another reason I want to do this…sharing my message for my comedians with actions…lighting up the dark corners of this world one little sparkle at a time.