OLW | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘OLW’

Spiritual Thursday: Faith

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, tagged faith, OLW, photography, Spiritual poetry on February 4, 2016| 9 Comments »

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

For Spiritual Thursday, we are writing about our little words. Today is dedicated to Justin’s word for 2016, Faith. This winter I’ve had a few physical trials that have been frustrating to say the least, but not life threatening. I know I will heal. Sometimes faith is hard. Sometimes faith forsakes. Faith challenges.

Bayou reflection, January.
by Margaret Simon

Only in winter
with a certain slant of light
a forest reflection
mirrors a standing of trees.

My eye draws a straight line
up from earth
down to water, this perfect line
dissolves as the sun rises higher.

Yet, I am still standing.
I plant my feet into the earth,
walk a muddy path
holding bare arms out
to catch the wind.

I want to feel your breath
on my skin, Lord. Know you are
with me in all things.
Take hold of my hand.
Whisper all will be well.
All will be well.

–Margaret Simon

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Spiritual Presents

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged 1Corinthians12 rewrite, OLW, spiritual journey, spiritual presence on January 21, 2016| 11 Comments »

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

Holly invites us to write about each other’s one little word. This week we are writing about my word, Present. Click on the icon above to go to other blogs to see what they are saying about Presence.

On Sunday, one of the readings was from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He writes about spiritual gifts. Thinking of the word presents as a synonym for gifts, I decided to re-write the verse into a more modern version.

A rewriting of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 12:1-11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, there are many.
The Spirit is generous when you agree to it.
Manifested for peace and goodness,
our hearts must play along.

You may have the gift of speaking
with confidence and knowledge.
Like our friend, Martin, with his dream,
you should speak up.

You may be the one we can all count on,
you show up and bring food. You give us hugs
and tell us how pretty we look today.

You may be the one who comforts, you know
about essential oils and whole foods. Your touch
on our chakras can produce heat and healing.

You may understand fully the phases of the moon.
You know the best time to plant trees. You feed the birds.
You have an herb garden.
And free range chickens. One is named Harvey.

You may be a collector of words,
Uplifting our days on Facebook
with a quote of the day.
Always clever, ever kind.

Whatever your gift of the Spirit is,
use it. Flaunt it. Show it off.
You never know who’s watching,
learning, growing, needing
the very thing you have to give.

Don’t question the Spirit. It knows
what it knows and chooses whom it chooses.
Embrace His Presence. Let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine!

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Believe is not a Sappy Word

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged believe, OLW, poetry, spiritual journey on January 14, 2016| 9 Comments »

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

Paper Whites, Margaret Simon

For the next few weeks, blogger-friends and I will be posting about the spiritual aspects of our chosen words for 2016. This week we are writing about Carol Varsalona’s word, Believe.

I took this picture of paper whites blooming in my front yard this week. When I see flowers blooming, I believe deeper in the true magic of life. I didn’t plant these flowers, and yet, every year they pop up and show their little white star-like faces. They shine. Wake me up. Make me Believe.

I encouraged my students to create an acrostic with their words. An acrostic is when you use the letters of the word as the beginning letter for each line of the poem. Sounds easy enough, so I decided to write one with the word Believe. In my notebook I wrote about 3 half-possibilities. Each one kept sounding sappy.

But Believe is not a sappy word.

Believe is a strong word,
a word that holds on for dear life,
never letting you completely fall,
Believe buoys you up,
especially when troubles want to push you down.

Believe is a word you can count on,
holding its own weight.
Trusting in you to show up
when the sun is rising,
be ready for this new day.

Believe is a certain word,
proud yet humble,
a handkerchief that your grandmother stitched
calmly drying your tears,
then showing you the stars.
Believe believes in you.

–Margaret Simon

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DigiLit Sunday: One Little Word

Posted in Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing, tagged Canva, digital literacy, OLW, One Little Word on January 10, 2016| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

In an attempt to get more participation in DigiLit Sunday, I tweeted out a topic this week, One Little Word. My students worked on their OLW projects the first few days of our return from break. I think this helped them focus and get excited about a new year.

As usual, I offered choices for their project. But for their blog posts, I had three requirements: an image, commentary, and poem. Many chose to write acrostic poems. Most of them chose to use Canva after I showed them how it worked.

Canva is a platform where you can create posters. We did not print the posters, but I uploaded them into their blog posts. Using thesaurus.com, they found synonyms for their words and in some cases, changed their word to one found in the search.

I have been thinking a lot about digital literacies, in particular visual literacies. How does the image convey meaning? I was careful to ask my students, “When you think of your word, what is the image you see?” For Jacob, his word Believe meant blue ocean water. For Madison, her word Effort was communicated by a rocket. Vannisa found a word that connected her interest in sleep (her passion project topic) and her zodiac sign (Pisces) by choosing Dream. She worked with the shape tools of Canva to create a cloud behind her word.

Kielan supported her choice of a star image (her word is Sparkle) with this piece of writing: “There are over a billion stars in the sky. Out of all those stars, there is one particular star that stands out from the rest. All those stars are one color, but this star is all colors. Blue, Red, Green, Purple, you name it. I want to be just like that star. I want to be bold, stand out, sparkle, and be like no other.”

Believe by Jacob

Dream by Vannisa

Effort by Madison

Link up your DigiLit Sunday posts. Topic for next week: Balance (of digital and nondigital)

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The Reach of 2015

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Digital photography, OLW, Reach on December 29, 2015| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for Tuesdays Slice of Life Challenge.

My One Little Word for 2015 was Reach. To be honest, I haven’t thought much about this word lately. Why did I choose Reach? I began the year with the image of an oak tree with outstretched branches. I wanted to be like this oak, grounded in strong faith and reaching to new heights. How have I done that this year?

Yesterday I took a walk in my parents’ neighborhood. I have a new camera that I am playing with. I learned that you can’t take pictures of birds when you are walking. They flee. But the clouds. Oh, the clouds were amazing as the rainy heavy ones gave way to the light, the blue behind. I took many cloud pictures. (The one above I enhanced somewhat in Picmonkey.)

Where are those goals that I was reaching for? They are illusive as goals tend to be. I looked and noticed and was present to the moment of walking. I captured this image. This one is not altered.

Perhaps my reaching has become seeing, noticing, and being present to the given moment. If a star cannot be reached, it can be your guide. These last few days of 2015 seem to be pointing me beyond reaching, forward to a realization of who I am, right here, right now. That’s not such a bad place to be.

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DigiLit Challenge

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, tagged Digilitchallenge, digital literacy, OLW, photo art, Reach on May 24, 2015| 27 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Summer has started for me. I can sleep later (haven’t yet, but the opportunity is there). I can read or write whenever I want to. My days are open to possibilities.

Today on the Two Writing Teachers blog, Betsy Hubbard reminds us to think about our One Little Word. My word is Reach. I would like to Reach for more teacher/bloggers to join DigiLit Sunday. I have no idea how to do that. So I am calling on my readers to help me.

I tend to be someone who rises to a challenge. Last summer I joined in CLMOOC and plan to again this summer. I will probably do Teachers Write with Kate Messner and many other awesome authors again for the 4th year.

There are new challenges every day in this community. Reaching out to create my own challenge is a bit scary. What if no one comes? I will stay true to my OLW and just do it. For the next four weeks, I’ll post a challenge on DigiLit Sunday. If you choose to do it, you can post it however you feel most comfortable, Twitter, Facebook, Blog, or GooglePlus. I’ll collect the links and post them the following week on DigiLit Sunday. Use #digilitchallenge. Be sure to tag me. (@MargaretGSimon on Twitter, @MargaretGibsonSimon on Facebook, and Margaret Simon on Google+)

Challenge this week: Turn an image of nature into a work of art: #photoart

For my photo, I used Waterlogue app on my phone. Then uploaded it to PicMonkey to add the haiku.

Reaching new challenges. Playing with digital literacies. Pass it on.

Link up your DigiLit Sunday posts or DigiLit Challenge here:

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Reaching

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged amaryllis, OLW, parenting adults, Prayer Shawl Ministry, Reach on February 10, 2015| 15 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

My One Little Word for 2015 is Reach. Kim Douillard puts out a photo challenge each week. Guess what the theme is this week? Reach!

So here are some of my own photos that Reach.

While most of the country is frigid, we are experiencing springlike weather here in Louisiana. The live oaks reach for the blue sky.

I continue to Reach out with my prayer shawls. I delivered this one to Lyndel on Sunday. She is now wrapped in peace while she nurses her ill husband.

The amaryllis gift just keeps on Reaching. This is the second blossom sprouting. I am not very green when it comes to keeping plants alive. This display of growth gives me strength. Thanks, Jen.

I am still reaching for my poetic soul and writing poems to Laura Shovan’s Sound Poetry Project. Click on over for some poetry love.

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Reach

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Author Amok, Laura Shovan, OLW, Reach on February 5, 2015| 3 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

Since the new year, Holly has gathered our spiritual journey posts about each person’s one little word. Today my word Reach is the featured theme.

I haven’t really settled in with my OLW yet. Reaching takes active work. It’s not a passive word. I can’t just sit back on it and wait. I have to go out there and do something about it. I want to embrace this word Reach, but on these cold wet winter days, I’d rather be lazy, curl up with my dog and rest. Exercise another day.

I stretch my sore, tired muscles.
I look at the amaryllis, now wilting.
I notice new growth, a new stem creeping up alongside the blossom.
Where did that come from?
Sometimes without us even noticing, God plants new growth.
We can bloom again.

I chose Reach for completely selfish reasons. I have a few writing projects that I am working on and others I am thinking about. I set a goal to move forward with writing, to Reach for publication. Maybe I should have chosen a braver word, like Courage.

This month a Poetry Friday blogging friend, Laura Shovan, has started a poetry project to celebrate her birthday. I have been writing a poem each day to a posted sound. This project is stretching my writing muscles and giving me a creative place to go each day. Am I Reaching? I can think about this writing as stretching, exercising, and moving my writing muscles. All a part of Reaching. Follow this link to read poems about a thunder storm sound.

Perhaps when I read all the Spiritual Journey posts about my OLW I will embrace it, feel it, want to, own it. Today, I will Reach for Reach.

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Turn Toward or Away

Posted in Spiritual Growth, tagged OLW, parenting adults, spiritual reflection, Turn on January 29, 2015| 9 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

This week the spiritual journey theme is Leigh Anne’s OLW Turn. And the song in my head has been “To every thing, turn, turn, turn. There is a season, turn, turn, turn. And a time for every purpose…under heaven…”

Turn is not always easy. It takes patience. Patience. Patience.

Parenting adult children is different from the school-age years. In many ways, it is easier. My girls are all successful in their chosen professions and happy with their lives. Four and a half years ago, my oldest daughter became a lawyer and got a job in a nearby town. For a while she lived at home part-time, but the last year, she has lived with us full time. We have been happy with this arrangement. She is a joy to have around. She is very independent. She helps around the house. She even chooses to spend time with us, but she does not keep us for doing what we want to do. I knew the day would come, though, when she would turn away. Or is she turning toward? She has decided to move to her own apartment.

I know this turn is good. I know our relationship will stay strong. I know this because when she graduated from high school, I walked a labyrinth in Grace Cathedral on our family vacation to San Francisco. During that walk, a voice (I believe God) said to me, “She is not leaving YOU.” She will always be my daughter. She will always be a part of me.

Turns are hard. Some come without warning. Some come after much planning and hoping. Some break your heart and let you know that turns happen.

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Fly

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Canva, fly, OLW, Reach, spiritual journey, thesaurus on January 22, 2015| 4 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

Holly invites us to reflect on our spiritual journey. For the next several weeks, we will be writing about different little words. Today is Michelle’s word, FLY. I made a Tagxedo image with my thesaurus. com search. My own little word, Reach, came up a number of times. I hadn’t made the connection before. When I selected Reach, I was thinking more about goals I want to strive for. But isn’t that like learning to fly, trying to pick up the tail winds and soar?

Discovering synonyms is a good way to ruminate on a word. I watch the birds when they fly. The hawk that glides across the highway in search of hidden prey. I am not like the hawk, a hungry hunter.

The hummingbird comes to the feeder, fluttering wildly to sip sweet nectar. I am not as desperate as a hummingbird who is so quick and finicky.

The seagull came up in my search a few times. Am I a seagull, like Jonathan Livingston, tired of materialism and conformity, looking for meaning in perfecting his flight?

With a wing for understanding and a wing for influence, my flight will be balanced. I will rise to awareness. I will strive toward space, a place to be me. A place to know I am loved.

With God as my compass.