purpose | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘purpose’

Slice of Life: Some Days are Like That…

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged affirmations, One Little Word, purpose, spiritual journey on March 27, 2023| 12 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

“Some days are like that…even in Australia” were the wise words of the mother to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. It’s good advice. This mother empathizes and reassures Alexander that life will go on and tomorrow will be better.

This message in my inbox this morning:

Type Four EnneaThought®

What would happen if you stopped trying to understand yourself today? Would your world fall apart?

This morning is a new day, and I’m not feeling as sad or overwhelmed. I won’t chew on my heartstrings all day today. I have children to teach. This is what I am telling myself anyway.

Grief is a weird thing. We all have it in our backpacks that we carry through our lives. Sometimes, it stays back there, weighing little to nothing. You think you’ll be fine. Hey, look what I am carrying with little or no effort. Aren’t I the strong one?

Then someone hugs you, touches your shoulder, gives you that look of empathy, and you crumble. Yesterday our choir master was back at church after a few months away. His mother had been diagnosed with end stage cancer and after she died, his father willed himself to follow her. They had been married over 70 years. This is not my story to tell, but it may give some context for why my own grief hit me hard yesterday. I was overjoyed to see him, but as soon as I hugged him, the tears welled up.

I wanted to understand these feelings. It was Sunday and all the while I did my Sunday chores, yard work, laundry, and so on, I wanted to understand and the more I tried to understand, the more I cried.

Today is a new day. I am breathing. I have a plate full of things to do. I will be OK.

Without even knowing what was going on with me, my friend texted me this affirmation:

I offered my best self today.
It doesn’t matter if I did everything perfectly.
The day is now past and I will let it be.
I am looking forward to the morning.
I have the power to make tomorrow a great day.
I will feed my strength with sleep.
Tomorrow I will grow further.
Source unknown

Today is a new day, a new week, and I don’t have to understand myself.

My hand gathering strength from a tree, Women’s Wellness Retreat, Lake Fausse Pointe

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Slice of Life: Small Moments

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #smallmoments, Charlie, purpose, schnoodle on January 10, 2023| 3 Comments »

All we have are these moments: the golden trees,
the industrious bees, the falling light. Darkness
will not overtake us.
Barbara Crooker, “Poem with an Embedded Line by Susan Cohen”

My One Little Word for 2023 is Purpose. I am trying to purposefully capture small moments and hold them close. My dog Charlie is near the end of his life. He is 15. He sleeps most of the day. But he still gets excited about treats.

We were having a rainy day. I heard the rain, but it didn’t register that I had let Charlie out in the side yard. I don’t know what made me remember. Perhaps it was his slight scratch at the door. Or the boom of thunder. He is usually afraid of thunder.

I opened the door and Charlie ran in, soaking wet. I grabbed a towel and sat down on the floor. He ran into my arms and let me rustle him around in the towel. Then he’d run away and turn around, back into the towel, rub rub rub, shake, shake, off he ran again. He did this a few times. I was giggling hard.

My old dog has some life left in him!

What are your small moments of joy?

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Spiritual Journey First Thursday: One Little Word

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Teaching, tagged One Little Word, purpose, spiritual journey, wisdom on January 4, 2023| 12 Comments »

Grab the 2023 Spiritual Journey image for your blog posts.
Image by Henry Cancienne.

Do you select a One Little Word for the year? For years, I’ve been choosing a single word to guide my spiritual journey. Last year’s word was Enough. This word kept me in check. Whenever I questioned myself, I remembered “You are enough.” But as 2023 approached, I thought I wanted a more active word. I follow my good friend’s daughter on Instagram. Faith Broussard Cade has become an influencer under the name Fleur de lis Speaks. I clipped this recent post:

My new word for 2023 is Purpose.

What is my purpose?

Does this activity fit with my purpose?

Can I live each day with purpose?

I have been having mixed feelings about the word, so I talked it over with a friend. She offered me the wisdom that my purpose is with God, to bless others with my own faith.

My daughter got an oracle deck for Christmas. She said, “Just for fun, ask the oracle a question and pick a card.”

I kept the question to myself, but the card I picked was “Dancing Spirit” with a beautiful butterfly as the image. The main tenants were “Honoring Oneself”

*Build self-esteem

*Feeling the sweetness of life

* Sharing your inner light in a centered way.

I believe that purpose will continue to show up in my life. Funny how that happens.

I love to share the practice of choosing a word with students. I found some word beads and elastic string at Target, so my students each chose a word and I made them a bracelet.

Students share their one little word bracelets.

I asked them to write a post about their words by choosing a quote and writing about what the word means to them and why they chose it. It’s a fun way to greet the new year.

If you are joining the link up today, please click on the InLinkz below. If you’d like to join our group and host a month, follow this link to our google spreadsheet.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!Click here to enter

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DigiLitSunday: Podcasts with a Purpose

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, tagged purpose, student podcasting on November 13, 2016| 2 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

I find myself choosing topic words for DigiLitSunday that are current struggles of my own. This week I was faced with a decision about my students’ podcasts. They were written and recorded, but the technology department would not open Soundcloud as a venue for online publishing. I asked myself, “Then what was the purpose of all that work?”

My teaching philosophy leans heavily on purpose. I feel students need to have authentic learning experiences. We listened to podcasts, discussed the elements, and wrote scripts based on research. In order to fully experience production, though, the podcasts needed an audience.

I turned to YouTube. In order to make the sound recording work for YouTube, we had to design a video using Movie Maker. This added another step to the process. We had to select images, load them into the Movie Maker app, and add the sound, playing over and over to make sure the images matched the words.

For this step with most of my students, I worked one on one which took time and patience, so I questioned its purpose. I gave it back to the kids. This step was important to them. One student was excited to share the video with her sister who is away at college. I tweeted out one podcast on Friday and received a response from a literacy coach who plans to share it with a 3rd grade classroom.

I believe it is important to model for our students authentic learning experiences and navigating the digital world. It’s a scary place out there. If my students begin in a safe place, perhaps they will become confident and responsible digital citizens.

Please consider following my YouTube channel (margaretsmn) as well as our class Twitter account (@MrsSimonsSea).

Today I am featuring Madison’s podcast on Barn Owls. Madison becomes a teen barn owl in this podcast. What you can’t see is how she “flaps her wings” when she says her part.