Tuesday Slice: Leaps and bounds and plods

We've had a touch of warm weather lately, and they're back.  I see them from my kitchen window, while I'm driving through my neighborhood and that of the school in which I work.  Most are alone, though I've noticed pairs and packs of them.  They all have one thing in common--their graceful, light-as-air bounding.  Whether they move quickly as Olympian contenders, or more slowly enjoying the scenery, their feet seem to barely touch the gravelly dirt of the hike-and-bike or the solid gray squares of sidewalk. Their breathing, if labored at all, is measured and strong.  Studious or smiling, their running looks effortless, as if unseen hands are holding their bodies aloft, allowing their feet to gently touch the ground with each stride.

I have never felt that lightness of being while engaged in exercise.  Instead of hands holding me up, I feel the earth pulling me to its core.  Sometimes the crunch of gravel from my heavy footsteps is sensory overload, and I leave the trails to plod along sidewalks.  Increasing the speed to a slow jog, my bones are jarred with each pounding step, and my breath is ragged.  Indoors, attempting to replicate the springing steps of aerobics instructors on workout videos has flattened the pile on my living room carpet; when I try to run in place, kicking my feet back as they do, I feel like I'm about to land on my face.  Better to march along low impact style and remain upright.

In water, however, gravity loses its hold on these dinosaur bones of mine.  I am an excellent floater!  Swimming season cannot come soon enough.  

Tuesday Slice: A cloud of January words

A quiet Monday at home, contemplating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's legacy while I puttered around the house, had me feeling introspective and sentimental.  The news coverage of King's speeches, an interview with his daughter, and the marchers on the streets today reinforced the power of words to encourage change.

What power do my words hold?  Could they encourage me to do better? Like a scientist who takes a core sample from a glacier, I decided to review my January Slices as a time capsule.  To discover the themes in my New Year's writings, I took a tech-y shortcut by copying and pasting my January posts for the last three years ('16-'18) into an online WordCloud app.  Here's the result:

"Time" is front and center.  So are "new," "make," "remember," "day," "school," and "marched."

January is all about time, isn't it?  Planning our goals--and thus, our time--for the coming year.  Spending time with our families as the holidays wrap up, making memories to remember.  

It's about beginning anew, too.  We give ourselves permission to start over--New Year, new school semester, a new routine. 

Next January, I will most likely reminisce about how the days marched away.  I will think about my mornings and nights--my time around school hours--and how I spent them, to figure out if being a wife, mother, and friend balanced out with being an educator.  

This WordCloud has given me much to ponder.  I wonder--if I do this each month, what words will pop up front and center?  What meaning will I attach to them given my current situation?  I think it's worth a try!

Tuesday Slice: Meditating in a Subway

We were locked out of our meeting space.  A spur-of-the-moment idea resulted in the seven of us seated at rearranged tables and chairs in the Subway restaurant next door, stacks of magazines in front of each of us.

The facilitator began our guided meditation.  Eyes closed, my senses were filled with piped-in music, scents of bacon and onion and toasted bread, orders being given, chairs scraping and footsteps padding on the floor.  At first it was distracting, and I had to refocus on our facilitator's words.  As the meditation and exercise continued, the sounds and smells faded to the background, forming a pillow for my thoughts.  Focus your energy...whiff of food...focus on the month...snippet of song...focus on the images...what can I do for you, sir?

We were almost finished when another facilitator arrived with a key.  We unanimously, quietly decided to finish the meditation portion of our morning in the Subway.  After a few exchanges of gratitude and "have a nice day" with the restaurant staff, we packed up and moved next door to our usual space to finish creating our collages.

I usually enjoy the calm, quiet space where we meet.  But this morning, it seemed a little less "full" without the clatter of the outside world, reminding us that no matter where you are, you can still go inward to find that place of peace.

Tuesday Slice: Tend

Tend:  to act in a particular way, cultivate, serve, watch over, pay attention, wait, listen, be ready, take charge.  (Thank you, Merriam-Webster online dictionary.)

That's my One Little Word (OLW) for 2019.  After experiencing "enough" (2018's OLW) last year, I realized by this New Year's Eve that in many areas of my life I truly have had enough.  Enough debt.  Enough lack of sleep.  Enough drawn-out, longer-than-necessary work days.  Enough fat on these bones and weakening of muscles.  Enough avoidance tactics of eating and shopping and mindless screen time.  Enough wishing for more experiences and memory-making.

So this year, it's all about tending to those things I've had enough of.  Tend to my finances, my sleep schedule, my work hours.  Tend to my home and relationships.  Tend to my body's needs for healthy food and exercise.  Tend to what is truly important, and whittle away the rest.

Photo ©Christine Margocs.  Taken January 7, 2019.

A New Year's request to my friends on social media

We've got a brand new year coming up.  An artificial boundary to prompt us to review, reevaluate, renew to be a better version of ourselves.

One of the items on my review list is my social media presence.  I'm going to look back over my posts on Facebook, Twitter, and this blog, and evaluate the content of my contributions.  

I'm going to use the THINK acronym as I read:

http://www.technologyrocksseriously.com/2014/10/before-you-post-think.html#.XBuKeFVKjcs

Some of the questions I will ask myself:

• Did I check the source of any information I shared before posting?  Was it reliable and trustworthy?  Or did it just cater to my own beliefs and opinions?
• Are my posts helpful, inspiring, and kind?  Am I spurring thoughtful conversations, or just fanning the flames of an irrelevant issue?
• Is the kind of world I want reflected in the posts I write and share?
• Do I "like" posts that fit the THINK acronym? 

I respect the opinions of my friends, family, and colleagues, but I'll be honest--if I see someone rapidly sharing memes and posts from nondescript, unverifiable sources, then I'm just as rapidly scrolling through.  If those sources are extremist (on either end of the spectrum), then I'm scrolling through those as well.  

And about that sharing...

There have been several articles from reliable sources regarding Russia's use of social media to influence politics in the United States and abroad.  Those who seek to disrupt democratic processes may be responsible for flooding social media with "fake news" and incendiary posts, but guess who's responsible for spreading such inaccuracies--we, the users of social media, are to blame for spreading those fires.

So this year, I'm going to try to do more reading and THINKing.  I'm going to be even more careful of the posts I share.  I'm going to try and comment on the ones I do share, so that my friends and colleagues are aware of MY thoughts and opinions, not just some unknown meme creator's whims.

I'm going to do my part to make the internet a kinder, more reliable place for my friends, family, and colleagues to meet and share and discuss.  This does not mean that I'm planning on avoiding tough topics--it just means that when I do so, I will do better at making sure the information comes from reliable sources, and that my posts are there to spark conversation, not fires.  I will ignore trolls, because there's a chance they are not who they claim to be as, and not truly reflective of my community.  I will believe my own eyes and experience, and listen to the experience of my friends, family, and colleagues to help guide my beliefs and opinions.

In short, I will do my best to think for myself.  And I ask my friends on social media to do the same.

Tuesday Slice: Hail and farewell

There will be a double retirement party in my library this afternoon, for our campus cafeteria manager...and my library assistant.

Melinda has been my right-hand woman for five years.  After working in the office, she began the position halfway through my first year as a librarian.  That spring semester was one of the blind leading the blind, but we pulled through and came back for more the next year, and the next.

I feel a bit sorry for my incoming assistant, as Melinda has spoiled me.  Rarely do I need to give directions, as she is always onto the next task, usually before I even know it needs to be done.  She single-handedly runs the circulation desk, helping teachers and a class while I'm teaching another group in the lesson area or Book Nook.  I couldn't have maintained our double-class schedule without her assistance.

Melinda's smile is known by all who have encountered her in the office, lunchroom, crosswalk, and library.  As she said tearful goodbyes to our classes last week, there were cries of "Noooooo!" from the students.  She will be missed, and held to her promise of returning to visit in the near future.

Thank you, Melinda, for all you've done for our campus--and for me.  You've helped this fledgling librarian learn to fly, and for that, I'll be forever grateful.

Tuesday Slice: Twenty-eight years

This Saturday marks our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary.  I searched online for traditional twenty-eighth anniversary gifts, and came up empty-handed.  The modern take is anything orchid--flower or color--but purple isn't a favorite color of my husband.

Our college boy comes home on Saturday, so we'll celebrate earlier in the week, most likely with dinner and a movie.  I offered to pay for the tickets as my gift, and suggested to my husband that his gift could be the dinner part.  No muss, no fuss, nothing to dust; that seems to be the motto regarding gifts these days.  We have all that we need and more than we could want, the clutter of our lives on the cusp of overwhelming.

But what lives we have led, these past twenty-eight years!  Twelve jobs between us (eight of them mine).  A premature birth.  A miscarriage.  A medically complicated birth.  The loss of two parents, a sibling, and four great-grandparents.  Eight surgeries in our family of four.  Two and a half college degrees.  Several trips across Texas and across states.  A solo overseas trip to London for me, and an excursion to Tokyo for all of us. 

I've lost count of the number of vehicles we've owned...we're currently at five cars, three motorcycles, and several bicycles.  (Why?  We have four drivers, and the extra car is the only one big enough to move college dorm necessities and lug home a Christmas tree.)  We've had but two homes; our rental when we first married, and the house we bought the year after, now paid in full.  We have no desire to move, having built our lives and collected memories in these walls.

We've had our ups and downs over twenty-eight years, but we've always, always had each other.  Here's to at least twenty-eight more--more love, more laughter, more memories to share.