It occurs to me that one of my consistent mental exercises is the one where I try to take all the current changes in my life and extrapolate future events. I should say possible future events. This is a close cousin to rehearsing a conversation you are going to have repeatedly before the actual person you plan on talking to is involved. It is kind of like emotional planning. If I can think of all the worst possibilities then I can lessen the sting of surprise, I can better “handle” disappointment if I can expect it fist. I had a student once that was worried about visiting their parents. They spoke about the past of their relationship and just vented about how it all made them feel. While writing this I remember what I told her and am slightly embarrassed because I so often fail to keep my own counsel or heed my own advice. I told her to feel her feelings to pick them up and then put them down and to leave space for her parents to surprise her. Maybe it will all happen as you expec...
Starting at Christmas Eve December 24th, 1914 the British and German soldiers in the trenches at Flanders and Normandy began to realize something was going on. Silence ensued as arms were laid down during the realizations that every soldier would be spending Christmas in hell. Lights were being lit in barbed wire, carols were beginning to be sung in native tongues and Christmas Trees began to appear on both fronts and hundreds of soldiers poured out into no-man's land. One can imagine that this was the first time in months the sky was cleared of smoke to see the stars, and the fog of conflict would be clear for a short miracle. Suddenly the truth of their situation became clear. They were men who loved their countries, men who fought to protect their families, men who had no say to move the front back or forward by so much as an inch, they were not enemies, not really. It seems that it is easier to harbor hatred when the stakes are lower, and great violence and loss can serve to c...
There's warmth and light emanating from the glass double doors. You can almost hear the laughter and conversation echoing inside. Juxtapose that against the angry echo chambers online, the sympathy, lack of sympathy, and sensational news reports dinging phones and constantly reminding us that this is the largest scale winter disaster in over 30 years. The hows are pitted against the whys today. How can we help versus why did this happen. I can tell you as a returning resident of Texas and a joyful member of the hows today, it is a much better place to be. There will always be time for whys later, people to hold accountable, systems to change, and policies to retool. We have plenty to discuss and lots of time that can be wasted online, and more feedback than you could ever dream of, and on Social Media nothing is demanded of us more than our time and attention. Community demands more than that, but also gives us something that is not exactly available on I...
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