Too often when people do something for me or pay me a compliment, I consider myself to deserve the kindness they have given me. I forget to say "thank you." Even for the little things I, being the entitled, imperfect person I am, don't say "thank you" enough. My students, my friends, my family, my coworkers all care about me, and even for an open door they hold or for paper they pick up for me, I forget to say thank you. Thanksgiving is a feast where we celebrate the plenty we have in our lives. Even those of us who consider our lives to be less than plentiful, someone is always willing to trade lives with us to live in the plenty we take for granted. Someone in my life - in yours - has given something to me and to you, has done something for you. Say "thank you." Find the great in the less-than and find the plenty in the famine. Say thank you.
To have a home is to have a place where you keep part of who you are. Home doesn't house your clothes or dishes; home shelters heart and mind. Memories make up the heart and mind, and when memories are made, home is scattered around to a variety of vacation retreats. Fall is like a celebration of fresh, living memories -- trees performing their color that's been there all spring and summer. Autumn skies are more ocean-like than ever, rolling birds to the South and cool breezes into almost-closed windows.
The picture on this page is part of my home -- a retreat for my heart where eighteen years of my life looked out my back window during the fall at a mountain resembling a new box of crayons. Now, I'm here in Charlotte, and my life is homely -- busy while ordinary, lovely in the most unprepossessing kind of way. My home is with my heart, the man with whom I wish to shield every memory. Quiet parts of our lives are sometimes the loudest and audacious, spent in the mind reflecting and reviewing, viewing the colors of remembering fall. |
What do I think?I often tell my students that communicating with me is important for them to succeed in my classroom and that proper communication with others will help them succeed in life. On this page, I will write down random thoughts I may have throughout my week to show my students how to be properly honest and open in our writing and communication. |