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Category: reflection

Slowing Down: A Curated List

I’ve sat down to write several times today and instead I’ve been rereading a lot of past blog posts that have to do with slowing down. I decided to curate them here, organized by date, according to title, and a snippet of the post. Celebrate This Week LII (11 October 2014): I celebrate slowing down. The world likes to tell me that I should do more. I’m learning this isn’t always a Truth. The world likes to tell me if I’m not doing everything, then I’m not enough. The Ketchup… Read more Slowing Down: A Curated List →

The Ketchup Incident

You have enough time. I have to remind myself of this often. I constantly fight the lie of the world that says there is not enough time. Because there is. When I was Hannah’s age, 13, I started a quote book. One quote that I penned decades ago has been pricking at my mind and tonight I flipped through the yellow-edged pages just to find this: “Don’t say you don’t have enough time to change the world. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given… Read more The Ketchup Incident →

Teaching Paragraphing

Last night Annabel Hurlburt and I were talking about helping fourth grade writers organize their narratives with paragraphs. Annabel has done an incredible job of helping her students think in scenes and craft a story. As we were looking at some drafts, we realized starting new paragraphs wasn’t automatic for most writers in the room. I was reminded of the tricky nature of knowing when to start a new paragraph. Several years ago, I posed the question to Two Writing Teacher readers: How do you know when to start a… Read more Teaching Paragraphing →

Put Down the Pepsi!

The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace. — Psalm 29:11 2012 was a year of healing for me. During this year, I shifted my eating habits. It began by removing Pepsi from my daily menu. Then slowing down how fast I put food into my mouth.  Then tackling sugar. Then eating as close to natural and whole foods as possible. Then only eating when I was actually hungry. I found it to be true that I felt better when I didn’t eat so… Read more Put Down the Pepsi! →

Serve.

Today I learned in one of his speeches Martin Luther KingJr. quoted scripture from Matthew 10 and then said: Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve…You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. I’m learning to serve. I want to stop walking by needs. I want to stop feeling a… Read more Serve. →