Babies ……………….
Hidden, moving, breathing, growing, silently, slowly symbols of promise, and hope changing lives completely … Numerous born in difficulty; some with ease. Resilient champions from the hidden depths; Suddenly bursting forth into the world, Each deserving of the best opportunities Countless more privileged than others. Varying conception stories … Yet all divinely destined to be a part of humanity. 28 August 2019
Last December I watched, “The song of the sea,” an animated fantasy film (2014). Well worth your watching, and likely to make you shed a few tears. I won’t spoil the story, but the part I want to share with you is about Macha the owl witch. “Her logic of thinking is that it’s easier to bottle up your emotions in a jar than go through life suffering from the pain that comes with feeling.” She herself is slowly turning to stone as she bottles more and more of what she feels away.
Often painful things are easier to stuff down than deal with. Yet the truth is, that in doing this, we slowly kill part of who we are.
I love this Japanese wisdom story. – do take a moment to read it https://philipchircop.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/the-fable-of-kintsukuroi/
From the time I heard this story, the beautiful symbolism has stayed with me.
Kintsukuroi (“golden mend”) is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery using lacquer resin laced with gold or silver.
It taught me not to hide the broken places but to allow time and new experiences to be the gold that binds the once broken pieces together.
The good and the bad become inextricably bound within us and to bottle up the bad feelings and experiences inevitably means we stifle the good feelings too.
These are some of the broken things from my home …
When a cup breaks in our home, we don’t throw it away, we fill it with our own version of gold and keep it as a reminder that there is no shame in mistakes and brokenness. The “My little pony” cup , image 3, is particularly special. My sister and I each had one, from London, about 1984. I like to plant little succulents in some of the broken cups. For me, they symbolise a second chance and a resilience that comes through embracing our brokenness. This particular succulent makes lovely baby shoots that can be separated from the mother plant and shared with a friend. I received the first plant 14 years ago from my then, mother in law to be. I’ve been paying the plant forward since.
Let the gold of time and new experiences begin to fill your soul, fill the cracks and let the feathers of dreams begin to grow again and allow the kind souls who do exist to keep you safe while your wings repair themselves.
A poem
Created colours seen uniquely through each pair of eyes.
When viewed in
isolation,
they can be distinct
- yet flat.
When viewed together, in unison, a cacophony of colours
bursting forth, colour upon colour.
Resembling creation's glory.
Walking with arms wide open ... now linking together
in vibrant freedom - not restricted.
A kaleidoscope of opportunity,
a tapestry of grace.
Angles; lines; layers; boundaries;
boundless energy ...
light, security, love, purpose.
All in togetherness.
Is it a pot of brightly coloured paint – that can transform an old table into a new place where friends can gather and connect soul to soul? Is it a single seed seed, that will take time to grow when planted, but within it contains the potential for a whole forest to be born?
Is it a smile, a cup of coffee, or a longer than usual pause to properly chat and see a through a chink in the armour?
No matter how small it is, we always have something in our hands. Something that can change the life of another or something that can empower us and help us along our journey to fulfill the dream that lies in our hearts waiting to be allowed to grow.
Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by systems, and the phrase, “that’s the way we have always done it” , or ” why fix something that isn’t broken?” When all of your being is shouting … are you serious? Do you really think this is good and do you really not see that this has long been broken?
“Always listen to yourself. It is better to be wrong than to simply follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you will grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.” ~ Bryce Courtenay
When hard times have been long and the light of the dawn doesn’t seem to be coming, those are the times, when dreams are born. When soil seems barren and windows seem closed, that is the time to be ready for when the rain falls and the fresh breeze blows … because it will come. But will you be ready?
Everything good that has every changed our world has always met with resistance. It takes courage to swim up stream, stand out from the crowd, challenge the status quo, think differently. But somebody needs to do it? Why not me? Why not you? Don’t underestimate the power of one. Don’t get so focused on the back of the tapestry where all the knots and threads are, that you lose sight of the picture being created on the other side.
Don’t live with regret. Most people regret not trying far more than they regret trying and failing.
Refuse to do nothing.
“Those who take action have a disproportionate impact. The power of one is to move many.” ~ Elizabeth May
I went for a run today and for the first time in a long long time, probably in 18 years, I really paced myself beautifully and used my core to lengthen my stride … it made me feel powerful, it made me feel purposeful and it gave me sore abs!!
I came back and dug out these poor pixelated photos that are mostly unflattering to the world, but they take me back in time in a boat load of memories.
I spent all of my tween into final years of High school, competing for Zimbabwe. My best race was 800m but I also enjoyed running 4th in a 4 x 400m relay team. That feeling of mind and body in perfect harmony, that effortless, almost flying sensation of coming round the final bend onto the 100m straight ahead of the lactic acid build up …. I loved those days. It took years to get the intense competitive edge out of my system. But I finally overcame that and now I run, just for fun, whenever I want to, I walk when I feel like it and stop when my chest burns, and every now and then I have a day like today, where that old athletic genius comes alive again and I’m like a greyhound on a track.
Did you know that greyhounds are trained to chase a mechanical rabbit with the hope that they will never catch it, because if they do, like one dog did on a race track in Florida they become depressed and disillusioned and no longer know what to do. Shame, poor things. It is quite a scary thought though. Am I chasing something that I am exerting hours of my life for, only to be bitterly disillusioned if I finally do get it? It’s a moment for reflection. It’s best to reflect halfway round the track or half way up the ladder or before you hit the rapids or go over the waterfall.
What do you really want in life or out of life? Are your current pursuits reinforcing your core beliefs? Do you know what your core beliefs are?
IDENTIFYING CORE VALUES
These values apply to work and personal life. This is not an exhaustive list—you’re welcome to add your own.
Acceptance Achievement Adventure Affection Altruism Ambition
Appreciation Arts Authenticity Authority Autonomy
Balance Beauty Belonging Caring Celebration Challenge Choice
Collaboration Commitment Community Communication Compassion
Connection Contribution Cooperation Creativity
Democracy
Effectiveness Efficiency Equality Equity Excellence Excitement Expertise
Fame Fairness Faith Family Flexibility Focus Forgiveness Freedom
Friendship Fun
Goals Gratitude Growth
Happiness Health Helping Others High Expectations Honesty
Hope Humility Humor
Imagination Independence Influence Initiative Integrity
Intuition Interdependence
Joy Justice
Kindness Knowledge
Leadership Loyalty
Making a Difference Meaningful Work Mindfulness
Nature Nurturing
Order
Passion Peace Personal Growth Perseverance
Personal-Development Pleasure Positive-Attitude Pride
Productivity
Recognition Reflection Religion Respect Responsibility Results
Risk Taking Romance
Self-Expression Self-Respect Service Sharing Solitude Spirituality
Success Support
Team-Work Time Tolerance Togetherness Tradition Travel Trust
Truth
Unity
Variety
Zest
To find out what makes up your core:
Credit to Elena Aguilar from “Bright Morning” for this list.http://www.brightmorningteam.com
“World records are only borrowed.” – Sebastian Coe
“Throughout my athletic career, the overall goal was always to be a better athlete than I was at the moment – whether next week, next month or next year. The improvement was the goal. The medal was simply the ultimate reward for achieving that goal.”
— Sebastian Coe
It’s our core beliefs that make us strong and it’s our core beliefs that keep us strong. They are what enable us to get up, dust ourselves off and keep running. When we live true to our core beliefs we are able to lengthen our stride and feel purposeful and powerful. The days we live true to our core beliefs are usually the best days of our careers. Knowing what our core beliefs are can help us better understand ourselves and explain why some days feel just down right rotten. Those are usually the days when we are in situations that force us to move away from our core beliefs.
“To thine own self be true.” – Polonius in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.
About a year ago, I visited Kigali, Rwanda, the land of 1000 hills and 1000 motorbikes. And yes, it is as clean as you have heard it is. It is a fascinating place with the sense of still being in Africa but with a first world edge.
I was buying souvenirs to take home, and this postcard, captured below, jumped out at me. There was something about the image of a person pedalling on a bicycle that resonated with my soul. I bought the card and framed it. For the next few months and now up to a year later, I kept being drawn to images or artworks of bicycles. My soul was yearning for something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on…
Our Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a diffuse network of nerve pathways in the brainstem connecting the spinal cord, cerebrum and cerebellum and mediating the overall level of consciousness.
It filters out the unnecessary information and lets the important stuff through. “It is the reason why when you learn a new word, you then start hearing it everywhere. It is why you can tune out a crowd full of talking people yet immediately snap to attention when someone says your name or something that at least sounds like it. It takes what you focus on and creates a filter for it, then sifts through the data you encounter and presents only the pieces that are important to you.” (nice explanation thanks to Tobias van Schneider 22 Jne 2017).
My soul was trying to tell me something and my RAS was working together with it, drawing my attention to numerous bicycles.
I began to realise that what the bicycle epitomised to me was a sense of freedom and flexibility. It was still a vehicle of transportation but the vehicle could be turned with a gentle turn of the handlebars. It was a low-cost vehicle, so maintenance was not going to be an issue, and most of all it allowed me to decide if I went slow or fast, with the wind in my hair and the sun on my back. (Rainy days didn’t come into the evaluation).
Once I concluded that the bicycle was a symbol for me in this season of my life, I was curious about what symbolism it had in history.
“The Bicycle as a symbol of progress, of renewal, of promising times ahead. This is not a new concept. Indeed, it has been around since the invention of the bicycle. Many bicycle posters at end of the 19th century featured promising themes like liberation, progress, freedom.
In this beautiful poster, there is a lot of metaphorical gameplay. The young woman is riding a bicycle to the future. Dressed in white and seemingly casting fresh flowers as though leaving a trail for us to follow. The old woman is looking backwards to the past as she sits in a bed of thorns, almost resigned to the fact that the future – the bicycle – is passing her by.”
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2012/03/bicycle-symbolism-towards-future.html
4 years previously I had this thing with snails and felt it was symbolic for me to slow down and take stock of what I had. My youngest daughter who was 5 years old at the time, painted me an abstract picture of a snail. I’ve had it stuck in every work space I have been in since then. It is currently in my Grade 7 classroom, where I see it every day. If I remember, when I go back to the classroom in September, I will take a picture and add it to this post. The message has now become a part of who I am and have learned to value slowing down. I took these pictures of some visitors in my garden to make sure I was still remembering the lesson.
Prior to the bicycle the symbolism my RAS was zooming in on an image of a little bird perched on a brightly coloured children’s rope ladder. It related to my situation at work and as the situation changed, so I felt the position of the bird change. At first the bird was perched on a middle rung, then I had a sense that I wanted to fly, but the bird in the picture wasn’t ready to fly. A year later, the sense was, now the bird can fly. And fly it did.
It sounds weird, but it’s real. Our sub-conscious is always trying to communicate with us. Our inner genius is trying to share some life direction. We all need to create space in our minds and souls so we can hear and see. Images stick in our minds more distinctly than even our best loved quotes. So if you have a best loved quote, reinforce its voice in your life, by finding an image that speaks the truth of your present season and allowing the image to keep you focused and centred.
Resilience – “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties”;
“the ability of a substance to spring back into shape”;
“elasticity”; “adaptability”; bouncebackability”; “buoyancy”.
One of the first aims of THRIVE is to build resilience in us as Zimbabwean educators. Teaching is challenging enough, then throw in the challenges of Zimbabwe. We are getting less bendy, less elastic, less buoyant. We’re taking longer to recover from the difficulties of the term as every day has more than is a normal share of challenges.
It is important to be honest about when we aren’t coping and to also be sensitive enough to observe when our colleagues are not coping.
The poem below was written on 24/02/18 as part of a challenge to write a poem with the title, “Collage” and to include a line from a published poet in the creation.
Collage
Happiness floats
Hope flies
Our lives are a collage of collected stories-
Here - look- yours touches mine.
Not waving but drowning * -
Be careful;
Ten cuidado;
Chenjera;
Faites attention.
Be kind ...
Tread slowly and softly,
Lest you mis-
understand
mis-take
miss the cry of one human heart to be
connected to another-
An assemblage of the divine.
*Line from poem by Stevie Smith
I learnt about mood trackers from my Grade 7 class – the aim is to become more self reflective about our most frequent moods. This in turn should help us be more aware of the reasons behind our own moods and the moods of our colleagues. We will hopefully acknowledge that if we are feeling discouraged and soul weary, that the person sitting next to us could well be feeling the same.
It’s not only about negative, heavy moods, but start by acknowledging the moods that you don’t like but you find yourself experiencing more frequently than you really want to admit.
And then consider the good moods and the moods you would like to have more often and also create an awareness that allows others to experience their joy even if it does not at that moment coincide with yours. But know that yours will come too.
Do it for what’s left of the month of the holidays and a month of the new term. See what you discover. Here’s another example.
Follow this link I found for a more comprehensive explanation.
https://www.sweetplanit.com/home/2018/3/10/bullet-journal-mood-mandalas
I love trees, I’ve always loved them. When I was a little girl and used to watch the cartoon, “Dr Snuggles”, I just adored the trees with faces. Another favourite is this extract from C.S. Lewis “Prince Caspian” –
Lucy’s eyes grew accustomed to the light, and she saw the trees that were nearest her more distinctly. A great longing for the days when the trees could talk in Narnia came over her. She knew exactly how each of these trees would talk if only she could wake them, and what sort of human form it would put on…
“Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees,” said Lucy (though she had not been intending to speak at all). “Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake. Don’t you remember it? Don’t you remember me? Dryads and Hamadryads, come to me.”
Though there was not a breath of wind they all stirred about her. The rustling noise of the leaves was almost like words. The nightingale stopped singing as if to listen to it. Lucy felt that at any moment she would begin to understand what the trees were trying to say. But the moment did not come. The rustling died away… Yet Lucy had the feeling (as you sometimes do when you are trying to remember a name or a date and almost get it, but it vanishes before you really do) that she had just missed something…
(Prince Caspian: What Lucy Saw)
Trees
Tall and gracious
Wise and solemn
epitomising life;
years of growing
rings of resilience.
Guardians of humanity,
creating oxygen,
releasing positivity.
Telling us to stretch up
to the sky…
Unlocking potential;
Bursting forth;
All from a single seed.
Deciduous Syringa berry
Evergreen Cypress,
Indigenous Acacia,
Exotic Jacaranda.
At the centre of creation.
Roots stretching down
embracing heritage.
Quick growing,
Slow growing.
Branches reaching wide-
embracing others-
creating shade -
A space of rest
Picnics
Love stories
Games
All from a single seed.
“Pondering … insight … contemplation … musing …mirroring …
back scattering …
Rumination “(I like that one, like a cow chewing on cud)
“Light and heat sent back from a surface without absorbing it”
Taking time to pause ;
and allowing yourself to come to a stop
Stilling your mind
and soul
creating a calm space
to breathe in deeply … filling your ribcage …. letting those intercostal muscles actually stretch down and out for a change.Try it now , yes, right as you sit reading this … deep stretching breaths.
Some people call it mindfulness – “a mental state achieved by focusing ones awareness on the present moment, while calmly, acknowledging and accepting ones feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations as a therapeutic technique.”
Part of my becoming more self-aware was in writing poetry, slowing down and letting the words that wanted to be shared combine themselves in the order they desired. Just letting them flow onto the page in the immediate order of encountering them. Just like this ….
Reflections
A representation of what exists on one plane
in reality.
A mirror that is sometimes perfect – often unclear.
A stillness – a tranquillity – a gentleness.
a peace
Life captured – portrayed- presented
for all who look to see –
So easy to go unnoticed if rushing by-
Yet …beautiful;
If a pause allows appreciation.
My reflection – what do I see?
A tired face but a glad heart;
A weary body, but a buoyant spirit.
For the beauty of life; days;
Wonders of opportunity; treasures;
Small seeds; sprouting forth; birthing life;
Potential …
Hope resounding hope.
Lives interwoven; threads overriding;
Interlocking; meshing;
Forming a tapestry of personalities-
Each significant; some unknown; few revealed.
Tranquillity;
Refreshing clarity;
Purpose
Passion
Contained in life
Represented
Captured so perfectly
In my reflection.
First written in 2004
Being outdoors is a good place to begin self-reflection and mindfulness, I’ve never met anyone who disliked being outside, (maybe you don’t or maybe you know someone who doesn’t, I’d be intrigued to know why?). Cranky babies usually calm down, bored children suddenly begin to create, explore; imagination comes alive when outside.
(Still not convinced – here’s an article to persuade you) https://www.womanandhome.com/health-and-wellbeing/therapist-and-coach-outdoor-sessions-328688/?fbclid=IwAR04VaycD4yBRl7e3gBTjqvElf7QtYKvFjycbs9f1f6CTqXcuS
Smores … have you heard of these? Gooey toasted marshmallow, slightly melted chocolate, squished together between plain biscuits ….mmmh 🙂
Mostly eaten around campfires at least once in your growing up life. Those were the days when you dreamed of what you would be when you grew up…
For me, those dreams never included being a teacher, except I must admit that I always rather admired Matilda’s sweet natured teacher, Miss Honey , so maybe my subconscious was trying to tell me something. But I did a good job of squashing that down until I turned 23 and realised that my job as an event’s co-ordinator was not fulfilling. I realised that I craved a more meaningful connection with people, than the short, business encounters I had with people across my desk while preparing the order of items they needed set up for their function.
FLF – fairy-lights flashing is a code from those days that will be stuck in my head forever. Every now and then I would get out of the office and go to a venue to check up on the setup for a wedding or a 21st, but it wasn’t enough to make my soul come alive. So I said goodbye and decided that the next chapter of my life would be devoted to giving back to the community. Thus began my journey into becoming a teacher.
From the outset I gave 110%, worked late, volunteered to be in charge of myriads of things, went home exhausted and felt that I was finally making a difference. Looking back, I wish someone had taken me aside and told me, that my worth as a teacher was not in how much I could achieve in one day. I wish someone had said that I didn’t have to volunteer for everything in order to succeed. I wish someone had told me to just be myself, to take things in my natural stride and to look after myself and have a life after school. But nobody did. Upon reflection I would say, there seems to be this unspoken yet clearly felt initiation code that, this is what is expected of teachers. Now, 16 years later here I am daring to say that is not what it should be. We need to start a quiet but determined revolution. Will you join me …?
Small moments of Reflection… this is one secret weapon.
The reality is that in our packed days, we often feel we can’t commit to downtime. From the time, we enter the classroom in the morning to the time we drive out the school gate, demands are made on us. Little voices, if we are in kinder garden or primary school clamouring over each other for our attention, even before the school bell has officially announced the start of the day. In high school, we are less obviously in demand by the teens, but the piles of marking shout out as soon as we come into sight of our too crowded work stations. Best face forward, deep breaths, copious cups of tea or coffee, we can do this we tell ourselves day after day, until we finally drag ourselves across the finish line on the last day of term.
We laugh at cartoons depicting this …. yet the truth is we laugh because they have captured exactly how we feel. Our well-meaning friends who say, “ooh you’re on holiday now”, have no idea how desperately we need the holiday.
How do we make it possible for us to come alive every day and not just in the window periods that occur for us in Zimbabwe, 3 times a year, between the two hymns that all teachers can sing without the hymn book, “Lord dismiss us” and “Lord behold us?” (The former one with more conviction)
How do we begin to get around the constant feeling of exhaustion that gets progressively worse the further we venture into the term? How do we begin to change the cartoons that are drawn about teachers?
I think a place we can start is in creating a least one SMOR a day. One small moment of reflection, away from our classroom, away from our colleagues, away from our to do list.
10 minutes, away from everything, to just still the buzz around you. Here are some ideas. I’d love you to share some of yours to help others create those SMORs.
Imagine 50 minutes a week where you chose just to still yourself, breathe and feel human. Imagine the cumulative benefit of 650 minutes over the course of the Term. Yet as teachers we are so pressured to always be on the go, that we forget that we are also humans with needs and wants and most importantly feelings. We don’t stop long enough to be aware of what we feel, we just keep going.
Start today so by the time we go back to school you have cultivated a daily habit.
I’d love to hear how it goes … ( but sssh remember, the revolution begins quietly, 10 minutes at a time).
ThriveZim Education 