Soooo...the other morning I was up early and was doing some weeding in the raised beds. Working in the garden is always therapeutic, but getting it done early before the day gets too hot is always a plus. My husband had meaning to pull out the carrots, but had forgotten so I did it after the weeding. And imagine my surprise when I pulled up the odd man...literally. I couldn't stop giggling.
He says this kind of deformity can happen when you plant your carrots too close together. Well, it certainly brightened my morning that day. I couldn't see myself butchering it up for a meal so it's been in the refrigerator awaiting its fate. Last night I decided that it had served its purpose well by being a conversation piece, but today I would probably shred the carrots for a macaroni salad and to use in garden salads. Then inspiration hit me, as it usually does late at night.
Inspiration is a must for a teacher. That's what a teacher's summer is all about - inspiration and catching up on sleep, but mainly inspiration. We look at the lessons we taught during the year and reflect on the positives and negatives and then look for possible improvements. We also look around for inspiration on new ways to do things. The world is constantly moving and changing and so must we as teachers.
My inspiration involved immortalizing this amazing, unique, and downright scary carrot. Kind of reminds me of Elvis (well, the lower half of Elvis anyway.) When I told my husband I was going to take a picture of it, he cringed. "Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked. I think my response was to just grin. I don't like to over think things some times...just go with it.
That's what I do in my classroom. I don't spend a lot of time over-thinking, it won't be productive. I know some teachers who spend too much time over-thinking and sometimes wind up talking themselves out of good creative lessons. "What is the kids don't like it? What if they can't do it? What if? What if?" I hate the "What if 's." I can't plan for all the contingencies. But I have found that if you have passionate about a lesson, then it comes across to the students and can be contagious. Besides, if I don't expect much from my students, then that's what I get - not much.
I hold them and myself to pretty high standards and expect the best. It's just how I roll!
Don't you wish some times that you could read someone's mind? I bet if I could read Champ's mind, he would be thinking that life is pretty good for him these days. He's pretty hefty so you know he eats well and doesn't worry about where his next meal is coming from. He likes to "torpedo" the porch in his, what I like to call, submarine look. In fact, he pretty much lays wherever he wants. And he seems to be very confident in his surroundings and doesn't mind taking a cat nap which wasn't always the case. Yep, he has a pretty good life these days.
I read an article today written by someone wanting to go back in time to change the past and correct mistakes. I thought to myself......Hmmm.....NOPE! Living my life was hard enough the first time. Thank you very much! Besides what would happen to the time continuum if I went back to change one little thing? All hell would break loose, that's what! It would start a spiral of unprecedented chaos. It could erase all the good things that have happened to me along the way.
For example, so I don't marry my cheating first ex-husband, okay. But then, I don't learn all the things that I learned from that relationship, pain, strength, and recovery. Let's face it. We are our experiences. Our experiences and lessons learned shape us into the person we become. Besides, if I hadn't had that experience, then I wouldn't have been in the right place to meet my second ex-husband. He gave me one of my greatest blessings, my oldest son, and I wouldn't have missed that for the world.
Ask Champs, he'd tell you if he could. All the bad things that happened in his earlier life help him to appreciate just how wonderful it can be. Yes, life is good now, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Sooooo what happened to the Charlie Brown tree you ask? All scraggly and anorexic looking? Well, it has grown up very nicely. We built a ring around the tree shaped like a bean. I put potted plants within the ring, and then we ran a drip system to the tree to water it and the plants. All it needed was a little love and care.
Don't we all just need a little love and care in order to thrive and grow? I could have given up on the tree. Actually, I was given the choice. "We can ripe out the tree and plant a new one," he said. I couldn't do it. It had a right to survive. It had a right to try. I'm so glad I said no. Almost immediately it started to do better as if to prove me right.
Giving up is just not in my nature. It's not the way I was raised. Sure there have been challenges. Sure there were times when I just wanted to give up. My first marriage should have ended sooner than it did, but I was brought up with the ethic that you don't just give up when the going gets rough. You work at it and give it your all. You stick with your committment. Today I think people are too easily giving up when things don't work out the way they think they should. Sure in the end, the marriage didn't work out, but at least I can say that I tried and gave it my all. There is no shame in that.
I guess I'm just stubborn that way. Giving up is actually too easy. It's being a coward in my eyes. I was a single parent for most of my life. So it wasn't always just
about me either. If I had given up, how would that have affected them? What would I have taught them? Advice of the day: sometimes things get hard in life, but don't give up. You never know when life will turn out just right!
