Skip to main content

Wet Birds

My challenge yesterday was to just START. I did it. I dropped Marcus off at preschool, walked in the front door, poured out some paper pulp into a bowl, stirred in some warm water and got busy. I squished and mixed until the mush felt just right. I made SIX birds for my in-progress Disco Birds (more on that later) and then stood back and looked in awe at these wet birds that are already oozing with personality -- um, bird-onality.

As usual, just starting worked. To me, that's the funny part. It works almost every single time... if I just get started, the inspiration flows and YET nearly every single time I have more ideas than spark I doubt the process. I guess it's akin to losing faith for a day or two.

Which brings me to explaining my religion -- well part of it anyway. WHAT? From papier mache to God in one tiny step? Well, I have to start somewhere and wet birds are as a good a place as any. Those wet and mushy birds symbolize what I think the Spirit is. It's the voice inside me -- head, heart, and soul -- that eventually must be addressed. Sometimes, the Spirit is impatient and nudges me to get grouchy and testy so I know it's time to listen up again. Sometimes, the Spirit is quiet and lets me just explore the world for a while without ever raising its voice. Sometimes, the miraculous moments, the Spirit is so loud and demanding, so full of connection and inspiration that no matter how much dust is spilling out from under the sofa, I ignore it to skip down the stairs, throw a movie on for Marcus, and get busy.

This week, the Spirit was persistent and patient, but oh-so-happy when I got quiet enough to hear.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Read This if You Don't Like the Word Pee

   Okay... so I think I nearly broke the toilet from plopping down on it so hard to go pee.  WHY did I plop instead of coming in for my usual graceful landing?  Because my best friend encouraged me to go to the gym and take her weight lifting class... and because I did it... and because she's so darn encouraging that I tried to show off how MOST people who don't go to the gym for four months would really stink their first time back... but not me!  I decided that I should prove that I am a superhero who can skip the gym for four months and come in looking fresh and fit and strong as an ox... okay, okay... an ox that can lift a 2kg dumbell.  I decided that these sleeping muscles could SURELY do just as many squats as that cute 60 year old woman in the front row whose gluteus maximus muscles look nice and bouncy. I'm just going to have to be deliberate about which chairs I go to sit in today.  Spindly antique ones are definitely NOT my best option. ...
3 comments
Read more

Undivided Self

Palmer describes two teachers, one who found joy and success in his career, and another who did not.  He attributed the joyful teacher's success to the idea that he taught "from an undivided self."  He says, "In the undivided self, every major thread of one's life experience is honored, creating a weave of such coherence and strength that it can hold students and subject as well as self."  The other teacher, on the other hand, projected his inner warfare onto his students.  The joyful teacher enjoyed craft, while the sour teacher enjoyed nothing.  The joyful teacher was "enlarged" by his teaching.  The sour teacher was diminished. As teachers we are either the joyful teacher OR the sour teacher.  We have days, maybe even weeks, of being the joyful teacher and days of being the sour one.  In my personal experience, when I am actually in the room teaching students I am the joyful one 95% of the time.  When I leave the room and enter the rest of...
1 comment
Read more

Trying On Hats of Our Heroes

This summer on our road trip, one of our adventures was visiting my brother's fire station and letting the boys try on the hat of one of their heroes.  I like these photos because Jackson's nearly third grade face says, "Yeah, I'm just trying it on."  Marcus' face, though, says, "Right at this moment, I AM a firefighter."  He looks to me like in his mind the helmet fits him exactly and that Uncle Will's bunker gear has shrunk down to be fire-ready just for Marcus.  He BELIEVES. As I'm adjusting to life with several new hats, I'm struck by how much more fun it is to BELIEVE.  I love the hats of mother to elementary age boys and teacher.  I also love the old hats that still stick around, like director of doing-stuff, cooker of healthy foods, wife and best friend of Tom.  The stress I feel today is in the realization that I have to quickly shift from hat to hat about five times today. So, at this moment, I'm going to take a lesson fro...
Post a Comment
Read more