. . .

“Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving.  We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes

. . .

“One reason we struggle with insecurity: we’re comparing our behind the scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.”
- Steven Furtick

I found this on my incredible friend Geales's blog (who I'll see next week at Institute!!!), and I cannot think of a more perfect quote for me right now.

One of the last things we did today (after a Diversity and Inclusiveness discussion, Professionalism talk, and a panel with community parents) was listen to a panel of second-year corps members talk about their experiences from last year and the things they did well/will do better next year. It was incredibly inspiring and very helpful, as they gave a lot of specific strategies that they used to overcome anxieties, establish professional caring relationships with their students, and embed themselves in their communities.

And yet, while the panel was one of the best panels we've had all week, I kept fighting back a twinge of doubt. Sure, she was able to do this, but she has a more forceful personality. Sure, he was able to do that because he's a guy and that'd never work with a female teacher. Sure, they were successful because of X, Y, or Z, and those aren't qualities that I don't know if I have.

It was an hour of mixed emotions. But then I remembered the quote above, which I'd read on her blog last night. And I remembered that behind these corps members' successes and confidence now, there were months of struggle and leaps in personal growth (and we all know personal growth is one of the hardest things sometimes).

So on top of my flexibility mantra, I'm going to have to add that quote. It's so inspiring and calming. And hopefully someday, I'll be in their shoes and my past years of teaching will have a highlight reel of incredible student gains and accomplishments that people can look at when preparing for their own classrooms.

Until then, in the words of another 2nd-year corps member, you can't share a testimonial until you've been tested.

Bring on the test. Me and my kids will be ready.

. . .

This quote was above the counter at a bakery I went to the other day. Reminds me of how simple life can be boiled down to.

"Man, for all his progresses, posturing, and high-minded opinions of himself, owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains."

-Anon.

. . .

“…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903
in Letters to a Young Poet

. . .

"If success if not on your own terms -- if it looks good
to the world but does not feel good in your own
heart -- it is no success at all."


-- Anna Quindlen

. . .

. . .

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have 
known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss,

and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have 
an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that 
fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.

Beautiful people do not just happen.”

[Elizabeth Kubler Ross]

. . .

. . .

"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. "


— Charles Bukowski

. . .

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘awwww!’
[ Jack Kerouac ]

Words of Wisdom

"Verbalizing your fears makes you see them for what they really are... which is completely irrational."
- My roommate Madison

. . .

When life pokes and prods you, it is not punishment or abuse. You are being pushed out of the nest. Spread your wings and take flight. See how well you can fly. 

- Melody Beattie

. . .

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
–Albert Einstein

. . .

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult." -E.B. White

. . .

"Imperfection is beauty, 

madness is genius and it's 

better to be absolutely ridiculous 

than absolutely boring." 

— Marilyn Monroe 

. . .

An artist's failures are as valuable as his successes.
By misjudging one thing he confirms something else,
even if at the time he does not know what that something else is.
[Bridget Riley]

. . .

"The heights by great men reached and kept

were not obtained by sudden flight.

But they, while their companions slept,

were toiling upward in the night."

- Thomas S. Monson

. . .

‎"Progress is impossible without change,  

and those who cannot change their minds 

cannot change anything." 

- George Bernard Shaw

. . .

"All the things that truly matter,

beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace,

arise from beyond the mind."

— Eckhart Tolle

. . .

"Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive, and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life. [. . .] Man will always be attracted to the woman who reflects his deepest vision of himself. The man who is proudly certain of his own value, will want the highest type of woman he can find, the woman he admires, the strongest, the hardest to conquer--because only the possession of a heroine will give him the sense of achievement." 


-- (Francisco d'Anconia, Atlas Shrugged)