check your bags

For almost two decades, students, parents and teachers at my school have annually collected thousands of cans and dried goods for a local Christmas food hamper program with hopes of making a real difference in our community. Student leaders orchestrate the event while teachers work with students to set class and personal contribution goals. It…

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behind the drama curtain

The pace was summer slow on this particular day when my sister and I wandered through the grocery store near her home. Once we agreed that we had all we came for, my sister indicated that she was going to go through the self-check lane with her items. Without even taking a breath, I scrunched…

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convenient half-truths

I can create such incredible fiction when things go sideways. I can’t do anything Presumed powerlessness is occasionally still my small and misguided reaction to the prevailing winds of life. When I perceive that I’m trapped in a moment or in a life choice, I’m not. That is just a story. I can choose to…

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the myth of ‘living in the moment’

There was time when I would easily fall into a stony-eyed stare around people who used the language of ‘living in the moment‘. Even as someone who had been meditating for many years, I would secretly rebel with thoughts like “if you only knew what I was going through right now” or “if you could…

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the right tool for the job

  I have a quirky trait of stubbornly “making do” when faced with a task requiring a specific tool. My resistance rises with even the thought of purchasing a tool when I think that I may have an object that was made for a different purpose but will do in a pinch within arms reach.…

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forging a path

“Forging” is a word that has some serious heft to it.   I think of firm-bodied men and women who come from hearty peasant stock.  They clear the land of dense forest to set up shop in their newly tamed patch of land.  And they bear litters of stocky children to help them claim and…

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