Tag Archives: photography

Writing a Hope Kit: SOL25 Day 1

This week has been packed to the gills, overflowing with meetings, a flight to SFO on Wednesday (after leaving a meeting early) for a conference on Thursday, another flight home late Thursday for a full day of teaching on Friday and then capped this morning with the 17th annual San Diego Area Writing Project (SDAWP) Spring Conference.

As you might imagine, I was not excited that I needed to be up early this morning and on the road before 7am to be present at the university, helping with set up and preparation. Today’s hiccup was catering not showing up! (What! No coffee for teachers who are up early navigating UCSD parking for our half-day conference?). After several calls we were assured that coffee and pastries would arrive–not when expected, but before it would have been too late.

And as always happens when I am in the presence of writing project teachers, I forgot how much I didn’t want to get up, how much I would have loved a morning with a leisurely start, and was immediately engaged and stimulated by presentations and conversations…and just seeing colleagues who are brilliant and caring and always looking after what is best for their students.

Sessions like Writing for Change: Empowering Student Advocacy Through Project-Based Learning, Academic Writing with Heart: Centering Student Voice, and Hope Starter Kit: Writing Our Way to Resilience (to name only a few) offered inspiration, intellectual stimulation, ideas for classroom implementation, and an opportunity for writing. It also offered an escape from all that feels wrong right now.

As part of my hope kit writing, I had to figure out who (someone real or imagined, still living or long dead) to address a problem I was grappling with–the idea that each of us could tap our inner wisdom through this letter writing/response (inspired by the book Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles by Taisia Kitaiskaia). I decided that I would channel my cat, Phil, who died quite a few years ago, but who my husband is convinced still hangs around the house. Here’s my letter and response:

Dear Phil,

How do I manage the guilt of not doing enough to take action in light of all of the chaos and destruction in our current government?

Distraught Citizen

Dear Distraught Citizen,

Screech and roar and scratch…and even pretend to mark the walls and furniture with the scent of your body and beliefs in your spaces. Don’t let your perceived inaction silence you. Rub your scent subtly, weaving in and out of the pant legs of those who are near. Find pockets of comfort, places where the rumble of your inner motor can vibrate, offering moments of relief and contentment for you and others as well. In addition to comforting one another, find the small cracks for action, even if they seem to be big enough for only the tiniest grains of sand.

Phil

Channeling Phil reminds me (and maybe you too) that action can manifest in many different ways. I will keep seeking out all the small spaces where I can make a difference. You likely won’t find me on the picket line or the telephone bank, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care or won’t take actions to right the wrongs that are happening. Thanks to my colleague Stacey for the inspiration and to Phil for the advice.

Seastar Luck

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I woke up on this first day of 2025 to a blog post written by my friend Molly. She talked about the ways she invokes luck and good fortune at the beginning of a new month–and a new year. She woke this morning saying, “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” a sure sign of good things to come (and heard her husband muttering it even before she was fully conscious). And then she talked about paying attention to the first bird, and essentially “reading” it to determine what qualities it might portend for the new year.

I didn’t wake up with the word rabbit on my mind, and the idea of birds flew out of my brain well before rising from my cozy bed this morning. Our plans for the day were to meet family at the beach around noon–when things began to warm up a bit. Only it really didn’t. Our short drive from home to the beach took us from the sunshine into a thick coating of coastal overcast–and it was downright cold! (At least by SoCal standards)

After a couple of vigorous games of beach paddleball, 8 year olds chasing waves in puffer jackets, swim trunks, and bare feet (typical winter beach attire), a tidepool mishap that resulted in a painful scrape and tears…and an early exit from the beach, we were left to our own devices. So we headed out to lunch where we discussed our need to still fit a walk into our day. We had resigned ourselves to walking our neighborhood until Geoff suggested heading back to the beach–one a couple of miles north of where we were earlier–to do our walking.

The tide was heading toward low–and a good negative tide that would leave tidepools uncovered–my favorite condition for walking. The sun began to peek out as it headed down closer to the horizon. The best tidepools are about a mile from the parking lot where we parked (you can get there from a closer lot–but we needed the walk). Loads of people were out at the beach today–maybe for their own New Year’s traditions.

I walked out onto the reef, noticing the usual sea anemones and tiny crabs. My attention was drawn by a conversation overheard about an octopus, and I headed in that direction. I noticed a tween girl with a large seastar in her hand–and also noticed several other smaller seastars in the pool where she was standing. I frequently look for seastars in the tidepools and seldom find any, so this felt special. The young girl was quite enthusiastic and encouraged me to take a photo of the seastar in her hand. Of course I obliged and took a number of photos of those gorgeous orange echinoderms.

As I observed the seastars and took my photos, I couldn’t help thinking about the good fortune of seeing this elusive creature on the first day of the year. Google offers that seastars represent a striving for peace and harmony and the ability to accomplish great things when you set your mind to it. For me, seastars embody flexibility and the superpower that allows them to regenerate when faced with hardship–a certain kind of resilience. All of these seem like qualities our world needs right now.

And to add frosting to the cake, as I walked away from the seastars (the the young girl carefully settled them back into their tidepool habitat), I noticed a couple peering closely under the ledge nearby. He was shining a flashlight, pointing out where a small octopus was hunkered down. I moved closer and he shined the light again so I could see–and to be honest, I wasn’t seeing anything. So I asked, “What am I looking for to see the octopus?” He then pointed out the eye and the way the octopus was wrapped around the ledge. Then I could see that expertly camouflaged creature–even if it wasn’t in a position to be photographed! Sometimes you just have to look with your eyes and snap that memory into your mind–and maybe blog about it to remember it again later!

I’m holding that seastar in my mind and heart as a symbol of good luck on this first day of 2025 and reminding myself of the power of wonder and curiosity…and playfulness. Let’s push back against darkness and strive for peace, empathy, and care as we continue to move through this new year.

Overthinking

Earth Day: NPM24 Day 22

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It’s Earth Day, a perfect day to celebrate the earth and nature and our connections to them. Donnetta at #verselove suggested crafting a poem that honors Mother Earth in some way. Abigail, part of the #writeout team from the National Writing Project shared a recoding of Ada Limon reading the Mary Oliver poem Can You Imagine?

After a day spent with first graders talking and learning about all the reasons and ways we can and should honor and care for our planet, I found myself thinking about the ever-present tall palm tree that has been a constant on our playground for longer than I can remember. This is the tree that inspired my poem for today.

Tree-by-the-Sea

Can you imagine

standing tall and still

a constant

playground companion

for generations of children

Watching wall ball games evolve

casting a skinny shadow

a line of shade

connecting

play and nature and trees and kids and learning

Can you imagine

the stories

our sentinel palm

can tell

of friendships forged

lives linked

in a school-by-the-sea

Toes tucked in deep

green crown with a priceless view

if you listen to the rustle

you might hear your childhood

in the leaves of a tall

tree-by-the-sea

Conversation with the Sea: NPM24 Day 20

Magic Box: NPM24 Day 2

Sunset Tree, a Hashtag Poem: NPM24 Day 1

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Inspired by Kim Johnson’s prompt for #verselove over at Ethical ELA, I wrote about a sunset over San Luis Obispo (SLO) (which was also inspired by the tree posing in the setting sun).

#Sunset Tree

#SLO-ing down

#Umbrellaed by the setting sun

#Night knocking

#Sunshine winking behind the tree

#Embraced by warm light

#Tracing lithe limbs

#Travel weary

#Reaching for rest, my dreaming eyes

#Echo back the day

#Enchanted by the sunset tree

Haiku Tonight: SOL24 Day 29

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Breathe in exhale out

Unfurl the spiral of stress

Week of unwork waits

Prickly: SOL24 Day 28

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Do you ever get that prickly feeling? You know, when the littlest things get under your skin, rub you the wrong way, creating an irritation that you can’t seem to shake?

Prickly pear cactus-Joshua Tree National Park

Maybe it was the fire alarm with its robotic voice demanding that I leave the building. Of course that was once a colleague knocked persistently on my office door to alert me since the announcement was only audible in the hallways and not in the offices.

I didn’t even hesitate. I packed my things, locked my office, walked down five flights of stairs (“Do not use the elevator,” the voice reminded!), got in my car and headed home. (I know, what a luxury to be able to work from home when chased out of my office–and it’s Spring Break at the university so my colleagues were mostly absent.). Of course, in that fit of annoyance, I forgot about the Zoom call I had scheduled! Luckily, that colleague was flexible and forgiving and we were able to fit it in once I got home.

The pins and needles of the to-do list loomed. Emails needed sending, reports needed reading, an agenda needed planning…and then there’s the article I haven’t gotten back to. And I almost forgot–that “abusive behavior in the workplace” training module that I have pushed to the bottom of the list right up to the deadline (which was today).

But, the house was quiet and my meeting load was lighter than usual (thank you UC Spring Break). As I crossed item after item off the list, those pokes and prods lessened and I began to appreciate the beauty and functionality of those pesky prickly spines.

Of course, there are still items that need doing. And…my own Spring Break begins once school ends tomorrow! Now to switch hats, finish my lesson plans, get that newsletter written, schedule the parent email… Wait…I think that prickly feeling is getting under my skin again!