Hello, old friend

Goals are funny aren't they?  Funny as in this one has been sitting here for almost a year!  Ugh!

But today I had an interesting encounter.  I was finishing up a class when their visiting reader arrived.  He informed me that he was a writer.  And he reminded me about the most important fact about writers: they write.  Isn't that what I created this little space for?  Well, I best be getting back to it!

So what do I want to say as a writer?  I guess I'd like to write things for children that they'll want to read.  I spent the afternoon going over writing prompts that had students analyzing writing pieces that just seemed so irrelevant to them.  But the question that remains is what DO kids want to read?  I mean, its got to be relate-able, fun and hopefully something worthwhile to learn.  But one of my reflections today was that anything more than 140 characters is "too much".  Heck, we've even become so illiterate as society that social media now has just photo sharing sites a la Instagram.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good IG account, but where is the reading?  Where is the literacy?  Where is the learning?  What will these things look like in one hundred years?

What words do I want to leave for the future? What about you?

Strength When You Don't Think You Have Any

from February 2014
We all know those days; the kind that make you regret getting out of bed that morning.  The days where if it can it most likely will go wrong; or so it seems.  I was having one of those days earlier this week.  But I had committed to a gym class that night and said I might as well go...
This particular class is by no means easy, but it is usually fun.  The instructor is incredibly motivating and gives us an incredible workout.  She shows up with a swollen eye.  Not pinkeye mind you, but still an eye that looks fairly uncomfortable.
Class begins and we begin to sweat.  Then something funny happened -- class was over.  No, it wasn't a 5 minute class, but it sure felt that way.  Over the course of an hour, I sweat out all the anxiety, anger and general "pissed-off-ness" of the day.  Routines that I normally found difficult seemed to fly by.  It was only after the class that I realized that it is in those moments when you think you've given it your all and you're about to just stop that there is always just this much more left in your tank.  And it is that which is left in your tank that will help you fuel back up.  I left the gym that night with a renewed spring in my step and ready to take on whatever would come my way the next day... And that is another story entirely!
Have you ever had one of those "dig deep" moments only to come out the other side with a renewed energy?