Monday after the Super Bowl

I didn't watch the entire Super Bowl, but tuned in for some parts that showed the fun of the game and its excitement. I saw that disgusting Old Milwaukee Beer commercial and wondered again why people choose that brand. I saw only one Clydesdale ad. My Facebook friends posted their fondness for the  young Clydesdale, even describing tearing up at the foal's cuteness.

Sports and consumerism, a cocktail for America's pleasure, a Sunday of relaxation and good times. We all need a break from the daily drive of our lives and find these culminating moments of sports competitions full of the best medicine that doesn't come from a physician's prescription.

Life can be unpredictable, but it is more often exactly as we anticipate with little deviation from the routine of work, meals, daily hygiene and household cleaning, conversations and interactions, amusement from entertainment, transportation, and sleep. These ordinary events make life good and provide comfort in themselves; however, the fun that comes from something that only happens once a year, a holiday or a Super Bowl is a lovely time to break free, kick back, relax, cheer, drink beer, and be a part of something besides our personal and regular lives.

No, the Super Bowl is not on par with the dramatic and religious festivals that brought together the ancient Athenians. Although less exalted and far more excessive, our American Super Bowls satisfy our need for communal sport and catharsis. Congratulations Ravens! Better luck next time 49ers!

Saturday Symposium

I am ready to take 7 students to SMU's and the Rotary Club's International Peace Symposium today. I hope we learn something that helps us contribute to peace not only at the global level, but also at the local level. These great projects often have small beginnings. We form relationships one-to-one and extend those friendships as we continue to extend ourselves and call upon our best intentions. Not that we are models of perfection, but we are on a journey to a better place for ourselves and those we love. We travel one step at a time, or as we do today--by van. Happy trails to all who aim for peace here and abroad. They are called blessed, yet their contributions bless us all.

New Faces and Beginnings

One of the best parts about teaching at a community college is meeting so many new people at the start of every semester. Seeing familiar faces is gratifying too. Beginnings of the semester are great, what a colleague of mine used to call "the honeymoon period." As the semester moves forward, some of those students will become more committed to their studies and find their talents and capacities for sustained work will take them even further in life than they imagined. Others will begin to waiver and face self-doubt. It's striking to see that failure comes from within, from fear that overtakes students able to accomplish the tasks, yet unable to see themselves as successful. I could almost agree with Hamlet that the mind is its own place, able to make a heaven of hell and vice versa when I experience the same kind of self-criticism that is destructive, rather than helpful.

Each day requires belief of some kind for envisioning happiness as ours. We enter into circumstances that only appear to shape us, when in fact, it's our response to what's happening to us that shapes our characters and our destinies. If we are to see the seeds blossom, to move from beginnings to happy endings, we must look within to find a love and compassion for ourselves and others that is greater than our self-doubt, our fears, and all our worries about what might happen if we're not "good enough."

No, we don't simply choose. We abide, take root, grow, and discover our true self in that larger self that is divine and more capable and consistently present in caring for us than we can ever be. Receiving grace daily nourishes and provides strength to meet challenges as they come. Generative, constructive, creative power lifts our hope, which does not fail.

It's been a couple of years since I played with this blog. I wonder about the new dashboard and how the technical parts of posting work. I hope to play around with the blog and maybe even have something to say now and then. Until that time, here's a promise that I plan to get around to having something worth writing about.

We're back to a fresh year and new semester tomorrow at Grayson College. It's been a valuable break spending time with my family and helping with recommending cut scores for the new computer adaptive TSI for students still needing to show college-readiness scores when they apply to college. I feel great to be back home and ready to meet familiar and new students in the morning.

Long Island

I'm enjoying my visit to my parents in Morrisville, PA. Today, we're with my sister and her family in West Islip. The children are playing Wii. Jessica has invited me to play, but I was too slow to say "yes." Now, she's moved on to offering to help her mother with preparing the brussel sprouts. Jessica is checking out my posting. Neither of us knows how to spell the sprouts' first name. Mark, Jr. wants to know if he's in the posting. He doesn't want to be included. Now Kristin is playing Wii ping pong. It looks as if she's having fun although the moves with the Wii stick don't look like the same moves one would make with an actual ping pong paddle. I'm curious about the Wii yoga.

Partner Yoga

I had a great time yesterday when Laura King invited me to Suze Curtis's Power Yoga studio in Addison for a 2 hour partner yoga session. The studio had a 5/8s inch foam floor, unlike anything I've ever seen. It was firm enough to support balancing moves, yet soft enough to feel comfortable sitting or lying down. When we started doing inversions, I was glad for the softer surface to cushion any falls--and surprise! We didn't have any falls. Laura is especially strong from her work with tree yoga. I managed to hang in there and keep going. I did okay with the 85 degree room temperature, although even I could have enjoyed a cooler room. Today, I'm headed to McKinney for an 1 1/2 restorative yoga session with Brandie at Yoga Balance. What fun!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

I enjoyed another blessed holiday at home with my husband and our 3 cats. We cooked the traditional family recipes and had a relaxing day topped off with paper grading. Today we had a good time shopping in the Metroplex. I'll be at yoga teacher training school Saturday and Sunday. This yoga twist is new and exciting. I'll be meeting my class for the first time. They started last month, but I had a previous commitment to an honors conference and couldn't join the group at the start. I hope that I can catch up and become a part of the group. I feel kind of nervous being a student in a new class. It's a good nervous feeling though.