MCC Friday Reflections

Experiences...   The room was filled with voices, laughter, and tears. The young woman opened gift after gift, relishing in the delight of a set of new experiences awaiting her; marriage. Each gift she unveiled was brought up to the view of all, and the voices echoed in the room. I fell back into the memory of my experience while my wife and I were engaged. Ours was an experience rich with love, laughter and echoes of friends as well. Each time my co-worker raised a gift for all to see, I could tell she was closer to her day, closer to her new life, closer to the experience she has chosen. I know she will delight in it. A student of mine worked tirelessly on a math question. It asked her to multiply a 'positive' number by a 'negative' number. She had no experience with this type of problem. She asked for help. I wanted to tell how to work out this kind of problem but instead, I asked her to draw on her experiences with multiplication. I asked her to think about what mul...

Join Us...   Our 8-month old lay crying in her crib in the middle of the night.  It's her time to learn how to soothe herself back to sleep.  Our 3 year-old (who shares a room with the baby) and our 2 year-old, lay in bed with us.  We are all listening to the baby cry. I wanted to go into her room and have her join us.  I felt incomplete without her and I thought she might feel lonely--especially if she knew we were all in mommy and daddy's room.  She stopped crying and fell back asleep...she was learning. And so it goes...that feeling of wanting someone to join you.  In essence, that's what we do as parents and as teachers.  We wait for our children to join us.   My students approach me daily with questions relevant to what we're studying.  They also inquire about life and how things work, or why things are the way they are.  They are attempting to "join us"; to figure out how to fit into the adult world and...

In Sync... The art of teaching often asks the teacher to understand the students.  To understand the place in life that each student finds him or herself.  Occasionally, it is asked of the student to understand the teacher.  Albeit, this is much more difficult for the student for their simple lack of life experience.  My role as a teacher offers me several opportunities to explore who I am as a person.  Opportunities to help the younger generation find ways to learn, accept, understand and cope.  To do this I must stay in sync with my students and help them to stay in sync with me. My wife and I like to keep busy.  It seems as though we move from one life event to another with lightning speed.  We do, however, take time to "stop and smell the roses".  It is in this stopping that we find we must sync with each other.  It's important. It's necessary.  It is who we are. Children need time to sync with those who are most importa...

You Said...Stick and Stones~~ All too often we hear the old saying "sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me".  While there is some truth to that saying it only holds the weight of it's claim to the degree that one is able ignore what others may say. Even then...the words have been uttered & heard and the sub-conscious knows it. Written words also hold power over us; for the "pen is mightier than the sword" as the saying goes.  It stands true that the written word can elicit emotions, spur agreements, fuel disagreements, be misunderstood, and repair broken relationships.  The written word is quite powerful. As I have been writing my Friday Reflections, I have been told that my writing "touches" many.  I often wonder if I stir up emotions that may have been deeply buried.  I wonder if I give the words to some that they may not have be able to find otherwise.  I wonder if I my words are ever misunderstoo...

Santa...Ho, Ho, Ho The words rang from my two-year old's mouth picked up by my ears through the monitor in the basement.  He had just been put to bed.  We marked the evening with the traditional new PJ's, reading of our favorite Christmas books, setting out cookies and milk for St. Nick, ending with kisses and hugs goodnight. Santa...Ho, Ho, Ho The wonderment of childhood often eludes those of us who have long past seen those days. We forget that simple pleasures are what makes life so good.  I often find myself exasperated when my children are distracted by the littlest things; my wife has to remind me that it is who they are.  She is right. Santa...Ho, Ho, Ho My wife's birthday falls on Christmas Eve; a thought that many of us ponder when told this~~what must it be like?  When asked this of her, she shrugs and simply says, "I love it. I've never known any different!"  She truly is a Christmas person, relishing in the delight of the season, eyes...

In Her Heart My three-year old daughter told me that her cousin, grandmother and aunt were "in her heart".  She knows this because upon their respective deaths it was explained to her that when a person leaves this world, they really are never far from us, for they dwell in our hearts. She remembers that.  She spoke it to me during a conversation we were having about this year's holiday celebration. The holiday season brings much.  We are invited to stop and ponder the parts of ourselves that we often overlook throughout the year.  We are once again engaged deeply in our friends and family.  The fabric of our lives change for a time. It is at this time that we often hear of and read about what it means to be alive, what it means to love and be loved.  We begin to take on, more often than not,  the qualities that we so dearly hold true to our hearts--such as compassion, forgiveness and empathy, to name a few. My three year-old...

Leaving the Tree The leaves on the trees change colors before our eyes.  They provide a spectacular array of colors to delight our minds.  Often, we notice them for a moment and then move on with our ever busy lives. Then...they're gone. A memory only to be rekindled next Fall. The magical beauty of a leaf changing from the brilliant green to it's inevitable departure from the tree can be held in awe if only one takes the time to not only notice it, but follow it.  Choose a tree.  Find a leaf.  Watch it every day.  You'll see the delicate veins begin to pop out a bit as the edges slowly lose their chlorophyll; producing a slight line of perhaps yellow.  The leaf wilts a bit as time passes and other colors introduce themselves.  It's beauty is individual yet part of a whole scene, that envelopes the parts of our minds that seek color in our world.  The leaf, then hangs, almost lifeless and the colors seem to drip away from i...