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I know I’ve written about this before, but I’m still so surprised by how much where I live feeds, and …
01 Tuesday Jan 2019
Posted 365project, just a thought
in26 Saturday Sep 2015
Posted family
inTags
buttons, family, life, poll, toolbox, writing 101, Yom Kippur
I am constantly surprising myself, especially when I find tools in my toolbox I didn’t know I had.
I just spent over an hour on the phone with my mother after spending 2+ days doing in-home tech support. I’m not sure which one of us exhibited more patience during this process. She keeps saying she wants things to happen NOW, and hates waiting. Ultimately, that is what I am trying to do for her. While she is convinced I’m trying to drive her to an early grave, I am really trying to make her technology experience more “one click does it all”.
I’ve mentioned before that I teach kindergarten (figuratively, not literally) and in my day job, I create all sorts of job-aids and tutorials. I have begrudgingly come to the realization my brain works differently than your brain, or her brain, or my students brains. As such, I have to speak a little differently, a little slower, come up with analogies that are a little easier to grasp, and make different associations. Sometimes these come to me like a flash. I’m always surprised and delighted when it happens, and it works.
We had a little family issue this week and I surprised myself with how I was able to just roll with it, quietly move things in the direction I wanted it to go, and it ended without a huge row. We all have our buttons, and I know how to push my mothers. My sister has spent 60 years mastering how to push our mother’s buttons. My mother falls into the trap every time. Having me there, I was able to sidestep the traps.
As we age, hopefully we learn something from all that life throws at us. I have never been very patient, and I have never been very understanding of those whose thought processes are vastly different from mine. Living in Oregon for the last 25 years, I was surrounded by like minded folks, who were technologically adept, and socially left. Being back in the south… Every one of my buttons is being pushed on a daily basis. I just go back to my students, and think about how I deal with them. I do this professionally every day. I can certainly apply this to my life and personal relationships.
This week has been Yom Kippur, and there was a paragraph in the service that really spoke to me:
Forgiven the past, renewed for tomorrow
May we go forth with rejoicing,
To a year of great goodness.
What happened in the past is the past. This new year will be a good year. All my tools are tucked in my tool belt and ready to be accessed at any time.
Now, I’m giving y’all one last chance to tell me how you want to help my dating process. Please click on your vote below and on Monday, I’ll be posting the results.
01 Friday Aug 2014
Posted community
inThe last three months have been a tumultuous whirlwind. The topper came about a week and a half ago when I got a job offer in MEMPHIS with less than three weeks to report for my first day!
I have the most amazing friends and family here in Portland. I am leaving connections I’ve spent all of my adult life building and nurturing. This move truly is bittersweet. So many things have had to happen in such a small window and all of them have magically fallen into place. I know I have a guardian angel who is looking out for me.
I’ve been remiss in telling you about my slowing healing. I am not a patient patient and this shoulder injury has been a colossal nuisance! This move would have been a tremendous nightmare, and really, impossible without the help of my friends and family.
I know this move is the right thing for me at this time. I’m starting a new chapter. I’ve purged 80% of all my belongings. I had a lot of crap! There are some things I still can’t bear to part with. My new mantra going forward is if I do not have a specific, immediate use for an item, I will not buy it.
But really, I have been in Portland all of my adult life. Almost 25 years!! I never thought I’d be here this long. Being from the south, I’ve always looked at things a little differently from my west coast counterparts. The first year I was in Oregon, I was always over dressed. I went through my hippy/hiking/no shaving phase. I am not covered in tattoos, though I do have my next one picked out. Now I find myself wanting to be more of a girl. Which is funny because I have never been a girly-girl. I’ve wandered off topic…
Thank you Portland. Thank you friends. I am going to miss you so much.
Stay tuned for how this new chapter unfolds.