Jar of Awesome

We all experience great things every day. I always think I will remember them forever but I forget most of the greatness I experience. I am human and I forget.

I read about the Jar of Awesome. The idea is to write down your awesome experiences on a little note and drop it into the jar.

When you have a bad day or just out of gas, reach into the jar and relive the greatness.

Here are two things I put into my jar today. Memories I never want to forget.

I put a request out on facebook for advice on how to care for a slug as I know nothing about caring for such a delicate pet. Got some really great advice from Joe the Genius. I was able to relay information to a very grateful student. We then talked about the possibility of the Wolly Monmouth being brought back to life through a little DNA science. Our concern is figuring out where it could live so it would be protected and could be studied. Maybe an island near Russia?

I was able to talk to my brother for a bit today. Every conversation I have had with him always leaves me in a better place, never fails. We talked and laughed about our adventures from years ago. Recalling those long lost days always brings us to tears, laughing so hard my stomach still hurts. Funny how some bonds are foraged and how they are unbreakable. I am always sad when we hang up and so thankful for one more chat.
Both of these notes helped put me on the right side of gratitude.
Thought I would post a great picture of my brother. Crow on the left and I’m on the right, fast asleep. This was after spending a week or so in the jungle. Okinawa 1992.

Being a parent means you will be waiting a lot.

Last night I sat outside while Sam had her private music lesson. It can be a long thirty minutes in the car.

Tomorrow we take Aidan to a drum lesson. For those thirty minutes I sit in front of a little stage. Four random kids practice week after week the same 21 Pilots song, over and over again.

Friday night from 8-9 and Saturday from 1-2 I sit in the karate studio while the kids practice. Those are some smelly hours.

Those are just some of the times I just sit and wait.

I also think of the hundreds of dollars that we pay for this privilege. I really mean that. When I wrote the check for Sam’s lessons I smiled. I felt proud that I am able to do this for her.

When I was young I dreamed of playing sports, any sport. I so wished I could take music lessons of any kind but none of this was in the cards. Some days it was luck that we had money to buy milk for breakfast.

Sometimes life is fulled of these choices. We could either be annoyed or proud, mad or happy. While it isn’t easy I try to look for tiny little diamond among the coal.

Stay Alert. Stay Alive.

I can’t exactly recall but I think that is what Captain Fey always said. You know Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Yeah, that is exactly who Captain Fey looked like. Not sure about Flea, but the captain always smoked Marlboro Lights and drank Diet Coke.

I was driving on the highway and saw this board. It is difficult to see in the image but the statement on it is what the captain always used to say to us, stay alert stay alive.

If I am leaving the kids home alone, that is the advice I give them. Sometimes I throw in another, keep your head on a swivel.

Both are bits of great advice. Today I really don’t have to be alert for the same things the captain was warning us about. Today I use the same idea for keeping an open mind.

Too many times we see things as deep as an inch. We see things as other people tell us to see them. Sometimes I don’t want to be influenced. I need to be alert. I need to keep my eyes and ear open. When I do that I start to really see new opportunities and that is worth staying alert for.

Alley. Like an alternate universe worth exploring.

I remember having an alley as a kid. I taught myself to ride a bike in an alley. My friends and I got into plenty of mischief in an alley. An alley was like a dark alternate universe that was worth exploring. Entering another alley on a different block felt as if we needed a passport. All different types of trash cans, dogs and vehicles of all kinds. What was in those cans was even different for what is in the cans on our block.
Where I live now we don’t have an alley. The only place around here that I have seen alleys is in the city.
As I walked back and forth from the conference I came across this alley. It capture my imagination immediately. 
I stood gazing for a long while and as I turned around to leave I froze. At my feet was the word top. I know it was missing the s but it still hit me.
At the conference I was introduced to a really interesting idea about a makerspace for high school, which is a concept that I have really been struggling with. This sign in the alley connected me back to an article, or maybe it was a TED talk, about faking it until you make it. It connected me to the mindset books, and to me those books and the video were all about believing in yourself.
Sometimes I get full of doubt, that creeping feeling that maybe my ideas are not good enough, won’t make sense or are too disconnected. This small sign reminded me to go for it, that my idea is worth pursuing. If it was left in my head it would reside there and never have the chance to blossom.
While this idea might not be the top, it will be a step to get us there. The journey is always messy. Any worthwhile adventure is never easy. The rewards along the way on the difficult journeys are always much sweeter.

Message received. Go for the top.

Wet Shoes

It was raining and I decided to still park a mile away and walk to the conference. I knew my feet would be wet but I really didn’t mind.

If it ain’t raining, we ain’t training.
That was our motto for years. We spent days in the rain and mud. It wasn’t too bad while it was warm but in the cold was a totally different experience.

We spent the night outside in the jungle during a tsunami. That was interesting.
Spent hours circling a small building in the rain without any kind of rain gear. The radio was well protected so the higher ups were happy.
I remember laying in a pool of mud while zeroing in the 60. Freezing.
One Friday we were stuck on a hill in the slow, cold rain. They forgot to pick us up.
I am well versed in misery.

Today I had a smile on my face. A few hours of wet feet makes me remember the rain that fell years ago.

Crow, Rocco and I. Sometime in 1992, NTA, Japan.

A Mile To The Conference.

I am super fortunate to be able to attend a library conference downtown St. Louis this week. I know parking can be expensive so I parked about an mile away in an old historic district. This might be the only day this week that isn’t raining so it was a perfect day to walk.
I love this neighborhood and the most of these houses are very close to being 200 years old.

Looking down this street I always wonder what it was like when the main mode of transportation was horse and buggy. Some of the houses still have the large granite block to help riders dismount. I think the only thing they are used for is smashing your car doors on.

Almost into downtown. A short bridge over the tracks.

Always love this part. I used to ride the rails a bit when I was younger. Miss those lazy train trips.

Sadly I am here. Just before I entered the hotel I can see the arch and one of the court houses. 

Showing up.

Every spring there is this duck that shows up by the gym every morning. It never fails, walk out and there it is. I’ve never seen a nest or any other duck evidence. It is almost as if he is checking on everyone to make sure they made it to the gym OK.

We are now almost on work eve, the day before we return to work after spring break.

I was thinking about my buddy the duck, how will I show up the first day after break?

Will I…

  • be ready for what faces me the rest of the school year?
  • bring my full self and not some tired shell of a person?

We are in the last few months of school. We have to endure the test and look forward to the sunshine of May.

I think that I will create something that I just read about, the Jar of Awesome. There are so many good things that happen each day but those usually fade quickly. We usually just remember the bad. I think the jar will help me show up each day and look for the good. When something good happens you write it down on a little slip of paper and place it into the jar. Not having a good day? Just reach in and relive the memory.

Now all I need is a jar and Monday to hurry up and get here.

Sometimes it is hard to convince someone to learn.

Today was pretty much our last day of spring break. Tomorrow is just a regular Saturday filled with all the things that make a weekend busy, most of them are kid related.

We went to the art museum to check out an exhibit that will soon be on the CBS Sunday Morning TV show. I thought it would be pretty interesting to see it in person and then watch it from another point of view in a week or so.

Normally the tickets are $15 a person but on Friday they give them away for free. The only catch was we would have to wait almost two hours before we could see the exhibit. After about an hour Aidan, the 11 year old in the picture above, was done. I’m sure you have seen this in your own children or those you work with.

We found a very quiet exhibit that was all drawing created by a famous artist. No one else was in this part so Aidan was trying to stack up all the handheld lenses to see if he could get a super detailed look, really I think he was just trying to amuse himself.
I can’t recall who said it or the exact conversation around it but we came to the conclusion that to fill your head with greatness, you must be exposed to greatness.
It seemed super profound at the time. Now that I write it I start to think about my own kids, have we done enough to expose them to the greatness this world has to offer? Sometimes the news, peers, etc do not always reflect the great opportunities that are just outside our door.
With the statement of greatness in my mind I am sitting here plotting our next steps to see the world for what it really is.
Looking back at the other images that I had taken and this one hits me. Greatness before my eyes. In the exhibit Aidan found a great old classic and read it out loud to Sam. Totally spontaneous. Amazing things are happening all the time, sometimes right before our eyes.

Does it always need to mean something?

Had a conversation with another teacher at Panara yesterday. I was left wondering if what we did in the classroom always had to mean something. We tie everything to a standard, a learning target/goal and keep many of our lessons within those boundaries, but are we artificially limiting ourselves?  Do we steal the wonder due to the time limits we feel pressured to keep?

After the meeting the kids and I went to a local sculpture park. We found this on one edge, a series of what looked like four foot high metal buoys. Maybe they were to symbolize something, maybe placed here for kids to climb on or people to scratch initials into. I wondered if it really mattered, maybe it was just to allow you to make sense of it your own way.

We couldn’t find any description of what the sculpture was all about. I wondered if we let kids climb over it, struggle to read the carvings, pounded on them to hear and feel to make sense of it. Then we come in and add the artists intended meaning if we would have walked away with more.

I wonder if we would have read the plaque if the kids would have just shrugged after hearing the information and moved on. Do we sometimes kill the wonder?