Serendipity and Inspiration are Waiting for You in 2018
This post is for January 1 (officially); I hope you will read further to understand why!
My 2018 began in a way that symbolized how my life had been in 2017: hectic. In a Milwaukee hotel room with three kids, we celebrated the clock striking Midnight before hurrying to bed, mindful of a 5:30 am flight back to St. Louis. I cannot complain about the “hecticness” of this trip, as it was one that we took for fun. However, as I laid in bed reflecting on my New Year’s Resolution, I simply knew that it wasn’t going to work...my life was too “hectic.”
Ambitiously, my resolution for the new year was to write a post for this blog for each day of the year. At a training in July, a school district I worked with in Maryland believed heavily in reflective journaling. They distributed small notebooks at their development sessions and encouraged employees to be purposeful in taking the time to stop and jot down ideas and illustrations as new ideas came to them. They believed in harnessing the wisdom that comes to us as we move through our day-to-day lives experiencing what the world offers us. Though I didn’t work for this district, I dutifully took two of their provided notebooks and began to jot down ideas. By the end of December, I had not only filled two of the notebooks they had provided, but I had purchased and begun to fill a third one, as well. Almost always, the notes in my journal were connections I made at schools where I facilitated trainings. While I was hired to go to these trainings and to share knowledge, almost always I left with an equal amount (or more) of new knowledge provided by these terrific educators.
So I had plenty of ideas to write about, but my interest in blogging has always been about more than sharing educational ideas. I hope many of my past posts reveal that schools serve as a microcosm of life beyond the school walls (as they should!) and while the many things learned in a school can be applied to other schools, they more importantly can be applied to our interactions with others in life. If I was going to commit time to blogging, I wanted to create something that could be shared with educators, but also with other humans committed to making a difference during their time on Earth. However, as I laid there in bed after Midnight had passed on New Year’s Eve, sandwiched between a 7 and 10 year-old who couldn’t sleep next to one another without relentlessly giggling (they probably would have been awake until dawn if I hadn’t intervened), I reflected on my resolution and concluded my life was too hectic to make such a daunting blog commitment.
...but truthfully, my life is not too hectic to find time each day to write; more so, I think I was afraid that I wasn’t reflective enough to consistently and effectively see the connection between the learning I was doing in my own life and how it could be applied to future events for myself and for others. Importantly, I think I just needed a little serendipity, and a little inspiration. Last week, amidst the second week of the year, I got more than a little of both. I had the privilege of attending a new training that I had not previously taken nor taught. I was surrounded by new people and the program’s tone clearly encouraged acceptance of and kindness towards the other humans in our lives, no matter what their background or current reality may be.
Serendipity is the "occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way." At the training, not only was I inspired by the wisdom of my instructor and by the contributions of the many great people with whom I trained, but I also encountered a little serendipity, as a new colleague and friend suggested I read Mitch Albom’s 2003 book The Five People You Meet in Heaven. People have recommended this book to me in the past and I have “put it on my list,” but had never read it; I don’t think this is my fault, however. I believe that a book chooses a person more than a person chooses that book. A potential reader needs to be in a very serendipitous place in her or his mind and heart to accept a book - especially one known to be transformational - before one can open the book and engage in what it has to say. This book had one line that stood out to me among its many wonderful others: “...the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.”
This line inspires me because our goal, whether it is through a blog or through a much different avenue, should be to help one another see how our stories affect one another. Social Media and other information sources allow the stories of one person to be heard by others in a quick and prolific way...and of course, we can and should still learn plenty from others through good old-fashioned face-to-face communication, as well! All of this allowed me to see some additional purpose in “blogging” each day, but I will do much more than that, and I hope you will, too. Take a step back from your personal “hecticness,” open your eyes, and search for the ways your stories are connected with others.
In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, another line Albom incorporates is “Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know.” I hope in 2018, you meet some powerful strangers and add them to the family of people for whom you have a long-lasting effect. My “resolution” may officially be to write this blog because I can put some clear parameters on what I expect of myself; unofficially, my resolution is to invite strangers into my story...and to be someone who they invite into theirs.
I hope you will join me in making 2018 a year where we learn that our stories are all one.
As for the daily blogging resolution, it may be January 17, but something tells me that I am now inspired enough to catch-up!
My 2018 began in a way that symbolized how my life had been in 2017: hectic. In a Milwaukee hotel room with three kids, we celebrated the clock striking Midnight before hurrying to bed, mindful of a 5:30 am flight back to St. Louis. I cannot complain about the “hecticness” of this trip, as it was one that we took for fun. However, as I laid in bed reflecting on my New Year’s Resolution, I simply knew that it wasn’t going to work...my life was too “hectic.”
Ambitiously, my resolution for the new year was to write a post for this blog for each day of the year. At a training in July, a school district I worked with in Maryland believed heavily in reflective journaling. They distributed small notebooks at their development sessions and encouraged employees to be purposeful in taking the time to stop and jot down ideas and illustrations as new ideas came to them. They believed in harnessing the wisdom that comes to us as we move through our day-to-day lives experiencing what the world offers us. Though I didn’t work for this district, I dutifully took two of their provided notebooks and began to jot down ideas. By the end of December, I had not only filled two of the notebooks they had provided, but I had purchased and begun to fill a third one, as well. Almost always, the notes in my journal were connections I made at schools where I facilitated trainings. While I was hired to go to these trainings and to share knowledge, almost always I left with an equal amount (or more) of new knowledge provided by these terrific educators.
So I had plenty of ideas to write about, but my interest in blogging has always been about more than sharing educational ideas. I hope many of my past posts reveal that schools serve as a microcosm of life beyond the school walls (as they should!) and while the many things learned in a school can be applied to other schools, they more importantly can be applied to our interactions with others in life. If I was going to commit time to blogging, I wanted to create something that could be shared with educators, but also with other humans committed to making a difference during their time on Earth. However, as I laid there in bed after Midnight had passed on New Year’s Eve, sandwiched between a 7 and 10 year-old who couldn’t sleep next to one another without relentlessly giggling (they probably would have been awake until dawn if I hadn’t intervened), I reflected on my resolution and concluded my life was too hectic to make such a daunting blog commitment.
...but truthfully, my life is not too hectic to find time each day to write; more so, I think I was afraid that I wasn’t reflective enough to consistently and effectively see the connection between the learning I was doing in my own life and how it could be applied to future events for myself and for others. Importantly, I think I just needed a little serendipity, and a little inspiration. Last week, amidst the second week of the year, I got more than a little of both. I had the privilege of attending a new training that I had not previously taken nor taught. I was surrounded by new people and the program’s tone clearly encouraged acceptance of and kindness towards the other humans in our lives, no matter what their background or current reality may be.
Serendipity is the "occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way." At the training, not only was I inspired by the wisdom of my instructor and by the contributions of the many great people with whom I trained, but I also encountered a little serendipity, as a new colleague and friend suggested I read Mitch Albom’s 2003 book The Five People You Meet in Heaven. People have recommended this book to me in the past and I have “put it on my list,” but had never read it; I don’t think this is my fault, however. I believe that a book chooses a person more than a person chooses that book. A potential reader needs to be in a very serendipitous place in her or his mind and heart to accept a book - especially one known to be transformational - before one can open the book and engage in what it has to say. This book had one line that stood out to me among its many wonderful others: “...the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.”
This line inspires me because our goal, whether it is through a blog or through a much different avenue, should be to help one another see how our stories affect one another. Social Media and other information sources allow the stories of one person to be heard by others in a quick and prolific way...and of course, we can and should still learn plenty from others through good old-fashioned face-to-face communication, as well! All of this allowed me to see some additional purpose in “blogging” each day, but I will do much more than that, and I hope you will, too. Take a step back from your personal “hecticness,” open your eyes, and search for the ways your stories are connected with others.
In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, another line Albom incorporates is “Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know.” I hope in 2018, you meet some powerful strangers and add them to the family of people for whom you have a long-lasting effect. My “resolution” may officially be to write this blog because I can put some clear parameters on what I expect of myself; unofficially, my resolution is to invite strangers into my story...and to be someone who they invite into theirs.
I hope you will join me in making 2018 a year where we learn that our stories are all one.
As for the daily blogging resolution, it may be January 17, but something tells me that I am now inspired enough to catch-up!
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