Bird Droppings December 30, 2024
Finding a pathway even when one does not appear

The past week has sort of run together, although each was an interesting day in its own right. It may have been sitting and watching movies with the family after sharing gifts, eating all day long, and then getting ready to head to North Carolina or South Georgia to visit family. But still, while the kids are off from school for the next week, I will try to get some writing done. I will try to mow grass, not because it is time but because it is something I really miss when summer ends. We had a good rain and storm, and the sunrise this morning was insane. Even as I sipped my hot tea, they were joking when the weathermen said a cold front was following the spring of today.

Weather permitting, as I walk about, looking for branches and rocks before I mow, I might find the path where deer evidently come across our backyard tracks etched in the dirt. Nearly eighteen years ago, several neighborhood children would walk across the back of our yard to their house behind ours in our previous house. Something I like far better is being in the countryside between Atlanta and Athens. I guess cutting through the woods behind our house saved them many footsteps, I am sure, over the entrance to the cul-de-sac, which was several hundred yards further down the road. Now, it is wildlife that shortcuts through our yard. We see daily many deer, owls, numerous kinds of birds, squirrels, an occasional wild turkey, and red-tailed hawks sharing this corner of the county.

As I went out earlier, I was thinking about that deer pathway and how each of us has our pathway in life, often skirting around the back of others or just beyond view. Maybe that pathway is a shortcut, maybe it is the easiest route in a difficult situation, and often, it is simply the most practical.

“By identifying your true motivations and desires, it becomes easier to find direction in life. Now we know where your goals come from. What’s the root beneath your dreams? There are no right or wrong answers; they are just ideas at the core of you. We could probably analyze what in your past makes you want to become the things you put on your list. We could analyze how close you are to being all of the things you’ve listed. It’s not important. What matters is that now you know what it is you’re aspiring to become.” Skye Thomas, Tomorrow’s Edge, Finding Direction

Could it be so simple as making a list of goals or building a set of actions and plans, which could be a road map of sorts for where we want to go? When I first went to college nearly fifty-plus years ago, I was aspiring to be a biology teacher. I did not teach biology till about seven years ago when I was officially certified to teach the subject. There were many shifts and changes along the way as I walked my own path. Several years ago, my oldest son took courses and was certified in GPS, which he used to mark tortoise nests and beetle infestations as part of his science projects in college. As technology advances now, each photo I take on my camera is GPS stamped, and you can tell where that image is from. I find it amazing that we can tell where you are within a few feet of anywhere on the globe with such accuracy. On my cell phone, I have a navigation application to guide me wherever I program a location, and I can drive the car listening to the voice from my phone and go right there. I have found that new road construction often is not on the navigation system, but usually, it is only off for a few miles or so, and then it relocates, and I can hopefully avoid stopping for directions with my male ego intact. But in life, sometimes more is needed than what technology provides.

“Synchronicities are not flukes or random events. They’re intentional reflections of our intuition working with the perfect order of all things in the unseen world. It’s why fish swim upstream, birds fly south, and bears hibernate. Everything in nature intuitively gravitates toward what best serves its growth, and that includes the human race. The only difference is that we have the choice to follow our intuition or not.” Sonia Choquette, Trust Your Vibes, Finding Direction

A little new age thinking never hurts to start a morning. I do like this thought; often, we choose intuitively to go in life in a certain direction. It may not be a quick choice, but one over some time. In regard to myself, the decision to return to teaching after nearly thirty years was not quickly made. It came in a series of events that culminated in a job at a local high school nearly ten years ago. As I think back, even that specific job nearly fell through four times, and for the fifth time, it finally worked out. I often wonder why this school was not hired at six other schools since, officially, I was not certified. Why did this principal hire me and want me to work, literally hiring me five times and finally getting approval as a long-term substitute for a teacher who had a nervous breakdown? Amazingly enough, as I look at my pathway, perhaps it was not to be working with him as he was transferred a year later. I will say this: after six plus years, we are still good friends and communicate often.

“Being committed to some goal in your life – a sense of having a mission, a purpose, even a calling – is a very motivating, very comforting thing. Some people’s mission steps up to greet them; others have to hunt theirs down.” Sam Baker

One day after class, a teacher raised a question. “Are you where in life you are supposed to be?” Several of the teachers surrounding me thought for a minute and weren’t sure, and then to me. For nearly twenty-four years, as I searched, I couldn’t answer that question. That day, it is easy; I am exactly where I need to be and am supposed to be.

“Do the things you love to do and are passionate about, then you’ll have few regrets. Conspicuous success or public acknowledgment for these things may or may not come, but it won’t trouble you much either way because you’ll be happily enjoying yourself.” Sam Baker

The word passion seems to pop up a lot for me. Are we passionate about what we are doing? Are we passionate about our direction in life? I do believe it is true that if you are passionate about what you are doing, there will be a few regrets. I learned that from the principal who hired me nearly twenty years ago, as he was always passionate about what he was doing.

“What intrigues you? What questions about any aspect of life or the universe absolutely enthrall you? There’s your direction! Although we cannot map out our lives in advance, much can be done to make desirable outcomes more likely. Acquiring an exceptional ability is one such outcome.” Sir Bernard Cohen

Recently, I wrote about learning to lead as a progression of growing up and drifted into actually learning how to teach from a young age. I started to wonder if my own kids had learned such endeavors in their turn at life. I wonder if my mother and father realized that they, through bits and pieces laid out to me, were directing me along a pathway in life.

“Your accomplishments will bring great pride and joy to your closest friends and family, but in the long run, it will hurt all of you badly if you’ve done it only for them. You have to do things for the passion in your own heart.” Helen Fielding

I used to go to high school over the holidays to think and plan for the coming days and, of course, to feed critters. Some days, it was just a bit of a catchup, but recently, it was an odd one. I was cleaning up my school email. In my files, I had over four thousand past emails, so I was going through and deleting the ones that were not significant. I have a bad habit of saving emails. Working my way through several years of emails, I saved those that were specific about students and critical parent correspondence. I found several emails congratulating me on being named teacher of the year in our area by Sam’s Club almost twenty years ago. I still have the blue Walmart vest in my closet and a letter on the wall as a quick reminder. One of my students had sent a letter to Wal-Mart. It wasn’t something specific as to what I did but a letter of recommendation from a student, and I was honored. As I thought, I really did not do anything different for that student. She graduated several years ago, and we keep in touch every few weeks. I basically taught as I do each day, but I do it with passion, and what is funny is that people see that when they are around you.

So, whatever you choose, whatever pathway you go down, do it with passion, and truly, you will never go wrong. It is funny how holidays affect us. I am working on reading and writing for a research paper, and in the news, schools are trying to cope with how to educate their students better and pass tests. Another topic in the news was dealing with charitable competition during the holidays, where instinctively, many people try to give more than others; I often ask why just on holidays. I use the term loosely in harm’s way. There are so many meanings. It may be children who are hungry and or abused, adults without work and struggling, many folks who are mentally ill and now on the streets as we found it prudent and fiscally responsible to close mental hospitals, and politically correct, there are so many meanings to in harm’s way. A big one is our service men and women, of course, around the globe, so every day, please, dear friends, keep all in harm’s way on your mind and your heart’s namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
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