The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: mental-health

  • Maybe some snow and ice and silence

    Bird Droppings January 23, 2026Maybe some snow and ice and silence “I have never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are, for the most part, more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.” Henry David Thoreau, Solitude, Walden, 1854 There has been an attraction…

  • Why should there be no teasing?

    Bird Droppings January 19, 2026Why should there be no teasing? “Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, and is it true, does it improve on the silence?” Hindu proverb So, I often speak first and clean up afterward, simply walking away, leaving whoever I am conversing with confused. I have a…

  • Empathy: Does anybody have it anymore or is it gone from humanity?

    Bird Droppings January 10, 2026Empathy: Does anybody have it anymore or is it gone from humanity? Sixteen years ago, I was sitting in my room in Statesboro, back to school for my doctorate. It was a June morning, and I was wide awake, pondering. “It is still dark in Statesboro, Georgia, as I sit here…

  • A long drive, pondering solitude

    Bird Droppings January 9, 2026A long drive, pondering solitude It has been some time since I set down and wrote a totally original dropping. Three of my grandchildren spend the night, as they tend to do on Thursdays, we have supper, play around, and they sleep over. I am always getting late to my sunrise…

  • Can we define our success, or does it take another?

    Bird Droppings January 7, 2025Can we define our success, or does it take another? Recently, teachable moments have been rare, as I have been very monastic between retirement, grandchildren, and cautious awareness. Yesterday, while grocery shopping, I ran into a former student of sorts. I think she was in a class with me when I…

  • Who would have thought that a buffalo snort in the dark could impact me almost thirty years later?

    Bird Droppings November 24, 2024 Who would have thought that a buffalo snort in the dark could impact me almost thirty years later? I use the word synchronicity quite often. Perhaps more than twenty times a day. I drove up to the corner store for gas, and I gathered up coinage from the dashboard. I…

  • One puzzle piece at a time, a secret formula for good teaching.

    Bird Droppings December 4, 2025One puzzle piece at a time, a secret formula for good teaching. “Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow How many times are we told “take your time”? So often in life, we are anxious to finish the job or…

  • Reflecting on getting older, I might ponder here for a bit.

    Bird Droppings November 1, 2025Reflecting on getting older, I might ponder here for a bit. As I am now another year older, I have been thinking or pondering, as I say. I started writing my daily sojourns nearly twenty-five years ago. I first used a YAHOO group, then Myspace, and graduated to WordPress and Facebook.…

  • Who would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark?

    Bird Droppings October 16, 2025Who would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark? “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to…

  • Like the spider web, all of life is connected and intertwined.

    Bird Droppings October 3, 2025Like the spider web, all of life is connected and intertwined. As I thought about the Sydney J. Harris passage below, I recall a walk one morning out to a quiet spot where I would meditate, and something hit me as I faced east towards the rising sun, the gossamer threads…