Bird Droppings January 30, 2015 Reconciliation of trust “It’s the examination of conscience. Unless you examine your conscience, you don’t know what you have to be sorry for and what to confess” Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D., Ten Tips for Better Confessions, The Gift of Reconciliation Sort of difficult ending this shortened week with a vocabulary…

Bird Droppings January 28, 2015 Sitting thinking of a circle I missed the last rerun of a favorite miniseries, Into the West, and one of these days will find the DVD set. The movie starts and ends with a circle of stones with a line going east to west and one going north to south…

Bird Droppings January 27, 2015 How do we know if we are still human? Perhaps it is from growing up in a situation where we were daily aware of special needs children and adults from the birth of my younger brother till his passing almost eighteen years ago. Those in my family have had connections…

Bird Droppings January 26, 2015 Counting knuckles On Friday a student asked what day of the month next Friday would be and I responded January 30 and just as quick another said he thought it was the first. I said no it was the thirty first and he proceeded to count his knuckles, “a knuckle…

Bird Droppings January 25, 2015 Can we define our own success? Friday in a teachable moment I drew upon my experiences and while discussing the phylum arthopoda and one of my favorites the black and yellow garden spider, Agriope aurantia, or writing spiders. I then proceeded to offer a Creek Indian view of early morning.…

Bird Droppings January 23, 2015 We need to be examining the threads of life? “Man did not weave the web of life he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” Chief Seattle, 1854 It has been a few years since I read a National Geographic article…

Bird Droppings January 22, 2015 A wondering of the moment Nearly eleven years ago I received this email from a dear friend. I met Frances when I was a new staff member at Loganville High School in 2001. Frances had been teaching English and had worked with our then principal at the time at a…

Bird Droppings January 21, 2015 Can we as teachers daily find the right words? On days when my wife is out of town I can go out and take sunrise photos and wander about as I do with few time restrictions. This past weekend sunrises were very subdued and I was able to sit and…

Bird Droppings January 20, 2015 Are you at the center of your universe? “Tung-shan was asked, ‘The normal mind is the way; what is the normal mind?’ He replied, ’Not picking things up along the road.’” From Teachings of Zen, edited by Thomas Cleary, © 1998 One aspect of the Zen teachings is the process…

Bird Droppings January 19, 2015 We are neither wolf nor dog It has been some time since I first read a book by this name written by one of my favorite authors Kent Nerburn. In much of his writing Kent Nerburn addresses the spiritual significance and depth of life of our Native Peoples. While to…