Bird Droppings January 21, 2016 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 20, 2016 A wondering of the moment Nearly eleven years ago I received this email from a dear friend. I met Frances Friedman 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…

Bird Droppings January 19, 2016 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 18, 2016 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…

Bird Droppings January 15, 2016 Looking in the direction to start the morning “Beginnings start in the east – from where the sun rises we begin a new dawn. Each day is a good new day with a fresh beginning, a new start. East is the direction of the physical body and newness including children…

Bird Droppings January 14, 2016 We should not allow 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 often I speak first and clean up afterwards many times simply walking away quiet generally leaving whoever I am conversing with…

Bird Droppings January 13, 2016 Trying to find a way back to normal “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio. Gotta get down to it soldiers are cutting us down should have been done long ago. What if you knew her and…

Bird Droppings January 12, 2016 We have to try and care So far for this year and the tail end of last year all the snow, sleet and ice predicted have never showed up just cold, fog, wet and nasty. It has been unseasonably colder than normal with scatterings of warm weather still only a…

Bird Droppings January 11, 2016 Learning is a journey strewn with boulders “In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at which point we…

Bird Droppings January 8, 2016 Walking and listening among the Cotton Woods I awoke very early to a vivid dream and walked outside briefly as I do many mornings listening observing trying to understand this reality I am walking about in. The sky was covered in clouds and raining as I stood on my porch.…