handwritten on March 3, 2020
Through the creation of TEDx, I have quite literally learned that if every child gathered around a colorful carpet with cookies or brownies and created something that was their very own message to the world (and we did this consistently), as tiny humans, we would see a lot more healed hearts and steady souls.
There is so much rush and so little time for talking. I actually just recently came upon a TED Talk I found particularly important about the teaching career as a whole. And what the speaker mentioned was the fact that the magic of teaching is in storytelling. And ironically, storytelling is the exact thing we constantly tell our students they "cannot do" because we are moving from one...
handwritten on March 2, 2020
3 miles:
This fine Monday was certainly more dismal than usual. In fact, I could tell when the students came in that their faces were weary, they were tired and something just seemed a bit off. As my hunches usually tell me, I shortly received a note from one of my stuents about losing his/her cat and then seconds later one of my students reported the death of her fish. This student had also just lost someone close to her a few weeks back and she looked at me and said, "Mrs. Amoscato. All around this has been a pretty rough month. I feel like everyday I lose something else."
And so in the midst of reading a Dr. Seuss book about "pets," we just stopped to tell all of our pet stories near...
handwritten on March 1, 2020
I think this past week was entitled Time Away from Words. I took a little word vacation as well as a reflection vacation, and I have to say- it was quite refreshing. I think sometimes we just need a little vacation away from words. I found myself reflecting less, listening more and just trying to quiet my brain when I realized I was simply too exhausted for words to be written on paper.
It was a beautiful week as always filled with laughter and friends and family dinner, a viewing, a critical heart surgery. This week was almost a small snapshot of every possible mystery and tragedy and worry and joy and fear and community-type feeling one can experience in this game we call life. A...
handwritten on February 23, 2020
3.5 miles
There is one particular place that has the best Americano coffee I have ever tasted.
The coffee is so rich.
And so dark.
Yet so creamy.
And so caffeinated.
My brother and sister-in-law are always so lovely to let me crash their Sunday coffee/breakfast party after I go to church. My husband generally works Sundays, so these are my people that offer me some warm conversation and always great food even though I insist I'm never going to eat.
And whilst we were drinking our coffee and eating these delectable donuts of warmth and love, I was excited to hear stories of others finding and exploring their own life purpose and sense of love and sense of being.
Nothing excites me...
handwritten on February 22, 2020
I went to a lovely little place called Pie for Breakfast. Thought I am not longer talking about whimsy, it is always clear when whimsical encounters are made throughout the day. And nothing is more whimsical than eating at a breakfast place called "Pie for Breakfast."
Being the hopeless romantic that I am (though I hide it well), I actually felt like this place would be the perfect location for a Hallmark movie in Pittsburgh. The menus were colorful, the atmosphere friendly and it had this vibe as if it had been in the same location for years and years and the same people came to the establishment. And though time changed around the outside, it remained a constant state of familial love on...
