handwritten on January 24, 2019
Growing up in church, we used to have Sundays known as "Donut Sundays" now called "Hospitality Sundays." In truth, I had never really focused on the word hospitality. I had jumped straight to the word "donut" and knew that this day always created happiness when there was cream and chocolate inside my mouth and of course sprinkles. Hospitality in my mind was just happiness. In my case, donuts satisfied the sweet tooth I always suffered from. Hositality was the same as saying Happiness Sundays.
I do not think I ever realized my mistake in this working definition until tonight. My husband and myself were invited over to the house of a fourth year resident. I had heard a lot about this...
handwritten on January 23, 2019
Today, I came home and realized that I was beginning Wednesday evening with a bit of a cold. I sat down to complete some paperwork, and I decided to get up, make myself a cup of tea with honey and then continue the rest of my schoolwork I had brought home with me. Tea really creates a simplicity. It has the uncanny ability to cut out all the "extra" thoughts and allows for peaceful focus. Tea really is an underrated beverage. While the rest of the world is amping themselves up with coffee and sugar and the latest mocha frappacino, you should really try tea sometime. For me, it allows for unbothered contemplation.
As I neared the end of my work and thus the end of my cup, I knew once again...
handwritten on January 22, 2019
I do enjoy an adventure, a break from routine or something newly discovered. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we enjoy adventures that look a certain way, go certain places, contain certain smells and sounds and people. This morning, I had this new energy driving my car. My shoulders were relaxed, it was a two-hour delay schedule. I jumped into my blue car, turned it on, waited for the windows to defrost, and I was on my merry way. I chuckled to myself because it was a perfect driving climate-literally no one was on the road. In fact, outside was so silent that you could actually hear ice crackling from the branches and window panes. It was like listening to a mixed tape of winter...
handwritten on January 21, 2019
There has always been the saying that goes like this, "Actions are louder than words." I do think I used to believe this quote without thinking until I realized that a true leader and a mentor use their words to promote both action and silence as well as power or tranquility. A word lover myself, I used to find myself contemplating gradiose quotes and then realizing they meant nothing if I did not seek to apply them. But sometimes I do think that the words we speak on paper first we begin to believe and muster up the courage to transform into breathing souls of life. But only sometimes-if our heart is in the right place are we able to give those words a chance to run.
Perhaps this has...
handwritten on January 20, 2019
A few months ago, I had read a post from one of my former students (now in middle school) and his mother who had gone to see a movie. This movie had left them both speechless-their eyes filled with tears. It had been a book that had turned into a movie entitled The Hate You Give. According to them, the movie had done the book justice. Immedietely when my husband and myself both watched the trailer, we knew what kind of feelings it would bring about, but we agreed that based on our society we are living in right now, it deserved a watch and a discussion.
It has been a long time since I have seen a movie that brings about not only raw emotions, but necessary discussions about race and...
