happy 95th birthday

Wow, Dad, you're 95th birthday is this very day. Can you believe it? 95 years since the sinking of the Titanic. 95 years since you made your appearance in Oak City, Utah. We know so much about your first 51 years. The death of your mom. Your love of livestock and agriculture. Your going to the circus and coming home to try to tricks on grandpa's horses. Your mission to Germany. Your finishing college at the U having started it as an Aggie in Logan. Your work for the census bureau that led to another bureau, the FBI. Way to put that German to good use. Your meeting our mom. Your marriage. Your career. Your daughter and then me, your son. Your stockbroker years. Your curiousity. Your gentle ways. Your love of color, creativity and mom. Your impatience with the unimportant. Your patience with me and all that mattered so much. The vacations, the Christmasses, the family reunions. The tapercorders and movie cameras and 16 millimeter projectors borrowed from a friend. The diagnosis you didn't want to believe. Your will to "beat this thing." That last summer and such a fall, such fire in the leaves and in your heart. That last Halloween. The last time we shoveled snow and drank hot chocolate. JFK in Dallas. Our president dead and you in the hospital the next day. Thanks for asking me to pray. I'm still praying, daddy. I wonder what you've been up to all these years. Have my teens, twenties, girl friends, hobbies, hopes, marriage, children, college, careers, anxiety, depression, scholarships, photos and music---have all these passed in just minutes for you? Have you seen it all or just read my blog? Happy birthday, dear Dad. I hope you'll visit soon in another dream like the one on Aunt Susan's back porch on Kayland Way, and let me know if my hunch is right, or just wishful thinking.

post 5K greetings

Ran the Salt Lake Marathon's 5K yesterday. A great experience, and a particularly refreshing race when compared to the beautiful but much more difficult Canyonland Half Marathon. Today I'm a little stiff and sore, small price to pay for the opportunity to run freely, joyfully the short distance from Liberty Park to the Gateway.

oh happy day!

Such great news. My son phoned to say my blog is up again. That wouldn't be such great news if perhaps there'd only been a slight interruption in service. But in this case, I haven't been able to publish since October. Six long months. I've missed writing here and I'm glad to be back.

diamonds and fragments

Some things I never want to forget. Like how I felt just a few days ago when our daughter got married. What a combination of pride, satisfaction, joy, gratitude, loss, love, memory, anticipation, expectation, laughter, tears, longing, hoping, seeking, finding, standing, walking, smiling, talking, listening, seeing, kissing, hugging, wishing, visiting, packing, knowing, believing and belonging.

Then there are things you don't quite know why you remember and you don't quite remember them fully, yet there they linger. For example, there's a radio commercial from the old days of K-PIX and K-NAK. I must have heard it thousands of times. I'm sure it ran for years. If you grew up in Salt Lake City in the sixties or seventies, perhaps you remember it, too:

"From Antwerp, from Johannesburg, from diamond capitals of the world, come the fine diamonds at Diamonds Limited in the Surety Life Building. See Gordon Lobb a diamond expert with 30 years experience..."

And that's all I can pull. Not the full commercial, only a fragment. I do know Joe Lee was the voice. Perhaps Ray Graham will also remember.

tips, tricks and treats

Every year our Instructional Services staff gets together to share what they've learned as they've attended summer seminars, talked with colleagues, read, googled and otherwise encountered great ideas. And, as if that's not enough, there's a free lunch. Here are a few of the things I learned at this week's session:

1. PBS tops the most-trusted institutions list (2-year old research but new to me) 2. Jared has a blog. Annie has a blog. I already knew that Doug had a blog. 3. You can learn it at film school or get it free here. 4. The $100 Laptop will change the world as we know it. 5. Catchy name, great resources at netsquirrel.com.

And a couple of the things I shared from my NSPRA meeting in Chicago:

Seeking “place at the table” within your superintendent? You are the table. It goes with you. Provide unsolicited, useful information and advice. Tell her something she doesn't already know. Say things that matter. All crises happen explosively and are solved incrementally. Alliteration for effective human relations: Be simple, sincere, sensitive; focused, forceful, fair; practical, purposeful, powerful. -James Lukaszweski, Inside the Mind of a Corporate CEO

Making Daymakers – A daymaker is a person who performs acts of kindness with the intention of making the world a better place (David Wagner, Life As A Daymaker, 2003) “Every person you meet wears an invisible badge that reads ‘I’m special, I’m important; recognize me.’” (Author unknown) “Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” (John Watson) -Gold Mine Session by Dianne Pavia, Riverside Unified School District, Riverside California

p.s. As for tricks, there was actually only one. Lick a dime. Stick it on your forehead. Great attention getter with kids or adults, and surprising how long the dime will stick. An icebreaker to get people laughing and talking.

benefits of expressive writing

The quick brown fox...
Originally uploaded by CodeFin.

Earlier this summer I found this quotation while looking for something else:

“Since the Mid-1980s, an increasing number of studies have focused on the value of expressive writing as a way to bring about healing. Across our first four studies, those in expressive writing groups had 43% fewer doctor visits for illness than the control group that wrote only about superficial topics. There are probably a thousand ways to write that are beneficial to you.” -James W. Pennebaker, Telling Stories: The Health Benefits of Narrative

Although I haven't tested it out in any controlled way, the idea rings true from years of journal writing, some of it expressive, much of it not. The quote also fits in well with this one:

"What if writing were a simple, significant, yet necessary way to achieve spiritual, emotional, and psychic wholeness? What if writing were as important and basic to wellness as healthful food, pure water, clean air, and rest? Writing has helped me heal. Writing has changed my life. Writing has saved my life." -Louise DeSalvo

Note to myself: Yeah, sure, expresssive writing now and then may provide a breath of fresh air, but if you want to breathe even more of that clean air, why not spend more time in the mountains?