A Teacher's Life

I've been grading papers for two days. I figured out that I have graded around 108 pages worth of papers (3 different sets of papers). I've read some pretty interesting stories and some heart breaking stories as well. (I always struggle to know what to do with the the heart breaking stories.) Grading, more than almost anything I do as a teacher, takes the most of out of me. I can plan for class when I'm sleepy, but it is almost impossible for me to grade when I'm tired so I save days like Sundays and holidays to just grade and grade some more.

So this is how I'm spending my Chakri Day--grading!

The funny thing is is my department is hopping with activity. I keep asking myself--is this really a holiday? There are five other teachers here and a handful of students. At least I can't feel too sorry for myself. Misery loves company and so here we are (almost) the whole department working on a holiday.

Jehosophat

Today for vespers one of the students, Matthew, spoke about how when Judah was surrounded by its enemies, God commanded his people to meet their enemies singing. As I was listening to him I thought 'that's how I want to meet the things that scare me in life.' I want to meet my battles singing.

Textbook Advice

Wisdom can be found in the most interesting places. I found this quote the other day from a book I've been using for my Advanced Composition class.

"Many people, especially young people, think that variety of sensation is what gives spice to life. They want to do everything, go everywhere, meet everybody and drink from every bottle. It can't be done. Whoever you are, your energies and your opportunities are limited. Of course you want to try several alternatives in order to find out what suits you, but I hope that ten years from today you will agree with me that the good life is not lived widely, but deeply. It is not doing things, but understanding what what you do, that brings real excitement and lasting pleasure.

You should start now. It is dangerously easy to get into a pattern of life, and if you live shallowly until you are thirty, it will not be easy to begin living deeply. . . . How are you to avoid [the fate of shallowness]? I can tell you, but it is not a magic secret which will transform your life. It is very, very difficult. What you must do is to spend twenty-three hours of every day of your life doing whatever fall in your way, whether it be duty or pleasure or necessary for your health and physical well-being. But--and this the difficult thing--you must set aside one hour of your life every day for yourself, in which you attempt to understand what you are doing."

From "What Every Girl Should Know" in Model Voices: Finding a Writing Voice p. 515

The Coupon, Use at Your Own Risk

This post is a risk-coupon. A risk coupon is a coupon you redeem when you are willing to take a risk. This risk is not some game you play. It is not imaginary. If you use this coupon you might just fall down. You might go broke. You might lose face. You might embarrass yourself highly, but if you are spending this coupon you have come to realize that staying in your nice comfortable security of a well-paying job or going along with what everyone else is doing (when you don't really agree) is far worse than just jumping and seeing where you land.

This doesn't mean that you won't plan your jump. This is not a coupon for rash sudden movements, but it is a coupon for making a decision that what you really value in life is worth taking the risk to get.

So here's your coupon. Use it at your own risk.

Feet Cleaning

I run my hands down the horse's front leg. "Come now," I tell him, "pick up your leg." I have to be gentle. No rushing him. I'm no horse whisperer, but I know that much. If I position myself just right, my head facing his tail, my left shoulder near his side--I'll be able to grab his hoof and pull it towards me. He'll lean his body weight onto me as as I hold his hoof to pick out the manure and stones that have collected there. I'll groan under the weight, but find comfort in it. It will be a strange intimacy. If he moves, spooks, stomps, or kicks--I'll be hurt. I'm vulnerable. Yet if ever I've known what it is like to love an animal it will be in this moment. I'll be simply cleaning his feet, but I'll love him in that moment.

God is a Singer

"God is a singer and songwriter and you are the subject of His song." Ty Gibson

I got to listen to Pastor Ty Gibson speak this morning for church. I loved this thought. I've always known that God sings over us (Zeph. 3:17), but I'd never stopped to think about where He got the content of His song. Pastor Ty joked that God does not download his music from the Internet, but that He writes it himself.

The other idea I liked is that when we get to heaven, the first special music will be God's song for us. :)

The Seasons of Mission College

Today, I came downstairs into my kitchen and inhaled the nice smell of chicken poop. "Ah," I wondered, "Is it time for the stinky chicken smell again?"

Over breakfast I pondered that Mission College has seasons. We don't have spring, summer, autumn, winter... No, no, we have the following seasons:

The season of the slugs (step, step, crunch, crunch, ughhh!)
The season when the snakes come out (My favorite time...sometimes we even get to spot a cobra or two.)
The season of the awful ants (These ants with wings invade our homes and donate their wings to our floors.)
And then of course--the season of the all-pervading-can't-quite-get-rid-of-it chicken poop smell.

There is nothing poetic about our seasons, but who needs poetry when you can have slugs, snakes, ants and the smell of chickens!

PS The chicken smell went away and then it rained...so I had another smell to delight in--petrichor--the smell of the earth after it rains.

See http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pet2.htm for more information about petrichor.