Karma.

Jesse wrote about Karma the other day and it got me thinking about my girls. On Christmas morning, they looked in their stockings and each found a necklace (identical to each other’s). The necklace was something Santa picked up at Target – it is a sliver, circular shape with the words: “what goes around comes around” swirling into the center. The card on which each was hung at the store had the word KARMA, artfully scripted across the top.

I'm meetinged out.

In the last two weeks, I have been at my desk, actually accomplishing something for a grand total of about three hours. If I am called to another "important" meeting, I'm going to scream.

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

Genius.

A conversation with Donna reminded me of this quotation - I think our conversation ended with "Amen, Sister!"

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world," ~Calvin

Don't leave any of yourself safely on shore.

Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory. ~Alan Alda

The mind does the seeing.

We often talk about listening versus hearing. You can talk all you want and I can look at you blankly and listen to your words, but I need to really concentrate to hear you, to understand how your words and your tone are sending me a message. Listening intently and really hearing someone is a precious gift, as Mel says.

Civility.

So many people are frustrated or disappointed with young people today because they dress in poor taste, use offensive language and talk in code, dance suggestively and listen to terrible music. Let's face it though; every generation criticizes the generations that come after. I can live with bad music, underwear showing, and embarrassing dancing. I can even live with coarse language - heck, anyone who knows me knows I'm no stranger to the F-bomb! (sorry, mom)

Address the gap.

So much of the time, we approach a problem by examining, studying, and dwelling on what isn't right -OR- by pacing around and wringing our hands about how we will never reach the desired goal. We are so good at admiring the problem (or fretting about the impossibility of the target,) but we fail even to take a peek at possible solutions. Instead of this method, we should spend time finding and then addressing the gap.

It goes on.

It’s interesting that some people can go about their day, working independently, competently… until someone else shows up… and then they have to run every decision by the other person. Some wives complain that their husbands are that way as parents... alone, they are great! But when the wife shows back up, all of a sudden she is shouldered with the work! Where does that sudden feeling of incompetence come from? Or maybe it's a sudden lack of confidence? Does the person think his or her decisions will be scrutinized? I don't know what it is, but today it's making me want to go hide in another office and be unavailable! But enough ranting...

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

Why do we let some things bother us so much? I think I have a decent grasp of my priorities. My work involves a lot of time outside of the traditional work day, but I really try to include my family in the after-hours stuff - like watching game after game after game of the sport du jour (but let's face it, there is nothing painful about watching our varsity boys play ball!) I try to attend each and every activity, skipping one here or there when there isn't a way to resolve a conflict with my personal/family schedule. So why do I let the little comments get to me?

Cross-town week is put to bed.

The key is not the "will to win" . . . everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

~Bobby Knight

"Cross-town Week" just about kicked my butt! This week was crazy with disciplinary issues at school and then the boys played across the river on Tuesday and the girls played in our house on Thursday (both of those nights we were getting home about 9:45), and today it was one thing after another!

I haven't earned a beer like this in a while!

Go ahead, I'm listening.

I'm disenchanted. It's not about my thighs this time or my inability to make good decisions about my bed time. It's about listening (or lack thereof).

I'm disenchanted by people who SAY they are "listening," when it really feels like they want to LOOK like they are listening. Listening is a great, generous thing (just what we want to have people see us doing!), but when one says he's listening, but doesn't act like he's HEARD, it kind of negates the listening, doesn't it?

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” ~Karl Menninger

Finish each day and be done with it.

I did it! I went to sleep at 9:00 and fell asleep quickly (I think!) Oh shit, now that means I have fewer excuses not to exercise! What a crock!

This week, I have the boys' cross-town game on Tuesday at GFH and the girls' cross-town game on Thursday at CMR... it will be a busy week, but I've got to be more consistent with exercise than LAST week (since I couldn't get any worse!) All I have to do is walk more than twice and I've done better than before! I think my mom said improvement is what it's about... If that's the case, I better not walk more than three times, or it will be harder to improve the next week (I'm really liking this logic...)

Next week's a new week.

"I’ve pretty much accepted I’m talking to myself in my blog posts." Posted by vander1 on ruminations.com

It's probably too early in 2010 to have this kind of attitude, right? It was just that kind of week... I'm sure the treadmill will make me feel better though. (as if.) Getting up early to walk on the the treadmill hasn't worked well because my back hurts so terribly, I can't even work up a sweat as I "tread" as lightly as possible to try to avoid feeling my back tweaking! And last week was nightmarish at work as I had activities to supervise (or kids to taxi around) three of the four nights. How do people do it? I told the girls I had better strike a few yoga poses first in the morning to see if I can do it!

Next week's a new week...

Deep thoughts.

"I bet if you were in some old west gang, and you were dragging a guy along the ground with your horse, it'd probably make you really mad to look back and see him reading a magazine." ~Jack Handy

Another chance to get it right.

I always say I love the world of academia because you always have another chance to start over. As a teacher, if this period seems to be going badly, 53 minutes later, you get to start over. If today isn't working out, tomorrow's a new day! If the kids are making you crazy this month, Spring Break is just around the corner and you get to start fresh after that. And then there is the do-over at the end of the quarter, the semester, and finally... the new school year. In some ways, the "New Year" is like that for everyone... Oprah Winfrey said, “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” I'll drink to that!

Resolute denunciation.

"Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle." ~Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Eric Zorn