What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
I have been meditating on this one a lot because I really don’t know. I guess the thing that doesn’t contribute to my writing is my laziness. I come home, tired from my job, and I really just get lazy because my day took so much energy and life out of me. I am alive 100% of every minute that I am at my job working with my students. I do not slack off or shut down or rest. I am on, all the time for them so I come home and shut down. Which in turn, makes me lazy, which therefore makes me not want to do anything productive. like say…write. So, I am going to try to be LESS lazy. :)
December 3: Moment
Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail.
This is semi-cheating because it’s a moment from 2009 but I remember it like yesterday. A moment where I felt truly alive is when I went to Chicago for the first time in May 2009, to move there. It was a complete and utter leap of faith. I knew one person, had never even visited, and hoped on a plane. I quit my job at a law firm to take a job as the Arts and Crafts coordinator for the YMCA, and I packed my bags and just went for it. I remember seeing the city for the first time and being amazed at the immensity of Lake Michigan. Seeing the Sears (now Willis) tower from afar. I remember looking down at all the houses and thinking how large their yards were and I was thinking of how cute and quaint all the towns near the city must be. I remember looking at the city and thinking this is it. this is me living my life. this is me experience everything I can experience. At the time of my flight it was almost sunset so the sun wasn’t really out much anymore and the sky was a greyish blue. I remember the feeling in my stomach of pure and complete joy that I was about to engage in something so unknown and unset that I didn’t know what to do, cry or laugh. I also remember knowing that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
It turned out to be one of the best and worst decisions of my life but I will never forget the moment I first saw the city and the feeling I got looking out the plane window.
December 4: Wonder
How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
This year I cultivated wonder by spending most of the year exploring an unknown territory. By wondering what it would mean if I actually took the time to pursue my dream of teaching. I wondered where I would teach, explored what it meant to be a teacher, and wondered how to be the best teacher I knew how to be. I spent my time over the summer in class, reading books, creating projects, conversating with other soon-to-be teachers. I have now spent my first couple months as a teacher wondering and exploring all the different aspects of learning disabilities and students that are 13 and seemingly crazy.
I have also spent this year wondering about myself. Exploring what I need to do for me and wondering how to manifest that into every day living.
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