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Beginner's Heart

This is my current journal — nothing fancy (I’m being a bit stingy using the beautiful rose-pink Italian leather journal a former student gave me :)). Just a black Moleskine. I like the blank pages — they beckon to me. Infinite possibilities ~ 🙂 But the pen is something special. A gift from my generous,…

Our family doctor’s son married in June. I wouldn’t know this, but he was talking weddings to my husband after our return from our son’s wedding. And what Dr. X said seemed rather sad, to me. Digression — are doctor/patient conversations privileged on BOTH sides? Dr. X asked if my husband became ’emotional’ at or…

This is how teachers learn best: caffeine & reflection :). Well,  at least the teachers I know ~ This week I helped with a two-day workshop with teachers in a town near here — one of the many small Oklahoma towns (population about 2,000 or so) that are fighting lack of funding as they try…

Those of us who live near Joplin, MO will never forget the tragedy of the May tornado. Such devastation that, as the photo shows, there was a scar where the tornado tore through the earth. But the thing about tragedies is they often show us who our friends are. And this one brought people from…

There’s a new US Poet Laureate — Philip Levine. This may not be earth-shaking to many, but to a poet, whose vanity plate gives her ‘POETIC’ license, it’s HUGE :). And I like Levine’s work. I never like all of someone’s work — not even my own :). And Levine’s mentor was a poet I’m…

It’s raining in Oklahoma. This is good. We had the hottest July of any state, any time, in  US history. August didn’t look a lot better, at least until last night. Wildfires have swept much of the state, causing evacuations of entire Oklahoma towns. So I’m grateful for the rain. Especially after driving through Pawnee…

I grew up with batik, buying it, wearing it, loving it. I have pillows made from batik my mother bought in Thailand when I was a teenager. I might save them over books, in a fire :). They remind me of shopping trips to market w/ my mother, and how much she loved their vivid…

You owe it yourself to go the link for photos of Baby-Girl Rhino. She’ll make you smile, I promise. We all deserve that 🙂 ~

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I love the city of Portland, Oregon. But this trip — #5? #6? — was especially lovely. Of course much of that has to do w/ my son’s wedding :). And vacation always offers rose-coloured sunglasses to the tourist. But Portland really is a special place.…

History has fallen out of fashion. Real history, I mean. The kind that requires reading more than one source. The kind of research that my students hate. Vectoring sources, looking things up in more than one place, viewing all sources skeptically. That kind of history…:) And yet people are always saying, “The Founding Fathers did…
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