It's About Time...

Lessons Learned…

Time

Twenty-four hours in each day is all we have to accomplish all that needs to be accomplished. With our multitudinous lists of busy-ness, we stuff our days from beginning to end in a manner that might resemble an attempt to stuff nine pounds of potatoes into an eight pound sack. So we run instead of walk from thing to thing and find ourselves exhausted when the clock ticks bedtime and our list has not been fully accomplished. Never mind, though, for there’s always tomorrow, and the “unfinisheds” can be added to tomorrow’s list. Tomorrow’s list simply grows and grows in parallel with the frustration due to ever-growing lists. And so it goes, but the truth remains, that each day still has twenty-four hours. Additional hours cannot be bought, borrowed, or traded, despite any gallant attempts to do so.  For instance, standing eight or nine deep in a local checkout line pushing a full cart of  necessary bargains, I turned to the waiting customer behind me and asked if she had noticed which aisle contained “time;” a box or a can, it didn’t matter to me. With a facial response that began as annoyance, then turned to perplexity, and ultimately to a cunning smile, the neighboring customer asserted that she had been unable to locate the time aisle as well regardless of the fact that she was fairly certain that she had heard that they had been running a special on it today. That explained it. Time was all gone, and we were simply too late to have cashed in on the special. After a shared and knowing chuckle, we resumed our silent, pensive waiting. Time. There is never, ever, ever enough, and that is precisely why time is priceless. Time is a priceless gift. Exactly how one spends his or her time speaks volumes concerning one’s truest priorities.  All excuses aside, the picture painted by one’s time expenditures will be the mirror of what one values most dearly. I would contest that relational time invested is far more meaningful and satisfying than “things accomplished” time.  Yet, we lose ourselves in our busy-ness, and sometimes go days without engaging in deep, significant, meaningful relationship building conversations, for there quite simply is just not enough time. This is ridiculous, tragic and completely twisted around. The human heart craves relationship, and yet, this is among the first things cut when the tomorrow’s list is drawn.  Why have we continually sacrificed what our hearts need, to chase an illusion that society seems to demand? In families, what is the picture of our time? In classrooms, what is the picture of our time? Today, what is the picture of your time? The issue of time is gargantuan.  To be continued…

A Little Encouragement...

Lessons Learned…

Chores And Orders

The days just  preceding as well as just  following the first day of school are filled with immensely long  lists of things needing to be accomplished. Lists of things to get, things to do, and things to remember absolutely inundate these hours and days with a frenetic sort of constricting “have to” and “hurry up”  feeling. Very, very  stressful. Whether one is a parent, a student, a teacher, an administrator, or any other school staff individual, everyone is being outrageously pressed to be ready. Each one up and down the power chain is pressing, with best of intentions but very hard, on the one just below to be really ready.  Being really ready seems to mean to have more, to be more, and to know more. More information, more supplies, and more responsibilities are among the “more” list, and in a day of diminishing budgets, increasing class sizes, and highly pressure-filled expectations from every direction pressing upon each and every individual involved in the entire educational experience, this type of  “more” is beyond stressful.  It seems getting ready, chasing down the completion of lists and lists of “more” tasks and things, is fully wrapped in stress, and unfortunately, stress is completely counterproductive to true, rich, deep, meaningful learning.  How should one prepare for school? How might one best be ready to tackle all that will need to be accomplished throughout the year, whether one is a parent, a student, a teacher, an administrator, or any other school staff individual? Might I suggest that the most productive way to be ready for a new school year is to be encouraged, to be affirmed, to be emotionally built-up with kind, positive, and strengthening words.  Chasing the endless list of chores and orders builds inner turmoil when the “one more thing” that needs to be done simply cannot, leaving one to sink into the defeating mire of frustration; just not good enough.  Defeated before the day begins, this chores and orders mentality will take us nowhere strong or creative because it will crush that spirit. Administrators, to have a great day, continually encourage your teachers and other staff and do not assume that they know they are appreciated. Teachers, to have a great day, smile, breathe, and speak kind and affirming words to your students. Parents, to have a great day, remind your children/students that you love them, that you are proud of them, and that you know it’s going to be a great day for them.  Students, to have a great day, listen to your teacher, be kind to your classmates, and do your best. You see, great days have less to do with what we have and much, much  more to do with who we are and what we have been encouraged to believe we can be.  “Often in daily living, the things we need to hear and say; get lost in chores and orders, then time brushes them away.” Be an encourager, and start the school year with great strength.

Stronger Together Culmination...

Lessons Learned...

Collaboration Celebration Song

Here is the original song we shared with our city as together we celebrated all that is fine and excellent and strong about our hometown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CINEqZGPyQ

Stronger Together 5 And Final...

Lessons Learned…

Collaboration 5 and Final

Interviews. Rehearsals. Articles. Rehearsals. Meetings. Rehearsals.  A growing list of enthusiastic collaborators. Photographs capturing stunning local historic structures, gorgeous local settings, and familiar hometown images were snapped and recorded on postcards to share.  A mayoral proclamation acknowledging and celebrating the special event was declared. Funds were raised to transport all of the city’s third grade students to the beautiful theater. Funds were raised to rent the theater and for all other involved expenses. New, strong friendships were made as elbows were linked in support of our city and our story. Together we worked for a common good. Together we learned. Together we celebrated.  And everyone was proud of the gifts they brought to our “city hug,” and rightly so.  The beautiful event came and went with all of the pomp and circumstance necessary to lift local hearts and spirits, if even for just a brief shining moment. The event received the Mayor’s Arts Award of Cultural Collaborative Event of the Year; a tremendous honor truly to be shared by countless participating neighbors. The greatest honor, though, was in being a part of the passion which fueled the collaborative efforts.  We did something; we had to do something.  But change, the long-term sort of change that truly bumps one off Forbes list, will require an ongoing stream of bridge-building collaborative events and the ensuing relational blessings.  Friendships grow. Trust grows.  Compassion grows.  Fear diminishes. Walls come down as bridges go up.  And cities can heal. They can. Together we are stronger. Together we are better.

Stronger Together 4...

Lessons Learned…

Collaboration 4

The biggest, oldest, grandest theater in town had to be the venue for the sharing of our story. All of the city’s third grade students would be the invited VIPs. Specialist artists would be engaged. Ethnic clubs would be encouraged to participate. Students from two very culturally  different schools would collaborate to create and perform an original piece together under the inspiring direction of a very loved, local, gifted, celebrity artist/educator. An  art contest. An essay contest.  An elite orchestral ensemble of local students performing.  A film of the local dance company performing an original dance to an original song beautifully  performed through the breath-taking  hallways and stairways of the biggest, oldest, grandest theater in town. A local documentary filmmaker creatively chronicling the entire extravaganza. The mayor would be there. Local movers and shakers would be there alongside parents, grandparents, and neighbors of each and every performer. Museums, organizations, and visitors to our city would all be invited to hear, learn, and celebrate our strong shared story. But funding? All ideas need a bit of help to move them to action. Through countless meetings, contacts, and conversations, extremely generous contributions were made, affirming the idea and propelling it forward.  A fire of excitement and pride and goodwill was stirring and growing within our hurting community.  Some walls were coming down as the bridges of collaboration were beginning to span from heart to heart. Something good was happening.  To be continued…

Stronger Together 3...

Lessons Learned…

Collaboration 3

Writing a musical about the story of our city starts with reading; a gargantuan amount of reading.  Articles, books, online sources, photo journals, and archival museum diaries highlight the readings, all of which are interspersed with formal interviews, casual conversations, and visits to local historic sites. Meaningful, significant, informational treasure is all around town waiting to be recognized and given voice. Countless events and characters emerge and are set upon a timeline as the readings bring shape to the story of our hometown. The tone of the events and the feelings of the characters determine the color of the songs to be written, for the waves of human emotion become the musicality of the story. The story called home. Although hours and hours and hours and hours of time are invested in this creative retelling, this still remains just one small artist’s simple rendition of a grand and important story that will ultimately need many voices in many different ways retelling, reminding, and refreshing so that this critical story, our shared story, our common ground can be remembered, celebrated, and passed forward to bring its strength to those who will be the hope. This piece of the collaborative project will be rehearsed until perfected, while other exciting, creative pieces are being imagined and enacted all over town, all preparing to come together for a beautiful event that will hug our city. With all creative pieces bubbling in a full boil, all other collaborative pieces continue meeting and gathering numbers as further details of the hug are tended. To be continued…

Stronger Together 2

Lessons Learned…

Collaboration 2

How does it look to hug a city? How should it look? It seems somehow that despair is derived from a place of painful loss, and from this perspective, our city has suffered tremendous economic hardship in the loss of jobs due to the loss of large anchor corporations in fairly recent years. In our economic loss, we have suffered a severe identity crisis and a crushing blow to our historically defining independent spirit. Floundering in this place of loss, where violence easily erupts, we have been swept to our corners in fear. A hug. In brainstorming “a hug” for this city, we determined it could resemble an identity reaffirmation through a retelling of our city’s story, our shared story, and a reminder of the strong common ground upon which we all stand right now. Together. United.  A  shared story depicting our strong, proud past for all to hear, remember and claim would be the starting place around which we would invite neighbors to bring their creativities, ideas, and passions to help build our large city-wide celebratory hug. We would research and write an original musical about our city’s story, rehearse it with our students, and then engage many others in the community to lend their gifts to strengthen our hug. We had to start somewhere and we determined to start here.  To be continued…