For as long as we've been around as humans, as wandering bands of nomads or cave dwellers, we have sat together and shared experiences.

We've painted images on rock walls, recounted dreams and visions, told stories of the day, and generally felt comforted to be in the world together.

When the world became fearsome, we came together.

When the world called us to explore its edges, we journeyed together.

Whatever we did, we did it together.

I hope we can reclaim conversation as our route back to each other, and as the path forward to a hopeful future.

It only requires imagination and courage and faith.

These are qualities possessed by everyone.

Now is the time to exercise them to their fullest.

Wheatley, M. J. (2002). Turning to one another: Simple conversations to restore hope to the future. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Importance of relationships in work, particularly teaching

"Bad teachers distance themselves from the subject they are teaching - and in the process, from their students. Good teachers join self and subject students in the fabric of life" (Palmer, p. 11).

The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.

~ Lee Iacocca

First you have a dream.

From where you now stand, you can see the dream off in the distance.

Your task, if you choose to make your dreams come true, is to begin to walk across the reality that lies between you and your dreams.

This is best done one step at a time.

~Barbara Alafat (2003)

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I say moreover that you make a great, a very great mistake, if you think that psychology, being the science of the mind's laws, is something from which you can deduce definite programmes and schemes and methods of instruction for immediate schoolroom use. Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves. An intermediary inventive mind must make the application, by using its originality.

The science of logic never made a man reason rightly, and the science of ethics (if there be such a thing) never made a man behave rightly. The most such sciences can do is to help us to catch ourselves up and check ourselves, if we start to reason or to behave wrongly; and to criticise ourselves more articulately after we have made mistakes (James, p. 7-8).
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One for Valentine's Day, combining this lovely holiday with my favored motif (photo by Maggie Hendrix)

Love is the river of life in this world.

Think not that ye know it who stand at the little tinkling rill, the first small fountain.

Not until you have gone through the rocky gorges, and not lost the stream; not until you have gone through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepened until fleets could ride on its bosom; not until beyond the meadow you have come to the unfathomable ocean, and poured your treasures into its depths ~ not until then can you know what love is.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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"Unfortunately, ...we often mistake a part for the whole. At the office or in the plant, we see only sides of people...the parts of people we see at work may give us little idea of their completeness" (De Pree, p. 14)

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Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

~ Thomas Gray

What have I missed?

What conversation did I hurry through today, not listening...not learning?

What did I miss?

What do I walk past every day, failing to see?

Who is invisible in my world?

Who is silent...or unheard?

What have I missed?

Who have I missed - today, everyday, any day?

"...that helped me learn my most important lesson about teacher leadership--leadership involved becoming a learner. Because I wanted to be a good representative, I found myself developing better listening skills and attuning myself to what I was viewing, hearing, and reading about my profession from many different angles and perspectives" (Baumgartner, p. 24).

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Why didn't you write today?

~ Kelly Clark/Keefe

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Channeled correctly and integrated properly, our diversity can be our greatest strength. But there is always the temptation to use these gifts for our personal benefit rather than dedicating them to the best interest of the group. If used selfishly, they will cause serious internal erosion. The process of integration is simply abandoning oneself to the strengths of others, being vulnerable to what others can do better than we can (De Pree, p. 89).

It is not a matter primarily of whether or not we reach our particular goals.

Life is more than just reaching our goals.

As individuals and as a group we need to reach our potential.

Nothing else is good enough.

~ Max De Pree, Leadership is an Art

Leadership is an art,

something to be learned over time,

not simply by reading books.

Leadership is more tribal than scientific,

more a weaving of relationships

than an amassing of information...

Max De Pree, Leadership is an Art