Just Plain Bill

A New Year

I remember well the excitement I felt as a child as the clock ticked down to midnight on December 31^st. I think I was five years old when my mom first allowed me to stay up until that bewitching hour, when the horns would honk and even fireworks were set off to celebrate the arrival of the very first day of a new year. (To be honest, I don’t think I ever really stayed awake all the way to midnight until a few years later.)

I remember how cool I thought it was to turn the page on a calendar for the new year, and the thought of making my very own New Year’s resolutions, a list of things I was to endeavor to either do or not do – which usually wasn’t successfully held to. But at least it was fun to try.

Now that I’ve experienced New Year celebrations into my eighth decade, I’m considering a new tack for 2018’s. This is my plan:

·     Pour myself a cup of Irish coffee

·     Put on a warm coat, gloves, and a warm hat (I’ll be in Santa Fe, New Mexico)

·     Put down a blanket and lay down on our deck

·     Spend three quiet minutes listening and looking

That’s it. Nothing more. No noisemakers or fancy hats, or raising a ruckus of any kind, and no list of resolutions.

Just me and the universe, and saying thanks for life!

Happy New Year!

Just Plain Bill

A parallel universe

While Christmas shopping on Saturday, I found myself drifting in and out of a variety of merchants. I was near the end of my journey when I was surprised to find myself standing in front of an Amazon retail store. Having been a loyal Amazon customer –presently at the Prime level – I’d heard of Amazon’s entry into the brick-and-mortar world, and here I was, about to enter what I’ve only known until now as a virtual world.

In some ways, I felt I was entering a parallel universe!

First reactions included a familiarity of books on shelves, but from then on, the display and demonstration of all the Amazon electronics captured my attention. As I asked “Alexa” to play Christmas music for me, I almost felt at home – inside of my computer screen with memory of the 1982 movie Tron, which focused on a journey through a computer operating system.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience, which concluded with another surprise – I was not able to pay for my purchase with cash. Plastic only.

Once again, welcome to the new/old world, and may you celebrate your own special holiday surprise!

Just Plain Bill

Catch kindness

 A program to help personalize an emphasis on kindness...

After completing an in-class activity on the subject of kindness, and viewing a video on the topic, I felt there was an opportunity to help bring our focus on kindness directly to my students’ daily lives.

First, we each traced a hand with sections to be colored, and then we cut it out.

Next, as students observed, identified, and felt kindness, they shared their experiences with the class, and stapled their “hand” under the “Catch Kindness” (CK) sign on our back wall.

Time required: up to five minutes a day.

Materials required: paper, marker, scissors, colored markers or crayons, stapler...  

Early examples that led to sharing a hand: opening the door for someone, helping a student pick up books that were dropped, pushing a grocery cart in the market for a mom with two kids, a student reminding the class of an assignment we’d forgotten to include in our planners, sharing pencils/paper with a classmate who ran out, helping a student who had fallen off his scooter after school...

Have you caught kindness lately?