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Three years ago the pandemic caused cancellation and closure in every sphere of life. We’re still going through it. Layers of change and new protocols cause continual unsettling and cumulative exhaustion. It’s a lot to bear. Here’s a poem I wrote in the first days of lockdown in 2020: to bear it to bear it…
This week’s post finds me in a middle, the middle of the semester. I’m familiar with the crash that occurs around Week 7—empty seats; vacant, tired eyes; too many parking spaces. I call these weeks (7, 8, 9, and sometimes 10) the “trudgey weeks,” that stretch of time in which initial enthusiasm is spent, the…
As one who teaches, it is important for me to continually learn new things. Of course I learn things from students every day, but I also mean it’s important to put myself in the role of student on a regular basis. Sometimes I formally enroll in a course to develop a new skill; other times…
Closing in on the end of undergraduate study is a stressful time for students. Though they have been busy with many things, school has dominated their time and energy. At many times desperate for it to end, the prospect of its actual ending fills them with dread. College has equipped them for a variety of…
It’s ok to get smaller—to contract, retreat, rest, grieve, change what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. NOTE: This is not about shrinking or diminishing; if this is your concern, there’ll be a future post on that. What I mean about getting smaller is deciding not to do things you once did, reining in…
Empathy on its own does not lead to compassion. In fact, empathy can increase personal distress, when you take in the feelings of another as your own. Increased distress raises alert levels and decreases the range of tools available to respond to daily activities and interactions. Everything becomes an emergency. Life on heightened alert—even through…
Every-body who speaks the “same” language weaves the words available into textures, tones, and patterns. Words, though sometimes chosen precisely according to intended meaning or purpose, are more often assembled according to habit—cozy comforts in an excessive world. Word choice can enflame the passions of speaker and listener, convincing them they are far apart, with…
Care is in curiosity—hiding in plain sight under the “u,” bearing witness to the Latin root of cura. (That’s right! Care is in cure, too, but that’s for another day.) When you extend yourself in curiosity, you are giving yourself permission to care. I use the word extend advisedly, because you have to stretch beyond…
Humans have different ways of getting energy for the work of beginning—playlists to get pumped; endless worrying, fidgeting, and tinkering; picking fights to clarify a point of view; talking a lot; or sometimes cocooning in secret. No matter the coping strategy for the work of preparation, everyone must leap to begin. Today, at the month’s…
No one is permanently leader or follower; everyone is both. We fall into traps of our own making when we indulge the fantasy that some people are “natural” or “born” leaders. This idea is a particularly damaging cultural lie that not only puts way too much pressure on “leaders” (and/or places way too much power…
cthewind's Blog 