Thoughts Blog

12/6/2017 Drama Drama is expressed emotion. Love, hate, fear, sorrow, anger, joy. It is not shameful to feel emotion and express it in a safe place. Drama can be good or bad in a relationship.  But, saying you “have no time for drama” indicates you are impatient and uncaring. It is important to remember that life is messy. You must invest time and communication to make a relationship truly valuable. Despair When you feel desperate, lonely or sad, keep healthy routines. Eat nutritious food, drink water, exercise, get enough sleep, let your mind rest by doing something fun. When you feel despair is the most important time to take care of yourself. Keep the mantra in your mind, “I must keep my body healthy. I must be responsible to meet my needs. I must forgive myself of my mistakes. I must take care of my mind.” Loneliness When you feel lonely, remember that you are never truly alone. There are always people who know you exist and care about you. Think about ...

12/6/2017 Deception Upright people will be gentle with each other and the world in general. Worldly people will be shrewd with each other, because they understand their shrewd way of thinking better than gentility and compassion. Worldly people will call upright people stupid and weak. Worldly people try to use the system to their advantage regardless of who they hurt. The Upright work within their system and make necessary changes to it for the benefit of most people. Therefore, be wary of worldly people. They will deceive you. They will exaggerate their plight. They will not be diligent to rules. They will lie. They will take bribes. They will try to confuse you. They are two-faced. They will create a system that is chaotic so they can steal resources with no consequences. Worldly people will try to make you desperate, trapped and hopeless so they can have power over you. A worldly, shrewd leader will give false testimony about your work performance to make you feel inferior...

12/5/2017 Be Fearless When Communicating With People Be brave and attempt to make a connection with people. Misunderstandings should be talked through with both friends and enemies. Friendships are made stronger with open communication and wars can be prevented or delayed when you attempt to understand your opponents. Fear and insecurity is what drives hatred. Fear of sharing resources, fear of the unknown or fear of an opponent’s strength can drive conflict. You must attempt fearless communication to understand your opponent’s reasons for thinking as they do. If it is unwise to attempt communication alone, take a friend or delegation of people to negotiate. If you are unmarried and you like another unmarried person strongly, fearlessly tell that person how you feel. Do not let yourself be shy. Your mind will be healthier for letting your feelings known. The pain of keeping a love hidden is just as painful as rejection. The chances are high that the person you love wil...

12/5/2017 Look into the past Forgivingly, Look to the future hopefully; but, above all, be in the present.   Forgiveness: Your soul and mind will be calmer when you forgive someone of their transgression against you. Some offenses against you are intentional, others are not. Some result from carelessness on the part of the offender. Some result from yourself not being careful enough around some people. Regardless of the circumstances, the pain is no less painful. It is acceptable to feel anger for a short time. It validates you and the hurt you feel. But, you must try to forgive after a short time. Grieving a loss or healing a wound is a necessary part of life, but hanging onto bitterness will keep you from healing mentally.  Learn from the experience and use that wisdom to guide your decisions next time. Confront those who hurt you and tell them how they hurt you. Tell them to stop. Teach them how to prevent it from happening again. If they don’t listen, avoid s...

April 22, 2017  Earth Day  The Circle: The symbol of the circle has great meaning. It represents recycling, renewal and the spiral cycling of time. History repeats itself. It also represents the regenerative process.  Recycling: We must expect each other to reduce, reuse and recycle.  Tell your story: We must remember that talking about our times of suffering is good for mental health. Telling the story of your personal experience with adversity to empathetic listeners is a personal obligation, because it informs and prepares the listeners for adversity that may come into their own lives. It is equally an obligation for people to listen to someone who needs to tell their story.  Write: Each one of us must write our thoughts and feeling regularly. Journaling helps the mind coalesce ideas into complete thoughts. People are more likely to take action to better their world when they have developed complete ideas from their experiences. Journaling can b...

I read an article in the Phi Delta Kappan entitled Keeping Youths in School: An International Perspective . This article examines the vocational training strategies other countries use to help reduce the number of school dropouts. American tends to use vocational training as a way to entice unmotivated students into education. Whereas,other countries have a higher regard for vocational training and nationally respected licenses can be obtained in these programs. Employers trust these programs to prepare workers and the programs themselves are constructed to allow people to train for white-color jobs in their field. With its “college for all” mantra, the United States uses VET (career and technical training in the U.S.) mainly to engage unmotivated students and introduce them to various career options. This strategy makes the United States an outlier. In the more successful countries, VET has little to do with engaging unmotivated students, though that is one robust outcome, nor with ...

I just finished the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. As a mother, I found it very insightful. While I think Ms. Chua was into extreme parenting, I do think she has a point about expecting the best of our children to show them how much they can achieve. I recommend every parent read this book. Several of her quotes are worth noting: On Teaching: "What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until your good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it its crucial to override thier preference." "I am here to prepare them for the world, not be their friend." (I superimposed these two ideas onto what it means to be a teacher when I was at a recent interview for a teaching position.) "Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetion is underrated in America." (I think she has a point. I wonder if that strategy plus memorizat...