This week will will be finishing up our second month of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been such a strange sensation to move from the daily interactions with nearly 800 kids and adults at school to just my hubby. My computer is my lifeline, though I confess it's always my lifeline. When your kids live nearly 6,000 miles away, it's the next best thing to being there. So, I feel its value even more today because my world has gotten smaller. One thing I have realized is that primal instinct to connect with others, spread joy, and give love.. Watching the ways that some many people have stepped up to be caring and loving has moved and inspired me. While these times have been tough, we have also been blessed with the gift of time that I don't think I've had since I was a kid. Here are 5 ways that I have used my time to creatively connect with others or have been the recipient of caring and connections during lockdown.
2. Find a way to appreciate someone who is missing out on a special event/milestone. My heart goes out to people who are missing out on special events. No traditional graduations, funerals, baby showers, and weddings. We are having to rethink the way we celebrate and on the news I've seems some pretty creative ideas.
The last week in April/beginning of May is traditionally when the nation's State Teachers of the Year travel to Washington D.C. for a series of professional development and celebratory events for exciting, jam-packed week. One of the events that takes place is a visit to the White House and time with the president. I had my time with President Bush in 2008, which was an unforgettable experience. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 DoDEA TOY, Antoine Sharpe, did not get his Washington D.C. trip. It broke my heart that he would be missing out on his special time. So, another former DoDEA TOY had a wonderful idea. She set up a virtual surprise party via teleconference to celebrate Antoine. I was all in...but then, I got an idea...my creative bug was calling me. While this doesn't come close to replacing the real celebration, I hope that this virtual act of caring, lessened the sting of disappointment a but.
3. Reach out to old friends. Let's admit it. Life B.L. (before lockdown) was busy and hectic and rarely left time to connect. Sure, I connected on social media; liking or commenting on a photo, posting birthday and holiday wishes, and sometimes sending instant messages when time permitted. I rarely make it back to my hometown where I was born, so the connections with my old high school friends are rare, but when they happen, they are awesome. Yesterday we spent an hour on a Group Facetime call with girls who I grew up with. I'm sitting here shaking my head, wondering why we didn't do this more often. We've already set another date for next month. As ugly as this pandemic time has been, I am seeing that it has also brought the gift of time and opportunity to reestablish connections.
4. Make the time to get to know people better. When I am at school, I am going 100 mph. I eat lunch at my desk while I work. I go home after school. As a fairly introverted person, I am not highly social at school or outside of school, but I still enjoy connection. I realized that I work with nearly 100 people and other than a few people, I really have never made the time to get to know people outside of their classrooms. This is one of the big take-aways that this experience has brought to light for me. One of the ways that I tried to connect with my co-workers was by organizing virtual coffee and happy hours. I've gotten to know people who I've rarely spoken to in the past, for no other reason than just time.
5. Use technology as way to play with friends and family. What I would have give 35+ years ago to have been able to connect with my husband when we were a continent apart for nearly a year. Now, whether we are 5 miles away or 5,000 miles away, we can still enjoy the company of those who we hold dear. A friend of mine recently had a virtual birthday party for twins. Another mom holds a weekly, virtual dance party with her toddler. I love watching the music videos of people who are playing music together virutally through the use of apps, like Acapella. My daughter created a Kahoot game for her co-workers at a staff meeting. Well, I have discovered Bitmoji and Snapchat. When we are together, my daughter and I always got on her phone and took selfies with those silly filters. I know, I'm a bit late to the party or maybe I shouldn't even be invited since it's more for the younger set, but my goodness, I am addicted!!! I am finding so many ways to use these apps to create and connect (and to use in the classroom). I love it when my daughter and I communicate back and forth using our Bitmojis. She doesn't know it yet, but next on my list is Bitmoji Stories and Bitmoji Movies. Someone recently told me that Snapchat is a huge time-waster. I could easily fall into that rabbit hole, but I am actually finding it as a fun way to create. Actually, i have been getting flashbacks to my childhood love of making paper dolls and dressing up my Barbies. But even more importantly, I am able to use it as a playful way to connect with others, so it's a rabbit hole that I am making time to fall down these days.
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For many people change is hard. I get it. There is comfort in structure, familiarity, and knowing what to expect. Schedules make us efficient. Familiar faces soothe the soul. Anticipating and being ready for whatever comes at you is wise. Yet, when one shakes up the structure, seeks out others, and faces the unknown, new perspectives yield new opportunities for growth, discovery, and creativity. I've noticed this pattern in my life. It is beyond me as to why I tend toward this path of revising and readjusting when it might just be easier to stay the course on the same path. Maybe it's what David Bowie suggested in his song Changes. Strange fascinations fascinate me. Ah, changes are taking me. The pace I'm going through... I haven't had time or energy to write since September because I have been consumed by my latest change. I started a new job...same school, different job. A totally different job. I'll get to that in a moment. I just realized something. In the 32 years that I have been in education, I have had at least 13 different types of jobs in my field. This blows me away. I just put down my calculator and figured that I have pretty much averaged a new job every 2.5 years. I have always loved teaching elementary school, but changing every 2.5 years does not sound like the track record of someone who loves what he/she is doing. Every year that I taught, I fell head over heels in love with my students, whatever grade I taught. I loved creating our classroom family and the challenge of building engaging learning experiences for my students. Rarely did I recycle lesson plans. I found great satisfaction in revising them to match the interests of my kids or push the concept deeper. My move out of the classroom was never based upon dissatisfaction or burn out. It was more about an internal drive or need to push myself to do more. So, now on to the new job. I am now an Educational Technologist (ET), but my principal let me rename the position to Technology Integration Coach. I get to help teachers integrate technology into their teaching repertoires. Again, I must digress because I think it warrants a bit of an explanation. I am what is considered a Digital Immigrant, a person who was not born into a world with the types of computer technologies that have always been available to our Digital Native students. Yet, after 32 years in education, rather than riding out my remaining pre-retirement years with the familiar, I am jumping into a field that's dominated by educators that are a good 10-20 years behind me in their careers. I have had to work hard to teach my Digital Immigrant self the best way to use these tools with students. I've kept up with the research and have always pushed myself to be an early adopter of these new technologies when they emerge. So, when the opportunity arose for this job, I jumped at it. Now I am surrounded by new perspectives that inspire me, I'm getting to create my own structures, and prepare for the unknown on a daily basis. I'm not sure that I have the words to describe how this new challenge has inspired me. Over the past many weeks, the bleak realities of the Covid-19 pandemic have permeated every aspect of life as we have known it. We are being forced to change the way we live, work, socialize, and educate. At my school, we were faced with the daunting task of of getting our school of 650 students up an running with virtual learning. In a matter of 48 hours, It was my job to help create/implement an online program and support our overwhelmingly Digital Immigrant corps of teachers to change to a whole new paradigm of teaching and learning. While the timeline for getting this off the ground was challenging and stressful for me, I also found the challenge invigorating and satisfying. My husband talks about the adrenaline rush/runner's high that he gets from running. I hear that daredevils get it from challenges like rock climbing and skydiving. I think I may have just gained a new perspective on what change does for me. Strange new fascinations fascinate me! Creatively, Cathy When my mom was in her 40's she took up painting. She'd never painted before, but she dared to be courageous and fulfil her need to be creative. The kids were almost all grown and it was the perfect moment for her to try something new. She took lessons and it was fun to watch her improve her skills over time. During the early stages of her painting career, I got married. The best wedding present that we received was a large oil painting of Florence. Mom had yet to visit Florence at that time so she used one of the postcards that I had sent them as her reference. When we had our Italian wedding 6 months later, the view that she painted was also the backdrop to our wedding pictures. To this day, that painting has always been the focal point when we decorated our home. For the first 20 years of our married life, we lived in California and longed to be back in Florence. Gazing at that painting was often like looking out the window, taking me back to the early days of our relationship. For Stefano, I would imagine that it stirred up some different kinds of memories, for he left his beloved Firenze, his family, and his friends, to be with me. My mom's bold pursuit of creativity has run the gamut from knitting to painting to writing a book. Her creativity has obviously left an indelible mark on my soul. As I travel, I take photographs of images that I think could be fun to paint someday. Often I have trouble falling back to sleep as ideas and pictures swirl through my head. I try to figure out how I can capture the image that I see when I lack the technical skills to make it happen. Honestly, I don't want to go take art classes, which would certainly help me to improve my drawing and perspective. So, mainly I watch YouTube videos and talk to my artsy friends. One of the most influential experiences on my desire to paint, however, happened after I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I was taken by the simplicity of Van Gogh's paintings. The bright colors in his later work appealed to my eye and realizing that his work was more about interpretation than perfection inspired me to take a risk. His work gave me the permission I needed to not be perfect. Before taking that risk, I wanted to learn a little bit more about Van Gogh (did I not pay attention in my art history class?). I watched a lot of YouTube videos and I found a couple of movies. Loving Vincent was amazing!
But it was when my friend took me to visit to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands that gave me the push that I needed. This museum houses the second largest collection of Van Gogh's in the world. Unlike most museums, you can literally walk right up to a painting and admire the brushstrokes right in front of your face. I was surprised how seeing Van Gogh's paintings in such an intimate setting affected me. Fueled by goosebumps and moved to tears (so strange), I felt the need to create. So, home I went, and began painting without the worry that I wasn't capable of creating art. I just started to enjoy the process. I didn't care if it wasn't "good." I was more interested in seeing myself improve and be successful in trying to capture the essence of what I saw or felt. After some playing around, I had gained enough confidence and had experienced so much creative satisfaction that I decided to take on a meaningful project. My daughter had recently suffered an accident. She had just gotten a new puppy who was instrumental in helping her heal. I felt the need to capture what that sweet puppy face meant to her. It was my perfect moment. I had been inundated with photos of my grandpuppy, Maverick. Could I capture his essence in a painting and have it ready by the time we go visit for Christmas? It was a struggle. Every iteration yielded a new problem to solve. I couldn't get the eyes right, but the nose was just right. I played with the colors and the shapes of the ears into the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully acrylics are forgiving of my inexperience and lack of training. But one thing I do have going for me is my tendency toward persistence and perseverance. I'm glad I decided to paint. It took me about a month and it was worth every ounce of struggle and self-doubt. "Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones." Bruce Garrabrandt Creatively, Cathy Yesterday was my birthday. I've been around long enough to get some wisdom under my belt. But, I learned that I still have so much more growing to do. After a glorious day of galavanting around Tuscany with my husband, I posted some pictures on Facebook to commemorate my special day. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I have to say that the pictures were lovely and the "likes" and comments came streaming in. But there was one particularly comment that rattled my chain. You see, to me, taking pictures is a great source of creativity. I'm no photographer. I've never taken a class and I've never had a good camera. It's just me, my iPhone, and my love for capturing beautiful images. Once I post the pictures I try to come up with creative captions to add my narrative to the experience. Adding my narrative to a pictures is like sprinkling cocoa on top of my cappuccino- it enhances the rich flavor. So, for me, posting pictures on Facebook is as creative an act a as painting, cooking, or planning a trip. This is the comment from my 80 year-old mom who saw my pictures on Facebook. Her words got me thinking. I replied with the first words that came to mind: But then that darn voice in my head, full of self-doubt, intervened. Who would read my work? There are already so many blogs out there. What would I have to offer that isn't already out there? My blog could never be as good as those that are already out there! My husband caught me as I began to fall down that rabbit hole of self-doubt, spewing all the reasons why I shouldn't do try out blogging. People would probably judge me or criticize my work. Maybe my ideas wouldn't be good enough. Would I even have anything of significance to say? Even when he encouraged me and reminded me of my brilliance. It's not easy for me to see myself through his eyes.so I continued down the path of negative self-talk. That is, until two people came to mind. Brene Brown is brilliant. Brene recently gave a fabulous talk on Netflix. That talk inspired me to watch a variety of YouTube videos that Brene had given on the power of vulnerability and being courageous, which really spoke to me on both a personal and professional level. I remembered Brene's words, "Creativity is born of vulnerability." I realized that I was avoiding doing something that I would mostly likely find compatible to my creative spirit just because I was afraid to make myself vulnerable.
My daughter, Jennifer, is a force of nature! Over the last year, she has gone through an unbelievable transformation after some huge personal challenges. Her choice to show up and keep going even after life's circumstances have knocked her down inspires me to be more daring in my choices. What a blessing to be able to learn from our own children. This doesn't mean that I'm going to go out and take up skydiving or go scale a mountain, but it does mean that I am going to make more courageous choices in terms of adding more value and fulfilment to my life. Do we stop ourselves from doing something we would love to do because we are afraid of what others think or might say? Do we avoid something that makes us happy because of the fear of failure? Today I choose to be courageous and try some things even if they make me a bit uncomfortable. This blog is my attempt at daring creatively.
Creatively, Cathy |
About CathyI'm a wife, mother, friend, educator, traveler, creator, tech lover, (and much more) inspired by Brene Brown's call to being vulnerable and daring greatly. Archives
May 2020
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