December 5: Writing Prompt #339-The Power of Touch

Textures are everywhere: The rough edges of a stone wall. The smooth innocence of a baby’s cheek. The sense of touch brings back memories for us. What texture is particularly evocative to you?

This is a particularly tough one for me to answer. I mean all kinds of things come to mind of senses that bring back strong memories and feelings, but they are not usually related to a texture although the sense of touch is indirectly involved.  Jon Gibson playing as I drive down any long, straight roadway immediately takes me back to my late teen/young adult days traveling back and forth to the Word of Truth church on a Sunday morning in Huntsville, AL.  Bare trees, crisp, cool air, and light blue, clear skies take me back to holidays and riding out to Sand Mountain or the other side of town where my extended family resided when I was a young girl.  The smell of incense burning takes me back to Kwaj and practicing yoga in my friend’s home OR to the infinity edge, covered outdoor yoga studio in Bali, Indonesia where my husband and I spent a week at a glorious escape the world retreat.  Humid air and salt spray takes me back to the Marshalls, stepping off of the island hopper, and days spent at the beach.  Colbie Caillat’s debut Coco album puts me back in my school age services classroom in the early mornings as I prepared for the children’s arrival for the before school program and later singing with the girls in my care, particularly to her song, “Bubbly.” Nora Jones “Come Away with Me” transports me to my husband’s Bachelor’s Quarter’s on Roi-Namur and a warm, bubbly, full-sized bathtub (I only had a stand-up shower in my own room at the time) during the many weekends I had the privilege of spending there with him before he moved to Kwajalein, our “new digs” and our ½ size tub shower.  So, wow, I guess, it wasn’t a terribly tough prompt to answer, but the sense of hearing and music in particular bring out the most evocative memories for me.  As I sit here and write, many more come to mind, but they are all connected to song for me, not texture. That said, is there a texture particularly evocative for you? If so, I’d love to hear about. Maybe it would evoke a texture memory for me too…

December 4: Writing Prompt #338-Five Items

A classic question, revisited: what are the five items you must have on a deserted island?

1. My Bible

2. Fresh Water

3. Sunscreen

4. Rice

5. Camping cook/mess kit

I know, it’s so practical, for the most part, right?  Well, there’s no personal goods that I owe, which I really need on a deserted island, so I’m going to go with the things essential to survival: water and food and a way to prepare it along with skin protection from the sun.  Lastly, I need something to occupy my mind and keep me sane, and that’s where the Bible comes in.  What would you bring with you? 

December 3: Writing Prompt #337-Sink or Swim

Tell us about a time when you were left on your own, to fend for yourself in an overwhelming situation — on the job, at home, at school. What was the outcome?

I was perfectly content in my librarian job at my small town, local library until one day my supervisor asked me to fill in as an instructor at the before and after school program for elementary school students on the island.  I was very unsure about doing this, but knew I really didn’t have a choice as I was told it was very likely that my cushy librarian job was going to go away soon (replaced by community volunteers), and the only other open position my boss could offer me at the time was in the child, youth, and school services department, which I knew literally nothing about. 

So, while still working at the library, I used the hours the library was closed to attend training required before I could even enter the classroom.  I didn’t mind this because I always liked school and excelled at it.  So, I don’t remember the training hours begin particularly overwhelming or challenging, although it was a lot of new information for me.  The next part was to complete my observation hours, in the classroom. My first day watching the controlled chaos that was the program that day definitely overwhelmed me.  Wow!! I left thinking I could never do this job.  The children were loud, rowdy, and did not listen to the two teachers helping out at the time.  After my observation hours were done, that’s when I was thrown in to “sink or swim” as the new lead.  It was quite a learning experience!!

After some time and more training in my new career field, I realized that much of the program I observed in those early, overwhelming days (and even my own overwhelming struggles with the children and program I had been placed in charge of) were due to the fact that the children had not had a steady instructor in their class for quite some time, and so there had been no consistency, rules, planned activities based on the children’s interests, a schedule to follow, or organization of the program because each week might bring a different caregiver, all of whom were just trying to keep the children safe and get through the day until it was time for them to go back to their regular schedule and classroom. Now, it’s not that I didn’t have any experience, but it was limited at that time.  I had teaching experience, but it was at the college level and in job training programs where the age range was 16-20 years old.  I had children of my own by then as well, but they were preschool and kindergarten age when I started as the school age lead instructor.  Working with a diverse group of 5-12 year olds who are all at such different developmental levels was going to prove to be a huge challenge, but the outcome of my sink or swim experience in the school age room?? Well, it proved to be a challenge I was proud to meet and exceed in many ways.  I ended up loving being a school age instructor and within less than 2 years had moved up in the organization to become a teacher trainer to other caregivers, and I’m still in the same organization in yet another unique position today, a position which gives me a chance to not only help in the classrooms, but also manage and train employees.

The funny thing is that I’ve come to realize that teaching, in general, whether you are a college level instructor, an elementary school teacher, or a day care provider, they are all “sink or swim” situations. Sure, you may have a bunch of training or even a college degree and teaching certifications before you take over your own classroom as a lead, but until you’ve had to manage an entire class of students for several hours, you can’t know for sure whether or not you will make it across the pond, and even what age group might be the best fit for you.  I was put into the same type of sink or swim situation when I taught my first English course to a group of Marshallese college students, and I didn’t last 5 minutes before I left the room in tears, so my next teaching sink or swim experience was a bit more successful, thank goodness!! I never thought I would want to teach college English, but was thrown in the waters and ended up LOVING it, just as I really never would have thought I’d lead a before and after school program for elementary school students, but again, I came to love my students as my own children and enjoyed working with them to plan engaging and child-centered activities for us to connect with each other and learn from in so many ways.  Those “sink or swim” moments were the best career moves I ever made. Thank you to those trainers and bosses who knew better than me and taught me how to swim in the waters of childcare and education by simply “tossing me in.” 

December 2: Writing Prompt #336-Now You See Me

You have a secret superpower: the ability to appear and disappear at will. When and where will you use this new superpower? Tell us a story.

Hmmmm….I’m not sure I would want this particular secret superpower ability.  Why?  Well, because what immediately comes to mind in terms of how to use it is this: I would want to be able to disappear (become invisible) in situations where I believe someone has been lying to me or exaggerating the story, and then appear right after this moment, so I could expose the truth.  The reason why I don’t think I would want it is because in the end, I believe having this ability would bring more pain and disillusionment than good.  We are simply not meant to know some things, and do we really want to take the mystery out of everything and everyone?  Isn’t that part of life, getting to know people, experiencing pain and joy with them, learning about cultivating relationships and even how to let go when necessary? 

Having a superpower is not always all it’s cracked up to be. As Spiderman’s uncle would say, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  If I could find some way to use this superpower to help others, then maybe I’d take it on, but that would most likely mean giving up time with family and becoming close to others because just like all the other “super heroes” we know and love, having a superpower and using it to help save the world can also be very lonely. 

December 1: Writing Prompt #335-Hear No Evil

Tell us about a conversation you couldn’t help but overhear and wish you hadn’t.

Honestly, only one conversation comes to mind, and it doesn’t fully fit the bill for this prompt, but I’ll share it anyway. When I was a young girl (probably 10 or 11 years old), I was walking through our home to my room. In order to get to my room, I had to go past the study and up the stairs. Our study was rarely used, so it was usually dark in that room, and I usually hurried past it because I tended to be afraid of dark rooms at that age.  This particular night, there was a lamp on in the room, so I stopped to peek in.  Before I could even put my head in the door, I heard my mom crying softly.  When I entered, I could see the pain on her face.  My dad was in the room with her, also talking softly. In fact, I had never heard them raise their voices at each other, but my mom usually wasn’t crying either, so I knew something wasn’t right. In my young mind, it seems it was only a short time after that, I learned my parents were getting a divorce. It could have been weeks, months, or more than a year, but it was the very first sign to my self-focused child’s mind that something was wrong between my parents.  Turns out, something had been wrong for a long time, but I was just oblivious to it until then.  I say this story doesn’t fully fit the meaning of the prompt because although it was a painful scene for me to witness, I don’t wish I hadn’t heard their whisperings. It was a “gentle” way to ease me into the idea that my parents were not perfect, and their life was not perfect. If I had been totally blindsided by the divorce, that would have been worse.