computer

Spider

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Gratitude List:
1.  That spider whom I dislodged from a corner of a little-used bin yesterday.  As she scuttled away, I saw three swelling egg sacs.  I hung them carefully in an out-of-the-way place, and then found Mama Spider again and shooed her onto the egg sacs.  She immediately took up her guard there again.  Fierce Mama Protectiveness, even in Arachnia.
2.  New Computer.  I’ve been feeling a tiny little bit overwhelmed by the size of the technological learning curve as I prepare for school, but a little time playing and fiddling does go a long way toward making me feel comfortable in these new virtual rooms.
3.  Community Building.  I am pushing my getting-started classroom plans back a day or so in order to do some community-building exercises in my classes.  Before we talk about Narrative Structure in Literature, we’ll tell our own stories.
4.  Good conversations.  Thank you for being my village, friends.
5.  Even though I really loved that dress, I am incredibly grateful that it tore BEFORE I wore it to a day of school meetings rather than when I got there.  I’ll hem it up and make a shirt of it.

May we walk in Beauty!

Clearing, Culture, and Civilization

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

A little sun, a slight shift up the thermometer, and I catch my stride again, find my way back into my life.  I’m glad we got all those boxes of Giveaway ready earlier in the week.  I know that packing boxes would not have helped to lift me out of the puddle of winter blues–it requires too much psychic attention.  But carrying them out of the house and putting them in the trunk, taking them to Reuzit–that was a definite pick-me-up.  Now the energy flows through the house with a little more grace.

Beth’s Personal Remedies for Winter Blues:
(not guaranteed to work for everyone, but it might be worth a shot)
1.  Make Gratitude Lists
2.  Notice the shadows and footprints on the snow
3.  Do yoga tree poses.  Lots of tree poses.  And king dancer poses.  And warrior poses.  Laugh when you fall.  Keep trying.
4.  Get rid of Stuff.  Being a Manager of Stuff is energy-sapping at the best of times, but in Winter, it’s numbing.
5.  Sometimes: Give in to it.  Wrap up in a blanket on the recliner, read a book, and drink lots of tea.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, I found this great little list at the Pachamama Alliance:

Not Shopping List     I posted it on my Facebook site, and people began to add to it:

Recycle
Dumpster dive
Joyfully do without
Wildharvest
Re-vamp, re-fashion, create

So many good ideas.
What would you add?
How can we support each other in community
to do these things rather than settling for the easy path of buying more
plastic junk that won’t last and that we don’t really need, and probably don’t
really want, if we’re really honest with ourselves?


Gratitude List:
1.  A good tutor.  I feel much more confident about my computer savvy after just an hour of good help.
2.  Fish tacos
3.  Conversations about grief, sharing stories, opening hearts.  I have such wise, compassionate friends.
4.  Conversations about Culture and Civilization–more good semantic distinctions to be made.  Civilization has gotten us into a peck of trouble, has it not?  How does it differ from culture?  What do we pass on to our children–what culture do we share with them?  I have such wonderful, thoughtful friends.
5.  The light within us all.  I don’t know how to write this one, because it comes out of a really challenging conversation about why people harm other people, even when they know better, about why people engage in bullying behavior.  I recognize too, that I have shadows myself, some unhealthy shadows.  That’s crunchy.  But liberating.

May we walk in Beauty.

Bad Mama and an IT Expert

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Bad Mama Award for the day: Carrying the mousetrap full of dead mouse through the house without thinking.  We’ve been reading Brambly Hedge, for Pete’s sake!  “Why do you have to kill them?”  Many, many tears.  Shame.  I am so tired of finding mouse poop in my drawers.

Gratitude List:
1.  Heron hunched in the pond.  Here’s the picture: the pond is frozen over, and atop the ice is a fluffy layer of snow.  Except for the corner closest to the hillside, where the biggest spring empties into the pond.  There, in just one corner, is a spot free of ice where the great blue heron crouches for fishing in winter.  I love when it flies low over the house on its way to hunting.  I love the way it crouches expectantly in its pond-corner, like my own heart waiting for spring.
2.  That orange glow that filled the holler at sunset this evening
3.  Our 7-year-old IT guy.  I couldn’t figure out how to save things from the big PC to the cloud so that I can access them on the Chromebook.  “Oh, that’s easy, Mom.”  And he did it.  My seven-year-old has more computer savvy than I do.  As Jon says, he’s tapped into the technological noosphere.
4.  The outpouring of affection and compassion that seems to be bubbling all around.
5.  Finding time for the projects.

May we walk in Beauty.

Cop Out

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Day 12 Prompt: Write a poem about a techie gadget that does not exist but should.  This one is easy, particularly today.

There oughta be a thing
you can hold in your hand
some sort of device
that can access the internet
when you are away from home
so you don’t have to rely
on a squishy old dinsosaur
of a hotel computer
that crashes at random.

Oh wait.
Oh well.