Creativity Can Be a Tool To Help you sort out your Thoughts (Day 2)
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| photo credit: Sami Hobbs |
Day 2
One day stands out in particular as
the absolute breaking point for this type of empty living: my daughter’s
third birthday. My husband was deployed to Kuwait with the Navy so
communication between the two of us was incredibly sporadic. During the first three months he was away we
talked on the telephone one time and I received about 1 email a week. My daughter has had breathing issues since
birth and this day she was having a hard time with her illness. My car
had a flat. The weather was dreary and overcast. One by one the
guests of the birthday party were cancelling due to sickness and inclement weather.
I had spent way too much money for a party I was not even interested in
throwing. I FELT ALL ALONE.
The party happened. I made
my way home feeling unheard by GOD but desperate because there was nowhere else
to turn. I put my daughter to bed. I went in the living room,
turned out all the lights and laid on the floor… and cried and KEPT
CRYING. And I remember pleading, begging toward the ceiling with words
something like, “GOD I can’t take this. You have got to do something in
my life. I am alone and feel desperate for something ANYTHING TO DO
to feel that my identity is valuable to you. I have nowhere else to go
LORD.
"Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
-John 6:68
So, I prayed the prayer that night and
I went to bed with that feeling of being heard but with no real idea what was
coming next.
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| photo credit: Howie Mapson |
Spiritual:
1.
Has
there been a time in your life where change was occurring in a way that was
unexpected? Are you in a place right now where change is
inevitable/unavoidable? What does change look like to you? What area of your life SPECIFICALLY do you
need change to happen?
2.
Look
at the following verses to see other examples of “suddenly” moments and write
down what you find. Is there any particular one that speaks SPECIFICALLY
to this point in time in your life?
Genesis
37:7
Number
16:42
Judges
14:5
2 Kings
2:11
Job
1:19
Proverb 28:18
Isaiah 48:3
Daniel 5:5
Acts 2:2
Acts 9:3
Creative:
1.
Do
you currently have a creative outlet that you allow yourself to use as a time
for worship? What has that activity done for you personally and in your
life’s circumstances? How much time are you able to devote time to this?
2.
Have
you considered trying a new artistic medium? If so, what things do you need to
do to begin exploring this? What roadblocks are in the way?
Find your Creative Voice: How to Move into Your Creative Practice (or How do I get started?)
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| photo credit: Svetlana Pochatun |
The following series is excerpts from my book "Your Creative Peace: How to find your creative voice while communing with God" written in 2013
to purchase: CLICK HERE
Unit 1:
How to Move
Deeply into
Your Creative
Voice
What to expect from this book:
We will:
-explore God’s creativity
-explore the beauty of creativity
-explore creativity as an act of
worship
-PINPOINT your creative journey
-INTEGRATE YOUR CREATIVITY AND
SPIRITUAL JOURNEY MORE DEEPLY
This is my hope for you. That as you
journey through these next 5 weeks, you will have a sense of how GOD has gifted
you with a creativity that is uniquely yours. Maybe you ALREADY have a
sense of where you thrive creatively. This may be an opportunity to
incorporate this section of your life into your spiritual practice. This may be
a time to try a new creative medium. Whatever place you find yourself,
remember during this point in time you will journey through this course as YOU
NEED TO.
Suggestions on
how to use this course:
-At the beginning of each week a
creative prompt is given along with a bible verse. You may choose to use either of these as the
jumping off point for your creative expression that week.
-You can choose to read the sessions
as preparation before you begin work in the creative medium you choose.
-At the end of each day's session, you
will find questions to deepen your creative and spiritual practice. Journal space has been provided for you to
log your thoughts. You might also choose
one of these questions as a prompt for your creativity.
-A final suggestion on how to utilize
these sessions in your creative practice is to keep an art journal and create
drawings, scrapbook pages and mixed media pieces or photography as a means to
express the work God is doing in your creative life.
Vision for the
Course:
This course is geared towards:
-those who are ready to start finding
their creative voice
-those who have a creative outlet
already or have an idea of an avenue they would like to explore creatively.
-those who can commit some time (this
course is structured to complete in 5 weeks) to exploring more deeply their
creative processes as an act of worship/spiritual connection
Examples of
what I mean by creative outlets:
Drawing, Painting, Mosaics, Sewing,
Cooking, Clay, Photography, Decorating, Jewelry making, Baking, Scrapbooking,
Writing, Music, Poetry, Knit/crochet, Needlepoint, Yoga, Teaching, Gardening,
Singing, Songwriting, Homemaking, Teaching Sunday School
Ready to
Begin?
GOD AS CREATOR
Week
1 Creative Prompt: Declare Freedom
Verse for the week: “You know me inside and out, you know every
bone in my body. You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was
sculpted from nothing into something.” Psalm 139:15
Day 1
Recently, I read through the best selling book
“The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. He touched upon something that
I find sits in a very deep place for me: being successful and fulfilling your
life’s purpose are not the same thing. Have you noticed that in your own
life? Do success and fulfillment go hand in hand? I think it
depends on how you define success and whether or not you have figured out what areas
in your life leave you feeling fulfilled.
For
many years I had not answered these questions for my life. I was just
living. Were the bills paid? Are my kids healthy? Am I
fighting with my husband? I did not have any real sense of purpose.
Definitely I did not think it mattered to GOD what I was doing with my time
other than making sure I lived a moral life. I would have been content to
live this way but…GOD in His mercy for me (AND FOR YOU) allowed the events in
my life to shift in such a way that I had to TAKE NOTICE.
One
of the things I found in my life is that I seemed to not be able to connect
with God anymore. I felt like life had beaten me to a pulp. I was
discouraged, disillusioned, distracted… feeling hopeless. My prayers felt
empty. The words on the pages of my Bible waxed cold in my ears and on my
heart. The disappointments and discouragements felt too great to
overcome. I found that I was living in a shadow relationship with
GOD. He was there but I had no desire to connect, no entry to connect, no
vehicle to connect. What I did not know was that God was
making a change in my life and I would start to find a language to express
fulfillment on a deeper level.
Spiritual:
1.
How
do you define success? Has it changed over the years? How so? What
changes would you like to make in your life in order to redefine success?
2.
Are
success and fulfillment two sides of the same coin or are they one and the
same? Explain.
3.
Do
you feel like you are fulfilling your life’s purpose? What one step do you need
to take in order to get on track? How do you see creativity playing a
role in those changes?
Creative:
1.
The
theme for this week is Declare Freedom as in letting go of how others would
have you define your success, your fulfillment. Begin to think of how you
would represent this declaration in a creative way.
Day 3 - Forget What You Know - 30 Days of Yoga
I took an inventory of my year this morning. I have been kicking around the idea of getting intentional about honing my craft as an entrepreneur. I started owning my own business accidentally about 8 years ago. We lived in a town where there was no work. I started creating arts and craft and got on the craft fair circuit. I established some wholesale customers. I took on some marketing clients. I was somehow making a way bit by bit.
But the dream was to go back to a typcial 9-5 job. Because all of the headache of owning your own business just did not seem worth it to me. The payout was way too small. Each year I would go into it looking for something that I like to do - these past few years it has been teaching - but I would always have a little something going as a side gig. And each year something would happen - a lay off, a job relocation, troubling workplace situations - would find me back in the place of having to hustle once again.
As I began to chart these last eight years, I realize some ideas worked surprisingly well. And, truth be told, actually would create the income I make as a teacher without the stress of the job and my hours would be a bit more flexible. What I actually did begin with an intention, a business plan, and 100% of my energy? What if I not only pumped myself up to bet on myself, but I was methodical about trusting myself?
I decided that there is no reason not to try. Because teaching will always be there. But this calm and calculated flow is here right now.
Day 2 - Stretch & Soothe - 30 Days of Yoga
Over the course of my life, I have had to recreate my life work. I have taught yoga. art, hula hooping, drum circles. All of these opportunities came based on my openness to try new things and willingness to figure things out and just 'fake it until I make it.'
As I move into my fifties, I find that all this adapting has made me feel a bit scattered. I am pretty good at a ton of things. I always wanted to be a craftsman of sorts. I want to pick one thing and really dive deep into it. Being a military wife has not really lent itself to that type of focus. As my husband moves and makes choices based on his career, I have had to align and adjust.
Maybe that is why over the years I have grown more appreciative to what a yoga practice can offer. Perfection is not attainable. Each day you come to the mat and you met your body and, by extension, you meet yourself. I find that I can't run away from my secret longings on the mat. My practice has always had a spiritual component to it. And because of this, I can ignore the practice for long periods of time, complaining about my time commitments. The reality though is that if I don't have time to be quiet and alone with my thoughts for 30 minutes, I am too busy.
Writing is pretty much the same way for me. I will take long breaks from coming to the page. But when I finally sit down again, one of two things happen. Either my thoughts are like a runaway train and I can't house them on the page fast enough or I feel a clog in the system and I have to just begin with a prompt of some sort.
My life this year has not been as I have planned. That is funny to type. No year has really been how I have planned. But this year I have a nod of 'oh I see' with the recognition. I hear a whisper to go back through each year and parse out what worked. And the things I am seeing are quite surprising. Some unexpected things are coming to the forefront. And it makes me smile. Working ALL THINGS together for my good. Yes, GOD does.
Getting back into yoga - and to myself
I have had a love hate relationship with yoga over the years. I started yoga about 16 years ago. And I did not like it. I did not find any enjoyment. It wasn't about the quiet. It was more about the movement. Being that connected to my body, my breath. Cardio is fast moving, powered by beats and bass and 30 minutes and you are done. Pretty mindless for me. Set the timer on a cardio machine and go. But over the years, I find myself wanting to go back to it. Try it again. First to meet the challenge. Master it. Show myself that I could do it. But something is different each time I go back to the practice. I felt the same way about Pilates. And I have ZERO interest in trying it again. Maybe if I had to choose a word to describe why I return to yoga is respect. Maybe even honor. I feel honored and I respect that when I come to the practice I come as I am ON THIS DAY.
Spirituality and in particular a spiritual practice where I take time in the morning and sit in the quiet with a journal and a Bible in my hand and a devotional plan to guide my practice felt very much the same at the beginning of my practice with it almost 27 years ago. I did not love it. It was very mechanical. I basically mimicked what others said I should say and feel. But then life got hard. And then harder. And at some points almost unbearable. But I come to with similar feelings of honor. And respect. And at 51, I find that the 'me' I am meant to be is more along the line of F*&^ it, you have tried all the ways you have been told to fit in. Why not really try to figure out what all of thiese experiences are REALLY supposed to add up to.
It was actually in a yoga class that I first heard the whisper "It's okay to be a woman." That happened 15 years ago. Before my daughter was born. And I have wrestled with why I needed to hear that for years now. Anytime I need to stand up for myself. Anytime my voice is minimized. Anytime, I feel unsure if I am even capable of making hard decisions for myself. I think of that revelation.
Today I started my yoga practice again. That was after last week being compelled to begin a green smoothie challenge. And that was after I walked away from a job because it was way more stress than it was worth and my body was shutting down in dramatic fashion and I had to use my voice and say ENOUGH. Scary stuff when you have become accustomed to being somewhere that can muscle through. Anything. But not anymore. I am back to really paying attention with the wisdom of these 50 years. What power does this wisdom hold that I am still dancing around with little girl eyes. I want to put away childish ideals. And become a fully evolved woman. With things to say that shape the future. So I begin by coming back to my first love which is writing. And I wait for no matter how long it takes to find out what this wisdom holds.
Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 34
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| photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@anniespratt |
You
can definitely feel the wrap up of the year on our campus. MAP testing
has begun for Kinders as well as assessment in class in order to report
for final report card/ILP assessments.
Thanks to all who have taken the time to connect with me about the best
fit for first grade. I am sad as the year is ending but so proud to
have witnessed all of the joy in learning that has gone on this year.
You
child may have mentioned that first graders are in our class for about
45 minutes in the afternoon. We as a community who strives to make sure
all students are at their cutting edge
of learning and prepared for their next academic step. Holding true to
that vision, our Montessori first graders are coming in for additional
Montessori support. This is a two fold blessing because they get to
experience our classroom dynamics and the kinders
get a chance to meet potential future classmates in the Lower El
classroom.
MONDAY:
Video: "Tacky the Penguin" - https://www.youtube.com/
Writer's Workshop: Write a personal narrative for Tacky
Geography: Begin study of Antarctica
TUESDAY:
Video: "I Broke my Trunk" - https://www.youtube.com/
Writer's Workshop: Write your own Ouch Story/Work on sequencing: beginning, middle, end
Language: Blends review
Informative Writing: Pretest for Quarter 4
Video: Antarctica https://www.
WEDNESDAY:
Art: Aurora Borealis
1/2 Day Beautification Day at School/Kindness Day
THURSDAY:
History: Telling Time Review
Math: double digit addition no regrouping
New works in practical life
Video: glaciers - https://www.youtube.com/
FRIDAY:
Art: directed line drawing - penguins
Reading: Penguin by Polly dunbar
Conservation and Ecology Video: King Penguins as an endangered species - https://www.youtube.com/
Here's to another great week!
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren
Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 33
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| photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@jontyson |
Good afternoon Montessori Kindergarten Families,
I
hope you had a restful weekend. We had a cooking activity and we made
kites - all while Ms. Gonzalez was away! We sure missed you Ms.
Gonzalez and hope you had a great birthday!
MONDAY:
Writers Workshop - Opinion Writing
Lesson on book reviews
Sight words review
Lesson on how to build a sentence
Math/Handwriting - free choice all week
TUESDAY:
Inventions- "Real Machines" by Rebecca Rissimen
Language - Blends review: br,dr,sm,fl
Art/Geography- brown coiled snake
WEDNESDAY:
cooking day: chicken and chickpea patties, cucumbers
Art: kite making
THURSDAY:
Writers workshop - personal narrative: family portrait
Geography review: Australia
FRIDAY:
no school
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren
Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 32
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| photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@thefoxicon |
Good afternoon Montessori Kindergarten Families,
Week
32 is in the books. We are having more conversations about the
privilege to choose your own work in the Montessori environment and many
are handling that responsibility well. For
those whom this type of environment is hindering their ability to grow
in their academics, I am having one of one coaching time with them as
well as small group sessions in an effort to ignite this desire and
foster this skill. As we close out the year, we
will have conversations as a team to make sure the next right choice
for your child is a Montessori classroom. San Tan's passion is
to ensure that each child is in the right environment to grow his/her
love of learning and keep him/her on the cutting edge
of his/her learning ability.
MONDAY:
telling time
work on student treasures book
begin Harmony day mural
Video on Harmony Day: https://www.youtube.com/
reading/sound table
Math/Language/handwriting all week
TUESDAY:
Opinion Writing Workshop- What is your favorite thing to do at recess?
Complete Harmony Day mural
Game: Who am I? Australian Landmarks
Art: Honeyeater Bird mixed media project
WEDNESDAY:
finish honeyeater project
Writing workshop: "I am happy as a honeyeater because..."
20 addition problems - no counters
FINISH STORYBOOK TREASURES
THURSDAY:
15 minutes of quiet reading time
Time: writing hands on a clock to tell time
Opinion Writing: Is it a Duck or a Rabbit?
Video: Duck? Rabbit? https://www.youtube.
FRIDAY:
15 minutes of quiet reading time
missing addends
present Australian projects all week
Teams: Brainstorm possible inventions for household jobs
RECYCLED PROJECTS OF AUSTRALIAN LANDMARKS PRESENTED ALL WEEK
Please make sure to check out the signup genius link for our cooking project next Wednesday.
Have a great weekend!
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren
Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 31
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| photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@mclaren1 |
Our
indoor planting activity was a glorious success. There is something
about getting our hands messy and dirty that truly delights the soul -
and you know I am always up for these kind
of adventures!
We
continue to work on opinion writing in Writers Workshop. We continue
to be AMAZED by the cleverness of the projects that are coming in the
classroom to represent the landmarks we
have studied with our Geography unit: Australia. We have an Invention
library in our classroom as part of our new works for April. We
continue to talk about recycling and composting. We reviewed how to use
a dictionary for Language work. And we discussed
the times in which we do certain activities during the day for our
Time/History unit. Handwriting, math and language continue to be daily
activities.
We
worked on addition words problems and discussed what clues we are given
in the story to help us figure out how to solve the problem: in all,
altogether, more
Week 1 of our sight words mural - we use this to have an all class review of sight words
MONDAY:
Morning conversations
Read/Spell Draw Groups - leader at each table
Math Journal: draw tens and ones
Comic book: Do Unicorns Recycle?
Sound table/reading
sight word cards sent home
TUESDAY:
Morning conversations
Addition word problems
Dictionary lesson: compost, recycle
label Australia map
5 minute timed math drill - 20 addition problems
WEDNESDAY:
Evie's birthday celebration
Sing a long
Read: Simple Machines by Rebecca Rissman
Time Game: What time of day do we do this activity (group game)
Sound table
THURSDAY:
planting day
decorate tin cans and plant grass seed
prep potatoes and plant in clear bins
Addition words problems
Writers
Workshop: pick a sight word sentence, come up with a complementary
sentence, draw a picture that make sense with your sentences
FRIDAY:
work on student treasures book
Opinion writing: What is your favorite musical instrument?
sight word mural
talk about invention brainstorming letter (IN YOUR CHILD'S BACKPACK)
Have a great weekend!
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren