Teaching 13 January 2016

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Sally Gerard

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My students teach me lessons on a daily basis. They are not always lessons I enjoy learning. What is it that builds a kid into belligerence and the constant put down of others? It is one of the most difficult attitudes to face because whatever is said simply escalates it. It isn’t fair to the rest of the class because of the constant disruption and, in the midst of our poetry unit, I wonder how their poetry will reflect it. Keeping my hospitality resolution is a challenge with this kiddo.

Another lesson I’ve been learning is how to combat pessimism. How do you get to be sixteen and have nothing to be joyful or excited about in your life? The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hey, how was your break?

Student: Eh, I was bored.

Me: Did you go anywhere? Do anything fun? Eat anything wonderfully delicious?

Student: No.

Me: So, you stared at the wall the entire break?

Student: Yes.

Me: Well, now you’re back at school, so that’s pretty great!

Student: No, it’s boring here too.

Everyday I greet this and everyday I try to say hello to each student when they come in myIMG_0468 room, by name, and ask them how their day is going. I keep telling this one that I’m waiting for the day when he comes in and just smiles. Just one little smile.

We need more joy, a lot more joy. It oozes out of some of them, but it isn’t enough to go around. They need to fall in love with their life and see the beauty and blessing that is all around them! My fervent hope is that they get just a tiny taste of it in the words of the poetry they are reading and writing with me.

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Messengers 12 January 2016

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Sally Gerard

 

Racer and Aggie 2007

We are all messengers, each and every day. Sometimes, we don’t even realize that our encounters became a message, good or bad, for someone else we met on our path. Every time we come into relationship with another human being, we become a messenger. We may never know their name or their story, but we can have an impact with a simple greeting and a smile, a door held open, or the one voice on the phone not filled with anger at the unfortunate person who is no more at fault for your frustration than you are.

Grace does not come so naturally to us all the time, but it is received by others even in the tiniest acknowledgement that we are all human. Think about how good you feel when you IMG_2411pass a stranger and they look you in the eye, smile, and say ‘good morning’ or ‘hello.’ One thing I love about hiking in Colorado is that everyone you pass smiles and says hello or when you are on that last uphill stretch, usually the steepest climb, those coming down always tell you that you are doing great and you are almost there.

I know I pass a lot of my fellow travelers each day IMG_1812and I forget, that I could be that one smile or wave as our pick-ups pass, that lifts their day or lessens their burden somehow. Who knows what the far-reaching impact of kindness can be? We all have a need to belong, to be acknowledged and included, and to be in community. When we are disconnected, we sicken physically and mentally; we simply are not meant to be alone.

So on your path today, smile at those you meet, offer a hello, and breathe in the grace spreading all over the Earth.

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Hospitality 11 January 2016

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Sally Gerard

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I remember once, at a camping industry conference, going to a seminar on hospitality. It resonated with me, this idea that it is important to make people feel welcome. We have to come outside ourselves and welcome others into our space, our hearts, our minds, and our lives. I think it is intricately linked to empathy.

Hospitality is generous and warm and authentic. It is helpfulness, neighborliness, and cordiality. It can happen in person, over long distances, and in today’s world on social media.IMG_0472 It is preparing that favorite dessert that you know is a favorite of your guest, or your husband/wife. It is stopping to help pick up the things that fell out of the grocery bag for the person who parked next to you, even when you’re in a hurry.

We do love our routines, developing them around what is comfortable for us. Hospitality requires that we step outside those routines now and then, to accommodate another. We move over and make a little more room at our fire so that someone else can enjoy the warmth. I want to find those little places each day where I can be more hospitable. Sometimes, this might need to include making room for myself.

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Honesty 7 January 2016

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Sally Gerard

 

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What is more honest than a horse? Horses are always in the present moment, and when you ride, you better be there too. Horses have nothing to hide and no reason to hide it; they have no other skins to shed or masks to wear. Horses just are. They teach you that in order to get what you want, you must use skill and not force. You have to learn not to grind the gears when you ride, and to look ahead and not down. Horses teach you to connect mind and body.

Riding with a horse, rather than just on it, is the most incredible feeling. You can leave behind all the crap you normally carry around and just be. So, how do I merge that with my writing? Writing has to be honest or readers can’t relate to it. Writing has to be present, otherwise it seems all disconnected. It doesn’t matter if the setting is in another universe, realm, time or place, it if is present and honest, the reader will be right there. IMG_0460

I doubt that I will ever write any story that doesn’t include a horse. To this day, I still drive and wonder what it’d be like to be riding my horse along the same road. Many of my best memories are of rides: in the mountains, on the plains, on the beach, and one particular pack trip through the Snowy River Mountains in Australia!

“Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening.” Habakkuk 1:8

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Introspective 6 January 2016

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Sally Gerard

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What is it about the start of a new year that makes us so introspective? That makes us want to do something bigger than we’ve even done? That makes us aspire to kinder, gentler, more loving, healthier, more prayerful, thankful, and to be a better person?

A new year gives us hope that our most secret, cherished, and protected dreams can come true. Strange that the magical thinking doesn’t last long. We wish our “Happy  New Years,” make our resolutions, start a project…and then drift back to our familiar routines. The hope that was so strong and present, so palpable, dwindles away.

But right now, in this moment, the blue sky beckons, the Christmas lights still shine out hope and opportunity around the house, and those passionate dreams are possible. How IMG_0434do we hold to that hope?

When we wake up each morning, in that very first moment of consciousness, how can we recognize the miracle we found on the first day of the new year? We find it in that dawn, our hearts need the dawn, the small sliver of rosy light coming over the horizon to illuminate the dark that was night. In that first stillness of wakefulness, everything is possible.

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Take Joy 5 January 2016

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Sally Gerard

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Rereading Jane Yolen’s Take Joy, has reminded me about several important things I’ve maybe lost sight of with writing. She writes about establishing your writing space and about how writers can’t be flabby in their writing habits, just like athletes can’t be flabby and accomplish much. Everyone has a different routine, but routine is the key word.

On my ‘book a day’ calendar, today’s page is about a book written to get people moving. It’s about exercising fast and intensely, but for only ten minutes at a time. And I think, “gee, ten minutes-who doesn’t have ten minutes?” And that comes right back at me and my writing. It isn’t that I don’t write every single day, I mean you are reading this, right? It’s that I need to be working on my latest project every day.

I love the quote by Gene Fowler: “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.” Sometimes it does feel like this, but most of the time, I get so caught up in the characters that I don’t notice time going by. I like that feeling, like talking with a best friend when the realization dawns that the sun is IMG_0438setting and neither of you know where the day went.

When I write, I want to get caught in the story and it can be painful to let it go for the day. When I’m in that mode, the characters and the story seep in to my dreams at night and walk around me during the day. I do love the craft, and the best thing about being a writer is that each and every tiny little experience or encounter is food for the fodder.

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motivation 4 January 2016

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Sally Gerard

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What motivates people to stick to their resolutions or their goals? For me, it is the little victories along the way that show me that, yes, I’m on my way to reaching the goal. My resolutions are not that different from last year, and that is okay because it means I’m still on the path to the me I want to be.

I’m also inspired by the land around me, the rising and setting of the sun, the clouds that blanket the prairies, snow falling, the horses and cattle, hard work, shooting stars, my sisters and brothers friends and co-workers, and signs of progress.

I took myself for a ride yesterday-both on my horse, my own two feet, and my tractor. IMG_0467Each one gave me a different perspective and all were filled with the incredible beauty of the plains. It was a particularly gorgeous day with bright blue skies, lots of sunshine and very little wind; it was not a day for staying inside.

IMG_0436So here is my list, and I figure if I write it down then it is easier to keep my goals in front of me and to remind myself each day and to reach them: pray, write, find that place where I can make a living doing what I love, go to a writing conference and take a course online, finish my office, move every day, give thanks every day, write and mail more notes, and continue to add to this list as different things occur to me.

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Babylonians 31 December 2015

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Sally Gerard

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Apparently, it is all the Babylonian’s fault that we make new year’s resolutions. Four thousand years ago, they celebrated the new year in March when the length of the day and the night were equal. They either crowned a new king at this time or rejuvenated the old one for another year. They made promises to return the things they’d borrowed over the year, and to repay their debts. And then Caesar came along and decreed that January 1st would be the start of the new year, in honor of the Roman god, Janus, the god of new beginnings.

There were some changes to the date of the new year (once it was Christmas and once IMG_0442March 25th), but in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII made the executive decision that the new year should begin on January 1st-and here we are. They started dropping the ball in Times Square in 1907, and although I haven’t often made it to mountain time midnight, I generally catch the live dropping of the ball in Times Square on TV.

IMG_0441And so, I look to the new year with new beginnings in mind. I know that one resolution I plan to make is to focus more on the positive in the world and try not to get so caught up in the negativity and judgement that we are so good at. A while back, I found my gratitude/blessings journal and got it out. So, it’s out. Now, I need to fill it, but small steps. Before, if I didn’t write at least five things each day, I deemed it a failure. This time, I’ll just keep it out where I work and have the gentle reminder to not only notice blessings, but to write them down. Today’s photos are some of those noticed blessings.

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Freezing Fog 30 December 2015

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Sally Gerard

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Gosh, the fog moved in overnight such that I felt what I think it must feel like to be lost at sea this morning. My face mask froze up in the first quarter-mile making it feel like I was wearing a neck brace. It wasn’t slick on the dirt, but it was a wet kind of cold that sunk into my bones-it took a while to get warmed up. Stepping back into the garage to dig the gravel out of the grooves of my shoe tread, my pony tail started dripping.

Still, all my rabbit friends were out and about, scampering to and fro about their business. I’m not sure exactly what that is, but I think it entails a lot of frivolous frolicking. I can’t IMG_0325make heads or tails of their tracks, and today they big black spots on the road, instead of their usual early morning grey. I wish I could capture them with my camera, but they are far too illusive and I am too slow on the draw.

I love the way the grey fog sets off the Christmas lights, like a bunch of warm glowing flames that still the chill in the soul. I’ll let our Christmas lights linger past the new year, after all the cookies and fudge are gobbled, the needles from the tree vacuumed, the ornaments and tinsel tucked away, and the cards a fond memory. I have to let go of Christmas gradually, and drag myself into the next new beginning.

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Spaces 29 December 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Sally Gerard

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I look for inspiration to write in the spaces that surround me. On each path I happen upon, there is beauty whether rural or city, mountain or plain, in gnarled branches and steeples, and in the conversations I hear and the way I experience the people around me or that I pass by.

I wonder who has been down the trail, or in the church, or wandered where I’ve been. I IMG_0401think about the relationships that are woven around and through different places and the possibilities, hope, and joy, as well as the IMG_4041missed opportunities, sorrow and despair.

Driving, riding, tractoring or running, characters and lives play out in my mind. Sometimes it is difficult to keep up. One of my explorations of possibility and revolutions is to get some of these characters and stories traipsing through my head out onto the page in this new year:

After several minutes, Mark tied off his packhorse and bushwhacked his way off the trail, through the woods to the front of the line where Bak was. He left Jo to watch for any trouble at the back of the line. As Mark got closer to the front, he heard, “Daaamn, friggin’ logs, craaap…” He smirked, holding back laughter, as he watched this crazed horsewoman, Bak. Branches were being heaved in all directions. Mark dismounted and edged forward, ducking as a small branch was lofted in his direction, “Um, can I help?”

     Bak whipped around, the Aussie hat landing on her chest, saying through clenched teeth, “No, I’ve got it.” Mark nodded, moving around to help lift a large branch off the trail. “This is some damn nature I’m getting close to today,” she grumbled. She was past tired, he thought, but it wasn’t just the branches. She looked drawn and tight, not unlike a cornered animal. He walked over to Pie, lifted the canteen off his saddle horn, and pitched it to her. She caught it deftly, IMG_0415unscrewed the lid, took a long swallow, wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and gratefully passed it back to him. The rest of the riders were taking a break, getting a drink, eating some melted Kudos bars, and talking among themselves. Bak and Mark sat on the recently hefted log. Mark didn’t say anything, offering her the canteen again. The water was cool and fresh; it felt good sliding down Bak’s throat.

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