Crazy Wind, Welcome Back and Some Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, for another week in and around the Carr Family and NO MSG
Windy
The heaven’s scowled, the husky’s howled and the wind began to blow…
Not the first time I have quoted Robert Service, but that line from “The Cremation of Sam McGee” popped into my head yesterday, while looking out the window and watching the trees in my and my neighbours backyard. Talk about a catalyst to reflection, by getting lost in the graceful movement, choreographed by the awesome power of the wind. And this reflection for me was on the summer of 2012.
Wow, what a summer. We had way more family time this year than we have ever had in the warm months, so that alone should make it one of the best summers, but it was so much more than that. The temperature was the best it has been in recent memory. We laughed more. We shared more. We learned more than ever, about ourselves and about friendships. We had more fun, than we should be aloud to have and for that reason, I am marking this one down in the “Win” column.
Welcome Back
I taught my first class in September of 1993. That though often enters my head around this time of year, when I start thinking about and preparing for yet another return to the classroom. On paper it has been 19 years, but I did have a couple of years in there, that I was in Belleville, and a few years of very limited part-time teaching, but with all the chips down, I have taught for a while.
Since teaching full time, I have attended each welcome back, or all staff meeting, normally held this week each year, and for the most part, they have all been pretty much the same thing. The President talks about the big picture and enrollment, the VP talks about students, and various Deans & Chairs talk about the picture from their school or department and so on. I think the intention, is for us to leave with a sense of empowerment, and go forth and take on the upcoming semester, with some warm and fuzzies. This year, it was just a little different for me. I actually DID leave feeling charged, and even more excited then I have in the past.
Friday Night
I have mentioned in the past, that this personal blog started as a Friday email to all staff, when I was the “Acting Associate Chair” of the School of Communication Arts, recapping the things I learned in a particular week, and the comings and goings of the students and staff of the college. I loved doing it, and received such positive feedback on my writing and the content, that I morphed it into my personal family blog a year later- in May of 2009.
Cut to the welcome back meeting this week, and me sitting in the back row, listing to details about our new Academic Policy, and the faculty member sitting beside me leans into me and says, “I miss your Friday Blogs!” I laughed and said, “I loved writing them, and that I still do, just about every Friday post something, just I don’t send it in email form to the staff”. She said, “that was my Friday night, I would get a glass of wine and read your blog and I loved it”. Talk about feeling warm and fuzzy! It was just so nice, that I was able to make a difference back then.
In closing
OK, time for another true confession. I have a voyeuristic streak. I guess, that is not a stretch, and having shared observations and thoughts about things that happen around me, one could have already dropped me into this category, but yes, I love to watch people. And when it’s family I am watching, I love it even more.
One day last week, while sitting on the couch, I was watching Julia in the kitchen, make herself a snack. It is true, that when we are happy, we normally have a way to show everyone that we are and Buglia’s way is a song. When she was a baby she would hum while eating. It was the funniest thing! It stuck, and we can always tell she is enjoying whatever it is she is eating, still to this day by the happy noises she makes. But last week, while she was sorting crackers out on a plate, then moving them to the counter, and spreading peanut butter on each one, and gently placing it back on the plate and licking off the remnants from her fingers, she did so while swaying side to side, and humming a little song. I could not shake the smile from my face and Nathalie and I had a good laugh about it!
Now, off to sing my own little song.
Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week
Jim