EVERYTHING is okay. All the time. It's all okay.

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
Helen Keller

Back when I went to a Christian Church when I was growing up, the adults would sometimes say things during service like, "God is good. All the time. He is good." I thought it was redundant back then. Later, I thought that since my faith changed, I wouldn't be taking a lot of the church "isms" with me. But, they come up sometimes, like now. We just can't judge situations, because we just don't know. I'm trying to remember that more often.

who are you?

"Friends are the family we choose for ourselves," writer Edna Buchanan once said. I consider the "family" I've gathered—with five kinds of pals I count on for completely different things—among the wisest choices I've made. If you can find even one who embodies any of the characteristics that follow, you can consider yourself fortunate.

1. The Uplifter
This woman's favorite word: yes. You could tell her you're trading your six-figure income for a career in offtrack betting, and she'd barely pause before yelping "Go for it!" Don't you need someone who looks past the love handles to notice the extraordinarily gorgeous you?

2. The Travel Buddy
When the hotel in St. Lucia is a bust, one characteristic becomes all-important: flexibility. This agreeable companion need not be the girl you traded pinkie swears with on the playground; it's enough that she's comfortable with quiet (between gabfests) and is a teensy bit mischievous (as in tequila after midnight).

3. The Truth Teller
Intent is what separates the constructive from the abusive. Once you've established that the hard news is spoken in love (not in jealousy or malice), you'd be smart to seek out this woman's perspective.

4. The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun
One Saturday a pal and I—and yes, we're both over age 12—pored over every glitter lip gloss in a drugstore aisle for an entire 45 minutes. Forget the crisis download (for that, see the Uplifter); this partnership is about spontaneous good times.

5. The Unlikely Friend
"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive," Anaïs Nin wrote. My friends—some twice my age, others half, some rich, others homeless, some black like me, others Korean, Mexican, Caucasian—have added richness to my life that only variety can bring.

*from Oprah.com

and the beat goes on...

cnn article

All this has somehow made me realize I must put up my Christmas tree right away.

It was just too much today

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1949334/

I should feel relieved, and of course I am relieved, but my relief is hidden somewhere in the back of my mind. All I can think of are the tears that fell today, from passionate, effective teachers...from kids who took a chance on loving their teacher...More than ever, now I feel like I never want to leave the children of this community, wondering how to take part in seeing that this insanity stops stripping passion and livelihood from innocent teachers, children, administrators, and our community.


What Carla Ranger (a favorite school board trustee) posted on her blog today, says it best:

Teachers Pay The Price
Today hundreds of teachers will be released.

Will this be done with dignity?

There is a crisis of public confidence.

Something is very wrongheaded at Dallas ISD.

This will not be corrected by releasing hundreds of teachers to relieve the latest financial chaos.

The problem will not be corrected by covering up the very serious financial mismanagement.

It cannot be undone by deception or solved by CEOs.

Dallas ISD has a spreading disease that has infected the institution with wrongheadedness.

It will not soon go away.

Someday, some way the Dallas Public School System must be reclaimed as an institution of integrity.

It will start with a Superintendent of Public Education who would like to be a servant leader of a public institution.

It will end with a Board truly committed to public service - not wrongheaded private agendas and unethical service.

Until then we say goodbye to the good teachers and staff who now pay the price.

May your lives be blessed in spite of the unjust price you now pay for the mistakes of others.

Thank you for your service.

We hope your loss will not be in vain.

i'm tired

That's it.

I'll come back, but not until I have slept.