V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #47: In-Between

May 6, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Shouldn’t be long,” I tell Ric before passing through into the rows of examining rooms. The receptionist who called yesterday, saying there was a cancellation, suggested this was just a consult and preliminary examination. My health has been declining since long before we returned home. The thing about having a chronic illness is that it […]

A Triggered Response

May 5, 2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Don’t know about you, but I read each post with a slightly different eye this week, looking for one that provoked a response. Many did, but none more than Tina Stewart’s Brakebill’s post: Already Lost. Early in my teaching career, I had a troubled student, who was assigned to three out of four classes with […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #46: Response

April 29, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

For this week’s challenge, I thought it might be interesting to create a post in response to someone else’s work. This might be a poem in response to an image, or an image in response to a poem. It might be an imagined dialogue, or a response that demonstrates how the other has inspired you. […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #45: Anniversary

April 22, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

“It’s been 45 years, today, since my father passed away,” Ric blurted out the other day. “He’s been gone for twice as long as I knew him.” Easter is a hard time for Ric, as it linked to the loss of many people dear to him. April 15th, for me, represents my first date with […]

Let It Rain

April 14, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Spring rain, the consensus seems to be, is the refreshment we need as winter’s barren stretch ends. Things continue to be piled up over here, the unpacking process disrupted by company and sleepovers. It is good to be home, and at the same time, I am feeling an inner fragility, overcome by exhaustion and the […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #42: farewell

April 1, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

As you read this, Ric and I will be saying farewell to Texas and our cozy home on the canal. We leave behind new friends, the countless birds who have so entertained us, and the beautiful Gulf Coast. I am both excited to be home, and sad to end our time here. But isn’t that […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #41: polish

March 25, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

As I’m contemplating this week’s challenge, American Idol is playing in the background, and my attention is captured by a young woman explaining that a year ago she went blind. She talks about the hardship of not only losing her sight, but the torment she received at the hands of her peers. My eyes cloud […]

So Many Questions

March 17, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Questions are piling up over here, with very few answers. Isn’t that life? And maybe that is the point: we are meant to reflect, to ponder, to search, to explore. As a teacher, the emphasis was on inquisition: teaching children to think beyond the obvious, find the tools to research deeper. In this ever-increasing digital […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #39: Unanswerable

March 11, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

“I always start with questions that I can’t answer. Otherwise you get bored halfway through if you already know the answers. If you’re asking what seem to be unanswerable questions, then you have to keep showing up.” – Barbara KingsolverFrom A Talk in the Woods, by Kevin LarimerFeatured in Poets & Writers, November/ December 2018 […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #37: Story

February 25, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

My very first blog post on this site is entitled “Relevance of Story“. It was inspired by the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie whose Ted Talk: The Danger of a Single Story, challenged me to think differently about how, as a teacher, I approached my craft. Her words are also a recipe for living compassionately. Each time we open a blog post and read, we are touching a part of someone’s story. Every time […]

Ukraine

Planted seeds for prosperity –images of children frolickingthe delight of yellow horizonstradition setting our fields ablaze Till greed came knocking –brother turning on brother Rhetoric and lies shrapnelshattering our dreams Only the deer frolic nowunwitting participants inthis unprovoked slaughterland mines defiling landscapes But seeds are not lost,nor are the legacy of generationswhose soil has known […]

Winter, Please

(Image my own)

Sing Along

Dove’s mournful cryspotlights Nature’s calling –Let us find a harmonic notesing along for conservation,for preservation, for a strongtomorrow – find our voicesand join the chorus. (Image my own)