A friend posted this magnificent TED Talk and I spent the entire 20 minutes rapt with the speaker's findings and message:
A commenter on the video site posted this apparently Taoist mantra in response:
To be whole, let yourself break.
To be straight, let yourself bend.
To be full, let yourself be empty.
To be new, let yourself wear out.
To have everything, give everything up.
Knowing others is a kind of knowledge;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Conquering others requires strength;
conquering yourself is true power.
To realize that you have enough is true wealth.
Pushing ahead may succeed,
but staying put brings endurance.
Die without perishing, and find the eternal.
To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.
Knowing what is permanent: enlightenment.
Not knowing what is permanent: disaster.
Knowing what is permanent opens the mind.
Open mind, open heart.
Open heart, magnanimity.
Traditional Taoism is a bit too mystical for my tastes, but I love these words. A LOT.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Today I...
woke up at a reasonable hour (9:30) from a girls' night/sleepover with church friends.
brunched in Astoria with said friends with mimosa and coffee.
ran outside in sub-50s temperatures for the first time EVER. Aside from regular tissue breaks, it was actually really refreshing and surprisingly easy. More, please.
will bake a vegetarian cheeseburger noodle casserole--a childhood favorite (minus the vegetarian part), and then consume a serving with bottled beer.
will lesson plan so tomorrow (day off!) can be set aside for chores and friendships.
will watch probably too many episodes of The West Wing on loan from the library (I only have a week to finish a half a season. Justified.).
The point is, the person living the day outlined above is practically a stranger to the one who inhabited my life even two years ago. She even goes by a different name sometimes. =) There are the obvious partitions between life segments (graduations, apartment, jobs...), and then there are the incremental shifts that occur daily. Community-building. Diet and exercise routines. Coffee! Of course, this duality of change is no revelation. But the occasional perspective check can be amusing, revealing, and promising of possibility.
K
brunched in Astoria with said friends with mimosa and coffee.
ran outside in sub-50s temperatures for the first time EVER. Aside from regular tissue breaks, it was actually really refreshing and surprisingly easy. More, please.
will bake a vegetarian cheeseburger noodle casserole--a childhood favorite (minus the vegetarian part), and then consume a serving with bottled beer.
will lesson plan so tomorrow (day off!) can be set aside for chores and friendships.
will watch probably too many episodes of The West Wing on loan from the library (I only have a week to finish a half a season. Justified.).
The point is, the person living the day outlined above is practically a stranger to the one who inhabited my life even two years ago. She even goes by a different name sometimes. =) There are the obvious partitions between life segments (graduations, apartment, jobs...), and then there are the incremental shifts that occur daily. Community-building. Diet and exercise routines. Coffee! Of course, this duality of change is no revelation. But the occasional perspective check can be amusing, revealing, and promising of possibility.
K
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Food Musings
Chili is easy. Beans. Tomato something. Spices. Sweet. Vegetables. Tada!
Homemade fries are made crispier and tastier by the addition of cornstarch to the frying oil.
Corn tortillas are awful "raw" but mysteriously delicious cooked. Like eggplant. Fun fact: In addition to maintaining a lackluster flavor, raw eggplant is also mildly poisonous.
Why don't they typically market the French Press as a dual coffee-tea maker? It totally is.
Gouda is an acceptable substitute for almost any other type of solid cheese. Flavorful enough to cover for cheddar on a cracker or burrito, sharp enough to be swapped in for swiss on a sandwich, mild and soft enough to replace mozzarella in Italian fare. And the smoked variety can almost pass for a meaty flavor if you squint your tastebuds (is there a word to approximate "squint" for taste?). Anyway, it's the frugal shopper's best friend in the dairy section.
Sometimes, granola bar companies pass out free samples on the street. And sometimes they leave the sample in a bag on your apartment doorknob. Surprise afterschool snack!!
Here's hoping for enough figurative candy bars and milkshakes (as opposed to lemondrops and gumdrops--look it up) for a day off tomorrow...
Oh, and beware when selecting your free bagel from Planet Fitness. Minced garlic looks an awful lot like sesame seeds, but only one tastes good with jam.
Homemade fries are made crispier and tastier by the addition of cornstarch to the frying oil.
Corn tortillas are awful "raw" but mysteriously delicious cooked. Like eggplant. Fun fact: In addition to maintaining a lackluster flavor, raw eggplant is also mildly poisonous.
Why don't they typically market the French Press as a dual coffee-tea maker? It totally is.
Gouda is an acceptable substitute for almost any other type of solid cheese. Flavorful enough to cover for cheddar on a cracker or burrito, sharp enough to be swapped in for swiss on a sandwich, mild and soft enough to replace mozzarella in Italian fare. And the smoked variety can almost pass for a meaty flavor if you squint your tastebuds (is there a word to approximate "squint" for taste?). Anyway, it's the frugal shopper's best friend in the dairy section.
Sometimes, granola bar companies pass out free samples on the street. And sometimes they leave the sample in a bag on your apartment doorknob. Surprise afterschool snack!!
Here's hoping for enough figurative candy bars and milkshakes (as opposed to lemondrops and gumdrops--look it up) for a day off tomorrow...
Oh, and beware when selecting your free bagel from Planet Fitness. Minced garlic looks an awful lot like sesame seeds, but only one tastes good with jam.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Wonderful Life
I am constantly at a loss for words to describe why I feel so content and at ease in New York. Generally speaking, the more you love something the more difficult (and, really, less necessary) it is to condense those sentiments into mere sentences. The events of the last 15 hours or so, however, come pretty darn close to crystallizing my relationship to my city...
Morning coffee is the best. Not so much for the caffeine, but I really like the taste of my half-coffee, half-soy milk blend. If I drink more than a half-cup, I get way fidgety. So I'm looking forward to the routine without the addiction.
First concert of the school year this morning, and everything was simply fantastic. Polished, energetic, musical performances from my students (PK-2), great parent turnout, gratifying teacher/administration feedback... Just good times.
Then I had 3 periods of nothing. I reset the auditorium for the next round (grades 3-5), which involved transporting boxes of instruments and 3 xylophones over 4 flights of stairs. I didn't even get tired. It was weird. And fabulous, because I am 100% set for the rest of the week. I just have to walk in tomorrow morning and boss people around.
My school afternoon finished with 3 teaching periods, all with classes of middling general behavior, all of whom ROCKED IT OUT today. I think the energy of their impending (2 days!) concert is finally sinking in; it's great to glimpse tangible progress and success after weeks and weeks of figurative tooth-pulling.
I was able to leave school at 3:30 (relatively early for me!) and hit up a number of New York's holiday markets to do some Christmas shopping. I doubted the soundness of my marathon-day ambitions... but I got most of my shopping DONE and got to enjoy a heaping dose of the lovely holiday atmosphere of the city in the process. And I did some light grocery shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket, aka my favorite place in all five boroughs.
Bryant Park Tree (Holiday Market not pictured)
A leisurely, free (thanks, Mom!) dinner at Starbucks was followed by a choir rehearsal at St. Patrick's Cathedral (yes, THAT St. Patrick's Cathedral). Oh wait, I was 20 minutes early for it, so I wandered the vicinity of Rockefeller Center long enough to snap some touristy pictures of the tree and ice skating rink.
Then I caught the laser-timed-with-music show on the facade of Bloomingdale's. Then I went and rehearsed a bunch of festive Christmas carols in St. Patrick's Cathedral, which means I got to stand on the altar (and loop around the back), a perspective not afforded to many visitors. It was also neat to rehearse in front of all the unsuspecting tourists... I am tickled by the idea that our choir is now part of hundreds of vacation stories. Pretty neat.
To top it off, with all the commuting I logged today, I was able to take on a formidable chunk of my latest read, Skinny Legs and All (Tom Robbins). Whimsy, philosophy, religion, art, hilarity... Only a third through, but I highly recommend it!
So there you have it: my version of a perfect day in all it's coffee-flavored, concert-singing, xylophone-toting, progress-making, gift-finding, electric-lit, cathedral-performing, literarily-satisfying goodness.
Love. Love. Love.
KP =)
Morning coffee is the best. Not so much for the caffeine, but I really like the taste of my half-coffee, half-soy milk blend. If I drink more than a half-cup, I get way fidgety. So I'm looking forward to the routine without the addiction.
First concert of the school year this morning, and everything was simply fantastic. Polished, energetic, musical performances from my students (PK-2), great parent turnout, gratifying teacher/administration feedback... Just good times.
Photos courtesy of Wilmer, 5th grade
Then I had 3 periods of nothing. I reset the auditorium for the next round (grades 3-5), which involved transporting boxes of instruments and 3 xylophones over 4 flights of stairs. I didn't even get tired. It was weird. And fabulous, because I am 100% set for the rest of the week. I just have to walk in tomorrow morning and boss people around.
My school afternoon finished with 3 teaching periods, all with classes of middling general behavior, all of whom ROCKED IT OUT today. I think the energy of their impending (2 days!) concert is finally sinking in; it's great to glimpse tangible progress and success after weeks and weeks of figurative tooth-pulling.
I was able to leave school at 3:30 (relatively early for me!) and hit up a number of New York's holiday markets to do some Christmas shopping. I doubted the soundness of my marathon-day ambitions... but I got most of my shopping DONE and got to enjoy a heaping dose of the lovely holiday atmosphere of the city in the process. And I did some light grocery shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket, aka my favorite place in all five boroughs.
Bryant Park Tree (Holiday Market not pictured)A leisurely, free (thanks, Mom!) dinner at Starbucks was followed by a choir rehearsal at St. Patrick's Cathedral (yes, THAT St. Patrick's Cathedral). Oh wait, I was 20 minutes early for it, so I wandered the vicinity of Rockefeller Center long enough to snap some touristy pictures of the tree and ice skating rink.
I am thrilled that my newest camera has the ability to take beautiful nighttime shots--a first in my history of camera ownership.
Then I caught the laser-timed-with-music show on the facade of Bloomingdale's. Then I went and rehearsed a bunch of festive Christmas carols in St. Patrick's Cathedral, which means I got to stand on the altar (and loop around the back), a perspective not afforded to many visitors. It was also neat to rehearse in front of all the unsuspecting tourists... I am tickled by the idea that our choir is now part of hundreds of vacation stories. Pretty neat.
To top it off, with all the commuting I logged today, I was able to take on a formidable chunk of my latest read, Skinny Legs and All (Tom Robbins). Whimsy, philosophy, religion, art, hilarity... Only a third through, but I highly recommend it!
So there you have it: my version of a perfect day in all it's coffee-flavored, concert-singing, xylophone-toting, progress-making, gift-finding, electric-lit, cathedral-performing, literarily-satisfying goodness.
Love. Love. Love.
KP =)
Thursday, November 25, 2010
I only post on holidays now
(Though last entry had nothing to do with Halloween...)
Since I have a half hour to fritter away before traveling to a Thanksgiving celebration of work friends, I figured I could revisit the tried and true November school writing prompt:
I am thankful for:
*6th graders who come back to visit PS 43. The best so far has been one boy who, despite having a lot of emotional/behavioral issues last year, was one of my favorites--a SMART kid who really wanted to succeed but couldn't always control his responses to his world... I asked him how middle school was going; he smiled with an expression of peace and answered with a genuine "Really well, Ms. Phillips." Cue tears of pride.
*An extremely successful inaugural service outing with the young adults of my church. Great turnout and all goals accomplished at the site! Love love love being engaged in a leadership role completely separate from school.
*Surprise packages and letters! Highlights from the past week include coloring book pages from Ellen's "best buddy" Maria (ELLEN-can I get an address to write her a thank you??) and frickin' BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on DVD from the fam. So. Excited. Also, did you know that the new Rapunzel movie is an Alan Menken-composed musical??? Why hasn't this been advertised? Poor marketing choice, Disney.
*A collective holiday of gratefulness that anyone and everyone can observe--it is warming in a small but significant way that I can wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all my teachers and friends and not have to guess whether or not they celebrate it. True, most people I know wouldn't be offended in the least by "Merry Christmas" (I received many of them last year), but somehow this one is different.
*Mariah Carey's "Merry Christmas" album. I am choosing to reject the reality of her "updated" holiday release. Only the original, please.
*Generous friends hosting a Thanksgiving gathering that is likely a little too numerous in guests for their space... Bring on the coziness and feasting and laughter!
*The ability to completely avoid the Macy's Parade and the 3.5 million people who attend it. That's more than New Year's, folks.
*Staying connected with friends and family around the country as they celebrate with friends and family of their own!
*Grandma pie. The celebration I will be attending is set on desserts (as if that's a thing), but I made one for myself just the same. If you can make the trip in the next week, you're welcome to have some too! =)
Have a safe and restful and warm-fuzzy Thanksgiving, friends!
Love, love, love.
K
Since I have a half hour to fritter away before traveling to a Thanksgiving celebration of work friends, I figured I could revisit the tried and true November school writing prompt:
I am thankful for:
*6th graders who come back to visit PS 43. The best so far has been one boy who, despite having a lot of emotional/behavioral issues last year, was one of my favorites--a SMART kid who really wanted to succeed but couldn't always control his responses to his world... I asked him how middle school was going; he smiled with an expression of peace and answered with a genuine "Really well, Ms. Phillips." Cue tears of pride.
*An extremely successful inaugural service outing with the young adults of my church. Great turnout and all goals accomplished at the site! Love love love being engaged in a leadership role completely separate from school.
*Surprise packages and letters! Highlights from the past week include coloring book pages from Ellen's "best buddy" Maria (ELLEN-can I get an address to write her a thank you??) and frickin' BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on DVD from the fam. So. Excited. Also, did you know that the new Rapunzel movie is an Alan Menken-composed musical??? Why hasn't this been advertised? Poor marketing choice, Disney.
*A collective holiday of gratefulness that anyone and everyone can observe--it is warming in a small but significant way that I can wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all my teachers and friends and not have to guess whether or not they celebrate it. True, most people I know wouldn't be offended in the least by "Merry Christmas" (I received many of them last year), but somehow this one is different.
*Mariah Carey's "Merry Christmas" album. I am choosing to reject the reality of her "updated" holiday release. Only the original, please.
*Generous friends hosting a Thanksgiving gathering that is likely a little too numerous in guests for their space... Bring on the coziness and feasting and laughter!
*The ability to completely avoid the Macy's Parade and the 3.5 million people who attend it. That's more than New Year's, folks.
*Staying connected with friends and family around the country as they celebrate with friends and family of their own!
*Grandma pie. The celebration I will be attending is set on desserts (as if that's a thing), but I made one for myself just the same. If you can make the trip in the next week, you're welcome to have some too! =)
Have a safe and restful and warm-fuzzy Thanksgiving, friends!
Love, love, love.
K
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The best I can do...
Every time I check blogs and cringe at the ever-widening period of time since my last update, I am more and more daunted by the prospect of a catch-up entry. So here's what I did today, because really that's all I am mentally capable of communicating at this moment:
10:00am: A viewing of "Waiting for 'Superman'" with teacher/social work friends.
The documentary explores the broken state of our schools and the various pressures and factors preventing the current public school system from effectively educating our children. I have been reading articles about the film for weeks--content aside, it is really wonderful how this movie is bringing education into the public forum! It is less biased toward charter schools than I imagined but still does not quite present the most well-rounded depiction of public schools... Audiences unfamiliar with the workings of the education system will likely walk away believing ANY charter school produces superior results to ANY public school, which is simply untrue (recent reports actually find public schools slightly ahead of charter schools on average in terms of achievement!). The personal stories were moving, though, and it was great to discuss the film and the education world in general with a group of knowledgeable professionals! And the group included church and teaching friends--worlds collide!
2:30pm: Planning meeting for an upcoming church young adults group service outing
I am super excited (and possibly starting to be spread too thin?) to be co-coordinating the newly minted service and outreach team through the young adults group at my church (ASYA, or All Souls Young Adults, from here on out). Today's meeting was in preparation for our kickoff event, an all-day service effort cleaning/painting/organizing a nearby church that hosts a slew of programs for the community, including Girl Scouts and various afterschool groups. The plan is to make these outings a monthly happening, each instance exploring a different need in the community. The prep is a lot of work--touring the building, compiling supplies/to-do lists, communicating with organizers, promoting to ASYA members--but already rewarding!
6:00pm: Bulletin board assembly
Oh, right, and I have a weekday job too. Between a steady social calendar of events, the service initiative, occasional babysitting, staying in touch with friends and family, choir, exercise (depressingly low on the priority list lately), and regular chores and errands, schoolwork sometimes feels like something I squeeze in when I can. Good thing concert season is approaching, that's not much work at all...
10:00pm: Completion of blog entry that probably should have been foregone in favor of sleep or lesson prep
When's Thanksgiving?
Love, Hugs, and Airborne to combat sleep-deprived immune system deterioration!
KP =)
10:00am: A viewing of "Waiting for 'Superman'" with teacher/social work friends.
The documentary explores the broken state of our schools and the various pressures and factors preventing the current public school system from effectively educating our children. I have been reading articles about the film for weeks--content aside, it is really wonderful how this movie is bringing education into the public forum! It is less biased toward charter schools than I imagined but still does not quite present the most well-rounded depiction of public schools... Audiences unfamiliar with the workings of the education system will likely walk away believing ANY charter school produces superior results to ANY public school, which is simply untrue (recent reports actually find public schools slightly ahead of charter schools on average in terms of achievement!). The personal stories were moving, though, and it was great to discuss the film and the education world in general with a group of knowledgeable professionals! And the group included church and teaching friends--worlds collide!
2:30pm: Planning meeting for an upcoming church young adults group service outing
I am super excited (and possibly starting to be spread too thin?) to be co-coordinating the newly minted service and outreach team through the young adults group at my church (ASYA, or All Souls Young Adults, from here on out). Today's meeting was in preparation for our kickoff event, an all-day service effort cleaning/painting/organizing a nearby church that hosts a slew of programs for the community, including Girl Scouts and various afterschool groups. The plan is to make these outings a monthly happening, each instance exploring a different need in the community. The prep is a lot of work--touring the building, compiling supplies/to-do lists, communicating with organizers, promoting to ASYA members--but already rewarding!
6:00pm: Bulletin board assembly
Oh, right, and I have a weekday job too. Between a steady social calendar of events, the service initiative, occasional babysitting, staying in touch with friends and family, choir, exercise (depressingly low on the priority list lately), and regular chores and errands, schoolwork sometimes feels like something I squeeze in when I can. Good thing concert season is approaching, that's not much work at all...
10:00pm: Completion of blog entry that probably should have been foregone in favor of sleep or lesson prep
When's Thanksgiving?
Love, Hugs, and Airborne to combat sleep-deprived immune system deterioration!
KP =)
Monday, October 4, 2010
Recipe for a Perfect Weekend
-2 full days of blue skies after a week of rain and clouds (and before another similar week)
-1 perplexingly legit bar 6 blocks from my school in the Bronx that fills up with teachers on Friday afternoons for phenomenal happy hour and karaoke fun. Let sit for 6 hours with 4 other ETM music teachers (plus the 50 other ones already in the know about this place) and arrive home by 11pm.
-5 apples, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 1 large bunch broccoli, and 1 carrot for $6 at the local Greenmarket. Cheap, healthy, and delicious is my favorite.
-3 hours of marathon apartment cleaning. Annoying, but always incredibly calming and mentally cleansing afterward.
-2 hours paid babysitting. Layer lesson planning and tasty ravioli over the top.
-1 long-awaited sermon on the necessity of outreach and service (and a commitment to new, real initiatives) from the pulpit of my regular church. Follow up with several conversations on the need to jump on board these initiatives and the general wave of intent. Finally!
-1 tall pumpkin spice latte and 1 multi-grain bagel, toasted, with cream cheese. Leisurely consume over the entry of 450 names into the gradebook.
-6 miles of energized (perhaps due to the aforementioned latte) running. Combine with crisp fall temperatures and a random Renaissance Faire. (What, Inwood?)
Et voila! It was quite the productive and enjoyable weekend. And then...
It was going to be a great Monday. I baked pumpkin bread for my new school. I had all my lesson plans and materials set the night before. It didn't even rain over my morning commute! Then my traveling teacher cart ran into a corner, projectile-flipping my water bottle onto the floor, the result of which materialized in said bottle leaking, unbeknownst to me, over my cart and phone which normally wouldn't have been there but I kept out to make sure my visiting field supervisor would find me in the school (she never came) and now the keypad is becoming increasingly temperamental so it's sitting in a tub of rice. Also, since the clouds held in their fury over my afternoon commute as well, I didn't notice when I left my umbrella bag, umbrella inside, on my first of two buses and failed to realize the oversight until I was off the second. I then learned that Target umbrellas are (unreasonably?) expensive but now I have an umbrella. Whatever. And my library said it had a book I planned lessons around this week but in fact did not so I had to go to the one in the next neighborhood which proved a longer and more frustrating and wetter excursion than I had anticipated. Then I got free pizza from my gym. That was handy.
I'm not sure to which side of karma the last three days have delivered me, but I would like to call it even. I would also like to call from my phone in the near future. C'mon, rice...
Love, Hugs, and a case of the Mondays,
KP =)
UPDATE: Phone is in full working order. Brown rice + vacuum = one less item off my plate. =)
-1 perplexingly legit bar 6 blocks from my school in the Bronx that fills up with teachers on Friday afternoons for phenomenal happy hour and karaoke fun. Let sit for 6 hours with 4 other ETM music teachers (plus the 50 other ones already in the know about this place) and arrive home by 11pm.
-5 apples, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 1 large bunch broccoli, and 1 carrot for $6 at the local Greenmarket. Cheap, healthy, and delicious is my favorite.
-3 hours of marathon apartment cleaning. Annoying, but always incredibly calming and mentally cleansing afterward.
-2 hours paid babysitting. Layer lesson planning and tasty ravioli over the top.
-1 long-awaited sermon on the necessity of outreach and service (and a commitment to new, real initiatives) from the pulpit of my regular church. Follow up with several conversations on the need to jump on board these initiatives and the general wave of intent. Finally!
-1 tall pumpkin spice latte and 1 multi-grain bagel, toasted, with cream cheese. Leisurely consume over the entry of 450 names into the gradebook.
-6 miles of energized (perhaps due to the aforementioned latte) running. Combine with crisp fall temperatures and a random Renaissance Faire. (What, Inwood?)
Et voila! It was quite the productive and enjoyable weekend. And then...
It was going to be a great Monday. I baked pumpkin bread for my new school. I had all my lesson plans and materials set the night before. It didn't even rain over my morning commute! Then my traveling teacher cart ran into a corner, projectile-flipping my water bottle onto the floor, the result of which materialized in said bottle leaking, unbeknownst to me, over my cart and phone which normally wouldn't have been there but I kept out to make sure my visiting field supervisor would find me in the school (she never came) and now the keypad is becoming increasingly temperamental so it's sitting in a tub of rice. Also, since the clouds held in their fury over my afternoon commute as well, I didn't notice when I left my umbrella bag, umbrella inside, on my first of two buses and failed to realize the oversight until I was off the second. I then learned that Target umbrellas are (unreasonably?) expensive but now I have an umbrella. Whatever. And my library said it had a book I planned lessons around this week but in fact did not so I had to go to the one in the next neighborhood which proved a longer and more frustrating and wetter excursion than I had anticipated. Then I got free pizza from my gym. That was handy.
I'm not sure to which side of karma the last three days have delivered me, but I would like to call it even. I would also like to call from my phone in the near future. C'mon, rice...
Love, Hugs, and a case of the Mondays,
KP =)
UPDATE: Phone is in full working order. Brown rice + vacuum = one less item off my plate. =)
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