New Directions

Two invitations were sent out this weekend by two different connected educator PLNs. As this Monday night's moderator of #NYEDChat, I was preparing questions to send via Twitter when Margaret Simon, leader of #DigilitSunday tweeted her prompt. 

Each January, millions of people around the world turn their attention toward finding balance in their professional and personal lives. New goals versus immediate needs are weighed. Resolutions or one words are created to steer an individual's journey knowing that continued reflection leads to a fresh start. 

Whether it is a make-over, redo, or new direction on your mind, there are always questions on how to get started. This is the point where focus comes into play. A new energy generated from the process propels us forward. 

If we FOCUS on the task at hand, 

LISTEN to our hearts 

as planned,

our thoughts can soar,

touch the sky, 

and momentarily

 FLY, FLY, FLY.

2015 C. Varsalona 

I have been debating how to mindfully move forward in a new direction without procrastinating. I am reminded of the words of Thomas Merton, "Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony." What a beautiful thought as a start today with some steps to help me mindfully move forward.

• Assess my needs for both my professional and personal life 
• Prioritize tasks but be flexible 
• Be conscious of those around me to support their needs
• Reflect at day's end

A positive attitude is needed as I seek joy (my #oneword2017) in everyday, ordinary routines and tasks. What will you do to seek balance as you find a new direction this January?

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Please visit #DigiLitSunday at Margaret Simon's blog here to read how the other bloggers are addressing the topic, Balancing Goals and Needs. Then, save the date to join #NYEDChat for our hour conversation, Come Celebrate New Directions with #NYEDChat, tomorrow night at 8 pm EST. 

Chasing Joy

Each week I celebrate the positives with Ruth Ayres and her community of writers at Celebrate This Week. While this past week has been one of nursing an acute sinus infection, Friday night I was able to step out of the house with my family for some errands in an attempt to return to normalcy. During that break from being housebound, I found myself caught up in a spontaneous, fun-filled adventure to capture the beauty of nature. 

Unplanned moments can lead to wonder. Since the opening of the year, I have been trying to find joy, my one word, in the most ordinary of places. When I saw the moon take a striking pose in the night sky, I knew that I had to follow it to find the right position for a photograph. A crazy idea, you may say, but nonetheless one that needed to be captured in my mind because a few moments of carefree adventure could bring some fun.

Joy seems to be infectious so I even got my husband interested in the pursuit. Each time we stopped at a red light he would pull out his tablet. I simultaneously would be ready to take a shot with my iPhone for the moon was a most unusual sight in the night sky. It appeared to be stamped onto a black canvas, an ink splotch in the sky that peeked through striated clouds and branches. It was eerie but afterall it was Friday the 13th. The image below is the compilation of merging different facets of the moonlit adventure. 

I went to sleep thinking about the coincidence of the moon meeting Friday the 13th and woke to another luminescent view of the moon. Two separate views led me to wonder even more. If I was in the classroom, this would make for an interesting conversation about science, nature, and the superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th. For me the coincidental meeting of a full moon on Friday the 13th provided an opportunity to find joy in the night sky.  

*If you look closely at the first #imagepoem, you will see that Friday the 13th played a trick on me. There are faint words in the background that were embedded as I created. Little did I know until I posted. Life is full of mysteries!

Plan

When Margaret Simon sent out an invitation to the DigiLit Sunday community to write on the topic, a plan, I turned to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for its definition. Of course, I know what a plan is but wanted some starting points. As the dictionary says, a plan is a method for achieving an end. My first thought is that I am often focused enough to carry out a plan but oftentimes I procrastinate or take on two plans in one day. 

REVELATION
I just paused after writing this because I hit on the reason why my plans take more time than I think they will to carry out.  I used to prize being a multi-tasker but I have been reading that this is not a good plan. Since it's the new year and I have a new word, joy, to guide me on my writing path, this post has my undivided attention. Have you ever been side-tracked when you start getting involved in a project?

PLANNING TO WRITE
To jump back on the path, I am going to backtrack and see what thoughts I scribbled down in the morning hours: focus - spontaneity - blogging - celebration - quiet joy. I wrote down these words while engaging in two chats (#HackLearning and #SpiritChat) and then, listening to the Epiphany homily. 

WORD WEAVING
I know that I need a focus for the post so I will do some word weaving to develop the idea that has been evolving in my head. I see in my Tweetdeck user column that I posted the following response on #HackLearning to a question on why blog: "Blogging is like a heartbeat. It needs to occur. Why? It's a digital pen to our feelings and thoughts that brings life to our words." 

REFLECTING
I know that I am focused but yet I enjoy being spontaneous. (The#SpiritChat conversation revolved around these two words.) Blogging can be a focused endeavor or a spontaneous reaction to a thought or event. It is an attempt to meander through my thoughts so I can hone in on a particular word that will lead me in a direction. There are many words that are spiraling in my heart now: snow, crystalline, glistening, joyful but there is also the reality that time and a throbbing cold headache are interfering.

PLAN DIVERTED 
Earlier in the day when I was ready to write, my plan was diverted. I was forced to nap due to a head cold. This is very unlike me but it was needed.

THOUGHTS EVOLVING
When awake, I relistened to the homily from the online Mass (the snow and my cold prevented me from leaving the house). Spontaneous thoughts evolved from what I heard and they merged into a poem for #haikuforhealing that is being led by Mary Lee Hahn. 

epiphany feast

fill your heart with quiet joy-

obstacles removed

©CV, 2017

FINAL REFLECTION

Was this the piece that I started off writing? No it is not, but I do know that I set out with the intent to write a post and reach an ending thought. As part of the process, I removed obstacles to achieve my end.

Writing is a journey. It takes us on path that is similar to life. There may be detours, revelations, and stops along the way. We may reach a destination that is not our last stop and interact with others in ways that we may have not planned. This is true of writing. Life's road is endless and opportunities great, if we realize that we are humble travelers believing in the journey. 

"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans."

Allen Saunders

On this Epiphany Day, I refer back to what the priest said, "Fill your heart with quiet joy!"

I set down my digital pen now to linger in quiet joy. 

Joyful Poetry

One of my goals for the start of 2017 is to notice and wonder more about the ordinary, the commonplace, and the small things in life, seek joy, my #OneWord2017, on a daily basis, and share thoughts and feelings on positivity. By searching for joy, I hope to send it out into the world as a reminder that a "joyful heart is good medicine..." (Proverbs 17:22)

What better way to fill my heart with a joyful experience, than to write poetry with Poetry Friday friends and receive gifts of poetry! 

Photo: Laura P. Salas

Every Thursday, Laura Purdie Salas invites all to write alongside her in 15 Words or Less Poems. The photo she took while we were at NCTE in Atlanta was so intriguing and the invitation such "a low pressure way to wake up my poetry brain", as Laura says that I decided to put pen to paper. 

curved passageways

lead me toward

life's careening journey-

hither, thither, 

forward

©CV, 2017

The poem above connects to my 2017 journey with my one word, joy, as my guide. To continue my thinking on one little word, I hosted Spiritual Journey first Thursday, a community of writers that Irene Latham now leads. My topic was "One Word to Guide Our 2017 Journey". You can view my post and the writing of others who linked up here.

I continued writing poetry with PF friends under the hashtag #haikuforhealing created by Mary Lee Hahn and #commonplacemarvels designed by Catherine Flynn. 

 


I created a poetry postcard for Jone MacCulloch Rush's New Year Postcard Exchange. All cards have been sent out in the mail. I will post the original at the of this month because the recipients have not received their poetry postcards yet. You can view Images and tweets at the hashtag, #PostcardXchange, that Jone created for the project.

Next week, I will showcase the poetry postcards that I receive. Thank you Brenda Davis Harsham and Diane Mayr for their lovely postcards. I was so excited when I received them. the exchange is a real treat and a throwback to the days of postcard writing.

"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy." 

-Jalaluddin Rumi

May the love of poetry bring a joy to your winter months. Please visit my writing friend, Linda Baie's blog here to read her New Year greetings to the Poetry Friday community. Her link-up is already filling up with wonderful posts from many PF friends. Happy reading to all during this cold winter weekend. Note the logo Linda created complete with snow coming in from Linda's corner in Colorado.