Celebrating the Messiness of Storms

I wasn't sure how I would present my celebration this week and then I read Ruth Ayres's post at Celebrate This Week on being in the middle of a mess. It is with Ruth's thoughts in mind that I spin my thoughts about coming out smiling from a messy winter storm.

After a weekend full of Snomaggedon's visit to Long Island, life seems to be settling in. Over two feet of snow landed last weekend, making everyone realize that winter has a spunky nature. The winter white scene was an amazing and beautiful sight, but feelings of close quarters and hours of shoveling started getting everyone a bit jittery. Flipping the scene took some maneuvering.

Steps to Create a Positive Perspective:

Step 1: Get Involved
The messiness outside made my entrance way look messy but that is a fact of life when boots track in snow. I decided to get involved with the clean-up as a way to show my commitment to family tasks. Gingerly, I used my arm that is has rotator cuff tears to break up the mounds of snow while my son did the heavy lifting. This occurred in the afternoon after my husband completed the first round of cleanup in the morning.

This was just the beginning of the storm.

Step 2: Provide Sustenance
To fortify all for long stretches of snow shoveling, I cooked hearty meals of turkey chili and chicken soup.

Step 3: Celebrate

Winter white Lexus
compliments the season

After the driveway was shoveled and my husband's car dug out of the mounds of snow, we went off to the dealership in town to choose our new car. In a very bold move on my part, I was able to close a deal in one sitting. My husband's negotiations and my decision to seal the deal was well worth the hour of strong haggling. 

Afterthought: 
There is residual snow still left in the neighborhoods but today's warm weather started to melt away traces of the blizzard of 2016. Snowmaggedon may have created a messy situation and left some people cranky but persistence and positivity teamed to end the week with feelings of good cheer. With a positive spirit and faith most challenges can be overcome.

Please visit the Celebrate This Week site to read how the community of bloggers celebrated their past weeks.

Also, please visit my latest post, Snowflakes, that invites everyone to join my newest creative challenge. At my upcoming online gallery, Winter Wanderings, writers can offer their perspective of winter through photographs and poetry. I look forward to receiving digital inspirations, quotes, winter songs, and photographs from around the globe and especially from my connected friends.

Celebrating Inspiration

Last week, there was a positive energy surrounding me. I was guided by my one little word, believe, and inspired by the digital citizenship mantra, be the digital change. Several events inspired me and spurred me to create. As the NYEDChat convo moderator last Monday, my team and I conversed with educators around the states and our guest moderator, Marialice Curran and her son, about digital citizenship as a pre-cursor to the international conference, #DigCitSummitUK, that was in England last weekend. Throughout the week, I blogged, wrote poetry, and sent them out to the public via social media. I honored the projection of voice and also various communities that I belong to that believe voice matters:#celebratelu, #digilit Sunday, #SOL16, Spiritual Journey Thursday, #PoetryFriday, #NYEDChat, and #DigCitSummitUK. The individual and collective voices of these communities are distinctive, supportive, and inspirational.

Fueling the celebration of inspiration is the power of language to create and share tapestries of thought. I applaud writers' voice that filters through readings and texts shared. From the practice of repeated writing, voice emerges and impacts readers in different ways. Writers are like dreamers, dreaming big and imagining, using their voice to define what they are thinking, whether it is by digital or non-digital means. Regardless of skills sets, all can be writers who are expressive. It takes a measure of risk taking to believe this.

As far back as I remember, I have always been inspired to write. I wandered in thought sparked by nature itself, wondering how those feelings affected my thoughts. Through the years, I have learned how to notice what I am observing and reflect on what I see. The process of word weaving allows me to project my thoughts from heart to mind to pen. With digital tools, like PicMonkey and Canva, I create digital compositions with the hopes of inspiring adults and students to write. Sometimes, I move beyond my comfort zone when I share my creations via social media channels because the venue is so far reaching.

As a person who believes in the power of voice to inspire, I explored a question posed by Margaret Simon this past Digilit Sunday, "What inspires you?" For me inspiration lies in nature. While observing, I am in the moment, noticing, wondering, and capturing small moments in photo and poem. Below are two different versions of a poem/photo combination inspired by the trail of Snowmaggedon 2016. Both adults and students can use this prompt, Be Inspired-Create!, to find the inner voice that beckons them to add their perspective on winter or the blizzard of 2016 to a photo. See the invitation to the global gallery of artistic expressions here and the post-snow day inspiration to spark a lesson here.

Created using Canva

The image created in Canva was brought
into PicMonkey for additional work
& a correction of a glitch. 

How do you celebrate inspiration?

• Are you motivated by an outside force?
• Are you roused by an action or cause?
• Are you encouraged by a colleague?
• Are you energized by an action?
• Are you influenced by a trend?

Whom do you inspire by your action?

It is with sincere appreciation for the power of writing to affect personal and professional lives that I ask you to be observant of what is around you and be positive about what life has to offer. Share your thoughts because voice matters.

Today I am writing to honor two communities that celebrate inspiration each week:

• Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week that can be accessed here.

• Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life that can be accessed here.

What Inspires Me?

Margaret Simon, founder of DigiLit Sunday, asked a pertinent question today: What inspires you? In response I will recount a story as part of my response but the short version is that nature is an inspiration to me as it unfolds each season. 

This weekend has been one of expected waiting for the blizzard storm of 2016 that was to hit Long Island with force. The days preceding the storm were quiet and calm, it was difficult to imagine the force that would soon be present. Friday night was spent preparing and anticipating what was to come. Saturday morning was the moment of truth. Awakening to a raging blizzard with snow falling constantly was an awe-inspiring event that needed to be shared.

Waking to the blizzard

By evening the frost was very thick.

Needless to say that this force of nature inspired me to observe, reflect, and write. The event called snowmaggedon occurred hours after I sent out an invitation around the globe to writers, bloggers, poets, photographers, teachers, social media colleagues, and family to create a digital inspiration for my newest gallery. You can access the invitation to Winter Wanderings here. Thinking that the storm was a serendipitous moment, I sent out tweets requesting winter scenes from the blizzard of 2016 for placement in the photo corner of the gallery. 

Today, after an afternoon of family snow shoveling, I found the snow to be endless. One family as they walked by commented, "This is an absurd amount of snow". Even though my husband's car was stuck in the snow and now not working, and mounds of snow are still all around, I can still say that I am inspired by the sheer beauty of winter. Its immense blanket of snow and crystalline frost on the windowpanes created a certain stillness that is incomparable.

In tribute of the event that brought Long Island to a standstill, I created a digital inspiration. If I had a classroom of student learners, I would use this poem as a motivator to create poetic compositions about snowmaggedon, complete with artistic renderings of the snow monster.

Below is a blank template that teachers may use with their classes. If your students are inspired to write about the blizzard of 2016 or their personal perspectives of winter and create a digital inspiration, please send me a couple for insertion in the student voice section of Winter Wanderings. 

You can also find mentor texts to use in class at last year's gallery collection, Winter Whisperings.

Please visit DigiLit Sunday to read other responses to Margaret Simon's question on what inspires you.