Abundance

Abundance

Today a friend brought me basil from her garden. Masses of it, and I went looking for a tall, wide-mouthed mug to hold it all in water where it can grow roots and flourish for the next month or two. On my counter was this mug, needing to be emptied of all the odds and ends an open vessel accumulates on a counter, Abundance written in flowing lettering along the front.

My friend brought me this mug many years ago when the kids were little. She filled it with my favorite biscotti and dropped it by one day.
"Why me?" I asked her about the unexpected gift.
"Abundance just reminded me of you," she said.
Since that day the mug has sat on my counter to remind me of my good life. Today I filled it with the gift of basil from a friend's garden and I began again to think about Abundance.

There's a verse in the Bible that says "I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

Right now, I am ignoring the fact that I have an abundance of papers to grade. The chocolaty abundant smell of brownies is wafting from my oven because we are going to a goodbye party for a youth director who was loved abundantly. I'm sure the tears will be abundant.

I'm not sure I know what abundance life is, but I'm going to keep my eyes open to it. Anyway, my birthday is tomorrow and it seems like a good way to start the year.

Getting started

The first post is the scariest. Set the tone, get it right, be compelling enough to capture those millions of cyberspace readers just drooling for more words. More words? Well maybe my sister will read it, and that would be a start.

With those four sentences my New Year's Resolution is now a reality. Except I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions, but if I had, starting a blog would be one of them. Either way, I'm not giving up the feeling of accomplishment oozing up in me right now.

But this is meant to be a blog about Education. About my education, about my kid's education, about other kid's education and about how I am trying to make a difference in that process. Sitting here at my computer today isn't helping since Maia, the only child I am responsible for right now, is watching TV. The other child went off mountain biking with his dad and his grandpa while I stayed in bed to read The Wonder of Boys by Michael Gurian. I've been trying to read this book for years, but such good fiction gets in the way. In it Gurian talks about the need for boys to have a tribe, a first, second and third family, who invest in his life. And I think what a good thing Chongo and his dad and grandpa have ridden up the hill together, three generations of men and almost men. Of course Chongo doesn't care about biking with dad and grandpa. He cares about his computer. What Chongo is learning is that his parents mean it when we say you have to get exercise if you want to play your computer games for hours.

Maybe my next post will be about school.