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A Grain of Salt Posts

What Counts?

I serve a global community where we help students get ready to speak. One way that takes shape is when students speak on public platforms we track. I’m often asked, “Does that count?”. When I reflect on my response to a specific line of thinking in my community that asks the question, I want to answer in a way that can be applied to a broader audience. We all ask in many places in our…

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In Honor of Poetic Sons

A poem composed for Bruegel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Blind to Death by Andrew Gunther The ploughman bends to his work, quiet and alone high above the shining sea, close to the view, close to the loam. The fisherman bends to his work, waiting for a catch, while a ship with starched white sails a brisk breeze waits to snatch. The ploughman, fisher, starched-sail ship, bend away the eye from a feathered son,…

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The Unloved Garden

There are several ways that a potted plant may find its way in my home for temporary viewing pleasure. But left in my hands the destination is always the same … the garbage. I have the habit of often buying a plant and enjoying it at peak flower with the best intentions of later planting it into our backyard garden. My pace and my own distractibility leaves the finish line for this type of project…

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Look Ma… No Hands

I didn’t think I sounded bossy. In fact, I was pretty tootin sure I was being reasonable and just pointing out something overlooked. Last night at the dinner table as my husband was placing the casserole down, I asked a simple question. “Did you see the pot of rice on the stove?” It was his response that rocked me. “I only have so many hands.” I immediately (a very dangerous speed for me) asked, “Did…

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Remember? Yes, I’ll always remember.

Remember?  Yes, I’ll always remember. This is a repeated line from a poem called, Ghost’s Grace by Paul Fleischman. Remember? Will I always remember? I don’t know if I can answer that so solidly sure. I find myself in a stage of life where I am squeezed in the middle between the 9 year old daughter and the 91 year old father. Recently, I have been dealing with my mother’s memory losses.  She doesn”t remember sitting…

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A Tale of Two

A Tale of Two– Have you heard this one on parenting? When you have one child it is tag team, when you have two children it is man to man defense and when you get to three children it is zone defense!! It is easy as a parent to look at two children and see them just as opposites. When I had our third child and it was a boy, I slowly realized that it…

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