Small Town living, genograms and NANOWRIMO
I recognize that I have been remiss in writing the past few weeks. I will use the simple excuse that I have been busy. What can I say? I'm in a Master's program that runs on the quarter system. It makes for some pretty intense scheduling. I have had some thoughts going through my head though, and would like to take the time to share them here. As you can see, it's an entire conglameration of thoughts, so we will see whee it takes me.
My family and I moved from Utah to Ashland Oregon at the end of July. We have been here for several months now and it really has become home to us. The weather has been awesome. We are just now getting into the rainy season. Up until three weeks ago we have had nothing but blue sky and sunshine. This has made for some great times. There has been a lot of family walks, trips to Lithia Park, one of the most gorgeous parks I have ever seen, and plenty of bike rides. I have come to enjoy the small town feel of the whole place. As I walk or ride my bike to school each day, there is no shortage of people saying hello. Even the construction workers building the new residence halls say hello to me every morning. It's friendly. Neighbors even act like neighbors. It feels like the days before air conditioning and television sucked the human population indoors. Campus life is much the same way. There is no shortage of hellos and friendly conversations among strangers. Another perk of small town life has been my daughter's elementary school. What used to be places of community gathering have too often turned into locked down places where there is only one door open in or out. I understand why this is the case in the world we live in. At the same time, there is something missing in our schools today, and that is the sense of community and parental involvement that I feel is essential to success. Schools certainly do not seem to be a place where any and all can gather. Here in Ashland, the school year opened with a community dinner. All were welcomed. We were free to roam the halls and learn about where we were going to be sticking our children for seven hours a day. We were able to get to know the parents of our daughter's friends, and see how we could get involved as parents with the school. It was a great event. I have been surprised to see that this has carried over throughout the school year. We don't have to worry about showing up to pick up our kids from school ten minutes before the bell rings and have people look at us like we are up to no good. During a recent model rocket launch the parents were invited to watch, the event was slightly delayed as the teachers and kids prepped for the big event. A lot of parents were there to see. During the delay, we were all allowed to wait in the school and some even went into the classroom to help their kids with last minute preparations. This was not seen as strange. We weren't questioned by school authorities. We weren't treated as suspects. We were welcomed with open arms and accepted as a vital part of the school community. Safety is still important. I don't feel like its compromised. It's simply really neat to see a community be allowed to come together like this. As for the educational experience my daughter is experiencing. It is challenging. It is interactive. It is engaging. She's learning to play the guitar. In school. What a novel idea. They learned about the solar system by taking a walking field trip downtown to scale the distances between planets in the solar system. They are going on field trips to Crater Lake, 2 1/2 hours out of town, twice, to see the ecological differences between fall and springtime. It's quite amazing. I just really enjoy this town. My church community is second to none. We were invited to dinner every weekend for nearly two months. They are genuine and many are already true friends. It's a town built for interaction and acceptance, and that has treated us just fine. It's a nice reminder in many ways of how the world should be. It's not perfect, but certainly one of the most satisfying experiences I have ever had. May we all learn to be a little better. A little small town living in our big city lives would do us all some good.
In my Masters program we were recently given an assignment to prepare a family genogram. A genogram is similar to a family tree, but it tends to contain more detailed information about the family system and connections. It is one strategy used in family counseling, and a nice tool to have in the toolbox as a future counseling professional. I took this assignment very personally. In fact, initially I made it WAY TO BIG in my head. I was becoming overwhelmed with the project really fast. Thankfully, I got myself under control and scaled it back a bit. Even in doing so, I found it to be a very rewarding experience. I was able to gather many pictures of family members. Of the 39 people who made up my genogram, 16 of them have passed away in my lifetime. All of them I have had relationships with in some way. Each has special meaning for me. I have been blessed with an extremely close family, and this assignment over the past week has been one of reflection and gratitude. Thinking about my emotional connections with my family members, as well as their struggles, humbled me, brought tears to my eyes at times, and gave me a greater sense of myself. I recommend you try doing it sometime. There are many places to go to help one get started. It's a google search away. Just type family genogram. Work with it. Have fun with it. See what you discover.
November is National Novel Writers Month. NANOWRIMO for short. The challenge is to write a novel, more specifically 50,000 words, in a month. I admit that I have yet to successfully pull this off. I am going to try it again this year. It's going to be a challenge. This year though, I am going into it with a blank slate and no expectations. I am going to lower the walls, get creative, and just see where the thing takes me. Sometimes I hold myself to an impossible standard. My only standard this go around is to get to 50,000 words. Some of you may be up to the challenge. Go for it. If you do it, share it with me. My commitment to my readers is that if I pull it off, I will post all 50,000 words. Good or bad. It's an exciting prospect. Feel free to go for it yourself. Check out www.nanowrimo.org. You can set up a profile to track your progress. If you're really ambitious find you local club and meet with them for study sessions. Or, just find your favorite desk, chair, or corner booth and write away.
Happy writing!!!!!
My family and I moved from Utah to Ashland Oregon at the end of July. We have been here for several months now and it really has become home to us. The weather has been awesome. We are just now getting into the rainy season. Up until three weeks ago we have had nothing but blue sky and sunshine. This has made for some great times. There has been a lot of family walks, trips to Lithia Park, one of the most gorgeous parks I have ever seen, and plenty of bike rides. I have come to enjoy the small town feel of the whole place. As I walk or ride my bike to school each day, there is no shortage of people saying hello. Even the construction workers building the new residence halls say hello to me every morning. It's friendly. Neighbors even act like neighbors. It feels like the days before air conditioning and television sucked the human population indoors. Campus life is much the same way. There is no shortage of hellos and friendly conversations among strangers. Another perk of small town life has been my daughter's elementary school. What used to be places of community gathering have too often turned into locked down places where there is only one door open in or out. I understand why this is the case in the world we live in. At the same time, there is something missing in our schools today, and that is the sense of community and parental involvement that I feel is essential to success. Schools certainly do not seem to be a place where any and all can gather. Here in Ashland, the school year opened with a community dinner. All were welcomed. We were free to roam the halls and learn about where we were going to be sticking our children for seven hours a day. We were able to get to know the parents of our daughter's friends, and see how we could get involved as parents with the school. It was a great event. I have been surprised to see that this has carried over throughout the school year. We don't have to worry about showing up to pick up our kids from school ten minutes before the bell rings and have people look at us like we are up to no good. During a recent model rocket launch the parents were invited to watch, the event was slightly delayed as the teachers and kids prepped for the big event. A lot of parents were there to see. During the delay, we were all allowed to wait in the school and some even went into the classroom to help their kids with last minute preparations. This was not seen as strange. We weren't questioned by school authorities. We weren't treated as suspects. We were welcomed with open arms and accepted as a vital part of the school community. Safety is still important. I don't feel like its compromised. It's simply really neat to see a community be allowed to come together like this. As for the educational experience my daughter is experiencing. It is challenging. It is interactive. It is engaging. She's learning to play the guitar. In school. What a novel idea. They learned about the solar system by taking a walking field trip downtown to scale the distances between planets in the solar system. They are going on field trips to Crater Lake, 2 1/2 hours out of town, twice, to see the ecological differences between fall and springtime. It's quite amazing. I just really enjoy this town. My church community is second to none. We were invited to dinner every weekend for nearly two months. They are genuine and many are already true friends. It's a town built for interaction and acceptance, and that has treated us just fine. It's a nice reminder in many ways of how the world should be. It's not perfect, but certainly one of the most satisfying experiences I have ever had. May we all learn to be a little better. A little small town living in our big city lives would do us all some good.
In my Masters program we were recently given an assignment to prepare a family genogram. A genogram is similar to a family tree, but it tends to contain more detailed information about the family system and connections. It is one strategy used in family counseling, and a nice tool to have in the toolbox as a future counseling professional. I took this assignment very personally. In fact, initially I made it WAY TO BIG in my head. I was becoming overwhelmed with the project really fast. Thankfully, I got myself under control and scaled it back a bit. Even in doing so, I found it to be a very rewarding experience. I was able to gather many pictures of family members. Of the 39 people who made up my genogram, 16 of them have passed away in my lifetime. All of them I have had relationships with in some way. Each has special meaning for me. I have been blessed with an extremely close family, and this assignment over the past week has been one of reflection and gratitude. Thinking about my emotional connections with my family members, as well as their struggles, humbled me, brought tears to my eyes at times, and gave me a greater sense of myself. I recommend you try doing it sometime. There are many places to go to help one get started. It's a google search away. Just type family genogram. Work with it. Have fun with it. See what you discover.
November is National Novel Writers Month. NANOWRIMO for short. The challenge is to write a novel, more specifically 50,000 words, in a month. I admit that I have yet to successfully pull this off. I am going to try it again this year. It's going to be a challenge. This year though, I am going into it with a blank slate and no expectations. I am going to lower the walls, get creative, and just see where the thing takes me. Sometimes I hold myself to an impossible standard. My only standard this go around is to get to 50,000 words. Some of you may be up to the challenge. Go for it. If you do it, share it with me. My commitment to my readers is that if I pull it off, I will post all 50,000 words. Good or bad. It's an exciting prospect. Feel free to go for it yourself. Check out www.nanowrimo.org. You can set up a profile to track your progress. If you're really ambitious find you local club and meet with them for study sessions. Or, just find your favorite desk, chair, or corner booth and write away.
Happy writing!!!!!
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