Tag: behavior

• Self-Inflicted and Poorly Supervised

  May 24

  I know I don’t need caffeine. That’s the first honest thing I write today, and I almost want to stop there because it already sounds like the kind of sentence… more ›

• The Fine Art of Holding a Grudge

  May 24

  When we were kids, grudges lasted about six minutes.Someone stole your crayon, you cried, your mom intervened, and ten minutes later you were both eating the same bag of chips… more ›

• If Only For A Moment…

  May 11

  On Sunday, Mother’s Day, during the second hour of a four-hour gig, something extraordinary happened. As I stood beneath a tree playing my trumpet, a hummingbird suddenly appeared. It circled… more ›

• The Discipline of Presence

  May 6

  I said this to a group of colleagues the other day. We were talking about the apparent apathy we see in students—and in many adults. “Failing to show up is… more ›

• Mirror, Mirror on My Desk…

  May 6

  We spend a lot of time looking outward. At expectations. At what other people are doing, saying, or thinking. We compare, we react, we adjust. Most of our day is… more ›

• Alone at the Happiest Place on Earth

  Apr 25

  Most people would say the Disneyland Resort isn’t a place you go alone.That doing so feels equal parts pathetic and depressing. And maybe… on paper, it is. But I did… more ›

• Little-Known Facts About Me

  Apr 8

  If you look back long enough, you start to notice the strange little things that were always there. Not the big milestones. Not the obvious moments. The quieter details— the… more ›

• Pieces of Eight

  Apr 5

  Education has been my formal career for the last twenty-seven years—but teaching? That’s something I’ve been doing since.. geez I can’t even remember. Coaching, community art classes, day camps… if… more ›

• No Schedule, Just Sunlight and Shortcuts to Nowhere

  Apr 4

  I grew up in the 70s and 80s, in a city that felt like it was still learning its own edges. Streets weren’t lined with development yet, and blank spaces—lots… more ›

• Scraped Knees and Torn Jeans

  Apr 3

  There was a time when play was king—not the quiet, sit-down kind, but the loud, dusty, borderline-dangerous kind that required sunscreen you never used and rules you barely followed.  It… more ›

• Throwing Words Into the Wind

  Apr 1

  Let me tell you a story…something I learned about myself, and only fully recently acknowledged. This won’t be a confession of weakness, nor a tale of courage or inner strength.… more ›

• The Longest Day – Sanitized, Signed In, and Socially Distanced

  Mar 25

  I’ve had long days before. I mean, who hasn’t. Everyone has a horror story or two about work, some more drink worthy than others. A friend and I were recently… more ›

• A Little Bit of Us in Everything

  Mar 23

  I saw this quote today, and it resonated with me deeply:“We are writers, my love. We don’t cry. We bleed on paper.”I have no idea who wrote it, but it… more ›

• Kinder Chronicles, Room 3, 1974

  Mar 23

  Teacher’s log, Kinder Day 31 I used to think I was in charge. That illusion lasted exactly four minutes on the first day of school—right up until Little Tommy licked… more ›

• Between Me and Myself

  Mar 22

  Sometimes the quietest conversations are the ones we have with ourselves.They come in fragments—moments of memory, glimpses of people we’ve loved, the echo of a voice we thought we’d lost.… more ›