It’s Christmass eve. My family is together. My children are home for the holidays. My daughter is home from school, and my son finally took a full week off from work. My wife is out shopping for presents and for the dinner we are going to have tomorrow with her sister and her family. This is also a new beginning for me. I have promised myself, ahead of the typical 1/1 resolution-day deadline, to follow Daniel Pink’s advice and write 500 words per day. I am not sure how long 500 words is in terms of the screen space in the WordPress blog. But if I keep it up, I will soon know. It’s not too much to ask. And persistence is the point, so I will not be too obsessive about it right now. What should I write about today? My feelings are up, probably because the new year is approaching. Much as I resisted the new year resolution deadline to get started, I am also a strong believer in the power of beginnings. So, maybe the pending change is what is motivating me to start writing again. I used to write a lot, and have picked it up again again, only to loose site of my goal and fall back to silence. This time, I hope, it will be different.
So, that was about 220 words. I just counted. I am halfway there. As I keep it up, it will be easier, I am sure. One option I have is to use this decision to enter all of the scraps of writing I have in my various partially started journals into this blog. That will allow me to catch up with myself as I build up my writing strength. Writing is meditation. If I can close my eyes and and allow my fingets to channnel my thoughts, I wiould be able to experience the peaceful flow of my thoughts more closely. So, I have turned off my monitor and ma simply following the tips of my fingers as they skate over the pesurface of my keyboard.
But I have my doubts about writing being like meditation. I guess I don’t undertand it fully yet. It freels like a theh way I felt when learning how todrive stick shift. there are a lot of startss and stops, jerky, hesitant momves that do not seem to add up to anything . Still, I go on.
there is so much on my mind. I will be teaching two classes this spring, one of them in two sections, the other one online. Theh online one I have taught before, so it should not be too difficult to reconstruct, though I have a lot of new ideas I want to try out this time. The two sections are one credit each, but both are new courses. They are also atypical courses in that they do not have any specific content. The goal is to help students understand the power of building and maintaining their own ePortfolios throughout their stay at our university and beyond. all of the students will be first year. I am really looking forward to it, but am also a bit nervouse. I guess that is par for the course.
Tiem to stop now and go out to hunt for presents. I plan to get books for my wife, my two grown children and my daughter’s boyfriend. I am sure I ahve written my 500 words for the day. Time to open my eyes!
