Looking Beyond the Single Point that is Now


I have been immersed in some heavy conversations and reading this week. HEAVY. Racism. Sexism. Elitism.

It’s January and by the end of the week, it’ll already be February. January’s Dear Teachers was about Now. Summing up my January essays into a single, cohesive message:

We move now, together, with what we have in our grasp- with hope that both we and things will grow.


As I look at February’s writings, I see the month’s messages moving to either side of this point on the timeline: yesterday and tomorrow.

As I mentioned before, my work this week has sunk me deep into what’s in front of us now. I’ve also been exploring what happened in the past to get us to this now. I’m finishing up reading The New Jim Crow and Evicted, both extremely powerful books. Finally, I can look ahead with clearer eyes. To the work that needs doing. Desperately. I see some helpful reminders in my own writing and the voices I’ve heard recently that I will share soon. As the image quote suggests, starting now (with what we have in our grasp, etc) is better than never starting at all.

I hope you’re looking forward to the coming month. It holds promise to you. I hope you find time to truly see what you have. You’ll feel better for it. I hope you both give and receive at least one gift of a compliment and of appreciation this week. You deserve it.

(Folks in school management- I know you have your own tools for this, but Dr. Amy Fast had a great suggestion this week from her own principal. Get your teachers out of their classrooms for a few minutes and ask the students to “love bomb” their teachers with some sticky notes on their wall. Cool idea!!)

As Agatha Christie once said,


“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”



We’re here now. It's insane at times. However, let’s do this!! Together!!!


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