Perspective

Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, "You owe me." Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.
~Hafiz of Persia

Absolutely beautiful.  This personification goes a long way in making my heart smile.  Love it.

Today was a sunny spring day here in the middle of somewhere.  At 60 degrees, we experienced a heat wave...and it felt good.  My students are absolutely incredible and, as usual, amazed me again today.  That felt good as well.  When reading their response journals (in which they engaged in a bit of character analysis), I came across some pretty amazing vocabulary for a first grader.  A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations. ~Patricia Neal

 

"Don't bunt.  Aim out of the ball park.  Aim for the company of immortals."  ~David Ogilvy 

This is exactly why my first graders write like THIS...because they believe they can (and because their teacher knew this about them all along).  I try diligently to teach by example.  I talk to my students...write with my students...in the very same way I do with you.  I presuppose that if they question my words, they'll ask the meaning...which they do, and then subsequently use in them in their own conversations and writing.  Much like a Mother Hen, I am proud of my little chicks.  I am glad they do not question their intelligence.  I certainly don't.   High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.  ~Jack Kinder

That's how many days until: 

I am anxiously awaiting my doctoral program interview.  For once in my life, I am not nervous about something so HUGE.  I am so excited, so ready.  I've made it this far...I hope, I hope, I HOPE the parting word is, simply,

YES. 

Two dear friends.  Two cherished comments. 

She said, "You, my friend, are an anomaly." He said, "Remember that you have a fan club."  No one has better friends than I do.

Notes to self: 

We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, when we are confident and believe we are going to win out.  ~Orison Swett Marden 

Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy. ~Brian Tracy

Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. ~Arnold H. Glasow

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. ~Thomas Henry Huxley, An Address to the Students of the Faculty of Medicine in University College, London, May 18, 1870

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. ~Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

You were born to win...but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. ~Zig Ziglar

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.  ~Henry Ford

It is never too late to be who you might have been. ~George Eliot