I am a husband, writer, and teacher exploring what it means to cultivate mental silence.

First full week of summer break...

First full week of summer break...I used to have a habit of writing a bit each day then looking back at that writing focusing on a golden line from each day using them to create a unique piece of writing. As the first full week of my summer break is coming to a close I thought I would try to create this week's post from the golden lines I've identified. Earlier in the week I hung out with Sally, at her house, planning for the summer writing class for teachers that I have mentioned here before. We had a great time planning. Since that day we've created a Google document that we are using to continue our planning remotely. One of the cool things I thought we'd try this year is to hyper-link documents we are going to use right into the planning document...making it easier to access them. As I mentioned in my last post I wanted to spend more time meditating and I have accomplished that...meditating at least 60 minutes a day. There is only one way to create my own peace and that is to ACT...more meditating being one of the things that I feel will create that peace. Reading is another ACT. I'm reading this really cool book titled: How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. It's an exploration into the world of psychedelics. My purpose for reading it is to see what sort of insights the author has been able to glean through his "research" as I myself attempt to gleen my own insights using other "tools" like meditation. I've also spent a good deal of time writing this past week. Most of that writing has been focused on completing a proposal for a book I want teachers to read and (coincidentally) use themselves as a "tool" to reflect on their own practice in an attempt to re-imagine the students they work with. I guess you could say that I have taken full advantage of my summer break so far and it feels so good! The only "downer" of the week was that for a portion of it...I gained some weight...almost 4 pounds to be exact. That might not sound terrible to you but to me...it's borderline catastrophic! There was a time in my life that I weighed over 200 pounds and that does not look good on a 5'9" man. Through diet and exercise I lost over 50 pounds and I do not plan on being that 200 pound guy ever again! Weighing in this morning I found myself back to the weight that I am happy with!If you are curious...yes I did use each of my 5 golden lines...at least a version of them...in this post. Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to work more on my proposal!

Second full week of summer break...

Summer post #1...