I did not write this morning. We had a virtual English department meeting where we discussed curriculum, books, units of study, among many other things.
So this will go up a little later than usual, but since no one’s holding their breath waiting for it, it will be OK. Confession time for me, I had major writer’s block today. I sat here looking at a blank blog post with no idea what to write about. I started typing probably ten to fifteen different things, only to delete them and begin again. I was staring off into space when my eyes found the schedule that we have been asking our children to keep each day. Full disclosure, we went off the rails today with our hike, my meeting, and my wife’s meeting, but we’re trying. So when we send our kids off to journal each day, either my wife or I give them a prompt. Sometimes I’ll give them the opening line of a story, and they have to write the rest. Other times we just want to know what they are thinking and feeling about how life has flipped, turned upside down (old school reference).
Funny story, today they DID NOT want to journal. Kari asked them to write about the following. If there was one thing they could invent, what would it be and why? Norah, who is usually our little bucket filler, was in tears and complaining about having to do it, and told Kari she was going to invent a place without parents, because parents are the meanest! I’m pretty sure we’ve seen how that one plays out.
I haven’t read her journal today so I don’t know if that’s what she really wrote about but it made me laugh.
This will shock many of you, but I have a tendency to look at things from a negative perspective. I am probably a pessimist, and a believer in what Bob Knight calls the power of negative thinking. I am thinking about all the worst-case scenarios and how to prevent them instead of looking for the positive.
Today was a day where that side of my personality was on full display. I was not/have no been very pleasant to be around. Not sure why, but it’s been a little rough.
So my ticket out of writer’s block dungeon came from a prompt that I gave them a few days ago when they were acting the way that I was today. It is something we ask them regularly. So, we asked them this the other day:
What are you grateful for?
In no particular order, I am incredibly grateful for the following:
1) My wife.
Yup, going cliche with my first one. There is seriously no one else that I can possibly imagine being quarantined with. She is a ridiculously good planner, purchaser, organizer, etc. I am terrible at pretty much all those things. She has done an amazing job in keeping our household going since the day we started down this crazy COVID-19 path, and I am lucky to have her.
2) My kids
I know cliche #2 right? Honestly though, as much as sometimes I’d like to offer them up free of charge to the first person who shows interest, they are honestly pretty great. They are smart, funny, sarcastic, creative, and have been mostly flexible with this craziness. I am very grateful that they have “bought-in” to our homeschool plan, and still want to snuggle and say “I love you”. They are also pretty cute.
3) The outdoors
I love being outdoors. I love hiking, I love camping, I love being on the lake. One of the aspects of this quarantine that I am grateful for is that we have spent more time outside as a family than we have in quite a while. The kids always play outside, but for us as a family to do it all together is pretty rare. We have been taking walks with the dogs and exploring some parks and trails near us.
4) Funny people
Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, text groups that I am in, there have been some really great memes created by folks out there on the interweb. In what has been a less than humorous situation, these little moments of laughter, often shared laughter, have been a source of light-heartedness and for that I am grateful.
5) Journalism
No picture here, but I appreciate good writers from reputable sources, who have done solid research, and are presenting the facts. I don’t think reporting the facts and calling out something that is not accurate makes you bias, I think it makes you a good reporter. Whatever your politics are, you should be sure that what you are reading is factual and well researched. Then go read up on the topic from a few different sources. I always try to do this because even though the facts might be the same from source to source, maybe they interject their own take on the story that makes me think deeper about how I feel.
6) Healthcare workers
This one should be obvious. As these real-life heroes are being overwhelmed in hospitals all over our country, they continue to show up day after day after day and just freaking rock! They are constantly putting themselves, and therefore their families, at-risk every time they show up for a shift, and I for one am grateful beyond words.
This post is already my longest so I will close by asking you to think about what/who you are grateful for? As Drew Dudley said in his phenomenal TED talk on lollipop leadership, “We celebrate birthdays, where all you have to do is not die for 365 days, yet we let people who have made our lives better walk around without knowing it.”
Thank you for reading.
Stay safe, stay healthy, STAY HOME, and always remember, PEOPLE, CARE ABOUT YOU!
The High Release 
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