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Success and Failure

10/29/2015

Success An epigram a day

Success is no less chance than effort, Work energizes, indolence lethargizes.
It is an opinion and not an absolute,
A moment and not an eternity, Tenacity is sagacity.
Not salvation, only a touch of grace,
Something to be savored, not devoured, When talent is lacking, persistence
Something of which to be silently thankful. obliges.

It is the step beyond expectation and
Talent and Genius obligation that spells success.

Talent is honed, Whatever you do will reflect you.
Genius is born
Talent makes life -JM
Possible and bearable,
Genius adds
An awesome glow!

Failure

Failure comes not from without,
It ever comes from deep within!
Circumstances can be devastating,
But only if permitted to be so!
Fate resides within and not without,
That's what it's all about!

-JM

The Three Spiders

Once there were three spiders who lived in the same garden. One day the first spider spun her usual web, then sat waiting for a fly to become entrapped. After sitting for awhile, the spider grew bored. "I am not happy just sitting," she decided. "I must find something to do." She thought awhile then she began to work on her web. "My web is fine just as it is," she thought, "but everything can be improved." She spun her thread and added a line here and there, until she had a design that pleased her: long straight sticky lines for her to traverse, intersected by perfect smaller arcs. "I like it," she decided and she sat to rest. Just then a fly flew into the web, so the spider scurried down one of the main lines to wrap it up.
At the other end of the garden lived another spider, who had also spun a web that morning. When she finished, she sat waiting for a fly. She had to wait and wait, but she was content to just sit until a fly came for her to wrap up.
In the middle of the garden, behind a rose bush, the third spider quickly spun a sloppy web. It began as a circle then became an oval with a few uneven lines crossing it. It was not a pretty web, "but it will catch a fly as well as any other web," she said to herself. And indeed, eventually she caught a fly, albeit a rather scrawny one.
Later in the day, the spiders visited each other, as they were wont to do when their work was done. On this day, they met at the first spider's web. She was proud of her web but said nothing. "What a fine web," the second spider said. "But why do you go to so much trouble? I catch as many flies as you and I have time to rest and play."
"But I like to work," the first spider answered. "Work is play for me."
The other two spiders looked at each other and smiled. What a crazy thing to say.
"That is way too much work for me," the third spider said. "I may not catch as many flies as you, but I catch what I need, and I too, have time to rest and play."
That evening, a big wind came up. It blew against the spiders' webs and soon tore them to shreds. The first spider's web held against the wind longer than the other webs, but finally it too, succumbed to the gusts. The first spider huddled inside the eave above her web and waited for morning. She was not concerned. This was the life of a spider.
The next morning dawned clear and calm. The three spiders emerged from their shelters to check their webs. All three webs were shredded beyond repair. The first spider set to work. She had to bite away the bits of her old web before she could begin a new one. While she was working, the second spider came by.
"It is a pity," that spider said. "You went to so much work and now your web is gone, just as is mine. All that work for nothing."
"Oh no," the first spider answered. "I enjoyed making that web. Besides, now I can try something new. I think I will try to make colors this time. Wouldn't it be beautiful to have a web of many colors?"
Just then, the third spider crawled in. She looked bedraggled and sad.
"Oh, woe is me!" she cried. "My web is gone. What shall I do?"
"Our webs are gone too," said the second spider. "But we can rebuild them."
"But then it will just be blown away again," the other answered. "And I am so tired from the storm. Couldn't I just move in with one of you?"
"No," they both answered promptly. "We are spiders. It is our way to live alone on our webs. You must go back and rebuild your own web."
The first spider began work on her new web, trying to create colors. She didn't know if she could do it, but it would be fun and challenging to try. The second spider went to rebuild her web, just the same as always. She would have time to rest when her web was done. And the third spider crawled back to her rose bush to sit and cry. Finally she began to rebuild her web, taking many rests. She had no fly to eat that day.
The next day, the gardener came by. In the rose bush she saw a bedraggled spider sitting huddled next to a poorly designed web. In the web was one little fly. In the vegetable garden, she found a spider web with several trapped insects and a spider feeding on one. And near the house, under the roof overhang, she saw a beautifully designed web, with arcs that glistened in the sun and reflected the light to make little rainbows. "How beautiful," the gardener said to herself. "Thank you, little spider."
Under the roof, the first spider smiled to herself. Her hard work had paid off in so many ways.

-MW

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Autumn Weekends

10/24/2015

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Putting Away Summer

Sunday mornings in Autumn are well spent putting away summer. In August the Gravenstein apples ripen. We pick and pick, trying to get the ripe apples before they fall. There are too many apples to eat and to use, but we try. Put away the best to eat through October, make applesauce, make pies. We are famous for our pies. He washes, peels and slices while she makes the pie dough. Chill the dough and mix the apples with spices, sugar and other ingredients. Fill the pie shells and bake. Then freeze and whenever company comes, there will be an apple pie for dessert. The fun part is at the end, when she uses the left-over dough to make whatever suits her fancy: a mini-pie, an open-faced “pita” (his favorite), or just roll the dough with cinnamon and sugar for a midday treat.

Next come the Golden Delicious. By now, we are rather tired of apples and these don’t make good pies anyway. So we eat a few, offer them to neighbors, or make a bit of applesauce to go with pork chops later in the season.

Now the squash. She cuts it and sautés it with celery, carrots, onion or leek, and then adds broth and cooks until all is soft. Then she purees it in the 30+ year old Waring blender, its avocado green a bit faded but still working after all these years. The soup, too, we freeze,because it tastes so good on a cold winter day. But the left-over broth is used to make soup for today’s lunch.

And finally, the tomatoes. Slow to ripen this year, they are suddenly bursting at the branches’ seams with round red fruit. We can’t keep up, despite eating them daily and giving them to neighbors. So we make tomato sauce. The blender is again put to use. Wash and cut the tomatoes, and put them into the blender. Then pour into a large pot and boil until it becomes a thick sauce. The flavor is intense and makes great spaghetti sauce when we take it out of the freezer later in the season. Sometimes we take out some sauce early in the cooking process and strain it to make a thinner sauce for soup. The foam that forms at first has a wonderful flavor but we haven’t found a use for it yet. Could it be mixed into eggwhite and served with fish?

She is now trying a dehydrator as well. Dried tomatoes and kale chips are so good, but they get eaten right away and thus are not preserved for winter.

So now we are ready for Winter. Spaghetti tonight? Get out a container of tomato sauce. A cold, rainy day? Get out the squash soup. Company coming tonight? Defrost an apple pie. Is he making his famous breaded pork chops? Get out a container of apple sauce to go with it. And with each meal, savor the taste of summer that accompanies the meal.

-MW

Sunday Morn

How better than breakfast to start the day?

Two soft-boiled eggs with salt and pepper,
Lean strips of bacon, crisp and brown,
Two slices of toast with Danish butter,
A mug of coffee with cream and sugar,
A dear companion across the table,
And a newspaper to read or browse.

How better to start a Sunday morn?

-JM

An epigram a day:

Common sense is everyman's wisdom.

One is no less and no more than what one thinks, feels and does.

Better to have little and treasure it than to have much and only possess it.

Whatever you do will reflect you.

Indolence can be a pause that refreshes.

-JM

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Tranquility

10/14/2015

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Doe in the garden The Enigma of Being and Becoming
Lying tranquilly
Welcome sight    The world keeps changing,
After a hard day. Keeps beginning.
Life keeps beginning and keeps ending.
-MW Keeps changing.
Yet all is ever the same in its ever-changing self!

Saturday   Each of us is unique and common,
Morning in Autumn.   Each of us is a new repetition of old repetitions,
Blue sky, crisp still air, We are but echoes of echoes in an endless tunnel,
Dry leaves crunch under my feet. Life's endless recycling of itself.
Wildlife everywhere. Yet all is ever the same in its ever-changing self!
Autumn, season of
Peace and Love. Each moment the world
  Is all it ever was and all it ever will be.
-MW Each moment life
  Is all it ever was and all it will ever be.
The moment is eternity in time
And oneness in multiplicity.
Nothing is ever lost and nothing ever gained,
All else is but illusion.

-JM

Autumn Mornings

Now that I am retired, I have a new morning routine. A calm, tranquil start to the day. After a walk and breakfast, I sit at the computer, looking out at the yard and writing. This is the time of the morning when all the animals visit the oak to feed off its acorns. The bluejay sits waiting for its peanut. After storing the peanut, it goes into the oak to find insects. The squirrels scurry up and down the branches of the oak and along the fence line, eating, gathering, and playing.The hummingbird, bees and occasional butterfly prefer the lavender and sage down below by the path. Some mornings a deer wanders in to forage for acorns below the oak.And a gaggle of turkeys may drop by to drink from the fountain. All are intent on their business, oblivious to and tolerant of the others. and surprisingly quiet. True, the squirrels occasionally tussle a bit, but not in earnest. And the crows fly in to hassle the others, but they soon fly off again. Peace reigns. Indoors, I watch, at peace as well. For the moment, I can forget world affairs, family issues, mundane worries, and focus on the garden and my writing. A beautiful way to start each day.

-MW

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Life: Work and Play

10/7/2015

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On Work and Play

We tend to separate work and play. We see work as something that is not necessarily pleasant but must be done and play as something to do when work is done. School reflects this. In Kindergarten, we do our work and when all is done, then the students get play time. Those who haven’t finished their work do that during play time. Many Kindergarten classes don’t have a play time at all; there is too much work to get done.
In the garden the other day, I was sitting in the garden pulling weeds. I was reminded of playing in the dirt as a child making mud pies and other recipes. I actually had a book my sister had given me titled “How to Make Mudpies and Other Recipes.” I loved that book and often used it in play. Well, I no longer play in the garden, but I do work. And is there much difference?
I can justify the work: the weeds need to be pulled, I am getting the garden in shape and besides, I need the exercise. So it is work: something that needs to be done. However, it resembles the play of my childhood. I am doing something I enjoy, by my own volition. I derive pleasure and gain knowledge from doing it. So it is workplay, the best type of activity, I would say.
So too, did my kindergartners play. At playtime, they chose the activity, it was something from which they derived pleasure, but it was also an activity from which they drew many lessons. And thus it is important that they do it. We call it play, we let them do it only when their work is done, cancel it when time is limited , but it is so important. There are those, usually boys, who choose Lego each time. They are learning about how shapes fit together, they learn to plan and create, they learn social skills as they negotiate with their neighbor for the piece they need, and they derive great pride from their creations. Others choose Play-doh, learning about cause and effect, negotiation again, and cooperation.
The “box”, a simple box filled with paper scraps and other left-overs from class projects, was a big hit last year. Students showed great creativity making crowns, puppets, books, and cards. Then there are the block builders, the computer kids, the math manipulators…all are choosing an activity of their own volition, learning science and math concepts and learning to cooperate with other children besides. They are learning language, engaging in discussion, a common core standard. They also learn to clean up after themselves, an essential life skill.
We call this play! And we limit it to 20 minutes a day. It used to be that play was most of the Kindergarten day, as nursery school is today. No longer. We spend the rest of the day on “serious”, standards-based curriculum. But with creativity and will, we can turn this curriculum into workplay as well. The trick is to choose activities that are designed to teach a given concept but that also engage students, that teach through play, that offer some choice and autonomy, that allow them to work with other students. This is more easily said than done but the new common core standards allow for and encourage more of this than the follow-the-textbook practices of the past years. The new/old project-based learning (PBL), allows the students to be a part of the planning process instead of spoon feeding them, lets them be active participants, and tries to find authentic, engaging themes. Some say this is impossible with young children. But in the past several years, I had my Kindergarten students design and create a city, research and design their own bugs, and research the sugar content in cereal. In all of these lessons, they were engaged, working together, engaging in discussion, in short, engaged in play.
I hope then, that teachers everywhere will allow for more workplay in their classrooms, all while following the standards and making sure their students are well-prepared for the world at large.

MW
10/7/15

Don't Just

Don't just look, see.
Don' t just hear, listen.
Don't just talk, say.
Don't just smile laugh.
Don't just exist, live.

Don' t justt be a nobody, be a somebody.
Don't just be a spectator, be a participant.
Don't just criticize, appreciate.
Don't just weakly smile, laugh aloud.
Don't just seethe and hate, love with abandon.

Be more of it and more intensely,
Be more balanced and more whole.

-JM

Admonitions

Don't
Just look, but see,
Just hear, but listen,
Just sniff, but smell,
Just touch, but feel,
Just tear, but weep,
Just eat, but taste,
Just copy, but create,
Just think, but reflect,
Just be, but be someone.

The first of the two is not enough,
The second must complement the first
Or else the self will be denied.

-JM

It is better to pull than to push.

To want to do is easy,
To do is quite another matter.

Work is invigorating,
Indolence is debilitating.

Not to dare is to sit and stare.

Expectations are both boon and bane.

-JM

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Autumn

10/1/2015

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The oak stands, sturdy trunk,
Branches outspread to all:
Shade, acorns, protection,
A friend to those who seek.

Black crows land noisily,
Grab an acorn and fly.
Squirrel scurries up branches,
Not to be left behind.

Blue jay on the railing
Sits waiting patiently,
Says, Give my daily peanut,
No acorns for me.
Placid doe, stands beneath,
Alone, unseen, she chews.

All there in harmony,
The oak meeting their needs.
And I too, at peace, watch,
Enjoy the company.

-MW

The Paradox of Life

The living presence of the past
Is helpful guide and ready warning.
But the present is more than is and was:
A meld that houses and spawns the future,
A presence of life in its full richness,
All too is content flux yet nothing passes.
A oneness in multiplicity
And a timelessness in time.
A paradox beyond our ken
But a solace and comfort
in our bewilderment.

-JM

We know time in timelessness and multiplicity in oneness.

We live as long as we are remembered.

Every beginning is a new challenge.

Silence can be as telling as words.

Aloneness is existential, loneliness is circumstantial.

-JM

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