The Past and The Present

Don't be in the past, either hurting or gloating.

Be in the present, living and loving.

- We all have so much to think about. Our minds are already filling up with all we have to do, and all the resolutions we want to keep this year.

This was my response to a friend wishing me well with my final semester of my masters:

Ahhhhhhhhhh! - classes begin 2morrow and I agreed to tutor 4 kids after school so I could pay for this semester - true test for me to close my eyes and envision a world of possibility, letting love emanate from every one of my cells to all those around me and all those back into me - (man surviving under harsh conditions – his evolution and very survival depends on it - and he can't do it alone)


We can't afford to live in the past, thinking about past disappointments or gloating about former achievements.

We learn from both types of experiences and move into the present moment.....the only moment where we have any power to make those resolutions come true.

There is no way to change the past by staying in it, but we can learn from it and change our lives in the present...right now, this very day.

And this makes every day a New Year's Day, and all the failures of the past can't change that. Our future is totally dependent on our ability to live in the present.

This was given to me by a friend. I think it goes very well with this write:

Go Over

Go Under

Go Around

or Go Through

....But never Give Up

- Unknown

*Here we're rockin out to the song at the end of a Bill Nye the Science Guy video....

And then getting to work on what we learned from it. Work Hard...PLAY EVEN HARDER! Our work is our play.

These pics were taken with my new digital camera - a Christmas gift from my students. I think they just wanted better shots of themselves :-)

They have given me something even greater, the gift of themselves. Together we have created a classroom of unconditional love, intense fun, and incredibly high academic growth. I may be tired by the end of the day, but every moment is worth it as I witness them changing into powerful, happy and independent learners.

Although my writings have decreased as my energy has dwindled, when I see the looks on our faces I have to share this....this......THIS is what IS possible. Can you imagine our tiny world being duplicated out over the planet? Our classrooms, work environments, and homes would all be incredible places to come to.

And it all can be, once the world inside of us changes.

It can happen. There's nothing stopping us but ourselves. We're all here to help inspire others and evolve our species. Just be yourself...play your part....and PLAY IT BIG! We literally change the world around us when we do. I'm just beginning to realize (trust?) how much I'm affecting others by giving them my best self. I know I am realizing how much they're affecting me.

Taneicea wrote me a letter over the break telling me all the ways I've helped her. She also gave me a ring. As I put it on next to the rings of my children, I realized she was part of my family now. They all are.

The fact that I love wearing the cap Skyler from last year gave me and still receive text messages from him shows me how much this is true (and not having to worry about how my hair looks is great :-)

A chance meeting with Belle from last year's class made me aware of something else. When you looked at me and almost shouted, "I'm not lying! I mean it", I was woken up from how much I'm still living in my own past, afraid to let anyone in. My heart opens out, but not in. Thank you Belle. I would love to share that story when I can create the time. I owe you for helping me learn to trust others again.

So until we "meet" again........Play hard today and give it your all! Focus on what could be versus what is. Get out of the past and into the Present......and change your life in 2008!

COURAGE

I came across a very moving quote on courage, added it to my MySpace profile page , and ended up lost in the section on what heroism is to me.....Nothing more than the courage to live life fully, hurt and unhurt, fully confident and fully crushed.....but STILL LIVED COURAGEOUSLY

Because it's in our living that we give life to this world...Giving our lives for the lives of others....Creating light in sometimes dark destruction.....and changing the bad into the good

And I simply copied this section of my page to share with you.....

Click to play "Per Me Per Sempre" by Eros Ramazzotti

(you might have to open another window to be able to listen to the song while reading the post at the same time)

NO MATTER WHAT....LIVE WILD AND FREE....UNAFRAID TO BE!

A HERO IS SOMEONE WHO HANGS ON ONE MINUTE LONGER,

HAVING THE COURAGE TO KEEP BELIEVING IN THEMSELVES AND OTHERS;

THAT TOGETHER, THEY CAN CREATE POWERFUL AND POSITIVE CHANGE,

AND A MORE BEAUTIFUL WORLD.

I WISH YOU INNER STRENGTH & ZEN, MY FRIEND.

AND MOMENTS THAT UPLIFT YOUR SPIRIT....

....AND BLOW AWAY YOUR SOUL

Check out this video: The Peaceful Warrior trailer



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ALL ARTISTS, ESPECIALLY POETS, PAINTERS, ACTORS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS & DEEP THINKERS ~ GIVE ME INCREDIBLE ENERGY TO KEEP ON GIVING MYSELF

WE ARE ALL HERE TO LIVE FEARLESSLY and DEVELOP OUR GIFTS FULLY, CHANGING THE WAY THE REST OF US THINK and SEE THE WORLD FOREVER

I Use it as Fuel For My Dreams

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

-Unknown

Sometimes you "build" a door by knocking down the wall in front of you. Doing this takes great inner strength, and total commitment, two requirements I have for my students. I think by the end of September everyone had "knocked down" at least one of their "walls".

The classes on both sides asked us to stop (including my son's), the booming sounds being too distracting. Even Brosden has asked me just exactly what we do, because it sounds and looks like anything but traditional "learning" (he came in while I was rocking out to The Godfathers, unphased since I'm this way at home, and naturally started playing a golf game on probability I had prepared.)

Before he left I put in Sinatra and made him serenade the class with me.......and I wonder where he gets his crazy warrior, wildly romantic zest for life......

Usually after morning announcements the crew listens to "Birth, School, Work, Death" (The Godfathers, 1988 - London) while writing in their reflection journals. I want them to practice taking responsibility of their own learning by determining their greatest needs for that day and matching it with the data I have on each of them. This personalizes individual instruction and truly seems to internally motivate, being that they are collaboraters with versus simply "employees" being told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it....Hence the significance of the song.....Birth, School, Work, Death......

This song/journal exercise helps "grab" their hearts and minds to make that total commitment to using this day to step bravely and intelligently in the direction of their greatest selves, uncovering their biggest weaknesses, and truly spending the day turning those weaknesses into strengths (and great dance moves...go Luis...go Luis...)

Last week when the song ended I would put some of their new school photos up on the big screen and spontaneously break out in a hilarious Adam Sandler, SNL impression, saying such things as

I'm Smiley Boy. Look at me. I like to smile. I'm smiling so much I look like a plastic smiley doll......Buy my plastic smiley doll for your kids so they smile too.....Buy one for those frowney neighbor kids next door, and make it a smiley world!

I'm Happy Boy. I'm so happy I have happy written all over my face.....I'm learning so much and feeling so good I can't help but be happy....Be a happy boy like me!

I'm Happy Boy too. I've finally changed from just being a good little, do-as-I'm told student, to somebody who actually understands what he's learning and able to use it for higher thinking. I am now free to roam the room like a learning scientist today. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I am free at last! Come on and be free like me!

I'm Bill Gates. I think school is boring. I'm dropping out of Harvard and going to work on computers in my garage. If school's not fun and interesting, then it's a waste of my time. I'm determined to Do Big and make Mr. Stuart's class fun and interesting for myself.....and then own the world like Pinky and the Brain (obviously the voices start changing to match the characters).

Hey! Little Billy Gates, Smiley Boy and the Happy Boy Twins.......I'm Scary Man, now get to work. Ya'll can laugh in this class as much as you want......but ya'll better be working too. Don't think I'm not watching you.....

I did other voice impressions for the girls' pictures but can't remember what they were. All I know is everyone was laughing, including me, which I couldn't believe because by noon each day I miss Sofia so much I feel as if blood is pouring out of the open wound in my chest, and I'm just too tired to try and stop the bleeding anymore, and I drop my hands to my sides, ready to just quit.

Oddly, everytime this happened last week, I would see a pair of hands come up and cover my wound for me, and I would grab hold of them and press them against my chest. Maybe it's God, an angel, the kind words I've received from family, friends and readers...maybe it's the Universe realizing it might have tested me a little too much this time....I don't know. But I'm grateful for those hands.

I then put in Andrea Boccelli and close my eyes, and begin to see pictures of an Italian countryside..... and feel as if I'm riding on a horse, with this unknown person to my side just out of my view. It is so vivid and real I feel as if perhaps I'm vibrating it into existense.....or maybe this is just a preview of what my heaven will look like. Either way, I hold on to this place until it's time to open my eyes and pick up the kids from lunch, and give again, finding out we are all capable of so much more than we think we are....much more than we can even imagine....and I am grateful for this latest challenge. I do not like it, but the battle is evolving me ever onward and upward.....

So.....as I begin a new week, I lift myself up and wipe the blood from my face...and smile as I get ready to head out the door. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I am stronger. I can't imagine anything happening today that will kill me, especially my spirit. Just like you, I am limitless...I am deathless.....Bring On The Pain.....I use it to fuel my dreams.

I don't want to ever sleep, so I can keep you forever.
- Kwaidan (1964 - Japan)


(Line I heard from a movie this morning...and just felt it resonate within.)

Open Arms

I AM OPEN AND RECEPTIVE TO ALL THE GOOD AND ABUNDANCE IN THE UNIVERSE.

~THANK YOU LIFE!~

(*from Luise Hay's, You Can Heal Your Own Life)

Closing the Gap

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

-Victor Borge

Nothing is Won by Force

This goes so well with my earlier post about not trying so hard to teach my son.

Nothing is won by force. I try to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it only be in praise. If I clench my fist, may it only be in prayer. If I make a demand, may it only be of myself.

- Max Lucado

Loyal Truth, Passionate Laughter

Be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth, fight your enemies with passion and laughter.

- Edward Abbey

Yesterday was the first day back for teachers. I've only had one week of "summer" with my masters classes and wasn't looking forward to starting back to "work". I was tired, giving my time during the day to the kids, and staying up until dawn giving time to research and writing. A friend and I took our children to the Nickelodeon Hotel for Bella's birthday and an end-of-summer bash, and I think I slept by the pool for 20 minutes. I was still well-tired from my summer when I left for Monday's morning meeting.

I only packed two things in my car: a framed portrait of Martin Luther King delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech, and the transfer papers for my daughter to attend Kindergarten at my school.

After the meeting I went up to my room. Before I knew it, I was feeling inspired all over again. I was looking at my new portrait resting against the wall in an empty room, and realizing that MLK didn't have a hope, or a really-really-really strong wish. He had a PASSION! And it was a passion for what he felt was the TRUTH for the people he LOVED!

He was also willing to fight his enemies TO THE DEATH in order to make it come true. And he did, both die and make his dream come true. And just as some might say blacks still aren't really equal, I would say Martin Luther King isn't really dead, inspiring new dreamers and leaders to continue the fight and more completely fulfill the dream. I see him in my room, and hear him speak his words. I'd say he's very much alive, at least in me and in room 208 at Sand Lake Elementary.

It's amazing how our lives are led by our vision; what we can "see" and "hear" as possible and real.

As I closed my door at the end of the day, I remember how just one year ago I used to "see" my own passion, truth and love just made me foolish and invaluable in today's world. I used to hear how others doubted and questioned my sincerity. But it was who and what I was and all I knew how to be. And if I was to die a fool, so be it. I would live and die as a Don Quixote, fighting imaginary windmills and believing in the beauty of Dolcineas. Now I realize it is the main reason miracles are produced every year in my classroom.

As I got to the stairs I realized it has also produced miracles in my life. I had an image of Sofia greeting me; seeing her smile and hearing her laughter, as I really will be in just a week. I felt rewarded for never letting the pain of not living with my children be too great to stop me from showing my children the great love I had for them.

And now they'll all be there, and it will be the greatest year of my life.

Be PASSIONATELY LOYAL in the fight for the TRUTH inside of you. And fight as if your life depended on it.....because IT DOES. That is, if you want to really live, and even live forever!

Peaceful Warrior

"I call myself a peaceful warrior, because the battles we fight are on the inside." - from the movie Peaceful Warrior

We Know Yet Know Not

"We know what we are,
but know not what we may be."

- William Shakespeare

Honesty is a Virtue - What a Quote!

I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.
Henry James
(1843-1916)

A Birthday Wish From Aristotle

Quotation of the Day

Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.
Aristotle
(384 BC-322 BC)

Thank you to all my friends who have been wishing me a happy birthday this week, including this guy, who has come back 2,300 years from the past to pop up on my page today.

Although I'll be a young 40 by week's end, I'm old enough to appreciate each and every well-wisher, be they shuffling their feet to their own beat here on earth, or be they surfing the never-ending waves of time on surf boards made of a lives well-lived.

The Power of the Word

The power of the word is real whether or not you are conscious of it. Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize. Behind every word flows energy.

-Sonia Choquette

Happy 88th Grandma!

Today is my Grandma Bette's 88th birthday. In honor of a truly wonderful and classy lady, I've found some poems and quotes that express how I feel about you, Grandma. I've also written one myself and included the flowers I did for you.

"Grandma, I feel blessed to have you in my life.
I feel blessed to be able to call you at night.
I feel blessed, to continue to be guided by you.
I feel blessed, through and through. "

- Adam Stuart
Your Grandson

Copyright © 2007 by Adam Stuart
All Rights Reserved

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!



Flowers for you
Because of my love for you
And for appreciation of the warmth you give me
Every time you say, "Adam, I love you"

GRANDMA

I really feel quite special
That God has chosen you.
To be a person in my life
Who knows me through and through.

The time that we spend talking,
I've always felt you heard...
You've been so good at listening
To each and every word.

And even things I didn't share,
You somehow heard them too.
I think this is a special gift
That God has given you.

So I just want to thank you
For being there for me,
And showing me acceptance
And love so totally.

~Author Unknown~

GRANDMA

Ever since the day I was born.
You have nurtured me with love and kindness.
You have been someone I can believe in,
And someone I can depend upon.
In this world I am just staring to understand.
And it's important to me that you know
How grateful that I am,
For all that you give to me,
For all that you teach me,
And for the strength I will always have,
Because of you, grandma.

~Author Unknown~

Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while.....but our hearts forever.
Author Unknown

Grandmother - a wonderful mother with lots of practice.
Author Unknown

When a child is born, so are grandmothers.
Judith Levy

Grandmas never run out of hugs or cookies.
Author Unknown

It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace.
Christopher Morley

We should all have one person who knows how to bless us despite the evidence, Grandmother was that person to me.
Phyllis Theroux

It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace. When a man's mother holds his child in her gladden arms he is aware of the roundness of life's cycle; of the mystic harmony of life's ways.Christopher Morley

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.
Alex Haley