3 Ways to Debrief

After school, we institute our sifting and sorting routine.  We hang up coats, put away our shoes, and carefully empty the backpacks.  We sort each paper, display art projects, and clean out the lunchboxes.  The whole process takes only 15 minutes. 

If we don't do this, the mess and mayhem of the day simply tumbles into the next day and the next after that.

I realize it's the same for me mentally.  Living with flair means I sift and sort the day.   What did I learn?  What do I need to tell others about?  What would I do differently tomorrow?  I'm sorting, displaying, and cleaning.  These three questions provide the perfect debriefing. 

I have a friend who calls and tells me simply that it's time for me to debrief.  She encourages me to sift and sort the day, put things in order, and repack the truth for tomorrow. 

Blogging, for me, is the grand debriefing.  And each day, I find one great thing I learned, one great thing to report, and one thing I might do differently tomorrow. 

Tomorrow, I think I need to drink less caffeine!  And, now that I'm thinking about it, I will not eat handfuls of chocolate tomorrow just because a neighbor had a bowl of candy out. 

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Did you debrief today? 

Instead of Shopping

I know it sounds strange, but one of my favorite activities since moving to Pennsylvania involves walking the woods in search of shed deer antlers.  The deer in our woods shed their antlers right around this time, so it's fun to hunt for them.

Shed Deer Antler

They blend right into the forest floor--like some dropped bare branch from a tree--and discerning them from their surroundings makes for a supreme challenge.  Plus, rodents immediately come and eat the antlers.  If you find them, it feels, like my neighbor said this morning, "like serendipity."

Serendipity!  A happy and unexpected event! Some women feel this way about finding a great pair of shoes on sale.

I get it from antlers. 

I keep an antler by my writing desk.  My brother-in-law gave it to me after he found it in North Carolina.  I love this little antler.  It's always symbolized the deep hope that I can find a remnant, some beautiful and mysterious thing, if only I'm devoted to the search.  

We'll go back out into the woods this afternoon.

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What objects in nature have you hunted?

An Ode to the Gentle Semicolon

I'm sitting in my office at this very moment to print out a grammar exam for my students.  I normally just check for grammatical understanding within their papers, but this semester, I decided to formally assess and reward in an exam format. 

Lucky them. 

Different sections carry different weights.  Writing a sentence with a semicolon, for example, matters much more than using a comma after an introductory clause.  At least it does to me.  It's because the semicolon symbolizes so very much in the world of writing with flair.

If you can use a semicolon, you understand the romance between sentences; you see how one sentence flirts with and amplifies the other.  If you can use a semicolon, you're offering a complex sentence structure that unveils the complexity of your own mind.  You're an expert.  You have authority.  You have insight. 

The semicolon reiterates.  It's a gift to the reader with its gentle nudge of explanation.  It's the most considerate of punctuation marks; it offers another way to understand and another way to see.  While the colon insists, the semicolon suggests. 

Here.  Hold my hand.  Come on this journey with me. 

I love the gentle semicolon. 

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How is your writing life today?