Morning Thoughts on the Road to Working Out

Yesterday on the road heading to my early morning workout, random thoughts cascaded through my mind, as is often the case when I am driving.  At first I was simply enjoying the wonder of the western morning sky --pure pale blue with a few faint streaks of high wind-wisped clouds reflecting the morning sun.  I wondered if we tend to notice the finer details of our environment the older we get?  Do we spend a large portion of our lives in a hurry to get from one point to another until we reach some stage, as we age, where we slow down hoping to stretch time out, to extend what time we've got left, and in the process notice more, appreciate more?

From that thought, my mind moved on to remembering how much I enjoyed teaching Language Arts and thirteen year olds.  Language Arts.  I even loved the title.  Language ... "the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community" (Webster).  Art ... "the use of skill and imagination in the production of things of beauty".  I don't know for sure but I like to think it's this definition of "art" the originators of this title had in mind.  Words, sentences, paragraphs, poems, novels, plays.  I loved them all.  A finely turned phrase.  A word that better than any other names or describes a feeling, an experience, an event, a thing.  A phrase or sentence that sums up the exact moment, the exact thought.  A bit of prose or poem that causes me to feel with my mind and my body and my soul.  These are precious treasures to savor.  I also think that thirteen year olds are pretty precious treasures though I'm sure not everyone would agree with me.  Together -- language arts, thirteen year olds, and me -- we explored literature, our way of expressing ourselves, and in the process, learned about ourselves, too.  I loved it all and found myself wondering, would I feel the same if I had continued to teach rather than move into administration.

My last random thought on that fifteen minute drive dealt with the word "strong".  Relying on Webster again, "strong" is defined as "powerful, vigorous, healthy, robust, not mild or weak, not easily broken, firm, solid".  There are strong odors, strong beats in a song, strong flavors, strong commitments, strong ties, strong emotions, strong people.  And as I contemplated all that, I realized all my random thoughts this morning were an outgrowth of the phone conversation I had had with my lifelong friend and former student the night before.  Strong is a word she used as she spoke of herself and her determination to overcome the residual effects of a recent illness.   I realized that all the definitions apply to her, to her spirit.