Pink Giraffe Musing

Life is busy.  Hectic.  We are all going at a frantic pace, trying to raise kids, do our jobs, run to 18 sporting events each weekend, while keeping up with the laundry and grocery shopping (can I get an Amen?).  Amid the hayrides, pumpkin carving, homecoming photos, and football championships, it seems like something is always happening.  Not always good things.  On a wide scale it sometimes seems like the world is coming unhinged.  On a personal level, my Facebook feed has been filled with breast cancer (3 new cases recently), new widows, and and far too many illnesses and medical diagnoses.  Sometimes it is downright depressing. We have all been there.  Leading our idyllic life with our happy family when tragedy or misfortune strike.  Job loss, job stress, cyber bullying, cancer, car accidents, unknown medical issues with no treatment in sight, and even loss.  No family is immune.  My family was not prepared when we were shocked by loss.  What can a person do?  Be as prepared as

I am an art teacher.  I know lots of teachers.  My children will have 16 teachers combined this school year.  And yet, I don't think I fully realized the impact of teachers until recently. In some ways,  teachers have a lot of power.  They have the power to inspire, encourage, and build up; or to the power to tear down and destroy.  I like to believe most teachers aspire to be a catalyst for positive change, growth, and lifelong success. While I am a teacher.  I am also a mom.   My daughter is growing up before my eyes.  These days the growth is less physical and more emotional and intrapersonal.  She is becoming a person.  A real grown up person separate from me.  She has thoughts about her life and future that have nothing to do with my thoughts ( I don't know about you but this came as a shock to me !).  She has dreams and plans beyond the seeds I have planted in her head.  Sure, I see my hand in it.  I also see biology because she is  rapidly becoming the 2018 version

Stress is bad for us.   There are a lot of things in my life that are stressful.  I am not alone in this.  I am sure you can relate.  It seems that middle age comes with more stress that I could have ever dreamed existed. It is downright depressing some days when I take in the full weight of it all.  I see my friends balancing kids, sports, homework, demanding jobs, and aging parents needing care.  I have friends and know of children battling cancer.  Some struggle with kids doing poorly in school and need tutors they cannot afford.  There is car trouble, car accidents, broken appliances, broken hearts and homes, and then there is work.  For many of us work is the biggest stress producer of them all. If you are lucky you love your job.  But love it or hate it we all NEED our jobs to pay for the mortgage, car payments, car repairs, the new microwave, calculus tutor, and of course, margaritas. Over the past 6 years, I have watched teachers in my workplace give, and give, and gi

Twenty years ago today I got married. I only got to have 13 anniversaries.  As a widow, anniversaries 14-19 were fine.  I went to dinner with friends, or did nothing at all and it seemed okay.  Just a day.  Yet, this year the date was looming large and occupying too many of my thoughts.  I was filled with dread.  It was a milestone, and maybe causing me to think about my age and the passage of time.  I have been feeling "some kind of way".  Really, just a lot of different ways. 20 years?  How has it been 20 years?  How is this my 7th solo anniversary?  How am I not still in my 20's (very self absorbed, but I challenge anyone "my age" to not give this one an amen). Wrinkles?  Reading glasses?  Is this for real? I've been reflecting on the many people that were at our wedding that are not here anymore.  They include: my husband, my father, grandfather, grandmother, friend's parents, my parent's friends, and the list goes on. There is one page

I wrote this one last summer.......never finished it.....til today. Sometimes I start writing posts, and come back to them months later.  Today, I clicked on this one....titled Brave only to discover I hadn't written anything.  Funny.  I wonder what my motivation was on that day.  I know what it is today. People often tell me I am strong.  Mostly, I think they are wrong.  I can see how I might I look that way to some of you.  Make no mistake, I am not.  I am not any stronger than you.  I don't think those of us who have faced loss are any stronger than the average person living the life of Riely. When hardship, loss, illness, or tragedy enter your life, you have two choices....to quit, or to keep going forward and write a new chapter that takes your story in a new direction.  Quitting is not an option.  At least not to me with two kids to raise.  And so you think I am strong. I look strong because I keep going forward.  I just keep putting one foot in front of th

Our world is full of motivational quotes, memes, and inspirational words that have conflicting messages.  Choose Joy, Bloom Where You are Planted, Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from negativity, Be the Change ........... is it truly possible to bloom where you are planted, while being the change, and staying away from negativity?  Maybe.   I have always been a firm believer in Bloom Where You are Planted.  My lst job was in a middle school just a few blocks from inner city Cleveland.  I was 24, and had always been a suburbanite.  This job was a big step outside of my bubble.  I hung a Mary Englebreit poster in my classroom and held firm to the saying......"Bloom Where You Are Planted".  This quote makes me think of a weed growing and thriving in a crack in the sidewalk, and that may have been a little how I felt.  I took over the job mid semester.  I was replacing a really "cool" teacher (who smoked weed and skateboarded with the kids...