Centering the Soul on What Matters Most - Taking a Break from the Chaos and Communing with the Shoreline

After a day of meetings and writing projects, I decided that a walk with the dog takes the upper hand, and no matter what cards are played, I'm following the advice of Varian Johnson, to go with the ones I'm dealt (and channeling a little Willie Nelson, too). I took a break and pushed myself to do my longer hike along the Long Island Sound. 

I chose to move. I know when it is time to walk away.

I'm one man trying to do what it is best for teachers and kids, but have obligations to the systems I belong to. With psoriasis breaking out all over my body, pain from post-hernia surgery, and 26 years in a teaching profession, I recognize that colleagues who advocate for self-care are absolutely right. The best way to deal with the insanity of systems, is to get away from them. These systems will chew us up, lie to us, manipulate every maneuver, and spit us out. They don't care for any individual worker, not when there are larger initiatives and agendas at play. There is little care for democratic principals, even when equity is the buzz word used at the center of it all. 

So, we must make decisions, and I chose to go for the walk and it was beautiful. The clouds and skies were amazing. The water, as calming as it always is. I learned as a young boy that this matters most. Being outdoors, paying attention to the rhythm and flow of tides, and having fresh oxygen in the lungs is the healthiest choice I can make in a day. Yes, I get refreshed. I calm the nerves down. And things become very clear.

I had nirvana for several years - stellar leadership, phenomenal colleagues, superb and diverse student populations, and a state system that was focused on the good of all kids. Of course, politics changed all that and I've been searching for doing what is right ever since. I wish I could claim that higher education was a solution, but I've learned in 15 years that it is instrumental in all that is wrong. I know I have another 15 years left. Channeling Horace, I have to concede to complacency, or find the strength to speak up and speak truth to the misguided, power-hungry, and sadly insignificant views of the few who muscle bad intentions into the every day upon everyone else. 

I just wonder, at times, what are they thinking? I imagine it is that they are well-payed, privileged, and comfortable. They dance on the song of doing what is right, because lip-syncing is all they ever learned to do upon the stage. But, it's weak. It'a also pathetic. Especially when their actions are the opposite of what they say.

And in the end, there's water, sky lines, natures, and the ongoing cycle of the world. Human systems are dysfunctional because they are human-made. 

That is what I'm able to conclude. God bless any and all who are abused, manipulated, and overworked by such systems. They are rampant. And they are wrong. But they are what we have available to us. 

I'm just thankful to be able to take a long walk. It brought perspective that there's so much more out there still to see and do.