Manger-less Christmas Cards

Card-making is a hobby of mine. I love everything about it - the pretty paper, the stamps, the metal dies that cut out shapes, the embossing folders, the ribbons, the embellishments, the markers, the adhesives, the many different colours of card stock etc. I tend to go and fits and starts, sometimes focussing on birthday or thank you cards, and sometimes focussing on seasonal cards. And of course, being November I'm currently working on Christmas cards.

Someone made an observation the other day when I had shared a number of my current card creations with them. They said, "The cards are really pretty for people that don't know the Christmas story." What a great observation...and one that bears consideration. I began thinking a lot about that comment because, yes, not one of the cards connected to the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, and that story is very important to me.

I didn't see any disconnect between the cards I was creating, and my personal experience and understanding the son of God coming to earth as a baby on behalf of all mankind, the story that is described in Luke chapter 2. For me there really hadn't been a disconnect, so I wondered why.

The answer came to me slowly - the colours, the paper, even the expressions 'Holly Jolly', indicate joy. And for me, the birth of the Saviour is joy-infused event.The birth of Christ may not be clearly articulated in the cards I'm currently creating: however, the feeling of joy, indescribable joy, is inherent in each card I create. That is the connection for me.

So the cards I make might not have a manger on them, but they are full of the joy of the season, the idea that "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."(John 1:14) 

I think that God must have enjoyed creating the world and in my small human way I enjoy creating with paper. The joy is the same.

PS I'm heading off to my studio to make cards using my Nativity Christmas stamps. Stay tuned.

My letter to the grandbaby soon to be known as Alice

first published on October 22, 2014

Dear Grandbaby

The morning is early, and the sky is still dark

And my thoughts are with you...

Do you know that I already love you?

Do you know that I already have hopes and dreams for you?

Do you know that I can hardly wait to see you?

And as much as I feel all these things,

my precious son, your dad, and his extraordinary wife, your mom,

feel them even more!

They already love you...

They already have hopes and dreams for you...

And they can hardly wait to see you....

These waiting days - 

the hours are longer than their given sixty minutes,

crawling by at a snails' pace

after nine months that seemingly passed much faster

But your arrival will put all this to rest

And as I look into your newborn eyes, 

I know that something more will once again fall into place inside of me

One more piece of my life's infinite puzzle

will fit into the just-right place

Have a safe journey, little one

I hope you arrive soon

and she arrived on October 30, 2014!

Nomination Letter - Principles of Music Award

author: Sharon Allen, October 3, 2008

Laura Menagh would say that music is the cheapest therapy around.  It gives voice to her inner being, responds to the world around and helps her sleep at night.  Music joins her in a morning cup of coffee and goes with her on her commute to work.  Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll helps her prepare for the school day and Charlotte Diamond's Four Hugs a Day greets her grade two and three students as they walk through the classroom door.  The school day begins with singing and the children realize that singing is a great way to practice reading. Each one of them has a singing finger that tracks the words as they sing.  Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier - Prelude No. 1 provides perfect background music for printing practice and journal writing. The day is just new.

Laura’s passion for music extends beyond her classroom.  She has coordinated Christmas concerts for what seems like forever and is convinced each year that she will never do another.  That, of course, changes with the advent of the next holiday season.  While her students are in PE, Laura sings with the Kindergarten class and on Thursday afternoons, she does music and art with the grade six and seven students.  Those students illustrated Allan Jackson’s Let It Be Christmas, memorized and performed it for a the Christmas concert, and then turned it into a book which has been published and added to the school’s library.

For the last 6 years, Laura has taken her students on monthly visits to the neighbouring seniors’ care home.  Music fosters intergenerational connections as students and elders sing together.  Each visit ends with Four Hugs and Day with a variety of hands, some smooth and some wrinkled, doing the actions together.  Laura arranged for the whole school to visit one of the residents who was celebrating her 109th birthday.  The students sang Happy Birthday and of course, Four Hugs a Day.  The residents sang along.

Laura has experimented with ukuleles, kazoos, rhythm instruments, drums and has lately ventured into the Boomwhacker world.  She plays the piano, flute, guitar and is learning to play the violin.

Laura would also say that music is full of surprises.  Last year, she thought she would start a fiddle club at her school and was hoping for ten or twelve children.  Laura recruited Jo Blaak, a local violin teacher and member of the Fiddle Chicks, to work with the students.  To Laura’s surprise, twenty-one children registered and made their debut performance eleven weeks later at the school’s Christmas program.  The violin group, now christened “1230 Strings”, welcomed another nineteen students in January of that same school year.  Forty children ended the school year with a fiddle jam on the lawn at the seniors’ home, a significant number when one realizes that her school has a population of 107.  This year the violin program, “1230 Strings”, continues with thirty-two students, twelve of whom are new to the program.  Laura has subsidized the violin program with her own money, and provides a number violins for a number of students.  Laura also organizes the school bookkeeping that is inherent in this program and maintains a 1230 Strings website.  (http://1230strings.com)  She has ensured that MP3 files are on line to facilitate student practicing.  Laura accompanies the violin groups on the piano and will often invite parents to play along at fiddle jams.

One of Laura’s favourite quotes is
Music may achieve the highest of all mission: she may be a bond between nations, races, and states, who are strangers in many ways; she may unite what is disunited and bring peace to what is hostile. Dr. Max Bendiner

She believes that music is an ambassador for good and celebrates the rich diversity of of our existence.  Because of this conviction, Laura is leaving a legacy of music for the students she works with and the world she loves.  Our school is fortunate to be part of that world.

Irony

 When the speaker says “There is hope in Jesus today, amen?”

And the crowd responds by chanting “USA! USA! USA!”

I guess President Trump was in the house….

You Choose What You Read

My social media tends to be full of posts about scrapbooking and card making and reading strategies for early learners. And this makes me question the algorithm that chooses what we see. Social media seems to know my interests, fills my feeds with things that may be relevant to me.

This is probably why I don’t see Mr. Trump, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Trudeau or Mr. Carney populating my social media. Perhaps , but I would rather attend to where I can make a difference. I just don’t go looking for it because fundamentally I don’t have the emotional resilience to deal with political rhetoric. 

I do have the bandwidth to make a difference for the people who are in front of me and those people who come across my path… our neighbours, our family, the students I work, and even the person who drops off our Amazon packages.

Mel Robbins, author of The Let Them Theory, states, “The fact is, not every email warrants a response and not every conversation needs your participation—and you do not always have to have the last word. And as the famous saying goes: Your silence can’t be misquoted.”

Smart lady…

Good counsel…

But a perhaps a little naive, because my silence may not be misquoted, but it certainly can be misinterpreted.

“I speak from strong conviction."

People have the right to justify their opinions by saying “I speak from strong conviction.” Ironically, both despots and heroes throughout history have spoken from strong conviction. It’s even quite possible they may be described as carrying a torch for truth or freedom. 

Social media is full strong opinions about about Israel, Gaza, the Ukraine, gun control, immigration, child trafficking, residential schools, gender equity, food insecurity, poverty, politics, environmental responsibility….the list is long.  And in my own experience, people are often convinced that their opinion and their beliefs are the right ones…even me. In any group of people, there is almost guaranteed to be a wide range of perspectives about any singular topic. Many of might agree with a social media post, and of course, many of us might not.

The words Micah 6:8 are good council for each generation’s politically charged times.  

“O people, the Lord has told you what is good,

    and this is what he requires of you:

to do what is right, to love mercy,

    and to walk humbly with your God.”

And of course that’s my own strong opinion.

Only my perspective...and more to come (first published in March if 2010)

1. Stop with the name-calling. I am not a self-serving bully, Jim Iker has a right to his hair style, and Christy Clark is not the Grinch. 

2. Stop with the sweeping generalizations. For example "everyone I know thinks that...." or " "the vast majority of tax payers..."

3. It is okay to for teachers to want an increase to salary and benefits. It is about money for me - I want a raise and an improved benefits package.  This has a direct impact on the people I love the most and that's my family.

4. It also about students. I believe they are entitled to an education system where their needs are met without delay, and where they have generous access to whatever it is they need to joyfully reach their maximum potential. I also know that when you measure a system against Utopia, it will always come up short.

5. Stop complaining about how much teachers make. I chose this profession because it provides a good life for my family and, next to being a parent, it is the most important job in the world. I chose to go to university and pay thousands of dollars for my education. One of the beautiful things about our province is that education and post secondary education is accessible by everyone. You too could have become a teacher.

6. Consider separating the issues of class size and composition.  Class-size should have some flexibility. For example choir and band should be allowed to have up to 35 or 40 in consultation with the teacher simply because performance groups benefit from larger numbers. On the flipside there should be hard maximums for courses where there are safety concerns, such as carpentry, mechanics, metalwork, etc. Managing a class of 30 “regular” students is quite different that managing a class of 24 students - 4 special needs designations ranging from toiling difficulties to violent behaviour, 4 ELL students, 2 students waiting for district assessments, and 1 at a high risk for mental health challenges.  In my experience, this kind of class configuration is becoming more common as our society and its needs and challenges change.

7. Please remember that statistics can be easily skewed. For example, the class-size averages published in the Globe and Mail, include non-enrolling teachers thereby bringing the number down. School psychologists, learning support service teachers, PE teachers, speech and language therapist, teacher librarians, and counselors are all considered teachers when figuring out the class average. However they actually do not register a class.  

8. Stop accusing the other side of "drinking the kool-aid".  It is dishonours the memory of the Jonestown victims.

9. Stop saying you want "so-and-so'"s head on a platter.  It dishonours the memory of the journalist who recently suffered that horrible fate.

10. Stop saying things like "Christy Clark doesn't believe in public education." That is why she sends her son to a private school."  Realistically, if you were her, would you send the most precious person in your life to public school, where there is pretty decent chance of being hassled because of who your mom is?

11. Stop saying things like "The government should do the same as Ronald Regan did during the Air Traffic Controllers strike. He fired them all and rehired them according to the government rules and offers. If they wanted to work, they signed."

12. Work hard, be kind.