I am in a place if inspiration. Many things have lead up to this feeling and I think Jeanine said it best yesterday, Joy is a place where you are vibrating. Smiling is inevitable. Laughter is always an option. The world is on your side and nothing can stop you.
I may not work in a place where I feel financially supported or even completely supported by management but my teaching team is absolutely incredible. I am so grateful for our ability to work in a collaborative and cooperative team. We have some truly wonderful children and families that we are empowering to be advocates for their own well-being and not enabled by public service.
Something that was really telling about the direction of our organization was when Jeanine shared that our director had okay-ed the following exercise: Take a note card from the pile on the table. On it, write the one thing you feel is the most important change we could make as an organization. Leave it on the table. These answers will be typed and turned into the director for the management team to address in a productive way. My feedback for our organization is that we all must be held accountable in order to build and maintain respect and a high level of professionalism. This also applies to the children and families we work with, not just the staff. In order to accomplish this goal it is imperative that we also raise our level of communication of information. For example, yesterday's in service training had no posted hours other than the arrival time at the VFW. As no one had said anything contrary, my team and I figured we were expected to work our full daily hours as usual on in service days and came in at 8 for a team meeting. This was not the intention of management but how were we supposed to know if they didn't tell us? I am excited to move forward with the new receptivity of our management.
To add to this elation, Viv and I travelled the short distance to Turners Falls, MA to see Kristen Ford play her solo set. She vibrates passion and joy while performing. She and I had met at the Michigan Women's Music Festival this past summer when she was on sound crew. (What is it with sound techs?) She opened for the Night Stage Lights' annual puppet show and I was hooked. Seeing her last night reminded me how amazingly talented she is with musicality, technicality, and simplicity. She sits in the middle of a small-ish set-up including a kick drum, high hat, drum sticks, pedals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and a handful of mics. Over the course of her set she created a musical journey through complex and simple combinations of her instruments, often playing multiple at one time including singing vocals. She also beat boxes. ::le sigh:: We bought two more of her CDs before leaving. I'm listening to one of them now.
In the end, today is Saturday and I am still vibrating. The feeling has been building for a while and the description from Jeanine identified it. Joy. I'm ready to get things moving. I have so many goals right now, all attainable but only with time. Progressing my organization, refining my musical technique on my ukulele, returning to dance classes to refine my body's musicality, and to keep on living life in this place of joy.
