Monday, April 27, 2020

Vignettes and Sketches

Once again, let me capture some vignettes.  Will they hang together as a post or remain a collection of vignettes?

If you were hoping for a more sustained focus, you could go to this post on my theology blog and read about my third visit to my spiritual director.  I really like being able to say "my spiritual director."

--One of my students wrote me an e-mail thanking me for my compassion during this difficult time.  She said that I'm the only teacher who wrote to make sure students were doing O.K. and who gave encouragement.  Can that be true?

--My spouse, who teaches at more South Florida institutions, ones that serve many more students than the ones that I tend to see, has wondered if some teachers have just checked out.  It wouldn't surprise me. The sudden transition would be tough for many people, particularly adjuncts who don't have much in the way of institutional support.

--This week my online journaling class came to a close, but happily, on May 3, I'm beginning a new one with a different book, but some of the same classmates and the same leader.  When I signed up for the class, I couldn't have predicted the strange circumstances that would soon fall down on us, that was in the process of falling down on us even then.  We've been a good support network for each other. 

--I've also been pleased with the new directions of my sketching.  I'm pleased to do any sketching at all.  I've been doing a lot more with small marks to fill in spaces.  Here's an unfinished sketch from this morning:



--The blob came from bleed through from this sketch yesterday.



--This morning, I woke up with lines of my own poems in my head, specifically lines from a poem I wrote called "The Hollow Women."  You can read it here.

--I wasn't sleeping well, which is not unusual for me as Sunday moves into Monday.  But yesterday, I did have a perfect nap.  We watched Juliet Naked, which was a delight in many ways.  The afternoon had moved from cloudy to stormy as we watched and ate our homemade pizza and drank some wine.  And then, we took a nap with the windows open just a smidge so we could hear the rain and thunder.  That nap probably interfered with my sleep too, but it was so perfect that I have no regrets.  After the nap, we sat on the front porch in the newly cooled air.  My spouse worked on creating a final exam, while I read the next book in my spiritual director certificate program.

And now it's time to get back to the work week.  I am still going in to the office each week day.  We only have 5 people there regularly, with a few others who come and go.  Our offices are widely spaced out.  The cleaning crew sanitizes once a day.  It's strange how it feels normal and yet so different.

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