Spinning

Okay, I really want to post some things over here, but I just can't get moving lately, for some reason. I was going to say I have had writers' block, but that isn't really it either. I've had a couple of great ideas float up to the surface of my brain, but I've yet to make it to a computer in time to fish them out. I'm sure there's a great journal entry or two waiting to be salvaged from the ocean floor, but I'm going to have to wait on that.

My students have been writing lately, though, so I've been enjoying being at the other end of the writers' conversation. My eighth graders have been writing poetry...with all of the angst and incongruity that comes with it at that age. Many of them have been coming up with fabulous things...they amaze me. Extended metaphors comparing gossip to a flame, the baseball season to a parade, or a tiny, speechless baby, to a delicate, silent dancer. I think my favorite was a boy who looked at a brave solid soldier on the outside, and then described his fear on the inside. Their poetry is intense, and I love it!

In contrast, my seventh graders have been creating newspapers, which are a hoot to read, because their assignment was to write everything as if it were happening fifty years from now. There is a wonderful sense of hope that comes through in their views--cures for cancer, world peace, even the Bills winning the Superbowl--all these wonderful things show up in their world from the future. They love to tease their teachers a little, too. Throughout their stories, I have blown up a Thanksgiving turkey, run for president (and lost), and been permanently stuck in a window while protesting the closing of our school. My favorite is when I was the first 87-year-old American Idol winner singing my hit songs: Do the 'Do Now', A Lot is Not One Word, and The Five Parts of a Friendly Letter. Their sense of humor is one of the many reasons why I love this age!

So school is good and my house is clean...some things are great. But my migraines are back, my journal's neglected, and a Child-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is failing science. And, trust me, the list goes on. For some reason, I just can't get it all together at the same time. I feel like all around me are people who can juggle it all and do fine, but I just can't. Consistently, at least.

At any given time, someone who met me and just got a little snapshot of my life, would think I was either very put together, or a perfect dope! If my house is immaculate, I guarantee there are a mess of papers on my desk at school. If there are groceries in the cupboard, I probably didn't make it to church this week. If I'm all caught up grading papers, my roots are probably showing and my eyebrows need to be waxed!

And it isn't really juggling, it's more like spinning plates. I'm a carnival worker running back and forth between them, and whenever I get a few spinning beautifully, I'm jumping to catch one and watching another fall to the ground. It's an awful metaphor, I know, but I really can visualize it! Right now I'm watching a few shining plates while my journal plate slows to a wobbly roll.

Sigh. I'll try to get it spinning soon.