I took a small detour torochester today to spend time with Jeff while he's up here for work. On my way up I  decided to delve into the array of emotions I am feeling about my upcoming apprenticeship. I have been going through levels of panic and nervousness regarding leaving my job for two weeks, being away from my cat and companion, wondering how this will throw off my marathon training, uncertainty about packing and most importantly...what the heck will the next few weeks bring? What will I learn, who will I meet, and will this experience radically change me? All coated with relentless fear and drama, these are the things I sorted through.

I know, I know, not everything in life can be planned. I admit it...I am a planner for the most part and giving up that level of control over my environment and schedule (not to mention the luxuries of Internet and phone I have become so attached to) is pretty scary. 

So I realized that I can stay centered by what I do best as a strategic planner and educator...I can write learning objectives for myself. Yeah!

Without writing the prescribed learning objective formula incorporating vocabulary from Bloom's Taxonomy and setting associated assessment measures, I will sum up my goals here:

As I stated in my first blog entry, I have done a really great job of being responsible. To some, my past choices and adventures seem exciting and risky. To me, they have been safe. I have done a good job being my quirky self, living comfortably and subversively teaching and/or inspiring others to perhaps think differently about things...the choice of happiness, the choice of forgiveness and acceptance, challenging self-limiting beliefs, using cloth napkins, voting with our dollars (when possible) at the supermarket and/or in our daily nourishment, etc. All those things are a work in progress for me as well, but I am happy that others have become aware of some of these important concepts as a result of my journey with them.

The next two weeks at Bread and Puppet, I want to participate and cross the boundaries of subversive teaching to being out loud with it. I am ready to learn, to re-ignite and participate in a different type of responsibility, civic responsibility . Naturally there is an art form I will be learning, but so much of this is how to challenge the everyday with the spectacular communication and community dialogue that puppetry invites. I will do my best to stay present and gentle with myself in the learning process, and hope that I can give this back to my community when I return.

I wrote most of this blog on my iPhone at Ming's on Monroe Ave. I was hungry, needed lunch and so missed their veggie udon noodle dish. When handed the bill with a fortune cookie, I was about halfway through writing this post. Best fortune and fortune cookie ever - "to love what you do and feel that it matters--how could anything be more fun!"

Peace out! I look forward to connecting and reflecting again on the other side of this residency. Until then, thank you all for your support and love in my life. Heart you, each and everyone of you!


Sent from my iPhone