October 28th, 2008
So, I’ve given it a lot of thought and I have decided how I’m going to proceed with this blog. At least for the next 30 days. As I said in my last post, I wanted to do something more utilitarian, something more than just posting my random thoughts and feelings every few days weeks.
What I’ve come up with is kind of more for me than for anyone out there reading. You see, I’ve traveled far over the past year and no, I’m not talking about literal physical distance. I’m talking about more metaphorical traveling than point A to point B type movement.
About a year ago most people would have said I had found my calling. Shoot, I said that. I was happy, hopeful, light on my feet, smiling and sickeningly inspired from sun up to sun down. At least most of the time. I did have down moments, but I’d say I was up 90 to 95 percent of the time. Ugh. I think about how I was back then and I want to slap that woman. I don’t know how people tolerated her. I may be being too hard on myself, but either way, I’m not her anymore.
I’ve lost that up-ness about me. I’m more down than up these days and I’m certainly not feeling inspired anymore. That sucks. Period. It just plain sucks. While I don’t want to be little miss chipper again, I really don’t like me as a downer either. I’ve decided that what I need is some Positive Energy. Yes, I’m borrowing that phrase from the me of a year ago… all that energy woo-woo stuff. Despite my less then exuberant attitude these days, I do still believe in some of that woo-woo stuff and the concept of Positive Energy is one of the things I learned that I’m not letting go of anytime soon.
In an effort to increase the amount of Positive Energy or Inspiration Quotient as I’ve heard it called, I will be posting one story per day of something positive going on in the world. It could be a story about a dog saving kittens from a house fire (totally true and ADORABLE) or it might be about some kind soul profiled in the news for their humanitarian efforts in Africa. Little or Big, cute and cuddly or serious and shocking, I want to surround myself with good stuff. My days can be sucky, quite frankly, because I work in a very high stress environment so I decided I needed somewhere to revel in goodness. And since I don’t have a room made of soft pillows where kittens and bunnies roam free, this will have to do.
So, on to the first story of the day…and it’s local, at that.
Gilbert Kids Give Up Recess for Green Goals
by Emily Gersema
The second-graders who attend Gilbert’s Sonoma Ranch Elementaryare thinking green these days.
About 40 to 60 children in that grade have volunteered to give up their 15-minute morning recess, once a week to focus on keeping their school orderly, the grounds green and their Earth a better place. These meetings are a core part of their new environmental club.
Each Wednesday, the children meet during their morning recess with their sponsor, Angela Dixon, who is a social worker, and a school counselor, Nikki Boeri.
Sometimes the children spend their time discussing ways to improve their environment or cleaning up the campus. Other times they color with crayons in a coloring book that urges green thinking.
Some of the first students who came up with the idea of an environmental club were kids who at home are determined to keep their homes tidy and litter-free.
Kate Ruffley, a second grader, said she and several of her other friends rallied together to start the group.
“We really wanted to. We were like ‘Can we start an environmental club?’ Because we really want to clean up,” Kate said.
Dixon recalls the girls came to the office nearly every day for almost a week before they got approval to start their green group.
Kate looks after her 4-year-old twin sisters at home, who sometimes drop or leave trash. “I always pick it up,” she said.
Kaia Williams, another second-grader participating in the club, said she loves to clean at home. “I like to clean up our yard, our house, the bedroom, and my sister’s bedroom.”
If she could, she’d plant tomatoes and other garden vegetables at the school. But Kaia said planting some trees would be a good idea.
Dixon noted the parent pickup area gets very hot at the beginning and end of the school year, and children stand in the sun, sweating while waiting for a parent to drive up.
“If we had more shade, that would be a lot better,” she said, pointing to the sunny drive-up area.
Dixon hopes the group can either apply for funding or somehow raise money for trees.
Isn’t that great? No, really. Think about what these kids are doing for a minute. They looked at the world around them and thought, “Huh, we should so something about this. We CAN do something about this.” They never thought, “No, we’re too young, too small, too weak. We don’t have any money or authority. We can’t even drive or vote.” No, they looked at what they could do right then and there and they did it! They campaigned for a week until someone finally gave in. They started locally. Good job kids, may you go on to inspire more of the same.
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