Nothing much to report today except for the fact that another year has gone by and it is time for Thanksgiving. As we all know the first Thanksgiving didn't actually involve turkey, they hadn't quite thought of that back in 1621. Originally a three day feast, Thanksgiving was made an official holiday by Abe Lincoln, and then later given an exact day by FDR. One sad note about why Thanksgiving was made to be on the fourth Thursday of the month of November is that part of FDR's motivation was to create a day that would encourage early holiday shopping. This was our first step towards the wanton consumer orgy that is Black Friday... I won't go off on that tangent today but I will say that it's a sad thing to think about.
However, I am still thankful for this, my second favorite, holiday. Any time that we can get together with your families and share a meal is a very special time and we should all be happy we still have the luxury of a good meal. The only thing I will try to say to you today is please eat local, buy your turkey and veggies from local farms, and remember that you are all part of a complex system that needs to be responsibly maintained. The more we do to bring days like today back home and back to our local farms makes it more and more likely that we will have these gatherings in the future.
"Thy bounty", is our bounty, cherish it.
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Where in the world is Mr. K?!
Sadly I fell away from blogging over the last summer and this fall. My job situation and the amount of bouncing around I have been doing has been keeping me almost too busy to think much less write an epic blog post. Well folks, I make no guarantees, but Mr. K is coming back.
Since we last left off my focus has shifted some away from policy and politics of our predicaments and focused more on skills and practice of living a more sustainable life. Along with that shift I have realized the necessity in skill development and refinement. This focus actually came from my recent participation in my local Fencing School, where I have taken a coaching role, teaching private and group lessons along with the facilitation of larger group lessons and activities. Focusing on improving my fencing skills, as an educator, has really helped develop an idea of the types of things I would like to focus on in my own life.
Along with my ever deepening foray into fencing, I planned and executed the great experiment that was known as Xtreme Camp. Xtreme Camp is a nine week, extreme sports and outdoor adventure summer day camp, designed for children ages 8-14. This camp involved about sixty to eighty campers a week participating in a variety of activities from mountain boarding and paintball to orienteering and survival skills. I had seven counselors and about five CIT's working with me. Together we created one of the most successful summer camp programs in the area. Again a lesson learned here was how to be creative and how best to employ ingenuity and leadership qualities.
So with all that being said I hope to be bringing you more posts in the future and if I can't find the time at least you know that I am out there doing good things and working hard to change the world for the better! See you all soon!
~K
Since we last left off my focus has shifted some away from policy and politics of our predicaments and focused more on skills and practice of living a more sustainable life. Along with that shift I have realized the necessity in skill development and refinement. This focus actually came from my recent participation in my local Fencing School, where I have taken a coaching role, teaching private and group lessons along with the facilitation of larger group lessons and activities. Focusing on improving my fencing skills, as an educator, has really helped develop an idea of the types of things I would like to focus on in my own life.
Along with my ever deepening foray into fencing, I planned and executed the great experiment that was known as Xtreme Camp. Xtreme Camp is a nine week, extreme sports and outdoor adventure summer day camp, designed for children ages 8-14. This camp involved about sixty to eighty campers a week participating in a variety of activities from mountain boarding and paintball to orienteering and survival skills. I had seven counselors and about five CIT's working with me. Together we created one of the most successful summer camp programs in the area. Again a lesson learned here was how to be creative and how best to employ ingenuity and leadership qualities.
So with all that being said I hope to be bringing you more posts in the future and if I can't find the time at least you know that I am out there doing good things and working hard to change the world for the better! See you all soon!
~K
Monday, January 18, 2010
Can you change what is in your heart when it is for your better?
So folks this is a personal post, one of those touchy-feely discussions that I hope you don't get too attached to. But I recently returned from a trip that took me nearly a month to complete and stretched from coast to coast, from Long Island to California. It has been my first vacation in a long time and on a deeper level the first time I was able to really figure out what I needed to do with my life. When I say my life I mean more than just my life as far as direction but also my personal life and goals.
Indeed it was a vacation from all aspects of my life. I had fewer text messages and facebook notification, I checked both much less religiously. My email spent many days going unchecked. I could leave my alarm clock on my phone off and didn't feel guilty for turning both off entirely. The stresses of finding a job, working in schools, filling up my gas tank, pressing shirts, dealing with family and friend drama all were taken away for three weeks of relative bliss. Hours on the internet or otherwise plugged in were replaced with days spend wandering around a small city in a largely agrarian and economically depressed part of California. Strangely homelike, this city provided me with many hours of introspection, an activity formerly reserved for a twenty minute run or the few uninterrupted hours of sleep I get every night.
So what has changed about me since my departure, honestly not much, but on a deeper level I believe that I have been able to straighten out the clutter of my life and sort out my goals for the near and distant future. The mess has really been with the conflict that I have had since leaving college with the thought of my college life and my new life as a fully functioning adult. Much has changed, some has stayed the same, but it has all been muddied by the transition. It seems that mainly my connections to the past four years have hampered my efforts to spread my wings. Being back in the old town every weekend for fencing is one thing. But feeling it necessary to spend many days and nights at a time in Oneonta has severely limited my ability to sort out things at home and take time to adjust to how things are now. So for now I will fill my contracts and obligations but once that is through I think I will be cutting ties with the majority of that world in lieu of moving forward with my my life here and now.
All of that aside much of the difficulties I have faced in the last few months have been interpersonal. Since my trip I realized that I spend a great deal of my time dealing with and working around the lives of others. Flexing and bending in whatever way I can in order to improve their lives. Often times this has been at the cost of my own personal life and feelings, on a more superficial level this frequently impacts me financially as well. These things in mind I've discovered that I really won't be able to achieve much with my own life if I spend it fixing and helping guide the lives of others. Sure the feeling of being needed by someone is in some ways very rewarding but the feeling of being needed to live someones life for them has become one of the most dreaded things I have yet to experience. So keeping that in mind I have decided to make a better effort to concentrate on my own life, health, and goals.
What does this mean for the next year, two years, longer? Be sure that the me of 6 months from now will be in much better shape physically and mentally. I'm considering taking up running 5k races as thing, definitely running on a regular basis. Reading has made a Renaissance in my life and I plan on continuing that trend for good. You can never read too many good books and you can never learn too many things. I should have a better idea of what my next five years will look like. I'll know for sure whether military service is in my future. I'll be able to say when and how I'll be going back to school for my Graduate degree. If I've secured myself a full time job I'll hopefully get myself an apartment or other suitable living space of my own. Not to mention I'm planning for a get out of debt by September plan that includes a sizable savings increase.
Does all of this sound as glorious as it could be? No not at all, however, when you consider I have never before had a iron clad plan to accomplish these things I would consider it pretty substantial. Here's to hoping that these things get worked out and by the time I make the next personal post my thoughts become even more positive!
Indeed it was a vacation from all aspects of my life. I had fewer text messages and facebook notification, I checked both much less religiously. My email spent many days going unchecked. I could leave my alarm clock on my phone off and didn't feel guilty for turning both off entirely. The stresses of finding a job, working in schools, filling up my gas tank, pressing shirts, dealing with family and friend drama all were taken away for three weeks of relative bliss. Hours on the internet or otherwise plugged in were replaced with days spend wandering around a small city in a largely agrarian and economically depressed part of California. Strangely homelike, this city provided me with many hours of introspection, an activity formerly reserved for a twenty minute run or the few uninterrupted hours of sleep I get every night.
So what has changed about me since my departure, honestly not much, but on a deeper level I believe that I have been able to straighten out the clutter of my life and sort out my goals for the near and distant future. The mess has really been with the conflict that I have had since leaving college with the thought of my college life and my new life as a fully functioning adult. Much has changed, some has stayed the same, but it has all been muddied by the transition. It seems that mainly my connections to the past four years have hampered my efforts to spread my wings. Being back in the old town every weekend for fencing is one thing. But feeling it necessary to spend many days and nights at a time in Oneonta has severely limited my ability to sort out things at home and take time to adjust to how things are now. So for now I will fill my contracts and obligations but once that is through I think I will be cutting ties with the majority of that world in lieu of moving forward with my my life here and now.
All of that aside much of the difficulties I have faced in the last few months have been interpersonal. Since my trip I realized that I spend a great deal of my time dealing with and working around the lives of others. Flexing and bending in whatever way I can in order to improve their lives. Often times this has been at the cost of my own personal life and feelings, on a more superficial level this frequently impacts me financially as well. These things in mind I've discovered that I really won't be able to achieve much with my own life if I spend it fixing and helping guide the lives of others. Sure the feeling of being needed by someone is in some ways very rewarding but the feeling of being needed to live someones life for them has become one of the most dreaded things I have yet to experience. So keeping that in mind I have decided to make a better effort to concentrate on my own life, health, and goals.
What does this mean for the next year, two years, longer? Be sure that the me of 6 months from now will be in much better shape physically and mentally. I'm considering taking up running 5k races as thing, definitely running on a regular basis. Reading has made a Renaissance in my life and I plan on continuing that trend for good. You can never read too many good books and you can never learn too many things. I should have a better idea of what my next five years will look like. I'll know for sure whether military service is in my future. I'll be able to say when and how I'll be going back to school for my Graduate degree. If I've secured myself a full time job I'll hopefully get myself an apartment or other suitable living space of my own. Not to mention I'm planning for a get out of debt by September plan that includes a sizable savings increase.
Does all of this sound as glorious as it could be? No not at all, however, when you consider I have never before had a iron clad plan to accomplish these things I would consider it pretty substantial. Here's to hoping that these things get worked out and by the time I make the next personal post my thoughts become even more positive!
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