Lightning

I’m feeling a bit stormy today so I went over to YouTube and watched storm vids for the better part of an hour.  One of the ones I really liked (from a distance mind you, wouldn’t like it up close) was the video below.  It amazes me how many times the buildings get hit!  I want whatever they have that protects them

Did you enjoy your storm?  Do you like storms in general?  They make me happy as long as they aren’t too bad.

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I have a song that I truly love.  The title is Video and the artist is India Arie. 

I use to want to play this song to my classes but never could figure out how it would be appropriate in a social studies class ;)  I taught eighth graders and the peer pressure and self hate that I saw on a regular basis used to make me so sad.  I wish kids (girls and boys) would learn to ‘love yourself’.  Great lesson, great song.  I hope you take some time to appreciate how beautiful you are today

Do you think we should try to teach kids that their ‘worth is not determined by the price of their clothes’ and the other insightful tidbits from the song or was I right to leave that out of the classroom? 

I love poetry and find it soothing on days when I am stressed or depressed.  I find that poetry can often provide a calming form of mental stimulation (sounds like a contradiction but it is true)  Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets so I’ve decided to share one of his poems with you.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

This makes me think about decisions I’ve made in my life.  I swear sometimes I could tell that I was at a fork in the road and could feel that the decision of which path would be monumental in my life.  I haven’t always taken the less traveled path but when I have it has been a wonderful journey.

Have you been able to tell when you’ve been at a crossroads in your life?  Did it turn out as you hoped or did you regret the path you chose?

I’ve been thinking a lot about politics and government and where our country is heading and so I decided to find a quiz that ran along those lines and found this Constitution Quiz.  I missed one :(  which means I got nine others right!  Apparently the average is seven something so I guess that means I’m as smart as the average kid.  There is a longer test that I’ll take later and get back to you with the information.  I thought about giving you the answers here but I’d really like for you to go take the quiz yourself.  It is so important for people to know what their rights and responsibilities are and the easiest way to do this is to understand the Constitution.  All laws are (or are supposed to be) based on the Constitution so if you understand it you’ll understand everything else.  It really bothered me that I got an answer wrong and because of that I think I am going to spend a little more time reading the Constitution and a little less time reading magazines.

How did you do on the quiz?  Were you happy or disappointed with your score?  Do you think I’m a twit for missing one of the answers?

While I can’t actually send you to the beach I found a video that is, in my opinion at least, the best thing you are going to get while sitting in front of a computer.  Go to the Beach with this wonderfully relaxing video of the sun setting into the waves.

I know I said I wasn’t going to do meditation videos anymore but dang it, I’m a chick and I can change my mind if I want to :)  Did you like the video? Does the site and sound of the beach relax you? 

The Star Spangled Banner was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key.  While many people are familiar with the music from the song and some even know the first verse I have rarely found anyone who knows the entire song.  It is a beautiful poem as well as a song.  Take your time while reading it and try to enjoy the cadence. 

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

 

Happy 4th of July!