Six degrees of separation – in Sonoma is that even a thing? It’s part of what I love about this town, everybody knows everybody. This carries into special education and especially into vision impairments.
Today I had the opportunity to go back and watch Noah at Parkour. He is a member of the Flying Frog community in Rohnert Park and loves to jump, flip, balance, and climb everything. When I took my new job in Petaluma and Kevin closed Grass Roots Lawn Care we traded some of our responsibilities at home, and one was being the driver to Parkour. Tonight my mother in law drove and I got to watch Noah in class – he easily tic tack’s up the wall and front flipped off into the wall onto the crash mat below. He had a spotter and did his first solo flyaway. He has grown so much in his ability since I watched him last. So fun to see!
While sitting there I struck up a conversation with a young mom who had two first timers, in the youngest class and a third in her lap. She was brilliantly checking the place out before attending a birthday party in a couple of weekends. She was very easy to talk to, and it came up we were both educators. I shared with her that I used to be a teacher of the visually impaired for SCOE. She said she had a totally blind student previously and it made her great at verbally describing her lessons each day. I asked where she taught, I asked how many years ago, and then … yes … I asked if his name was (*****) – yep! Of course I won’t breach confidentiality and write it. And I do regret that we did not exchange names. She is just that young mom.
Two degrees of separation in this case. IT’S A SMALL WORLD!
I used a little 3 Wise Men before walking to church this morning.
Today is Epiphany Sunday. What is epiphany Sunday? Glad you asked. We’ve all been so busy celebrating the birth of baby Jesus on December 25th but it took a while for those wise men to follow the star and find the baby. Hence, Epiphany Sunday or Three Kings Sunday comes quite a while after Christmas. The day celebrated for the wise men finally finding the baby. I guess it pairs a little with all of us setting New Year’s Resolutions; we have an Epiphany of how our last year went and how we want the new one to go.
As I sat in church today I was so delighted of the path my pastor took “The First Baby Shower”. The gifts that they brought to Jesus, Frankincense and Myrrh – both beautifully healing oils, both amazing for the skin, both would have helped Mary as she was healing from birth – especially birth in a barn. Can you imagine her skin? We get to sit on donut pillows, take sits baths, lay in bed – SHE WAS IN A BARN! And then there is the gold, it seems like an unusual gift. But gold came in very handy for this little family who was suddenly on the run from Her’od and needed a new life in a new home. We all know how expensive a move is … anyway… I digress.
Anyone have an epiphany today?
Being up in the mountains the last three days made me again think back to my past. Many of you know I am a Teacher of the Visually Impaired, and that is how I got my start in special education. Many of my friends tag me in posts about braille, inventions for the blind, blind entrepreneurs, and I love that! How many of you know that I got my start as a ski guide for the blind? The typical guide would wear a bright orange jacket that the skier could find as a contrast against the white snow, that is unless they didn’t have enough vision to follow and then you would ski behind and call out turns. That was so fun, I’ll never forget being a regular guide for a woman with Stargardt's Disease. She was a really good skier and pushed me to ski better. One morning she asked to pass me, it was a wide-open run, freshly groomed, she did it – she said it was so freeing, like flying, and near the bottom, I caught her, shouted commands, resumed my lead and we jumped on the lift. She was very inspirational to me when I finally chose to apply for the program at San Francisco State University to be a TVI. There were other students I met along the way, often from a school for the blind who were fun to teach, although we rarely left the bunny hill. And another couple that was basically on their honeymoon, both having a visual impairment, they stick out in my memory because they each had a guide dog who left in the hotel room to spend the day together. All these skiers were very capable and fun to work with and made it easy to say yes to a future of working with so many amazing individuals. (Photo is me and a skier with our bibs on in Vail).
Starting a new decade certainly makes me think about where I’ve been the last 10 years, even the last 20. Where have my kids been, who have they known, what is their story when they are my age? I have thought a lot about being small, all the different communities I was a part of, how when people ask where I am from I say “Colorado, grew up in Denver, graduated HS in Grand Junction, met Kevin in Vail”. But I have been in Sonoma for almost 20 years. I have been in Sonoma longer than any place in my life.
I have thought a lot about being a little girl in Morrison, growing up across the street from
Bill Bauer
(Jr) and next door to Michelle Hagan
, how one of my favorite places to play was on the old wagon we had in the rocks out front. How we only had to cross the creek and we were in the most amazing dirt bike jumps, I can vividly remember being at the top of the high hill and how it was really steep down, flattened a little and then went down and made you jump. Why don’t I have more scars from playing over there I’ll never know. I also vividly remember playing a soccer game in our extra long back yard and the ball went through the dining room window and we ran next door for Carol Rinkert to help us since we were latch key kids. It was a small cul-de-sac and the relationships were ones that looked out for each other. I remember switching schools in 2nd grade from Peiffer Elementary to Rocky Mountain Christian School and meeting friends to last me a lifetime. I met
Jennifer
, Jeff, and Juliet
, Kristen Cottier
, Cheryl Hughes, Chris Colby, Jim Howard, and all the other RMCS kids that we grew up with. It was sad when that school closed and that chapter of our safe little lives had to end. But what a sweet school. My first teacher, Mrs. Lively got pregnant and we watched her belly grow all year. We would all line up and walk three blocks to the neighborhood park for recess. Bonny
Bornschlegel taught me how to ride the RTD public bus back to her mom’s where we were babysat until my mom got off work. When the school grew enough to justify a middle school, we loaded up in a church bus and drove across Denver to another church building to have more classrooms. That was the first time I had a locker. I’ll never forget riding a skateboard down the ENORMOUS hill at that neighborhood park (seated of course) but it went SO fast. Again – how are there not scars? RMCS closed after my 6th grade year so in Middle School I found myself at a new school with another new group of friends. I quickly became inseparable with Missy
Melissa Manderscheid
and the class had so many friends to meet, Jody Kroonenberg
and her amazing birthday celebrations including one up at the farm. Annika Olson
, Kristen, Jennifer Decker
, Aimee Bryan
, Candace
, Jon Layne
Jeremy Reitsema
(who maybe didn’t even go to school there), and of course my carpool buddy Janda
. I stayed at Denver Christian through my freshman year and for the first time realized that having an older brother, Myles
, was not so bad. He was a senior my freshman year. His best friends were Heath and Jerrod Rickard
. I may or may not have gone to my first party that year with my brother. I still consider those peeps my friends. In 5th grade, we switched churches and I moved from Bear Valley C of C to University. I left my friend
Becky Canter
and went to a much larger youth group. It was a little bittersweet. And really I member the reason was that my mom wanted to be with other moms that were also divorced and knew the struggles of raising her kids in the church without my dad. I loved that youth group though. I loved how the other parents loved us as their own. My brother and I made so many friends and went on adventures AKA mission trips, ski trips, area-wide devotionals. I met Bonnie
Gant, Tara
and Todd Hess
, Chel
and David Hayes
, and many other friends that came and went from that group. Including myself when as a sophomore we moved to Grand Junction. As I reflect back on growing up in Denver, many many communities and families took me in and made me one of their own. I went to many schools; I was given the opportunity/challenge of making new friends time and time again. I look at my boys being raised in the same house, going to school from preschool to high school with the same people, playing sports, going to church, and seeing the same families as they navigate their life. They have stability and deep roots. We are all given a different path. I have just been thinking a lot about mine. What’s yours?
What are your goals for the new year? What do you envision for your month, your year, your decade?
I am so excited for a healthy year! A year that I'm able to freely engage in cardio, in core work, in yoga, in loving the endorphins that exercise gives me.
I'm excited for eating local, eating healthy, eating as a family. #wholefoodmatters #leafygreens #familytime
I'm excited to watch our amazing community at work grow and continue to do amazing things.
I'm excited to continue to share my love of essential oils and what a difference they're making in my life. My love of education. My love of sitting one on one and helping. My love of it all.
I'm excited to practice all the self-care. To reconnect spiritually. To promote "Just Be Kind" 365, not just at Christmas. To lead with my heart.
What's your goal?
Or maybe your hope or wish?
