sentences
Highschool.
Sugar City, Idaho
1990s
English Class.
Mr. Thomas.
Dear Mr. Thomas was our English teacher. He had glorious stories about the huge rats in Guam… and life in Guam… and other such tales of adventures. He seemed very old to us young-in’s. The main thing I remember about Mr. Thomas’s English class was SENTENCES. This was punishment for chewing gum… or talking excessively… etc.
The most memorable sentences I wrote were something like this only extended a bit, “I will not talk to my friend Alison while she is sharpening her pencil.” You see, I sat by the pencil sharpener so we thought we were so clever to disguise our conversation. Not so. I also thought I was extremely clever to line up my neon multi-colored pens to speed along the process of writing pages and pages of sentences. This was very difficult with my most memorable sentence writing because it was just too long to fit on one line. I remember writing sentences during Madrigals… and while sitting in the rocking chair in my parent’s room watching tv… probably something like Saved By the Bell.
Well… tonight as we sat down to dinner, I knew I’d failed quite dramatically at Practicing my Calm Voice during dinner prep.
Failed. F.
I knew I deserved sentences… or something. This is what my 250 sentences would look like:
“I will remain calm to create a center of inner stillness despite the noise and chaos blowing all about.”
“There’s always tomorrow,
For dreams to come true,
Believe in your dreams
Come what may.”
Gotta love Burl Ives singing that one.
My dream is that I will stay centered on my inner stillness (listen to the Holy Ghost)… and remain calm.
The end. Happy Sabbath.
p.s. more tomorrow on our sunshiny weekend of work…. and coughing… and blowing noses… and bandaids.
p.p.s. a friend from Sugar City mentioned recently that she has her tots write sentences when they are squabbling with a sibling, etc. I’m thinking this might be a grand idea to try with Hannah and Abe.
Haha! Good old Mr. Thomas! I still get a smile thinking of his class. I remember writing (because of getting up and down to go to the pencil sharpener to chat with you) “I will not get ants in my pants.” And yes, the multi color pens in Madrigals! :) Oh thoughts of those years make me laugh. I’m thankful to have had a dear friend like you! I hope my kids are so lucky. And I read that Marne’s kids do sentences and so last week we started those too. It works awesome. Although I think Lexi has had to write “I will not scream” about 1000 times already. She’s a loud one, and still hasn’t quite gotten the message. My kids told me the other day that I needed to write sentences. Maybe I should too! Anyway, loved this post.