Sinus Enema Anyone?

Recently I got a cold. It's the second cold I've gotten this year. I think it's because I started two small reading groups with students. We share a round table. They sneeze, and I sometimes feel the breeze. (That can't be good.)

My colds used to progress into bronchitis. I seem to have halted that progression, but these last two colds have progressed into sinus infections. My body eventually fights these off, but the healing process is painfully slow: three to four weeks.

Some of my co-workers just say, "Do the drugs, Don."

But I'm a bit stubborn. I'm saving anti-bacterial medications for when I really need them.

One co-worker quietly recommended a Neti Pot. What's a Neti Pot? It's the equivalent of an sinus enema.

WebMD puts it this way, "If you're one of the millions of Americans dealing with chronic sinus problems, you know how miserable the headaches, facial pain, and clogged nasal passages can be. In their search for relief, many sinus sufferers have turned to nasal saline irrigation, a therapy that uses a salt and water solution to flush out the nasal cavity."

"Although several methods of nasal irrigation exist, one of the most popular is the Neti pot -- a ceramic pot that looks like a cross between a small teapot and Aladdin's magic lamp. Although nasal irrigation using the Neti pot has been around for centuries, its use is on the rise in the U.S., thanks to an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and a fair amount of news coverage. The Neti pot originally comes from the Ayurvedic/yoga medical tradition."

Being fairly miserable, I decided to build my own Neti pot before I bought one. eHow told me how. I fashioned on out of a mid-sized, empty mustard squirt bottle. The nozzle-to-nose fit was not quite optimum, but it worked well enough to win me over.

I order a Neti pot called Rhino Horn via Amazon.com. It looks like this:



I've been using my Blue Rhino Horn for about two weeks. My sinus infection is 95% gone. Woo-hoo!

My nasal passages have never felt so clear. Once my infection is completely gone, I'll probably use the Rhino for general maintenance. It's great to have a tool to use once allergy season strikes me next October.

It's amazing what you can learn from people if you just listen to them. My co-worker quietly mentioned the Neti pot, and I'm so glad she did.

(Someone else mentioned ear candling, but that turned out to be a bad idea. I wasted a bit of money, but stopped short of using them. I should have done my research before I made the purchase. Oh well.)

So if you have sinus problems, I recommend a sinus enema, aka nasal saline irrigation. Whatever you call it... it rocks!

(I almost forgot. There are YouTube videos that show you how to use the Neti pot. I just found this one... note the wall behind them!)

Genuine Article or Hypocrite?

It's been a busy two weeks. Most of the writing I've done has been the required kind: Educational Histories of Students, Progress Report Summaries, and Individual Education Plans. But on a more interesting note... I came across a quote I liked:

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness
the independence of solitude.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson



Pondering the quote for a week or two, I've been challenged to carry more personal serenity and general calmness into my daily busy-ness. (And it has helped.)

I agree with Emerson that part of personal greatness is personal consistency. I admire that trait in others. I think it's a trait worth cultivating in myself as well.

My dad used to say, "Do as I say, not as I do."

This was uttered enough times to make an impact. It was often the final salvo in a match of wits, which he won.



It was not until years later I arrived at a proper rebuttal, "But Dad, that's hypocritical!"

(In my 60's/70's mentality, "Keeping it real" mattered.)

Social conventions and interpersonal skills do require us to use filters and act appropriately, but that still leaves plenty of room for being genuine.

Being fake, two-faced, or phony is not a good thing. (Nor is being rude, hurtful, or overly blunt.) Somewhere between the extremes lies a balance point of civility, reality, and honesty.

There are always pressures to conform in a crowd. Having an opinion is not always welcome, even if the opinion is just different, not contrary. Cultivating a sense of self strong enough to maintain individuality against the tide of conformity is difficult, but commendable.



The personal pendulum may swing occasionally into hypocrisy, but hopefully a little internal alarm goes off.

Recently I began watching "The Big Bang" TV series. At one point, Leonard clearly succumbs to blatant contradiction between personal opinion and voiced opinion. His friends are appalled. Sensing their disapproval, he turns to them and says, "What? You've never seen a hypocrite before?"



We all have. What I try to avoid is seeing one in the mirror.

Progress is a new horse.

I'm a teacher. Teachers are supposed to be change agents, that is, we try to get students to change. That's what education is: positive change, improvement. Call it, progress.

But most of us are what I call resistant learners, especially when it comes to trying new ways of doing things, new ways of learning, new processes for progress.

We may be dissatisfied with our rate of improvement, but we like our methods. Our old ways are comfortable, broken in, safe.



So a big part of my job is to entice students to try new ways of doing things: ways that work better than their old ways. It doesn't matter if we're talking about ways to read a book, do long division, or sit at a desk. There are better ways of doing things. Ways that lead to academic progress.

Slow and sure may win the race, but I often work with students who are behind and need to catch up. They need to accelerate their progress. They need help, and often want help. They just don't always want to change.

That's why they need a change agent: a catalyst for improvement.



Recently one of my daily reading groups read a poem by Emily Dickinson. Here it is:

Fame is a bee

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.

After several minutes of discussion, I was able to help my students reach personal epiphanies: this poem is not mainly about bees. What?!

They made connections: Britney Spears, for example. It was fun to watch.




Several days later I composed a poem in the general style of "Fame is a bee" that captures a lesson I've taught many times this year. My poem is called, "Progress is a new horse." The kids loved it. They applauded. Ah shucks. Here it is:

Progress is a new horse.

On the road of progress,
I find my old horse is dead.
It doesn’t carry me where I want to go.

But I love my old horse.
It’s the way I’ve always done things.
I hate to admit I’m riding a dead horse.

On the road to progress,
New horses are waiting to be ridden,
Horses recommended by previous owners.

Progress is a choice of horses.

* * * *

(Last weekend my wife and I took a weekend trip to a timeshare called San Clemente Inn. We drove down on a Friday and returned on a Monday. I took pictures.)

Redefining Success...

Recently I read a quote regarding the true meaning of success. (I can't find the blog, but I remember the quote, so I looked it up. It was written by a woman named Bessie Stanley. It is sometimes attributed to Emerson, but the above link sorts that all out.) The quote is actually a poem:



Success

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded. "

I like pithy sayings: proverbs, axioms, general systems laws, rules-of-thumb. This quote is a bit longer than that, but then success is a complex subject.

I teach kids. I teach kids who struggle to be average in academics. The grades they earn are often less than gratifying. Some work hard just to be below average rather than "failing." Have these kids succeeded? And will they be successful?



Part of what I teach these kids is that their worth and success is not measured by grades on a report card. That's not what matters the most. I inculcate a deeper measure of self-worth or success. Are you kind? caring? pleasant? hard-working? These issues of character are more important than grades now, or dollars earned later. Success in life is measured much differently. But how?

That's why I like the quote. It resonates with me. It also validates my life and beliefs. It validates a life many might think of as inconsequential or ordinary.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "God must have loved the ordinary people. He made so many of them."

Fame and fortune are noticeably missing from Stanley's definition. I like that. But something else is missing from the quote: God's view of success.

One of my favorite sayings from the Bible is a nugget found in the often overlooked book of Micah. It reads, "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?"

Do justly... love kindness (mercy)... and walk humbly with your God? (Not the three top requirements one might guess God would highlight.) The first two correlate to Stanley's poem, but the third transcends it.



At different times in my life I've struggled with the question, "What does God want me to do with my life? What does He want me to become?"

In struggling with that question I often beat myself up for not "making the most" out of my life. I have not striven for notoriety, money, fame, titles, or degrees. Had I aimed too low? Had I sold out for something lesser than what God wanted me to be?

Then I came to a realization: I can quit apologizing to God for why I'm not what He never asked me to be. Most of my self questioning was based on someone else's definition of success, not God's.

Micah gives me some simple direction regarding a more meaningful measure of success. And that helped.



More help was found as I read the New Testament. It provided me an unexpected emphases on what really matters in life. I read...

One of them, a lawyer, asked him (Jesus) a question, testing him. "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

The greatest commandment? the chief requirement? "...love the Lord your God..." and "...love your neighbor as yourself." (Not the commandments anyone was expecting to be highlighted by Jesus, but they were.) Loving your neighbor as yourself certainly covers Stanley's points. Loving the Lord your God covers Micah's. "...walk humbly with you God" -- that's love.

Stanley, Micah, and Jesus all offer words to consider. They offer alternative assessments of what really matters in life and how we need to define success.

The mysteries of womanhood...

Rawan, over on her picture blog (365), posted a picture with this caption: "Spent most of my day in bed feeling iffy. Days like these, I hate being a girl."

Back in grade school, comments like this would have gone over my head. (As they should at that age.) However, with two older sisters, I remember once glancing in my sister's room and seeing her curled up on her bed in obvious pain. I was grieved at her discomfort.

I asked my all-wise mom about it, and she "explained" to me something about "cramps."

I must not have gotten a very clear picture of the ailment, because my reply to my mom was, "Well, I hope I never get that."

I never did, but Rawan does. And I feel bad for her. I can understand her comment, "Days like these, I hate being a girl."

I had a friend 15 years later who was still a bit fuzzy about girls and women. Here's what he did...

Attending a weekly church prayer meeting, grins and quizzical looks were exchanged after my friend inserted this in a lengthy prayer, "And o Lord, please help the sisters as they encounter the mysteries of womanhood."

What?

One of the dangers of opening your mouth is that you sometimes put your foot in it, or at least provide an unplanned rift of laughter at your goofiness. (Even in a prayer meeting.) We all chuckled at the prayer... but my condolences to Rawan and company as they encounter and deal with the many "mysteries of womanhood." (We never quite figured out what he meant. I guess that's why they are mysteries.)

I am so glad that my public education included a junior high class called "Family Life and Sex Education." The class did a much better job of illuminating my unschooled brain than my mother did. It at least explained some of the gender-related mysteries of anatomy and physiology.

You can catch follow Rawan on her blog: Rawan's Random Thoughts

Happy Sunday!

Here's a video that gives a great slant on improving the world (through one of the mysteries of womanhood?)

I've been burned!

January 14th, 2010 would have, could have been my 32nd wedding anniversary. But it wasn't.

Part of the traditional wedding vows I recited back in 1978 included these words: "...until God by death shall separate you."



Yesterday, while running some errands, I stopped by the graveyard to pay an anniversary visit to Patti's grave. On the gravestone are two names, separated by a line: Her name and mine. "Til death do us part..."

Fourteen years after her death, there is still love, warmth, and fondness, but there are no new memories. Death put a stop to that.

Besides the names on the gravestone, there are a pair of roses, one on each side. There is also a quote from Hebrews 11:13 -- "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

As I stood, I talked, I prayed, I sang, and I also pondered... What do I feel?

I've used the word heartbroken before, but this time, I found another label: I felt burned. God had burned me. "Til God by death shall separate you..."

Another verse came to mind... "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire..."

And, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you..."

Part of life involves being burned. Whether you aspire to be a man or woman of faith or not, fiery trials come. (Sometimes, instead of heartbreak, we get deliverance. But other times, bad things happen.)



These bad things try our faith in God. "In God we trust" is no longer an absolute, it becomes a question. Will I trust God?

On the cross, as he was expiring, Jesus said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." As he was being burned, by family, friends, townsfolk, countrymen, and foreigners, he choose to believe. Even as he was being "burned" by God.

Pioneers blaze a trail, so that others may follow. "...fixing our attention on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of the joy set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Fiery trials aren't meant to consume, they're meant to refine. What makes the difference? Faith in Another.

"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth..." These is something more precious than gold: a proven faith.

Another pioneer of faith named the Apostle Paul came to a conclusion about fiery trials: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

A line etched in stone, symbolizes a separation, a loss, a burning. But what goes on?



As I stood at Patti's grave, I was reminded of a question that has echoed in my mind before, "Is it enough that I am your Friend?"

"...because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Life burns. Sometimes the burnings are small and repeated. Sometimes they seem to be a maelstrom. But in the worst of times, the challenge is to look to Another. "...fixing our attention on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith..."

And what have I discovered in my refining moments? I was never alone.

Just like in days of old when King Nebuchadnezzar threw Daniel's three companions into a real fiery furnace, something amazing happens.

The king "...leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, 'Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?'

They replied, 'Certainly, O king.'

He said, 'Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.'"

No, never alone. Not even in the fire.

When Job was being "burned" by awful circumstances, he made this determination: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him..."

Will you?

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."



And I left the cemetery with new insights.

Later, that evening, as I was watching TV, a scene included a song, by John Bunyun, a man "burned" in his own time...

Strangely appropriate:

He Who Would Valiant Be

He who would valiant be
'Gainst all disaster
Let him in constancy
Follow the Master
There's no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim

Who so beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound
His strength the more is
No foes shall stay his might
Though he with giants fight
He will make good his right
To be a pilgrim

Since, Lord, Thou dost defend
Us with Thy Spirit
We know we at the end
Shall life inherit
Then fancies flee away!
I'll fear not what men say
I'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim

Get 'er done! (or not)

Saphron, a fellow blogger, recently solved a few household maintenance problems. Her problems weren't huge, but they were still intimidating.


Life is full of problems. Have you noticed?

It's not always the size of the problem that halts us. Often it's just not knowing where to start.

I've been studying Creative Problem Solving for three decades. (I'm not old... I've just been young for a long time.)

Teaching at an elementary school for the last two years, I've learned to distill my 30 years of experience down to a simple six step process for Creative Problem Solving. I call the process: Get 'er done.



"Get 'er done" is a catch-phrase made popular by Larry the Cable Guy. So much of the time we just complain about our problems instead of fixing them. Larry tells us what we need to do: Get 'er done!

But how?

Here are some simple steps that even fourth grade students learn to use... even when I'm not around:

1) What kind of a problem is it? (Read the directions if available.)
2) Do I have a strategy? (Create a plan. Look in your bag of tricks.)
3) What's my first step? (Get going. A rudder only works when the ship is moving.)
4) What's my next step? (Once you start, things become clear: one step at a time. Pretty soon, you've solved the problem.)
5) Check your answer! (Did my solution work? Find a way to check your answer.)
6) Happy Dance! (The performing arts taught me this. Celebrate the victory!)

This process works for math, household projects, relationships, child-training, etc.

Saphron learned to use a screwdriver! Lately I've been learning to use trust.

Problems got you stymied? Maybe you just need to "Get 'er done!"

This summer I re-learned how to wax my cars. I hadn't done it for 15 years or so. They've made it a lot easier. So today, before I settle in for some serious football-on-the-TV time, I'm going to wash and wax a car. I know what kind of a problem it is... I have a strategy... It's time to move on... to Step One. (See before and after pics...)



Have a great week!