Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Slice 2 of 31-#SOL17: An email made my day

This is the 10th year that Two Writing Teachers has hosted the Slice of Life Challenge. Thirty-one days of writing during the month of March, here we go!



Last year at about this time, I took on a challenge to wear a hair tie around my wrist. Doesn't sound like much of a challenge yet, right? But here's the catch. Every time I complained, criticized, or gossiped, that hair tie had to switch its wrist. Let me tell you that it was really important for me to think about how many times I had to think of something else to say or switch my wrists, as my husband termed it. 

When I sat down this afternoon to think about my second post, I found myself heading down the pathway of complaints and rants. My work has been hard this week--there's some objective truth to that statement. 

But it's also been good. 

Here's an email I received this morning:


This teacher was sharing a few pictures of her students filling out compliment sheets as a celebration of their information writing unit. This was an activity we'd done together last year, and she remembered. 


I'm not sure if she knows that she made my day. Tomorrow I will tell her. I'm so glad I reminded myself to put a lid on the wrist-switching thoughts and tendencies because it feels so much better to think about the joy that was in my day.

Tomorrow, I will send an email to someone letting them know about the impact they had on my work.

Happy Slicing,



8 comments:

  1. I am always in awe of how one little email or letter can turn a day around. You have inspired me to send a thank you email to someone today! Thank you.

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  2. One message can change the temper of a day. Just goes to show how powerful words are.

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  3. I love the exercise of recognizing and owning a behavior by manifesting it physically, in this case in the hair tie. I might have to try that next time I get too caught up in gossip and bad moods!

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  4. Being conscious and deliberate about how we focus our time, energy, feelings and thoughts is so important. We do make choices all day, every day. I love the idea of the hair tie - a physical reminder to catch yourself. I bet it would work for a lot of things. Thanks for sharing.
    Clare

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  5. At first I thought, why is this a big deal. But then I read further and it is a HUGE reminder of how to stay focused on what really matters and on the words we utter. Great post, Mel!

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  6. I love that you are paying it forward instead of complaining. If we could all do this, the world would be a better place.

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  7. Great post! It is always amazing when we get a message that means so much. It's like the comments during this slice. Sometimes I think my post is really awful, and then people see so much in it. Thanks for the reminder that we need to pay it forward.

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  8. Thank you for this, Melanie. I need to wear a hair tie tomorrow, and send an email or two!

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