Weeds

Hurt.  So, Jenn was right.  Weeds need to be maintained often and early.  My garden has largely succumbed.

On the bright side, my beets are doing well and sheltering a myriad of eight-legged friends.  Would have taken a picture of the 'baby bulb' I unearthed today, but no camera or phone (as usual).

In future, I will definitely:

• weed,
• pay closer attention to planting times in terms of temperature,
• invest in good compost/soil,
• and research Polynesian (rather than conventional, row) planting methods to see if I can reduce maintenance [perhaps combined with mulching hay or terraced cinder block beds in the spirit of those featured at the end of "Locavore."

Clean-up caveat and assignments and policies that 'feel' mindful

Mel provided the following picture from a 15 minute clean-up near Hardee's on the strip in Coralville.  I'd like to suggest students (and I) replicate as a possible short (or longer-term) assignment.  Yikes:

I just finished reading Matthew Fox's "Creativity" to inform policies and assignments upon my return from professional development.  That book spawned the following ideas:

•  To go towards the pain and allow it to make us compassionate and inquisitive.  Try doing the things you most fear for growth and remember that nothing is 100% warmth and light (e.g., flowers die with nothing but sun).  At the same time, do not fear joy.
• Ask what you have learned each day and whether it has contributed to the love of life (biophilia).
• Allow for expression of learning in all things creative (e.g., music, theater, painting, sculpture, earth, animals, etc.).
• Allow for deep intimacy of nature (seemingly all the more important now that the Oxford Junior Dictionary has chosen to replace nature references with social media to reflect the increasing focus on the internet of today's youth!).  Likewise, be aware (sociological imagination and social construction) of how we have constructed 'diseases' with 'pharmaceutical cures' around nature deprivation (e.g., pg. 205 in Creativity regarding the Ciba class action lawsuit for motivating doctors, parents, and educators to prescribe Ritalin).  Likewise, remember that single actions (pg. 212) like the construction of a dam can decimate entire species.
• As such, construct exercises that allow us all to be mindful of the changes post-1610 (where the Heliocene meets the Anthrocene epochs) in which humans have manipulated the natural environment with the advent of trading and technology in the name of unquestioned 'progress.'
• 'Make silence' for the discovery of place in the universe and to foster intuition.  [See more exercises in doing so below.]  Allow for curiosity, wonder, and awe to replace despair and hopelessness via compassion and loving kindness for self and others.
• Consider whether our society and our actions (reflect and be mindful of various components of these) are 'human, animal, nature' friendly?  Fox quotes David Korten as saying "we have created an economy that values money over all else, embraces inequality as if it were a virtue, and is ruthlessly destructive of life....  It is hardly surprising, therefore, that we find ourselves in psychological and social distress (pg. 224)."  If this is true, what do we want to do about it at both the individual and collective levels?

Additional musings include:

•  The need for creatively designed nametags by students (not sure what to do for my own, B.).
• Presentations by students daily after sharing work with another.
• I do all work along with students!
• The creation of an 'Amnesty week' for approximately 3 assignments without being late near the end of the semester.
• The possibility of calling me (my home phone) when not in class.  [This one is an exercise in going toward exactly what I would otherwise avoid!]
• Using Talon to have students watch documentaries on their own time for linking to text in class discussion.
• Experiential assignments like the following with respect to mindful reading and participation in practices that lead to the construction of our society. [Even how you feel after collecting trash for a short period of time (see above by Melanie) and how this might change your patterns of consumption to be more mindful?!]
• Experiential assignments could also include standing in class on piece of paper to mimic confinement chicken in wake of bird flu and rise of bureaucratic production of food.

And, lastly, an article shared by those teaching mindfulness classes for undergraduates at the University of Iowa (Chapter 5 from the book Contemplative practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning) yielded the following insights:

•  Many are using mindfulness to allow students to be curious about stressful issues rather than want to 'turn away.'  Examples include: "space for silence by sufferers of rights violations, learning to read forms of storytelling that don't conform to expected patterns, cultivating a compassion that clearly acknowledges power imbalances and privilege, and critical thinking about humanitarianism itself."  All of these allowing students to "delve deeply into the intellectual core of the course."
• Practices emphasize allowing students to heal themselves as they challenge civic engagement to heal society.  They practice being "unconditionally friendly" to themselves.  One example includes 10 minutes of class spent:
• In silence with simple observation of any thoughts or emotions that arise.  Welcome those thoughts or sensations rather than 'getting caught' in them.  'Simply notice the mental chatter, the resistance to what is.'
• Educators at Claremont Business School want graduate students to understand the need for greater attention spans (especially in our 'goldfish' attention span world...) at work.  As a result, students are asked to focus on objects (like a cell phone) and their behaviors regarding those objects.  Though students report checking their phones to alleviate anxiety when bored, doing so invokes more anxiety.  As a result, University of Washington professors do the following exercise:
• Students are asked to spent time observing a practice (checking e-mail, texting) mindfully by observing how they feel (in the body, breath) while doing the practice, deciding if there are parts of the practice they wish to strengthen or others to reduce, and then make choices to either strengthen or reduce.  This exercise could be used for a short assignment first and then later as part of a larger, individual change project as well.
• Lastly, reading reflections are suggested by those at the University of Arizona with the following:
• Spent 10 minutes centering (see above example) then begin your course reading.  After completion, spent 10 more minutes focused and then write one page linking the reading to your own personal experiences.  This exercise could be modified to link the reading to interview data from another, to current events, etc., as well though the primary goal would be to engage and validate student experiences.
• This could demonstrate various principles as well such as the sociological imagination.  If you relate to whether or not any of these practices cause you anxiety or other 'personal troubles,' you can then expound on how everyone engaging in these practices (say...in a car...) leads to a variety of 'social issues,' for instance.