The Sunday Note (TSN) from MGM (Montgomery, AL) is an email to share my own reflective practice with you and invite YOU to share your reflections with your friends and family... 

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V.3 N.36 TSN from MGM "Less Teaching, More Being"

Days 1,001 - 1,007

Dear ,

Many Sunday mornings over the past (nearly) three years, I have woken up with a "Sunday Note" already drafting itself in my mind. This morning was no different. While I lay in bed reflecting on the past week, I kept coming back to a thought that Jodi planted in my mind a while back: "Don't teach with your Sunday note...be."

You know that at heart, I am an educator. 

As I go about my weekly experiences, I regularly (as in all...the...time!) think, "How can I turn this experience into a teaching, a lesson, an activity that I bring to my students?" For example, right now, I'm sitting here at my desk with my Moleskine open in front of me to the section I have set aside for the Sunday Note. There, I have diagrams, lists, half-written sentences, and half-baked ideas captured for possible inclusion in the note I send my family and friends.

(Here I am teaching a couple of weeks ago in Kansas City.)

Most of it - if I were to write it - would sound like me teaching. So, I'm going to "be" more than teach...

Which, leads me to this note... for the first time in a long time, I can "see different" coming. It has been nearly 22 years since I decided to leave the high school classroom where I taught U.S. and World History, World Cultures, Spanish I and Spanish II, Mock Trial, ESL, and Varsity Baseball. Since then, my mind has always been "on," tracking toward the next big thing to do, the next goal to achieve, an upcoming box to check.

And now, I'm seeing a different future.

With the dissertation research collected, I am currently reading, coding, and analyzing my information. The feeling I have is of peace and significance. Peace because I have a clear way forward through writing a rough draft of the next chapter of my dissertation. The significance comes from realizing that more people than I had anticipated are interested in this topic that I've spent the last 2.5 years studying and writing about.

The future looks bright; as my mentor, Frances Hesselbein, says, "Be hopeful." On the other side of defending my dissertation is a place of peace that I am envisioning. Or, as I like to say, "I can image-in a future that looks a bit different than the present." My journal entries, my conversations with friends and family, and what I allow myself to fantasize about are different than what I had thought about in the past.

No, I know I won't be "done" when I graduate in May 2022. 

I will, however, let myself feel peaceful. By taking one thing at a time and wondering how I can contribute to the greatest good, I will continue stepping toward a future that looks different than the past. Maybe it's this time of year, but my reflective practice pushes me to wonder how to take the way things used to be done and transform them into the way things can be done.

Best from 'Bama,

JW

(Hey, if you're on the Marco Polo app, send a hello my way! Mobile# 805-798-1362 )

How did The Note* from MGM (Montgomery, AL) begin?

After being here for just less than a week, I opened up my email to send a note to my family in friends in California and beyond. Jodi was on her way to join me here, so I took some time to reflect on this significant life decision/change I had initiated. That Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019, I sent an email at 9:38 pm (or, as I was beginning to learn: 2138). Here's how it started:

Today was my first day as an employee of the United States Air Force. And, I am bold enough to say I've never been prouder or more excited to serve a community.

Though I "moved" to Alabama last Wednesday [Jodi plans to be here Monday], I went to my New Employee Orientation just today. The 90-minute briefing culminated in me taking the Oath:

"I, Jason Womack, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well; and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

All at the same time, I felt pride, Honor, and a hefty dose of responsibility. I'm helping leaders on a grand scale.

*The following Sunday, and many subsequent Sundays!, I've sent a note to my family and friends. Thanks for reading, and gratitude (more!) for clicking reply and letting me know what YOU'RE reflecting on!