Day 3 SI2010

Today my true morning person came to SI. I was late. As I came on the island I saw Deb Webb and Crystal quickly walking into the building. No quick walk for me. Back issues have arisen again. When I got to the door--closed--dreaded closed door--I peeked in the door. April was at the front, handouts were still on the table and there was no music, so I took the leap. Opened the door and of course every eye was on me. April reminded me, with a smile, that the door was closed, so I quickly replied that there was no music, and trudged to my seat. As I sat down, I gazed longingly at the coffee pot, but it was clear and clean. No on had made coffee. Sad face.

Morning prompt was taken from Chicken Soup and was how a teacher remembered her relationship with a student who had died. I was afraid that we would all end up blubbering and fighting over chocolate and tissues, but we dealt well with it. I personally avoided getting too deep in my writing and I think that was just a defense mechanism to avoid the tears. Crystal shared the journal of the day and it was great to see our "taco fold" poems added to live on the web. Interesting that she saw a competition between the window side and the wall side.

At break I solved the coffee problem and then we got to enjoy Courtney's demo. Talk about having reinforcement of good things--she had a demo that also focused on using art/pictures to be a jumping off point for writing. Loved, Loved, Loved looking at the kiddie lit books for their art work. Mostly we read the story, but in these books the artist is just as important as the author,and taking time to peruse those and analyze them was great. The writing that culminated the lesson brought a range of emotions including some tears related to daffodils.

Thanks to Holly for lunch. I got to finish off the chicken salad on wheat bread. Uhm-uhm good! Lunch always ends too soon.

After lunch we tried to reduce some of the stress of "THE DEMO," by doing a "Charting the Demo" lesson. I know that we used this before, but was not here for the actual doing of it. It's a good way to help fellows clarify their thinking and start strengthening their demos early on. Gives input from the group early and allows for broad coaching. Going to post this before I lose it. May add more later.