The SAN Script – the week of September 28 – October 2
Big Magic: Elizabeth Gilbert on Creative Courage and the Art of Living in a State of Uninterrupted Marvel
“Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?”
BY MARIA POPOVA
“When you’re an artist,” Amanda Palmer wrote in her magnificent manifesto for the creative life, “nobody ever tells you or hits you with the magic wand of legitimacy. You have to hit your own head with your own handmade wand.” The craftsmanship of that wand, which is perhaps the most terrifying and thrilling task of the creative person in any domain of endeavor, is what Elizabeth Gilbert explores in Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (public library) — a lucid and luminous inquiry into the relationship between human beings and the mysteries of the creative experience, as defined by Gilbert’s beautifully broad notion of “living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” It’s an expansive definition that cracks open the possibilities within any human life, whether you’re a particle physicist or a postal worker or a poet — and the pursuit of possibility is very much at the heart of Gilbert’s mission to empower us to enter into creative endeavor the way one enters into a monastic order: “as a devotional practice, as an act of love, and as a lifelong commitment to the search for grace and transcendence.”
A generation earlier, Julia Cameron termed the spark of this creative transcendence “spiritual electricity,” and a generation before that Rollo May explored the fears keeping us from attaining it. Gilbert, who has contemplated the complexities of creativity for a long time and with electrifying insight, calls its supreme manifestation “Big Magic”:
This, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?
[…]
Surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you. I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure. I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.
The hunt to uncover those jewels — that’s creative living.
The courage to go on that hunt in the first place — that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.
The often surprising results of that hunt — that’s what I call Big Magic.
The rest of this interesting article can be found here in Brain Pickings
(message going out to all staff October 5th)
Greetings to all members of the Ottawa Catholic School Board
I am writing all of you today to ask you to support St. Anthony School in our bid to build a new schoolyard.
A bit of History
St. Anthony is a small school in the heart of Ottawa’s Little Italy, serving a vibrant immigrant community. In 1998, the original schoolyard was entirely made of asphalt and won the Ottawa-wide “Ugly Schoolyard” contest. Shortly after, a greening project was started to remove some of the asphalt and add trees. Now the school community wants to finish the job and transform the St. Anthony yard into a green haven for the entire community.
How does this work?
Encourage your friends, family and community to vote every day from October 6 to 23. You have 18 votes and 18 days to use them. You can use your votes for a single idea, or multiple ideas, but you can only vote for the same idea once per day.
Timeline for voting
Voting starts October 3 – please see the timeline below. Do it every day fromOctober 6 to October 23!The 30 projects with the most votes in their idea categories and funding levels will go on to be finalists. On December 2, a panel of distinguished judges will select the Grand Prize Winners from the list of 30 finalists.
How can I help St. Anthony?
We need your vote every day from October 6 – 23 days – you vote by going to this address:
https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf32399
you will need to register and provide an e-mail address in order to vote the first time. You can register with more than one address.
Even better!!
Please send your e-mail address to me – paul.mcguire@ocsb.ca and I will send you a daily reminder from October 6 – 23 because voting every day is the way to win.
Please help us!! We really can turn Asphalt into an Oasis at St. Anthony Catholic with your help!!
Hapara Workspace Introduction July 2015 from Hapara Team on Vimeo.
Here is a look at a Hapara Dashboard – by going to Student Info, you can send out an e-mail to all your students. As an experiment, I sent out a welcome to the new school year e-mail to all the students in your classes – it will be interestingt to see how many noticed that they received the e-mail!
St. Anthony This Week
Monday, September 28
School photos plus staff photo – staff photo at 8:00 AM
Sabina in all week
IEP meeting: Geraldine/Sandra
Tuesday, September 29
Terry Fox Day – Live streaming at assembly
Karen (behaviour Consultant) in to observe kindergarten 11:00 am
Dr. Catherine Olmstead (new psychologist for our school)meeting with Geraldine, Maria – 12:30 pm
meeting for kindergarten structure- – good news, the class has been split!
Wednesday, September 30
Wastefree Wednesday Today
Boys Soccer – Nora away
Paul away at Directors Conference – Geraldine designate
Thursday, October 1
Alina Carranco, Neurocognitive Science Student at Carleton, volunteers in Mrs. Rupnik’s class
IEP meeting; Maria/Geraldine – 7:45, 10:45
Paul away at Directors Conference – Geraldine designate
Friday, October 2
Pizza Day!!
Paul away at Directors Conference – Geraldine designate
As part of the 90th-anniversary celebrations –
there is a t-shirt for every staff member – please let me know what size you would like