Robert & I celebrated the holidays with our furry friends as seen is this photo, but also with our children too. We hope you have some great holidays and blessings for a New Year!

We placed five kernels of corn on each plate at our Thanksgiving dinner. These signified the meal our Pilgrims had their first Thanksgiving in America.

At our dinner table, all were asked to use a kernel to explain something for which they were thankful for that day. Gratitude ranged from family, genealogy, work, health and continued on to other areas unique to each diner, including the pending birth of a child.

Cutting pies at First Presbyterian Church on Thanksgiving Day gave us another reason to show our gratitude. We met this family and another little helper along the way. With great laughter and heavy pie cutting, we celebrated in the warmth of friendship.

Thinking about our own dinner later that day, I thought, what a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving by stopping the reflect about our gratitude. How would you use your five kernels?

I wrote an article today about learning by wearing a different face. You may have heard about Peppers the clown. If you haven’t, Peppers is a great example of this theory. See my photo below to see what I’m referring to.

So I decided to dress up as Peppers to test my theory. Even though Halloween is fast approaching, I came to the realization that I’m a different character when dressed up. Now I get to experience what Hollywood actors or actresses or even the circus clowns experience. Wow is all I can say!

Lessons I Learned Wearing A Different Face

 

October 2005

 

“Who do you think I am?” I’ve often asked friends and colleagues. Not a typical question, you’d say, unless I was dressed as Dr. Peppers the clown. Showing others a different side of ourselves can be quite enlightening. Such was the case for me last fall when I attended a professor’s class as her invited guest. She wanted her students to share a dimension of themselves other than the academic. That classroom experience was educational for me as well.

 

I’ve learned that being someone else with my white face clown makeup and bright curly red hair is quite freeing. It’s great fun when someone smiles, makes an approving comment or jokes about my unusual appearance. While most adults are more constrained, children tend to cluster around often touching to determine how real you are.

 

Wearing a clown’s face and clothes involves risk taking with the potential for rejection. I wonder will people smile or laugh at me. Will I be ignored or will someone talk to me? Do they think I will embarrass them? These lifetime questions are magnified by my different appearance.

 

When you consider wearing something unusual for a special party, watch children playing “dress up” or answer the door on Halloween, stop for a reflective moment. Does being in a make believe world, even briefly, provide a bit of freedom? What lessons can we learn from showing another side of ourselves? Then, we too may want to ask, “Do you really know who I am?”

 

 

 

I’ve created this new website and I hope you enjoy it. I plan on adding new blogs each week with the thought of creating new ideas for my blog!