The Silence
Twenty years ago I graduated high school. We didn’t have texts, tweets, or chats… we had a spiral bound notebook that we passed back to each other in the hallway between classes. One day a friend of mine and I had a spat. Rather than blocking me or unfriending me, he wrote “Enjoy the Silence” in the notebook and nothing else. This was clearly a reference to a popular Depeche Mode song at the time. Honestly, I have no recollection of the lemon that turned our friendship milk sour that day. But that moment stuck in my brain when I was thinking about you… and I feel like I owe you an apology.
The Story
You did nothing wrong and I totally abandoned you… without a word. You didn’t know how much stress I was under or how the book writing gave me a bit of tunnel vision. You couldn’t have known that I was also diagnosed with adenomyosis two years ago and that it has literally reeked havoc on my body, my productivity, and my personal and professional life.
All you saw was my last blog, “CoJournaling as a Way to Nurture Positive Tendencies”, posted a year and a half ago. At that time, I felt drained both emotionally and physically. Sadly, the tool and platform that allowed me to unleash my creativity and bear my soul was the very tool that went by the wayside. It became one more thing… like some friendships do.
The problem was I didn’t realize at the time… how much I needed that friendship… I kept up appearances on social media and periodically shared ideas and curated topics… but I remained silent. The longer I kept my silence… the harder it was to break it. Some people schedule a sabbatical to grow and reflect. I, the non confrontational type, decided I could just let blogging go without a word. I was wrong. Blogging is so much more than a task and a checklist to me… it is my passion and oftentimes… I feel like my duty or purpose. The book, now a wrap, and surgery on the horizon… I feel like I can finally come up for air.
There is so much I want to tell you… so much I want to share. I hope you will forgive me… let bygones be bygones and let us reconnect again. I hope you didn’t “Enjoy the Silence”… I know I didn’t.
So there it is… my last 18 months in a nutshell… a difficult time… and only a handful of friends really knew the physical, emotional, and mental toll it took on me. But you know… we were friends too. And I hope we can be friends again. I hope you can forgive my lapse in communication. I hope we can once again learn and share together.
The Sharing
Over the past 18 months and change… I have been busy adjusting and creating a new normal and really experimenting with different styles of learning and creating that work for me. As you know, I love to share these ideas with others because I know that the more we share… the more we inspire and support others on their journey as well. So here goes:
- Interactive SketchNotes: I switched exclusively to hand-drawn notes (no more Evernote) when I attend professional developments and have been photographing them and Thinglinking them. You will be able to see of the evolution through this curated board of 30+ examples.
- Analog ScrapNotes: This skechnote process eventually turned into what I call #scrapnotes. Long before I had my boys, I journaled every day and I kept a scrapbook. Once I had them, that practice fell by the wayside. Now I have started adding the elements and process of scrapbooking into my professional notes and I can’t tell you how amazing and fulfilling it is. Some of you may refer to this practice as #bulletjournaling.
- Examples and Resources: I have curated 170+ examples and research articles to support this type of analog note-taking here.
- Notechef4u: I have also created an Instagram account aptly titled @notechef4u that houses many of my examples as well as my process and tools.
- Cultivating Communication in the Classroom: And finally, the last two years, I have been writing my first published “cookbook”. My passion has always been writing and creating high quality purposeful (and whimsical) content for others and I feel so blessed I was given the opportunity to do just that with this book. If the topic intrigues you, I have created 2 infographics to highlight some of the content:
I know we have lots to catch up on so I can’t monopolize all of your time in one sitting. You will hear from me again shortly… I promise. 😉
FREEBIES and GOODIES OH MY!
TechChef4u now offers a Doc Locker full of freebies and goodies that can be used in the classroom. Lots of resources and templates can be found in the Creatively Productive Digital Downloads Doc Locker. Just sign up using the form below and you will receive an email shortly with a secret link to the site and password to nab your freebies.
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