I attended the International Association of Language Learning Technology Conference (IALLT) in Atlanta, Georgia last week. (For a synopsis of session content, view the tweets.) The experience of spending time in Georgia provided me with a great deal of clarity about many paradoxes in my life, leaving a residue of overflowing gratitude for what is present in my life, in spite of unfulfilled desires. It is so easy to take life for granted and to misunderstand our place in it.
When my life feels like this
Entrance to Georgia State University Dorms
And the point of each step
Stone Mountain, Georgia
Is invisible to the eye
Cable Car Ride, Stone Mountain, Georgia
The joy in the journey is easily missed
Kite Flyer Atop Stone Mountain, Georgia
As I long for the freedom and strength to fly
Bird near Stone Mountain, Georgia
So I ponder as I stop for a rest
Stone Mountain, Georgia
Those who came before
Granite Carving, Stone Mountain, Georgia
And pray for the light to see how best
Atlanta, Georgia From the Top of Stone Mountain
To help those around me soar.
Birds float on the air currents at Stone Mountain
Bombarded by a steady stream of data, demands, and decisions, she felt fragmented—uncertain of herself and even less certain of her place in the current universe. She wished that a pause button would induce a state of suspended animation, creating a conceptual place outside the fabric of space-time where she could recompose herself. In that space she would collect and consider pieces of herself. She would sift, sort, synthesize, reshape, and revise her thoughts, her life, and herself there.