Expedition Arctic

Maybe it's the approaching 50th birthday, maybe too much time alone, who knows.  This has been a strange period in life lately.  Still passionate about teaching.  Still passionate about fly fishing.  The hunting bug has waned the past couple of years.  Still passionate about coaching track, not so sure about basketball right now.  I have too much on my plate that I seem to be doing kind of half-assed, by my standards.  The job is still getting done, but not with the same degree of enthusiasm or attention to detail as before.

Friday we had a class field trip to a local creek.  It was the coldest day in years.  Twenty-one degrees with the wind whipping at times.  We managed to pull it all off, but I had to play the roll of cheer-leader all day, not just for the kids but also for the bus driver, transportation director, teachers back at school, and the interns from the local non-profit who were putting on the whole trip.  I almost thought of canceling the whole enchilada, but decided a little adventure and adversity would be good for the little darlins.   So it was up to me to fire up the troops.  I'm not the rah-rah type by nature, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  It makes me wonder about the kind of doubts and hurdles encountered by people who have had to lead others through challenges that were infinitely tougher.

Digging out of this rut has been much tougher than I had imagined.  Constantly looking for sources of inspiration and ways to bring back discipline.  Still working on finding something that will stick for more than a month.
                                                             

What it really looked like.       




                                                   What it felt like.