share.

last year, some facebook friends and blogs i read posted about choosing a word for the year. one word to focus on for 12 months. one blogger chose LESS, another facebook friend chose LIVE, and this year another friend had CHOICE posted on her wall.

i am, admittedly, a bad friend. i never am connected to anything - my cell phone breaks or disappears for days at a time, and my computer/internet access is sketchy. i hate "dropping by" and am terrible at making plans. however, i've been blessed with forgiving friends who overlook (mostly) the "unconnected-ness" of my life.

and, when i sat down to plan out some teacher training activities for this year it dawned on me, that i was planning to impart all of my wonderful, glorious knowledge on everyone else. without opening up dialogue for sharing.

see, 2012 was rough. it started rough, it ended rough. and in order to avoid another rough one, i just want people to listen to me. to do what i tell them and what i think is right. but that's not how it works, right? 2012 was rough for so many reasons, but mostly because of a situation where i was not being listened to, given the opportunity to speak, to share. it got worse when i realized that this was, in fact, a valid leadership skill in this country - and the sheer craziness of giving people a choice to do something was beyond handle-able.

so. this year i thought my word would be teach. but, that implies that i have more to give than the people around me. and, frankly, most of the people around me are tired of being talked at. so, the word i've chosen is share.

life doesn't work when we give. in fact, that's a large part of my personal "charity-philosophy" - if i tell you what to do, how to do it and when to get it done, you won't learn much. and neither will i. you might have a better way. we might both have crappy ways, but by sharing we can make it work.

share. knowledge. love. hope.

"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”