“We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong.  The amount of work is the same.”  – Carlos Castaneda

High school English teachers work hard.  Grading essays and managing a paper load of over 150 student writers is enough to burnout anyone, but then add in the other jobs of caring for three children, a husband, a dog, cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, helping with homework, caring for an aging mother, designing curriculum, publishing articles, attending and presenting at conferences, facilitating workshops for teachers, and reading/researching pedagogy in an attempt to stay abreast of best practices in education, and you’ve got a woman too weak to climb stairs to collapse into bed at the end of the day.  That was me, living the life I chose, weaving in and out of my roles at light speed.   I haven’t figured it all out, but I have learned to find strength in simplicity, slowness, and silence.  I have learned to take long walks and short naps.  One goal of this blog is to give a public voice to the private musings, readings, and prayers that helped me manage my life as an English teacher, to help other English teachers make themselves strong – especially since the amount of work is the same as it takes to be miserable.