Lake Bonny Park.

The soft touch, the gentle sound

I close my eyes, embrace

The touch, the feel, the thought

Pushed by the Spring breeze.

It is as if hand that gently caresses my cheek
And as quickly as it appears,
It is gone.

The feel, the warmth the site

I look up, embrace

Pushed by the beam

The beaming sun

It is as if Heaven opened my eyes

And as quickly as it appears,

It is gone.

The look, the way, the feel

nature as a whole

Pushed away

By the world

And as quickly as it is here,

It is gone.

Lake Bonny was a different experience for me. I went there for an hour and a half and the experience was not only deep, but I also had a lot of peace and serenity. I came to appreciate the site of nature. It is something that I do care for granted. I think the poem I wrote after the trip was how I felt.. it is as if something so great and wonderful, we embrace that and welcome that and then it is gone. Like the other day, and this is true for Florida quite frequently. The weather changes dramatically !! One minute it is sunny and the next it is pouring rain. Then you can see the sun peaking through the clouds. This is how I felt this day. It is as if everything in life, you take it for granted, and then in an instant in a second it's gone. Imagine a world with no sunlight, no breeze on a hot summer's day. How different would your life be. How different would you be. Nature has such a huge impact on us and we don't even realize it. We need to remember to look back and look at God's creation and how beautiful it is, and how thankful we should be. The world is a beautiful place. It made me look at myself and the way I treat the Earth, and how much that I actually treat it. It was so peaceful being at Lake Bonny, and just sitting there listening to all that is in nature. It was quite windy but I enjoyed just being there and thinking and pondering, and reading the poems. I looked at nature in a whole different view then I had before. It was such a beautiful experience.

Poems

I have always found it hard to read and relate to poems. Everyone can take something different out of it, and it may not necessarily be what the poet wanted you to feel. I for one can relate to this upon reading all these selections of poems. The different way that authors write can be quite different, and you may not see it the way in which they do. For example we are taking a field trip tomorrow and then writing a poem to share on our blogs. We will all gather something different from this field trip, and then we will capture it in a poem. The other people in the class may not understand that poem or may not even agree or see that the way we did. It can be difficult to read poems, but it can be a beautiful experience as well. In this selections of poems I loved the way the Earth was described differently. I also felt it was different for the different types of climates each of these poets were from. They all kind of related but each had a different tone and feeling. In one of the poems it speaks of being able to feel God like in nature and then not so much. I feel that it is stating or trying to show the reader that everything is God made, and when you don't see it that way or treat it that the further and further you get from your Heavenly Father. Poems can teach us a lot just like a story, but they can also go a lot deeper. I think with poetry you can become more open, and even if it doesn't make sense to someone else it makes sense to you in your mind. It is how you see it. Poetry is an expression of oneself, and an exploration of the feelings you have. So it should be interesting going on this field trip and experiencing feelings and emotions and then putting them down on a piece of paper. It is something I used to thoroughly enjoy, and I'm pretty excited to explore that creativity again.

State of the Planet

This poem in a way made sense to me. I am not sure I completely understood what the author was trying to say, but I will go ahead and give my brief summary on it. This is how I saw and viewed the poem, and how it kind of came together for me. So, we live in this world... but do we really know this world... this Earth as much as we think we do? We go around from place to place being in the outdoors, but do we ever stop to look around and see what beautiful creations God has laid out for us on this Earth today. The way the poem beautifully described the Earth in its wonderful description made me stop and think when was the last time I actually look at the world in this way. It's such a beautiful thing, but then again something beautiful we take for granted every day. If we didn't we wouldn't treat the world in which we did. Which also shows throughout the poem. We wouldn't pollute and harm our Earth if we actually truly cared and saw the beauty in which it held.

The poem says, " your people, the ones you taught the world to love"

that hit me hard, maybe not in the way the author meant for me to but it did. I see it this way that here we are on this Earth and to make the most of it but to have a beautiful life here on it. We love ourselves we love our lives so we should love the Earth. Treat the Earth as if it would be gone tomorrow.

I gained quite a respect for the Earth my senior year when I took a trip to an island with my class and we saw the Earth just like it is. We woke up every morning at 5 for the sunrise, we didn't shower... it was about us the Earth and learning and loving together. That type of thing can bring people together better yet it can bring the world together. The world is a beautiful place, but so are the people that live on it. Its all beautiful what God created and thats what he intended to do. Make a beautiful place with beautiful people.

Learning Community

MATTHEW 7:12: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you . . .”

This is a powerful scripture. It it as if how you are treated will be how you are treated. As if the respect you show your class mates, will the respect that you will get from them. The same thing with your professors. This gives the learning environment a more peaceful feel, and helps the classroom run more smoothly. This can even go as far as the real world. The respect that you want should be the respect that you give to other people.

For me becoming a teacher this is a big deal because the respect that I will give my students will be the respect they will give me in return.

Respect is a huge deal, and can change not only a classroom but a society.

Students can help a classroom be more dynamic and run smoothly if they just do as the teacher asks. If a class prepares before hand and does the things that the teacher asks of them then the teacher will not have to go back and re teach things in which he/she did before the next class meeting.

In this class we are required to do a lot of work outside of the classroom. Then are class meetings are filled with discussions and learning from one another. I feel that is the best way to learn. You do something alone, and then you come together as a group and you discuss exactly what you learned. Different ideas are thrown out and they are bounced off of each other and they can be enhanced in the classroom setting.

I like the rules, guidelines and how the class is designed to help us learn. It helps me put a lot of effort into the posts and readings and then bring together my ideas within a group.

Story.

Scarlett is running late to school, star bucks in hand she parks her 2009 Lexus in the last space in the back of the school parking lot. She walks hands by her side phone in hand into school then forces a smile tucks her hair behind her ear and sits down prime and properly in her chair. Her friends would describe her as flawless, outgoing, a stranger she never met. Scarlett hid her life, no one really knew her. She hid behind her high dollar clothes, her nice car, and smile. Behind all of that she was dying inside. She was crying out, but no one could hear her. To her classmates, her friends, her teachers she had it all. She had the boyfriend, she was captain of the cheering team, she had the looks, the personality, and she had THE LIFE. She walked the halls with confidence and demeanor that no one could match. Her presence and beauty were like no other. Her laugh was contagious, and her personality made others come out of their shell. She was nothing short of perfect… so one would think.

Ring… Ring… Ring… a muffled voice then answer, heeelllooooo. “Dad is that you?” Scarlett whispered into the phone, “Dad where are you?” His slurred words then answered, “I’m at the barrrrr, I’m fineeee, be home soon.” (CLICK, and the phone call was over) The phone dropped and tears fell down her cheek. Scarlett’s mom looked at her for an answer. “He’s still at the bar mom,” Scarlett said through her tears and sniffles. Scarlett’s mom was married to an alcoholic. She had been married to him for twenty years and had been through it all. A man that recovered from being a crack, coke, and drug user to a man that was drinking himself to death. Scarlett hugged her mom because that is all she knew to do. She held her mother as they both cried. This is the life Scarlett knew. This is the only life she ever knew. Go to school, go to cheering, come home and spend time with her mom and brother. Then came the worst, the return of her father to come prancing in only to start argument after argument. It was the only thing she knew. To Scarlett her life was normal. From an outsider looking in that would not be the case. Scarlett’s father finally returned home, and here it was the ritual fight between her parents. Scarlett with her angry aggression grabbed her father’s arm with her tiny arms and pulled him away from her mother. With her blue eyes tearing up, she begged and pleaded with her dad to leave her alone, to not hurt her, at least not this night. The 100-pound girl jumped in the middle of her parents getting torn every which way and falling to the floor screaming. “STOP STOP,” she yelled. Scarlett had broken her perfectly manicured nails and scrapped her knee on the floor. Her mother dropped to the floor and held Scarlett as she shook and rocked back and forth screaming a prayer out. Scarlett looked up at her father, tears in her baby blue eyes, makeup smeared all over her face and screamed, “I HATE YOU!” Her father stumbled drunken out of the house and to his car; to not only jeopardize his life but others. Scarlett lay on the floor rubbing her leg and shaking in her mother’s arms. “Mom I can’t live this life anymore, I can’t.” Scarlett’s soft voice cracked and shook and she was covered in sweat and her knee still bleeding. She was mentally and physically exhausted along with her mother. After containing herself she went to the bathroom and washed off her makeup that had drizzled down her smooth clear skin. She looked at herself, at her life. She looked at her mother sitting in her makeup chair tears and trembles all over her body. Scarlett knew at that moment all she could do is pray. Pray for a new way a new life a new beginning. Pray for her father to find God and himself and discover something more out of life. She wiped off her face and looked in the mirror at a girl her and her family only knew. The girl that broke easily the girl that cried on a regular basis. The girl who was afraid to walk into her house the girl who dreaded going home. The girl that was scared for her life, her mother’s life, and even her father’s. She fell asleep next to her mother clinching the phone close to her hand and that night praying her father was okay.

She woke up that morning to a frantic mother still trying to find her husband. Scarlett got up got ready and covered her knee with a new pair of seven jeans. Her long blonde hair put into perfect curls and her makeup flawless than ever. She looked in the mirror tried cracking a smile and felt tears creep up in the bottom of her eyes. She breathed in and out and then composed herself. She told her mother goodbye and told her everything would be okay. She grabbed a star bucks on the way to school blared her music and pulled into her usual spot. She got into class and sat in her usual seat, where two girls complimented how she looked today. “Scarlett you are always so beautiful you are so lucky.” Scarlett just smiled and thanked them for the compliment. The more class went on the more she heard the two girls talking how perfect Scarlett’s life was and how she was so lucky. She got everything she had everything and she was just perfect. Scarlett looked down at her knee and rubbed it. She put her pencil in her hand and saw on her long skinny fingers the perfectly manicured nails with a chip from the night before incident. She crossed her arms and slouched as if to cry, and just dropped her head. As one girl tapped her and said, “What is it like to be you, so perfect righttt?” Scarlett turned around got red in the face and teary eyed and said, “My life isn’t what it seems, and there’s more that meets the eye. You see part of me, not all of me.” The girl’s just looked at Scarlett because in that instant a brave small girl confident and poised broke down and fell to her desk head first and started balling. Through her teary eyes she peered and flashbacked to last night. The room was silent and all eyes were on Scarlett. The perfect poised flawless girl had broken, but what the class didn’t know is that she had always been broken.

Character.

Characters can easily be described as people or figures in a story. They have a much bigger role than that. A character speaks to its audience, but better yet it speaks to the author that is writing the story. It is the coming alive of characters that keeps readers and writers intrigued on what is happening. On page 113 it states, " If we do not conceive of characters as people we can know, these characters will seem artificial, unconvincing and uninteresting." This becomes true. Think back to how many times you read a book and you either engage in it or not by whether or not you can relate to it. The more you can relate to something the more real and alive it will become for you. You can experience character through literature, and even film. A character can start out as someone little and tiny in the piece or work and then take a turn and become something more. When reading a piece or seeing a movie you often times gain feelings for the characters. It is simple intuition that people want to gain and gather more information about a character. On page 123, it states, "Artists build from more mundane materials; may artists work from subjects quite literally close to home: family, friends, jobs, and so on." This shows that a lot of what is done in writing and in films comes personally from an artists background which in return the people tuning in can relate to a lot more. We engage with characters just as we engage with people. Characters serve a variety of functions and it is not always the case that we will know the characters as well as we had hoped in a piece of literature. There are many types of characters: round, flat, and stock. Round characters possess a complex psychology. Those seem the most intriguing to me. Dig deep to see exactly what the character is feeling. It is always fun to picture a character outside of the movie or the piece of literature as if they really do exist. Characters are a big part of our world of literature and film and its no wonder we engage in films and literature because of characters of course.

Sonny.

I was not in class on Monday, so I am aware that probably a lot more in depth conversation happened in the class that I missed.

Upon reading Sonny's Blues I was sure it was going to be just another story about love, life, death, and just depressing. As all the selections have been in class, but I have also appreciated every piece of work we have read. The story is about a guy Sonny who lives a bad life, but the one things he has meaning for in his life is his music. This seems so real to me how amazing for one person to be living for one thing in life that means that much to them. I came to understand that although he lived a life not up to par that he still touched people. He touched people from his music, and changed them forever. Isn't that what we are supposed to do in every day life. Touch people make a difference? Touch a life, bring them closer to Christ. Although I do not think Sonny was bringing souls to Christ, I believe through his music with whoever it was it touched people, and most importantly gave him something to live for. Gave him a purpose and a reason. I can relate this to the passion that God has for each and everyone one of us. Just as we put our passions into other things such as music, dance, literature; God wants us to be passionate about him. He wants to be that thing in our life that we can touch and bring people to. I feel that was the biggest connection for me through the story. This story connected with all of the rest of the stories we read in class, but I feel it had a bigger meaning. Life is short and we need to remember to live our passions, but to live those passions through Christ who those passions are not possible unless through him.