{"id":379804,"date":"2015-09-13T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/13\/worth-more-than-a-thousand-words\/"},"modified":"2015-09-13T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T13:14:08","slug":"worth-more-than-a-thousand-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/13\/worth-more-than-a-thousand-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Worth More than a Thousand Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Sunday, Journeyer!<\/p>\n

I have to tell you, I had no idea what I was going to write about until a few minutes ago…<\/p>\n

My week began with the long trek home from Rock Hill, SC, where I spent the Labor Day weekend helping Fave and Squirrel whip their first joint rental home into shape.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

One day of catching up from being gone and then it was back to the grindstone, back to the start of a new school year with that bloody alarm going off at that dreadful hour of six a.m.<\/p>\n

I must say that I am SO PROUD<\/strong> of my kids. I said that to mine and Warren’s counselors in this week’s session, when Ess asked, “Which kids, yours or your students?”<\/p>\n

I am equally proud of both…<\/p>\n

I do call my students “my kids,” and for those of you who’ve been following for a while, you know that most of my elementary-aged students come from one of the hardest areas of our town. Despite the many challenges we’ve faced, I love the progress we’ve made in such a relative short period of time.<\/p>\n

This year, the majority of those returning students set the bar for the many new ones who joined us, making my job much easier. My messages of “Fair, Firm, and Consistent” will get through to them much faster in the absence of pandemonium!<\/p>\n

Some of my week’s brightest moments were the few hugs from students who adore me and the cooperation from those who still aren’t convinced that a chaos-free environment serves them best.<\/p>\n

I feel privileged to be able to be a part of their lives and am just so freaking proud of their hard work and accomplishments<\/a>…<\/p>\n

The image of them sitting quietly in their seats, hands to themselves, following the rules is one that is worth more than a thousand words…<\/p>\n

As is the excitement I felt when I received my guest ticket to the upcoming Clarity Connects Buffalo event I’ll be speaking at! If you or anyone you know are in the Buffalo area and are looking for a few hours of inspiration and motivation, check out my events page and get registered to join us!<\/p>\n

\"Clarity<\/a><\/p>\n

In other happy news…<\/p>\n

Warren and I enjoyed a date night out with another couple at a little local restaurant I haven’t been to in years. They have a tree growing in the middle of the restaurant!<\/p>\n

On Friday I reunited these two adorable but lost pups with one very happy owner!<\/p>\n

\"Lost<\/a><\/p>\n

Warren is out of town this weekend and I had high hopes to complete many of the tasks on my to-do list: finish my speech edits and memorization of the last few minutes of dialogue…Register for the discussions I want to sit in before and after my own workshop presentation at The North Carolina Social Worker’s Fall Conference<\/a>…book my flight to the conference…continue working with the artist on the new logo design for The Five Facets…continue working on the online course I’m developing, and do some more writing for the book I’m currently writing to introduce The Five Facets Philosophy<\/span> to the world…<\/p>\n

OH, AND ONE OTHER THING!! I’m happy to announce that I’m also co-authoring a book with Lynda Cheldelin Fell! She’s developing an anthology series called Grief Diaries<\/em> and my name will be listed alongside hers for The Loss of a Child<\/em>. I’m honored to be a part of this project and excited for this collaboration that is designed to help those in grief…<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the cover designs being considered<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m also contributing to two other books in the series. The prompts for each of those books also needed my attention this weekend as the first deadline is tomorrow… If you or someone you know might be interested in contributing to the series<\/a><\/span>, it’s not too late!<\/p>\n

Needless to say I had high hopes for all the work I was going to accomplish yesterday but after I showered and ate, I found myself in the unusual position of not wanting to do a thing. Seriously, the gray skies and the raindrops splashing across my windows seemed to suck the life right out of me. All I wanted to do was play Candy Crush and then take a nap.<\/p>\n

A nagging gloom shrouded me and filled my thoughts with all kinds of negative emotion…icky feelings that I couldn’t shake no matter how many times I tried shifting my thoughts back to something positive…<\/p>\n

Guess what I did.<\/p>\n

I grabbed my car keys and went for a ride, ultimately ending up at a local garden shop where I purchased two large mums for my front porch, several shrubs for the house we are trying to rent, and a few blaze red and orange flowers…<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A tri-colored surprise mum!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fall<\/a>After filling the underside of my nails with fresh soil and pulling a bunch of weeds from my flower garden, I ate lunch and, finally realizing that I didn’t have the energy or desire to go to those emotionally difficult places, I curled up with a book my friend recently loaned me because she was positive I would love it…<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

I read a few pages and then took that several hour nap, awaking just in time for dinner.<\/p>\n

As night fell and the rain subsided, I made my way to my office and to the work at hand. Realizing I hadn’t made any posts on any of my social media sites for quite a while, I uploaded something to Instagram…<\/p>\n

That’s where this photo comes in, Journeyer…<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I cropped this image from a larger photo because this little piece fully captures the essence of the Human-Horse bond TrueHeartGal writes about<\/p><\/div>\n

Scrolling through Instagram, a larger photo of a that horse caught my eye and I made a quick comment… This morning there was a message waiting on my iPhone screen…the author had replied to my note…<\/p>\n

Something drew me to her bio, which pointed me to her website, which carried me through a few mesmerizing, equally heartbreaking and heartfelt posts…<\/p>\n

You see, that beautiful fellow, Metro, is what the writer calls “the horse of her dreams.” And he’s sick, Journeyer. As I type these words another lump forms in my throat and now I type through the same watery eyes I had as I read some of their story…<\/p>\n

The tears that fill my eyes are a mix of sad and happy tears… I know TrueHeartGal understands that blend of emotion… In her post, Stubborn Gladness<\/a><\/span>, she writes, “It\u2019s a strange thing to joyfully rejoice while facing the end. But, I also realize it\u2019s what we are all doing, really.”<\/p>\n

Nothing could be further from the truth: With each day we live, we are also that much closer to the end. “All things live and all things die,” I’ve said to my children when talking about this difficult subject…Death…<\/p>\n

TrueHeartGal’s photo captures the essence of a love that transcends time and space, Journeyer. It is a moment suspended in time, one that is worth far more than a thousand words…an infinite number of invisible words that are woven into the fiber of each and every pixel of the vision…<\/p>\n

It is one of those simple HappyHappens moments that are the essence of this practice I write about week after week…the practice of paying attention to those joyful, warm moments and of paying them homage…<\/p>\n

As I went back to find that post to cite here, I noticed that her words were penned nearly a year ago… I do not know if her beloved Metro is still alive in this physical world, but this I do know…<\/p>\n

His spirit lives on to create new stories and to claim the hearts of many more people…<\/p>\n

Thank you, TrueHeartGal for sharing Metro, the “Horse of your dreams” with us…<\/p>\n

Thank you, Universe, for the countless ways you bring happiness to our hearts…<\/p>\n

What about you, Journeyer? What moments made you smile or warmed your heart this past week? I love hearing from you and sharing your little joys! I look forward to your comment below.<\/p>\n

Yours in hope, healing, and happiness,<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Sunday, Journeyer! I have to tell you, I had no idea what I was going to write about until a few minutes ago… My week began with the long trek home from Rock Hill, SC, where I spent the Labor Day weekend helping Fave and Squirrel whip their first joint rental home into shape. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1387,1907,1034,1903,1908],"tags":[316,1439,317,1349,536,1440,320,1441],"class_list":["post-379804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grief","category-happiness-mental-health","category-happy-happens","category-loss","category-the-five-facets-of-healing-and-healing","tag-happyhappens","tag-clarity-connects-buffalo","tag-finding-happiness-in-your-day","tag-grief-diaries","tag-mental-health","tag-r","tag-random-happiness","tag-trueheartgal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Some-Images-are-worth-more-than-a-thousand-words-quote-by-Annah-Elizabeth.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}