A place for me to play

For several years, I've written a blog about 'all things early childhood' (Pondering Preschool), and this is a fabulous outlet for my anecdotes, ideas, and inspirations about teaching young children. 

However - there is more to me.

I've decided to start a second blog, for all those other thoughts that I want to share.

The blog title "Writing Beside Me" is a play on a phrase in this fabulous poem by Juan Ramon Jiminez:

I am not I.                                       

I am this one,

walking beside me whom I do not see,

whom at times I manage to visit,

and whom at other times I forget;

the one who remains silent when I talk,

the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,

the one who takes a walk where I am not,

the one who will remain standing when I die.

This poem speaks to me because
I love to watch, observe, wonder.
I've become very practiced at it.
It is an often invisible role,
where I write in my journal and
go on my merry way.

As the years have gone by, I've realized
this unseen force,
this sense of "I am not I,"
is the writer in me,
the one who keeps thinking about that one random thing,
the one who becomes preoccupied,
the one who stews and debates and reconsiders,
the one who hurts and cries,
the one who laughs out loud,
the one who is outraged,
the one who is hopeful,
the one who wanders away.

Writing this blog is silence heard.

I invite you to read.