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The Big Fresh July 12, 2014 Loving the Process

Soccer is truly universal. No matter where I go in the world, that’s what kids are playing. That’s what people are talking about.              ...

The Big Fresh July 5, 2014 Cucumber in a Tomato Cage

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them                                                           Liberty...

The Big Fresh June 21, 2014 Spider Web

The spider’s touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.                                                      Alexander Pope There is a giant spider web along my front walk. It is...

The Big Fresh June 14, 2014 Mind and Body

It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who...

The Big Fresh June 7, 2014 Sorry

A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been...

The Big Fresh May 31, 2014 Stories and Problems

The plumber, the roofer and the electrician sell us a cure. They come to our house, fix the problem, and leave. The consultant, the doctor (often) and the politician sell...

The Big Fresh May 24, 2014 Walled Readers

A boundary is not that at which something stops, but that from which something begins.                                                                             Martin Heidegger   This spring I visited Gigi McAllister’s fourth-grade classroom in southern Maine....

The Big Fresh May 17, 2014 Who We Are

 The return makes one love the farewell.                                                                 Alfred De Musset  In a few short days I am due to give birth to my second child! Early on in the...

The Big Fresh May 10, 2014 Benny

The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.                                                         Henry Ward Beecher When I was 16 years old my passion was playing my clarinet in the high school band, and my...

The Big Fresh May 3, 2014 Piled Up

When you climb to the top of the obstacle that is blocking your view, you are able to look at your situation from a different perspective.                                                                 Lucy MacDonald  I...

The Big Fresh April 26, 2014 Are We Still Serving Hamburgers?

Instead of focusing on the circumstances that you cannot change – focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.                                                                       Joy Page  Years ago, I was awarded a...

The Big Fresh April 19, 2014 Spammer for a Day

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures — in this century as in others our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing...

The Big Fresh April 12, 2014 An Average Overachiever

Always live up to your standards – by lowering them, if necessary.                                               Mignon McLaughlin Being an overachiever is my strength and my weakness. I think that is true for...

The Big Fresh April 5, 2014 Smart Board

Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them....

The Big Fresh March 29, 2014 Favorites

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better.                                                                               John Updike One of my favorite publications every year is the International Reading...

The Big Fresh March 22, 2014 Something Strong, Smart, and Beautiful

Courage is tiny pieces of fear all glued together.                                                 Terri Guillemets The end of every school year is bittersweet, but for students making the transition from elementary to middle...

The Big Fresh March 15, 2014 Reframing Despair

To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.                                                                       Stephen Covey A budding third-grade scientist was required to record the status of trying to light a light...

The Big Fresh March 8, 2014 Reading Dogs

Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, and they pass no criticisms.                                                    George Eliot Last summer, a friend told me about a program in which therapy...

The Big Fresh March 1, 2014 Sensing Spring

Each day has a color, a smell.                                 Chita Banerjee Divakarumi  The calendar turns to March, and everyone longs for spring. Here in Maine, we expect to be buried in...

The Big Fresh February 22, 2014 Making Opinions Matter

Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else.                                                                  Mark Twain On a recent Saturday I spent the afternoon with some elementary...

The Big Fresh February 15, 2014 Fancy Foods

First we eat. Then we do everything else.                                                                  M. F. K. Fisher When I was a child and went with my family to the grocery store, we generally filled...