misc.joy – explorations by kenley
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Being Present for Our Students
Being present for our students is a true gift we can offer and these experiences with students are one of the reasons why I’ve loved teaching and being part of an academic environment my entire professional career. As teachers, we have the capacity to change lives in ways that we may not always be fully…
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An Antique Rocking Chair
This year I wanted to cultivate more reflection and inspiration in my meditation practice. For the past several months, I’ve been reading a few poems by Wendell Berry each morning (from A Timbered Choir). And though I’ve been married to a poet for a quarter century, it’s not a source of material I often turn toward.…
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Pictures from a Commute – After a Fire
As many of you know, the Ojai Valley and areas toward Ventura and Santa Barbara experienced the largest wild fire (The Thomas Fire) in California history during December, 2017. For those who didn’t lose everything, life has mostly returned to normal and we are the lucky ones. Although things feel more normal, I am reminded…
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Happy People Read Books: My 2017 Book List
As a history major in college, I read a lot of material for each class. And with my college being on the quarter system, that meant a dozen or two books per quarter. Unfortunately, this material wasn’t all something I’d choose. I’ve always been an avid reader, but as life went on, my reading scaled…