Category: conversation

revisiting and recapturing

Sha Towers on

I just ran into a post that I shared here many year ago and paused to reflect. In it, I mention a tool that i really loved, and which sadly is now gone, but I wonder what suggestions you might have for replacing it? Part of it is just a practice of reflecting and recording, and there are many ways to do that, but the part I treasured was how it returned previous reflections to you (“here’s what you wrote a week ago”, “a month ago”, ” a year ago”, etc.). I would love your thoughts on how to return to this practice and I hope this reflection, which brings up lots of emotions for me and a smile, can serve as a gentle push to you to stop and reflect on a memory of your own that brings you strength, or hope, or love, or even just a tiny smile.

on capturing life

ON CAPTURING LIFE
Sha Towers on July 12, 2013
while i really like the idea of a journal or diary, i’ve never been very successful at it. i’m still not, but i’ve been using an online tool that has certainly helped and has shown me a benefit of journaling: http://ohlife.com/. each evening, i receive an email saying “how’d your day go?” and by replying to the email, i’ve added an entry to my online journal at ohlife. i like the reminder and the ease. sometimes i write a sentence, sometimes more, sometimes i delete it feeling like i’m too busy or my inbox is stressing me out. most times i don’t reply until the next day (who knows what’ll happen latter that night you’d want to write about!) and sometimes (though i don’t recommend it), i catch up on replying to several days worth of emails all at once.

here’s what i really love about this tool though. the “how’d your day go?” email always includes this: “remember this? one month ago you wrote… [along whatever you submitted that day]. the time machine varies, sometimes it’s a month ago, a week ago, a year ago, etc. i’ve even seen things like “800 days ago you wrote…”. pretty cool. but the part i love the most is that i am reminded of really great moments of life, that quickly get lost in the busyness and tedium of life. i’ve realized that often, no matter how meaningful a life moment might be, that it is so easy for it to get buried under layers and layers of other life, and then in many ways, lost. here’s a an example that arrived in my inbox recently that resurfaced the kind of thing i want to remember. to me, this is the real beauty of recording life in a journal.

Remember this? One month ago you wrote…

easy start to the morning everyone in the kitchen eating at roughly the same time. running some errands before our trip. after we got home, carter and I stood in the garage with the door open watching the rain and talking. it was clear it was a moment that I want to remember and cherish. carter was carrying some stuff in from the car and said, “I’m going to take this inside and then I’ll come back and we can talk some more.” 🙂 he’s already not that talkative at age 10, so this was a really great moment.

on capturing life

Sha Towers on

while i really like the idea of a journal or diary, i’ve never been very successful at it. i’m still not, but i’ve been using an online tool that has certainly helped and has shown me a benefit of journaling: http://ohlife.com/. each evening, i receive an email saying “how’d your day go?” and by replying to the email, i’ve added an entry to my online journal at ohlife. i like the reminder and the ease. sometimes i write a sentence, sometimes more, sometimes i delete it feeling like i’m too busy or my inbox is stressing me out. most times i don’t reply until the next day (who knows what’ll happen latter that night you’d want to write about!) and sometimes (though i don’t recommend it), i catch up on replying to several days worth of emails all at once.

here’s what i really love about this tool though. the “how’d your day go?” email always includes this: “remember this? one month ago you wrote… [along whatever you submitted that day]. the time machine varies, sometimes it’s a month ago, a week ago, a year ago, etc. i’ve even seen things like “800 days ago you wrote…”. pretty cool. but the part i love the most is that i am reminded of really great moments of life, that quickly get lost in the busyness and tedium of life. i’ve realized that often, no matter how meaningful a life moment might be, that it is so easy for it to get buried under layers and layers of other life, and then in many ways, lost. here’s a an example that arrived in my inbox recently that resurfaced the kind of thing i want to remember. to me, this is the real beauty of recording life in a journal.

Remember this? One month ago you wrote…

easy start to the morning everyone in the kitchen eating at roughly the same time. running some errands before our trip. after we got home, carter and I stood in the garage with the door open watching the rain and talking. it was clear it was a moment that I want to remember and cherish. carter was carrying some stuff in from the car and said, “I’m going to take this inside and then I’ll come back and we can talk some more.” 🙂 he’s already not that talkative at age 10, so this was a really great moment.

making a difference

Sha Towers on

Today I received an email from a student that caused me to stop and reflect. Well, to be fair, I read it and quickly shot off an email response and didn’t give it much thought. But then it occurred to me that there’s plenty to reflect on here. First, I’m not at work today (well not the usual sense of work)- I’m in another state, at a library conference. So kudos to me for my timely response to a “reference question”, right? [insert glowing compliments here].

But more importantly, the question tells a story. The question came from a music grad student at Baylor with whom I’d worked in the past. Each Fall, for more than a decade, I’ve been fortunate to be a part of the School of Music’s graduate research methods course, working alongside wonderful colleagues from the SOM who see the value of libraries and librarians and who are willing to share the stage with me to help guide their students through the morass of electronic tools and resources that can help them navigate through the metaphoric sea of information. More on that later.

Here’s the email I received (name withheld to protect the innocent) and below it, my reflections.

From: IDENTITY REMOVED@baylor.edu>
Date: April 11, 2013, 2:55:54 PM EDT
To: “Towers, Sha”
Subject: Google Reader is closing!

Hey Sha,
You got me hooked on Google’s RSS in Research Methods last semester and now they’re closing it! I’m heart-broken! It’s so sad. What am I supposed to use now? What would you recommend?

Anyway, I hope you’re having a great day!

As I thought more about this email, there were several things that stood out to me.

  • That the student paid attention to what I was teaching (that is amazing enough!)
  • That nearly a year later, she remembered it was me that taught her about this tool
  • That it made a difference for her way beyond the assignment and the course
  • That she turned to a librarian to help her with the next chapter of her information gathering needs

    • BTW, I told her to check out Feedly.com – where I just finished moving my own google reader universe.

    So you if you’re still reading and you happen to remember (or glance back up at the title of this blogpost), you’re probably thinking I’m patting myself on the back for “making a difference” in the life of this student. But that’s only part of the story. The other part is that this email, this experience of helping people, this “being a librarian” is rewarding…fulfilling…meaningful. This email made me stop and realize that this work, this job, this vocation, makes a difference to me.

    The Most Beautiful Place in the World

    Sha Towers on

    Ann asked me to check a book out from the library to read to her class and she shared with me this beautiful ending to the book:

    I started to wonder if San Pablo really was the most beautiful place in the world. I wasn’t sure my grandmother had ever been anyplace else, but I still thought she’d know.
    “Grandma,” I said, is it?”
    “Is what?” she said.
    “Is San Pablo the most beautiful place in the world?”
    My grandmother made a little face.
    “The most beautiful place in the world,” she said, “is anyplace.”
    “Anyplace?” I repeated.
    “Anyplace you can hold your head up. Anyplace you can be proud of who you are.”
    “Yes,” I said.
    But I thought, where you love somebody a whole lot, and you know that person loves you, that’s the most beautiful place in the world.

    The Most Beautiful Place in the World, by Ann Cameron

    resonating quote

    Sha Towers on

    Ran across this quote this weekend that has a universally applicable message:

    “Part of her initial task on arrival was to understand the history and community that she was becoming a part of.”

    Over and over again in life I see so many people that fail to embrace this listening, observing, learning spirit. They rush in and take charge, looking to make a name for themselves, having no regard for the history and culture of a community. If each of us sought to understand first, to listen first, we would all be wiser and the world would be a better place.

    This quote comes from: Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon – a fabulous must read for any Dowton Abbey fans!

    stuff i’m reading at the moment

    Sha Towers on

    revisiting Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

    Daniel Pink’s The Flip Manifesto: 16 Counterintuitive Ideas about Motivation, Innovation, and Leadership –which you can get just for signing up for Dan’s newsletter (and you should!)

    Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock Potential in Yourself and Your Organization

    Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

    Brian Matthew’s Think Like a Startup: A white paper to inspire library entrepreneurialism

    random stuff i’m mulling over/pondering/interested in 2.29.12

    Sha Towers on

    firewalling your attention (chapter in Lifehacker founder Gina Trapani’s book “Upgrade Your Life”
    http://ginatrapani.org/

    streamlining and economizing instruction – cut the fat!  http://t.co/uzkkekzT

    technology, media, and communications predictions for 2012 http://bit.ly/whfUFb

    workplace readiness skills – in contrast to whatever kind of skills we think we’re creating in academia. this stuff seems more universal, more important than knowing the longest river in the united states or how many planets there are (today, anyway!) and what their order is
    http://www.cteresource.org/downloads/1/wrs_poster_2012.pdf

    managing professional (or any!) information overload: http://lonewolflibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/managing-professional-information-overload-02-21-12/ @LONEWOLFMLS for passing along and @hbraum for the prez

    how people spend their time online
    http://lonewolflibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/how-people-spend-their-time-online-02-29-12/