sharing – shā towers

revisiting and recapturing

Sha Towers on November 13, 2020

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.

ThanksGIVE or ThanksGET?

Sha Towers on December 2, 2014

Did you take a moment to think about what you’re thankful for this past week? At our Thanksgiving meal we have a family tradition of taking a moment to go around the table and reflect, lighting the candle of the person next to you and sharing something for which you’re thankful. Are the candles necessary? No, we have electricity. I think the candles are a visible symbol of many ideas, but maybe most importantly they are a reflection of intentionality. It takes time to light candles and not catch your neighboring family member on fire. It helps slow us down, helps us take the time to stop and reflect. If you stopped to think about giving thanks, what did you lift up? Personally, I wrestled with not wanting to say the same thing that everyone else wanted to say (even though I am very much thankful for all those things too). I didn’t want to go on with a long list, even though certainly is a long list of things for which to be thankful. There are lots of things that I probably wouldn’t even remember to be thankful for or list because the bounty that surrounds us is so plentiful. During this family ritual, our eleven year old, Carter, said he was thankful that we were able to help people that morning – taking Thanksgiving meals to less fortunate people in the community. It struck me that most of what we’re thankful for is a benefit or blessing for us. Thankful for what WE have. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that and I think we SHOULD stop and give thanks for the many blessings we have. [Insert levity here:] Carter’s reflection was followed by younger brother Max’s contribution: “I’m thankful for mySELF”! When I heard Carter’s response, my immediate reaction was “what a thoughtful and considerate young man!” and then I didn’t think about it anymore that day. But his focus on being thankful for how we can help others returned to me last night as I waited in line at the grocery store.

There were only two people in front of me and I was elated to be so fortunate. I don’t usually have much patience waiting in line at the store. Just when I thought this was about to be my favorite (and shortest) trip ever, the woman at the front of the line attempting to pay, ran into trouble. I noticed she was using a Lone Star Card (food stamp program) and it wasn’t working. While trying not to get frustrated with her child who was getting impatient, she attempted to call someone on the phone to solve the problem. At this point, I remember thinking, “seriously, you’re calling someone?” My speedy trip through the line just ground to a halt. The person she was calling didn’t answer and she seemed panicked about what to do. She did, however, seem concerned that she was holding up the line. For that, I gave thanks. I decided that really, I wasn’t late for an important meeting or anything, so it wouldn’t hurt me to calm down and make sure I wasn’t sending any signals of being irritated or inconvenienced. The woman asked the cashier if there was anyway she could move her loaded grocery cart to the side and let the people behind go ahead while she waited for her lifeline to return her call. After all my groceries were loaded and paid for, I could tell she wasn’t any closer to a resolution and Carter’s message rang through my head again — be thankful for how you can help others. I asked the cashier how much the woman owed and if I could pay for it. He looked at me like I was crazy. I was nervous about how much the bill might be. I certainly don’t mind giving an amount that won’t inconvenience me, but if the price tag were above that, would I be able to say, “Oh, then nevermind!” without looking like a jerk? The amount was not inconsequential, but it was less than my own groceries, so I swallowed hard and handed over again my credit card. As I prepared to leave, the woman with two kids and a cart full of groceries kept trying to call someone to help with her situation. I wheeled my groceries by, handed her the receipt, and said, “Merry Christmas, you’re good to go.” I smiled and quickly went on my way, not wanting to seem like I was waiting for her to shower me with thank yous.

One of the things I didn’t say at our Thanksgiving meal was that I was thankful to have enough money to put food on the table. I never even stopped to consider it. I was too busy thinking about things more fortunate people have to be thankful for. It always bothers me when people say things like “we are so fortunate” – It feels greedy to me, but it’s true. Maybe it feels uncomfortable because it seems to demand that we take action in light of the acknowledgement. If we are so fortunate, perhaps we have an obligation to use that fortune, to share those blessings. Are we thankful for what we have (that makes our lives easier, more comfortable, more convenient, more cushy) or are we thankful for the opportunities to help other people?

If you’ve made it this far, do me a favor. I’d love it if instead of commenting on this post, instead of giving me kudos for being such a benevolent person, you do these three things. Take a moment to reflect on opportunities to give. Then give thanks for those opportunities. Then act.

making a difference

Sha Towers on April 11, 2013April 11, 2013

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 September 28, 2012

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

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