Saturday, February 28, 2009

We All Need to Keep Showing Up

While listening to this wonderful talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, I kept thinking about Sit Stay Read and all of us who believe in the importance of helping kids learn to read.

Ms. Gilbert speaks compellingly about inspiration and how it touches us, but her summation is what really hit home. She points out that no matter how much genius comes your way, you still need to show up and do the work (of course she says it much better than that--be sure to watch the video.)

Although Ms. Gilbert is talking about the creative process, I was reminded of the importance of showing up for the kids in our programs. Showing up in the classroom each week, in the school each year, in the community as often as possible. By showing up for the children, we show the importance of commitment as well as the importance of reading. There's no telling where that might lead a child.



Many thanks to Sasha Dichter for first writing about this in his blog.

3 comments:

Johanna said...

Or as they say in another sector, "you can't win if you don't play!"

Ole!

Anonymous said...

Hi, thanks for this post. Somehow the link to the video isn't working any more...which is too bad because it's a great video. You can see it here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

MaryEllen Schneider said...

Thanks much, Sasha.

I so enjoy and look forward to your blog that I feel kind of giddy having you comment on mine, er, Shandy's.

You're very kind.
MaryEllen