I don’t often feel the need to “get in touch with the universe” as I feel like nature and the universe are constantly in touch with me.  Being a strict and serious agnostic, I try to live my life in such a way that I will send positive energy into the world.  I feel very strongly that by sending positive energy out, I will increase my chances of receiving positive energy in return from the universe.  I believe that this ebb and flow or come and go of cosmic balance will ensure that whatever is meant to be mine will be.

Image by Rob Ireton via Flickr

While I wouldn’t want to assume any position of power and influence within my community, I would love to be an active part of a bigger change within it.  As a 3rd grade teacher for students with disabilities, I would love to see not only more financial support but also more community involvement within our public schools.  There is a great need within our schools for volunteers to be active participants in the educational process, whether that be by having people talk with kids and give them hands-on experiences with what it’s like to hold varying jobs or by opening up places of employment and inviting students in to get a “behind the scenes look” at reality.

My favorite game to play as a child was manhunt.  It’s a game I’d play with other neighborhood children where you wait until dusk and divide into teams to play hide and go seek.  The largest differences are that entire teams would “seek” at a time and you got to hide under the curtain of night.  Also, if you were a person on the team hiding, you could run to the home base to prevent being captured and you would be safe.  The inability to tell who everyone was in addition to your heightened senses made manhunt an incredibly exciting game to play.

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve not read as much as I’d like to say I have in the past few years (who has time to read, anyhow?!) but I have had a couple of “a ha!” moments throughout the course of books I have managed to enjoy.  I have to say the most profound book (or series of books, as it were) I’ve read is the Dave Pelzer series that begins with “A Thing Called It”.  It’s a trilogy (plus more) that chronicles his life growing up in an incredibly abusive and neglectful series of homes.  It documents horrific obstacles he must overcome and tells of the disgusting acts of harm that were committed against him.  As each book ended, I felt that there was no way his life could possibly get any worse but it seemed that with the start of a new chapter, things always declined.  It’s a harrowing story of what the human spirit is capable of, even under the worst of conditions.