Fire and Breathing Spaces: The Balance for Families and Professionals Amy McConkey Robbins, MS, CCC-SLP Indianapolis, IN Clarence McConkey, Th.M. Grand Island, NE

Resource for Vocational Renewal and Relationships with Families and Colleagues Whirlwinds and Small Voices – Sustaining Commitment to work with Special-Needs Children Amy McConkey Robbins and Clarence McConkey Wordplay Publications (2008)

Fire What makes a fire burn Is space between the logs, A breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight Can douse the flames Almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention To the spaces in between, as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build open spaces In the same way we have learned To pile on the logs, Then we can come to see how it is fuel, And absence of the fuel together, That make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log lightly from time to time. A fire grows Simply because the space is there, with openings In which the flame that knows just how it wants to burn Can find its way. ~ Judy Brown

Pablo Neruda If Each Day Falls Inside Each Night If each day falls inside each night There exists a well where clarity is imprisoned. We need to sit On the rim of the well of darkness And fish for fallen light With patience.

Parker Palmer – A Hidden Wholeness The Tragic Gap: The gap between, on one side, the hard realities of our life and work as they are, and on the the other, what we know to be possible.

What are some of the tragic gaps in your life and work?

Three Suggested Practices  The “Am I Here?” practice  Putting thoughts on paper - Celebrate small victories or lay your burdens down in writing  Music for inner harmony

The “Am I Here?” Practice Based upon Thich Nhat Hanh’s practice called, “Who Is Here Today?” A discipline for being fully present Adapted by Irwin Kula: “Are you home? Are you really home?” “Amy, are you here? Am I really here?”

Putting thoughts on paper “Is the life I’m living the life that wants to live in me?” (P. Palmer) Ponder the following: “I felt I was where I was meant to be when…………………………………….. “I made a difference in one family’s life when…………………………………….. Liberating act of writing down our troubles

Music “Is it really possible that we can sing when we don’t feel like singing, that the singing itself lifts us up from the dark mood of overwork, disappointments and worries? To the mind-boggling renewal of the spirit through the ages, the discovery has been made that after rainy days there flows always a season of clear shining.” McConkey Robbins and McConkey, from Whirlwinds and Small Voices

“Under One Sky” (C. Barton; from TuneUps, 2007; Advanced Bionics: Barton & Robbins) “Under one sky, there are oceans deep Under one under sky, there are mountains steep Under one sky they are all a part of everything. Under one sky there’s a baby’s cry; under one sky a mother’s lullaby Under one sky we are all a part of everything. And when we look up, from wherever we are – We see one sun, one moon, and a million, billion, trillion, zillion stars Under one sky…….. “

“Under One Sky” (C. Barton; from TuneUps, 2007; Advanced Bionics: Barton & Robbins) CONT’D “Under one sky some use hands to talk Under one sky some need help to walk Under one sky we are all a part of everything. Under one sky there are birds that sing; under one sky there are dreams with wings Under one sky we are all a part of everything. And when we look up, from wherever we are – We see one sun, one moon, and a million, billion, trillion, zillion stars Under one sky……..Under one sky……Under one sky.”

References: Amy McConkey Robbins & Clarence McConkey Brown, J.; “Fire” in Teaching with Fire – Poetry that sustains the courage to teach. (2003) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass deBono, E. The 6 Thinking Hats (1985) Little, Brown & Co. Hanh, Thich Nhat (2001). Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings, Robert Ellsberg (Ed.) Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books Kula, I. Yearnings: Celebrating the Sacred Messiness of Life. NY: Hyperion Pub (2006) Neruda, P. (1973, 1988). The Sea and the Bells (collected poems.) Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press. Palmer, P. Let Your Life Speak (1999) and A Hidden Wholeness (2004). Jossey-Bass, Inc. Robinson, M. Gilead; (2004) NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Tolle E. The Power of Now. (1999). New World Library