One Way To Look At Three Cats – 15th February 2023

Among a single soft bed
Nothing stirs except
The slow rise and fall as the cats breathe

Their three minds
Like closed doors
To the bedroom containing three cats

Awake, stretch, turn and re-settle
These times of little drama

Two cats slumber together
As one
Three cats slumber together
As one

No favouritism at the sight
Each purrs with affection
Soft eyes stare at mine
Before closing again
To mouse dreams

inspired by the first five stanzas of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

---

Today I’m feeling:
Reasonably happy and satisfied.
Today I’m grateful for:
A little breeze this evening that will hopefully blow away some of this smoky polluted air. The forecast is for many days of storms but with a 0% chance of rain! (As I finished writing this with Kim sitting on my lap there was a peal of thunder and the sound of rain on our roof! Hooray! Kim has gone back to sleep under the doona!)
The best thing about today was:
Relaxing a little with my M2 classes. I didn’t push them too much and allowed the class to end early knowing that I can test them on the work on Friday. My afternoon M1 class though was more taxing as they looked at me blankly when I asked them to find the verbs in some sentences, not knowing what a verb was until I gave them the Thai translation for the word ‘verb’! This is another lesson for me to re-evaluate what and how I teach next year. I’m almost fully resigned now to let the students keep their phones, making each lesson very simple, with some element of artistic output so that the result can look good at least and then I will just grade the students on whether they do the work or not. Having said that I hope that next year’s classes are of a similar level of comprehension at least. I feel like I’m at the point of just giving in to the easy way out. To make my life easier.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
This is more a continuation of the above but many of my students today still lack a serious comprehension of (what I generally consider) simple tasks and instructions, or even just making connections throughout what we have already studied this semester. I’m feeling resigned. But I did come home with the knowledge that I need to change my approach. If I have to make life easier for my students, I have to make it easier for myself too.
Something I learned today?
A recent poll found that 56% of Taiwanese people distrust the USA and worry that they could be in the middle of a potential war that they didn’t ask for.
What small task brings me satisfaction?
What is a small task? Exercise? Feeding the cats? Reading? Cutting nails?
Ok, I’m going to say vacuuming my floors and washing my sheets. I can go do a long time without doing either so I do feel satisfied with a clean floor and fresh-smelling sheets.