Flow

Flow is a force I covet.

During a full time plus working week, sustaining / maintaining a creative flow that serves your own self and ambitions is an extra tricky trick. Work demands one type of committed focus and flow, personal, another. If you are very clever, perhaps you have a way to combine these in a pretty duet. If so, right on.

Systems and schedules in my life allow me to engage in flow more quickly overall, which is why a school calendar has always been appealing to me. I do better with a check list. I use “notes” on my hand held tech, which has just the right amount of friendly utility. If you’ve never played with this function, gift yourself ten minutes and take it for a little spin. I appreciate the photo insert option, the checklist function, the super basic spreadsheet option, the ability to work in collaboration with a friend or colleague you add.

For the first time, after over 20 years of time leading in classrooms and schools, I am on a break, a
”mini sabbatical.” Flow is mine in a different way, a new way.

How do you define “flow” as a force?

How does it feel for you?

For me, flow is a feeling of pleasure and the temporary removal of time as I engage in a meaningful activity or area of study or pursuit. Concentration is a part of it. Focus. A vision or goal of how something is becoming, what it might be. I find it related to jazz and all creative improvisations; it can be found and achieved with other people, like a seasoned colleague. It can be in nature, at my desk, or with a coffee.

Flow is important. It is a human right. It allows us to transcend.

Flow in the classroom is critically important to achieve.

Why do I say this?

If “play is the work of the child” then the pinnacle of play is a fully engaged child. A child who is engaged fully in the flow of play. Facilitators must “read the room” to understand and ride and fuel the flow of the learners therein. My friends at Allegro in Halifax call this a “timely, not timed” schedule.

This blog is for me to share with you my flow—past, present, and future. I will do my best to share from my heart the items that I believe to be of benefit to humans, to human rights. What we do is very beautiful art, but also largely unseen and unsung. Let us shout our joy from the rooftops, no?

May your flow through time and meaning be very gentle to you today. xo.