New adj. – appearing, thought of, developed, made, etc. for the first time

Perspective n. – a) a specific point of view in understanding things or events, b) the ability to see things in a true relationship

For a math teacher, this is perhaps an unusual thing to do, but I look up and share the meanings of words. This may be because I was considered a very poor reader in elementary school even though I was not and am not now a poor reader. I was a slow reader and when forced to read quickly did not read the words correctly so did not understand what I read. I have a very high level of understanding when I read slow enough. Because I like to understand what I am reading, I look up words to help get the complete depth of understanding.

          The writings I will be sharing are under the title “New Perspective”. (link?) I do not claim to be an expert in all of these areas, and I may not be an expert on anything that I write about. They are “new” to me as I put these ideas together from a different perspective. The first definition of “perspective” is most often used because people love to share their point of view in understanding things or events. The perspective I will be sharing is that I look to see things in a true relationship.

True adj. – real; genuine

Relationship n. – connection, as in thought or meaning

          Therefore, I am sharing thoughts on real connections. Connections to our way of life, connections to our faith, connections to learning, and connections to the fun things we do. I share things that I reflect upon and find humorous, intriguing, baffling, unintentional, extremely common, or divinely inspired. There are five outcomes I hope for you in reading my pages: you find ways of thinking which show you something new; you feel encouragement to use the good that you have; you witness inspiration to see the good in others; you gain hope which will pull you through another day; or you express wonderment like that which you knew as a child. Below are the 4 real connections that I try to make.

Way of Life

How does anyone figure out the complexity of life? How can anyone help me go through the things in my life that I am going through? What I know is that people who have experienced what you are now experiencing often have some hindsight to share about going through that experience. There are many bad events, of which the list would be too long to share, that I have never experienced and cannot comprehend the struggle it takes one to get through them. Older people often have a wisdom that comes from seeing many decades. Unfortunately, I may fall into that category, though in talking with my students this past week, they thought I was ten years younger than I am.

What I am doing here in sharing some thoughts about way of life is encouraging you to examine and reflect upon all of the things that are in your life, to choose people and places which bring more goodness to your days, and to take some risks in building positive relationships with other people, no matter their age, their differences in race or nationality, their looks, their beliefs, or the things that they have done wrong. We, the people, are doing this together……

Faith

Faith is believing in something that you cannot see. I have not seen God before me, but I do know His presence and have seen results of His actions. These are the things that have built my faith to feeling to fullness of life while I am here. Our faith is absolutely a part of who we are. If it is not, then we are wandering too much and wondering not enough. The point that I will be making is not that I am trying to dump my faith upon you, or convert you at all costs to what I believe. It is about connecting our lives to our faith and living our lives through our faith. I hope that I can help you have some new thoughts and make some new connections to your faith while in your journey.

Living and seeing the fullness of life is not something we manage to reach a continuous level. What we do is find moments each day where we see ourselves as part of this life, awakening us from this selfish package where we feel everything is here “for” us and should always operate in our best interests. Instead, we are touched by these moments, and the more of them we can put together in one day, the better that day is likely to feel. Connecting to our faith everyday helps us live in the way we feel best about ourselves and all that takes place in each day of our lives. Joy and peace found through a faith in which we were designed to share and express massive amount love, because we were loved first.

Learning

When does this ever stop? Hopefully learning never stops. I heard a pastor say “About every 10 years I have been able to say the me of 10 years ago was stupid.” A lot of learning takes place over 10 years time. The reason people feel that they are in a “rut” is because they have gone a long time without seemingly learning much of anything new. And it is a terrible feeling, but recognizing the why is what can turn it around. Taking on something new is invigorating, even if it seems minor. It does not have to end up being something where you have great talent.

As an educator, I ran into this feeling of being in a rut after about 10 years of teaching. Since I needed a certain amount of educational units to renew my teaching license every 5 years, I decided to pursue a Masters Degree in education instead of just using my yearly professional development sessions to meet my requirement. Now I have an Educational Doctorate along with a wealth of new experiences which have allowed me to keep changing in my teaching methods and keep it fresh for my mind. Changing is the harder path, whether in work or in trying new activities. But it is a rewarding path, which is founded in learning. It is rewarding because our brains are wired to bring a sense of joy to us in creating new brain paths or connections. It is what makes reading new books or watching new movies fun. Apparently writing books, journals, or blogs as well as time in reflection, help make new connections to thoughts and knowledge that is already there, building wisdom with each new path.

Fun things we do

Is there anything better than laughing so hard that you cry? Or you smile for so long that your cheeks hurt? My Friday Perspective will share a fun view of everything or anything I see or think of that is around us, or perhaps that is just interesting to consider from a slightly different view. I hope some are touching moments to keep us recognizing the goodness in life. Playing games is also a great source of fun and laughter. I love games. Even alone I can celebrate a good move or a good result in a game and enjoy the feeling.

I am on a journey into designing and making games which has included all three of the above connections to my life. While I have been playing games, modifying and creating games since my childhood, the journey I am sharing began with Enemy 11. The inspiration for Enemy 11 wrought the concept and motivation for starting this blog as this week marks the 1 year date, Jan 28th, 2021, when the vision of Enemy 11 occurred and the journey of making games began.