April Edition 2023
Our family recently traveled overseas to visit Oxford University, eat fish and chips, and walk the streets of London. It was a fantastic adventure and eye-opening. Taking a break to see the world and experience culture is essential, and I hope all students interested in studying abroad will take the opportunity to do so in school.
April is an active season: Spring Break, Prom, End-of-Course Exams, projects, graduation and much more. Williams Educational Consultants coaches families on educational options and equips students with knowledge on preparing for their future. It is hard to believe we are approaching another end of the year. But don't blink because summer will be here before you know it! Be sure to subscribe to our blog, youtube channel, and social media platforms for the latest admissions.
Williams Educational Consultants shares five educational topics that offer wisdom, guidance, and fun for the entire family on the fourth Friday of every month.
5 Wise Words From Wendy:
1. Prepare. Students in their final year of high school or college may be preparing for graduation ceremonies, which means shopping for gifts, cards, and party supplies. Be sure to visit your local shops for cute graduation gifts.
2. Plan. Students should be mindful of their summer schedule and plan for some time to relax and enjoy their friends and family.
3. Relax. Staying mindful is a great way to refresh. At the bottom of this newsletter, you will find Mindfulness Moment#10: Refresh by Angela Cominos Koehler.
4. Support. Students, you aren't the only ones who need support during a significant transition like graduating! Please take a minute and be mindful of your parent's feelings, as letting their child leave the nest can be challenging. Listen to their concerns and reassure them that you are ready for your next milestone.
5. Love. Celebrate your accomplishments by showing your love and kindness to your parents, siblings, teachers, and all who want to celebrate your victory.
4 Current Conversations: Here are topics that can create great conversations:
1. Are rankings in trouble?
2. ChatGPT is being used by faculty too.
3. Looking for a graduation song for your student?
4. Useful websites for the college student.
3 School Snippets: Colleges often give great information on their sites:
1. Tech helps parents with tops on how to transition to college.
2. Wesleyan empowers women through education.
3. How does Miami of Ohio stand out from other schools?
2 K-12 School Plugs: A section to focus on news in metro-Atlanta:
1. On SAT and ACT Testing
2. AP scores rise in GA
1 Recipe Randomness: Easy Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Skewers
INGREDIENTS: ·
Your favorite Teriyaki Marinade·
3 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into 1.5-inch thick cubes
½ red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups pineapple (10 pieces), cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
DIRECTIONS
1. Marinate 1.5 inch cubed chicken in Teriyaki sauce for one hour or overnight.
2. Thread chicken on to skewers with peppers, onions and pineapple pieces.
3. Brush olive oil over grill pan and preheat over medium for 5 minutes.
4. Grill each side of skewer for 10 minutes or until temperature reaches 165 degrees.
5. Drizzle additional Teriyaki sauce, top with sesame seats & serve over rice or quinoa.
Mindfulness Moment #10: REFRESH
"Rest when you're weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work."
Ralph Marston
In his poem titled The Waste Land,T. S. Eliot says that "April is the cruellest month "I beg to differ. April has arrived with the blooming of flowers and trees and the and warmth of the sun. This is a season of awakening the mind, body, and spirit to refresh and blossom from the long winter's rest. It is also nearing the end of the school year and opening us up to the beginning of summer's possibilities and adventures.
April is National Poetry Month so I included a favorite poem of mine by Mary Oliver below. Many of us also celebrated Easter this month or will celebrate Orthodox Easter soon. Earth Day is coming on April 22 and is a perfect time to garden, plant a tree, or take a long walk in nature. International Astronomy Day is celebrated on April 29. Looking at the stars in the evening and noticing the phases of the moon can be very powerful and healing. Take some time out this month to do just that.
How will you refresh this month?
Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
by Mary Oliver
Original Language English
Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches of other lives --
tried to imagine what the crisp fringes, full of honey, hanging
from the branches of the young locust trees, in early morning, feel like?
Do you think this world was only an entertainment for you?
Never to enter the sea and notice how the water divides
with perfect courtesy, to let you in!
Never to lie down on the grass, as though you were the grass!
Never to leap to the air as you open your wings over the dark acorn of your heart!
No wonder we hear, in your mournful voice, the complaint
that something is missing from your life!
Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot
in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself
continually?
Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed
with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?
Well, there is time left --
fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put one's foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life, and
not be afraid!
To set one's foot in the door of death, and be overcome
with amazement!
To sit down in front of the weeds, and imagine
god the ten-fingered, sailing out of his house of straw,
nodding this way and that way, to the flowers of the
present hour, to the song falling out of the mockingbird's pink mouth,
to the tippets of the honeysuckle, that have opened in the night
To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!
Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
While the soul, after all, is only a window,
and the opening of the window no more difficult
than the wakening from a little sleep.
Only last week I went out among the thorns and said
to the wild roses:
deny me not,
but suffer my devotion.
Then, all afternoon, I sat among them. Maybe
I even heard a curl or two of music, damp and rouge red,
hurrying from their stubby buds, from their delicate watery bodies.
For how long will you continue to listen to those dark shouters,
caution and prudence?
Fall in! Fall in!
A woman standing in the weeds.
A small boat flounders in the deep waves, and what's coming next
is coming with its own heave and grace.
Meanwhile, once in a while, I have chanced, among the quick things,
upon the immutable.
What more could one ask?
And I would touch the faces of the daises,
and I would bow down
to think about it.
That was then, which hasn't ended yet.
Now the sun begins to swing down. Under the peach-light,
I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean's edge.
I climb, I backtrack.
I float.
I ramble my way home.
Do you want more mindfulness and wellness in your life? Contact Angie for a Well-being coaching session or yoga and/ or meditation session. To purchase her book, please click here.