My Cardboard Balcony

I need to forgive myself for being human. I need to forgive myself for being stressed. I need to forgive myself for making mistakes. I need to forgive myself for being overly repetitive or inattentive or just plain overly hyperfocused on little things. I need to forgive myself for a lot of stuff. Of course, my anxiety and my guilt complex make that pretty tricky. This year, I have higher expectations for myself. Bear in mind, no one set the bar for me - I did that on my own. I decided that last year was going to be about making it through everything and putting together a finished yearbook and not royally screwing up with my English classes. Turns out, I did fairly well, and because I'm more experienced as a teacher now, and I have more students who are willing to work and doing more than what I saw last year, I'm now holding myself to a much loftier standard. It's all arbitrary. All of it. And yet, I can't seem to be satisfied. I must always do better. Always, ...

Mandated by Belinda Roddie As your government appointed wife, I'm obligated to love you.

There was an imbalance in the forces of nature tonight. The Young, Yet Wise, Wizard could sense that. She could sense that just by looking at the colors of the leaves, or listening to the zephyrs bristle the brush and the shrubs, or kneel by the water and scoop it up in her hands like melting pearls in her palms. It was supposed to be autumn tomorrow. And yet, Autumn appeared to have hidden away for good.