Thank you for teaching me (Google treasure maps)

“Thank you for teaching me.”

“Thank you for listening.”

Contributing JJL Author Tim Milburn gave us some coaching recently on studentl.inc in connection with using Google Alerts, and I’m adding my “I second the motion!” here with an example of how those wonderful email alerts can be like getting a treasure map delivered to your inbox.

I’ve been using Google Alerts for a while now; I’m pretty sure that Leah Maclean, Queen Techie of Working Solo was the one who first taught me about them. The first one I set up was for ‘Rosa Say’ and ‘Managing with Aloha’ to help me be more responsive if/when mentioned somewhere in cyberland.

The Google emails can contain a lot to wade through, but they are easy to skim. The alerts they offer are divided under two main headings: Google News Alerts, and Google Blogs Alerts, and over time I’ve found that I skip the News Alerts and go straight for the learning I can discover via other bloggers.

I now have alerts set up for the keywords I normally live/ work/ write about, like ‘coaching,’ ‘leadership’ and ‘aloha’—and ‘learning’ for Joyful Jubilant Learning. Every new month I’ll add or switch-off between the value of the month which is my theme. For instance, I now have an alert set up for ‘hospitality’ to help with our July Ho‘okipa forum on Talking Story.

This entire posting got written, because I just had to share a treasure map I found today. It came up with the ‘Rosa Say’ alert because the author’s daughter and I share the same name. However it wraps up in a gift package much of what has come up for us here with learning, and with practicing hospitality and the social graces which can have such an effect on our lives in unexpected, but always good ways.

Do read “Thank You For Teaching Me” at Grounded and Rooted in Love by Heather Kirk-Davidoff.

Yesterday, I accompanied my daughter Rosa to her violin lesson. Rosa has been studying the violin for about two years now, but we only found this particularly wonderful teacher about 4-5 months ago. She uses the New Approach, a modified Suzuki method, with great results.

Anyways, at the end of every lesson, she has taught Rosa to tuck her violin under her arm and face her teacher, bow and say, "Thank you for teaching me." Then, her teacher bows to Rosa and says "Thank you for listening." Sometimes the teacher goes first and Rosa responds. I've seen them do this before, but last night this simple exchange really caught my attention, and struck me as very beautiful.

So, today I spent some time with someone in our community who is learning to use the blog...

Heather, thank you for being the treasure of my day.
~ Rosa Say

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A bit more clarity on the links above:

Tim Milburn's posting: Create Your Own Online Leadership Class

A charge for the Ho‘okipa Brigade: Social Graces

On Talking Story this month: We are Talking Story about … Ho'okipa, Hospitality; an index with 14 articles on hospitality --- and counting!

Why the Alert for Managing with Aloha