Sensing a Life through Stages of Thinking

By David Boers

Sensing a Life through Stages of Thinking presents random examples of sometimes connected and sometimes dis­connected thoughts and perceptions over a lifetime of attempting to sense every moment. Within them exist joy, sorrow, trepidation, confidence, insecurity, disappointment, resolve, failure, doubt, love, shock, excitement, fear, anger, fun, apathy, and other, common to all, emotions of life. The poems in this collection may appeal to readers by describing the reflections they will see in their own lives as they read compelling thoughts about real-life experiences they may have in common with the author. This could be an awakening of sorts for those who want to get closer in touch with the stages of their own lives and how their thinking and emotions evolved over a lifetime. It should also be entertaining and curious as readers investigate the connections between and among the poems that depict how a life and its events have unfolded in time and space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Sep 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666718867

David Boers

David Boers is a retired Professor of Graduate Educational Studies. He is the author of several books, including Lost and Found: CARTIE Classrooms for Reclaiming Students, History of American Education, and Uncovering Black Heroes: Lesser-Known Stories of Liberty and Civil Rights.

Book preview

Preface

Human beings have a natural tendency to be curious—to want to know. Along with this curiosity, we are a species passionate about who we are and where we are going and what it is all about. The quest is to find our own meanings of our own lives and to find where we stand in relation to what we observe around us. Doing this helps to place us in the world. Answering these questions calls for a confidential, introverted investigation of how we see things in our lives and how those things that we see impact our thinking and feeling about the world around us which creates the private personal worlds we all live in. The result of this type of investigation leads us to a better understanding of who we are, where we are going, and what it is all about.

To sense every moment of life would seem to be impossible. But do we try and how many moments do we sense? I’ve tried in my lifetime to sense the immediacy of what I was experiencing while in the moment. This was done intentionally for the realized desire to make my life the fullest it could be. I didn’t want to miss my life. The poems in this collection represent random examples of sometimes connected and sometimes disconnected thoughts and perceptions over a lifetime of attempting to sense every moment. Within them exists joy, sorrow, trepidation, confidence, insecurity, disappointment, resolve, failure, doubt, love, shock, excitement, fear, anger, fun, apathy, and other, common to all, emotions of life. The inner thoughts and emotions shared within the poems may be common in all lives, or, if not, they may trigger feelings lost inside that may not have surfaced in many years or ever.

Introduction

Bits of paper, backs of menus, cardboard, pieces of trash, notebooks, bus schedules, book covers, school papers, and various other scraps were the chroniclers of what I was thinking or feeling at any given time of my life. I have always wanted to express myself in some fashion, and even as a small child I marveled at the world around me. When I was eight, I built a fort high in a tree. I spent hours there looking down at the world and wondering about it. I thought about my place in the world. I thought about what meaning my life was supposed to have. These questions lead me to wonder how I should live my life. I found throughout the years that it was a constant presence in my life to note my responses to my world. I wanted to put down my thoughts and feelings as I pondered how everything worked in life. I asked a lot of questions as a child—mostly of myself. As I grew older, I silently kept asking the questions in an attempt to define my world and