This challenge is so much fun that I’m thinking of extending it into May. I might have forgotten to write about the day when I moved my teaching outside the regular classroom and taught in a different building and a different space. At the end of the semester, everybody is tired and jaded. It helps to change things around because this gives a fresh jolt of energy to students and teacher alike.

Today, the unusual thing was that I brought Klara to church. She enjoyed the whole thing royally, even though Orthodox services last forever. She participated in everything: the palm procession, the instruction to the children, the Communion. Of course, playing with other kids was her favorite activity. Plus, there was dessert.

The palms turned out to be real palms. Which was unexpected because we use this instead.

There is this really useful exercise that I like to do. Lie down, close your eyes, and remember yourself 10 years ago. Unless you have a diary, it’s impossible to remember exactly what you did on April 21, 2009. But you know where you were in your life that April. Where you lived, what you did, what worried you, what you lacked, what you wished for, how you felt.

Immerse yourself in the memory. Be the person you were 10 years ago. If the memory is pleasant, if the you of 10 years ago was healthier, more energetic, and less jaded, inhabit that version of yourself and drag it to the present with you.

If the you of the past was unhappier, sicker, poorer and lonelier than you are right now, linger in the contrast and bring the feeling of achievement and relief back to the present with you.

Either way, it will be a refreshing experience.