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ESL forum >
Message board > Regarding Birthdays
Regarding Birthdays
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Zora
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Regarding Birthdays
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To my utter amazement, I logged on after a dull and very grey weekend off -it had rained heavily and was very cool the whole time that I was off. And my birthday was washed out (quite literally) by bad weather - to be greeted by so many heart-felt greetings that I actually broke down and cried at how touched I was by this... I am so very amazed at the kindness and love that I felt at seeing just how many "friends" I have here... I never quite expected such a reaction.
Also, I had never realized until now at just how many people, I have talked to, shared things with and helped out in the past.
To each and every one of you - THANK YOU. It brought an "old member"  a lot of happiness and restored a faith in the site that I was desperately losing. It showed me that there are still LOTS of members out there that still care about others here.
Now, the sad part... because yes, there is a sad part... I was also very shocked that certain people, after a full year of birthdays that they participated in, Christmas, Ramadan, Valentine, Passover, Easter, etc greetings, the shared joy of the birth of one of our members grandchildren; find it in their hearts to criticize one of the wonderful parts of this forum!
Is saying hi, sharing a joy, greeting a new member - or old one who has been away for ages, sharing with us a holiday that we never new existed (for me it was the Jewish Carnival - Thank you Barb, Orit and Aimee for explaining it to us...) - a bad thing??? Have we become so very uncaring and heartless that the forum is only to be used for "neutral" or "negative" things like complaining about moderators, thieves, or general grammar questions???
Maybe "the sharing" part only refers to members that tell us about worksheets they are going to put out, or that they need help with? Or maybe "the sharing" is only for letting us know about a mistake that was made in a worksheet or how something was uploaded wrongly and didn �t show?
I don �t know? Maybe the true nature of "sharing" is lost on me but I always thought that it was being about being able to talk about things and experiences that make us happy, better people - or just touched our lives in some way... Maybe I misunderstood the dictionary �s entries:
- To allow someone to use or enjoy something that one possesses.
- To participate in, use, enjoy, or experience jointly or in turns.
- be involved in, contribute to, participate in, use
in common
But I don �t think so. Sharing is more than just giving advice, templates, or worksheets. It �s about giving of one �s self, helping others AND letting others help you and letting them into your lives.
Being able to share a birthday, anniversary, a birth - or even a loss - helps us know and understand one another better and makes the site a "human" place to be. A place where you can find friends or people who understand you and your problems, people who can empathize, people who CARE. If we remove this from the forum, what are we left with? Ask yourselves that before you condemn such a simple thing as "sharing".
Now, I �d like to thank:
Orit, Baiba, Julieta (La Bella), Bruna (my shining knight in crime!! lol), Marie (Monty), Greekprofessor, Mariamit, Victoria (our lovely ladybird!), zailda, Silvanija, Pirchy, lovely Kate cat!, Lisa (libertybelle), Anita, Lovely Lizzy (Charmedone), Rosario, Ana Isabel (muchos abrazos), Isahorton!! (our new little English lass), Alicia, Yeti, the most generous aftab57, my wonderful Marieth�!!!!  , vardaki, Sonn (who has such level headed comments), kind and caring Aimee, wise Barb (Eng789), Missola!, generous and lovely Nancy (Giovanni), derfer, Nelly, Nessie, Morganlin, my crazy Sylvie!  , Mouna, epit, Stella, the most patient and level-headed Douglas (Happy Birthday to your daughter!!!), Malvarosa, Mapleleaf!!!
Also to those wonderful people who sent me pms, thank you dearly. I will answer as I can.
Warm regards and a thousand hugs to everybody - and before I forget:
Happy Birthday
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY LIFE_LINE, GEORGIA, NATALIA, IRONA, GIOVANNA AND EPIT
I love all of you and you have made an "Old" member extremely happy.
Hugs,
Linda
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5 Apr 2010
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gilorit
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Dear Linda
Your words express exactly how I feel. I think sharing involves being there for one another. I remember hpw joyful, excited, happy I was when I saw so many greetings on my birthday - I wanted you to feel the same.
I see the forum not just as a means to try to be better teachers, but mainly as becoming better people, caring, peace-seeking. It will naturally lead to being good teachers. Teaching is more about the "being" ...
bringing the person you are to the classroom, and it is much stronger than anything you teach. You are that wonderful person.
Love you
Orit |
5 Apr 2010
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shirles
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happy birthday!!!yooohoooo!!! |
5 Apr 2010
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ants
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Sorry I missed your birthday Linda...so happy Belated birthday wishes to you.
Hope you had a wonderful day with family and friends and thanks for your wonderful words!! hugs,
Fiona. |
5 Apr 2010
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PhilipR
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Dear Linda,
Sorry for not sending a PM on your birthday or posting a picture on the forum, but according to The Rules (and its enforcers), this is apparently prohibited. I only wanted to save some bandwidth and 200 bytes of cyberspace. Your birthday present is in the mail.
Yours truly.
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5 Apr 2010
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victor
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Dear Linda,
First of all, Happy birthday! (Better late than never)
I think your words are wise. The human value of this website is something that we should try to keep.
Personally, I feel happy when I see a birthday in the forum, but I know that a forum is not the right place for this, because those messages will stay there for years, making it more difficult to find other useful ones.
I thought that the cafe would be a good solution, but it seems that not many members visit the cafe regularly (me included).
I think this could be a solution:
I will ask everybody to enter their birth date in their accounts (optionally).
In the main page, we can have a box that shows "today �s birthdays", and a link to a special message board where we can post our messages. Those messages would be automatically removed afterwards.
Hugs,
Victor |
5 Apr 2010
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mena22
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Thank you Linda! I �m so glad that we could make your day brighter. Just like you, I believe it is the friendliness, the warmth we find here that makes this site so special.
Hugs,
mena |
5 Apr 2010
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Aimee/S.
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Dear Linda - your name is so meaningful! - you are BEAUTIFUL -
Thank you so much for your wonderful message. I support all of it as always!
You bring light, inspiration and wisdom here. we are so lucky to have you  |
5 Apr 2010
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lshorton99
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Thanks Victor - that would be the perfect solution! I know everyone wants to follow the rules but not to the point of losing this warm sharing place! Thank you so much! 
(edit: Linda - back for a day and you made the whole world better!)
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5 Apr 2010
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And I am really happy to know , that our greetings "warmed" you and your heart! Best wishes , hugs .Nessie