Stop & Jot by Mary Ann

A-ha Moment from Chapter 3 - Wendell

maryann_reilly5 — 2015-07-16 02:47:09 UTC

I saw that she’d made a circle of dirt around the other three plants. Out of nowhere the words from the Bible came into my head: “And a little child shall lead them.” I didn’t know why at first. Then I did. There’s plenty about my life I can’t change. Can’t bring the dead back to life on this earth. Can’t make the world loving and kind. Can’t change myself into a millionaire. But a patch of ground in this trashy lot— I can change that. Can change it big. Better to put my time into that than moaning about the other all day. That little grammar-school girl showed me that” (p. 12).

This is a place where Wendell learns. From focusing on what he couldn’t change to what he can, he is showing initiative, courage.

Out of Character - Ch. 3 - Wendell

maryann_reilly5 — 2015-07-16 02:47:57 UTC

“I walked back there that evening and checked on the beans” (p. 12)

Wendell seemed indifferent & now seems vested in the garden.

A-ha Moment - Ch. 4 Gonzalo

maryann_reilly5 — 2015-07-17 00:20:05 UTC

This chapter opens with Gonzalo's observation: "The older you are, the younger you get when you move to the United States" (p. 13).

Gonzalo recognizes here that his capacity with English makes him in some ways more mature than his father. He thinks about his father--"He didn’t want strangers to hear his mistakes. So he used me to make phone calls and to talk to the landlady and to buy things in stores where you had to use English. He got younger. I got older" (p. 14).

Gonzalo continues this line of thought when he discusses his Tío Juan. He observes, "Tío Juan was the oldest man in his pueblo. But here he became a little baby" (p. 14).

Stop and Jot Categories

maryann_reilly5 — 2015-07-17 00:26:31 UTC

Based on the work of By Kylene Beers and Robert E Probst (2014). Notice and Note. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Out of Character - Ch. 4 Gonzalo

maryann_reilly5 — 2015-07-17 00:36:27 UTC

At the end of this chapter, we witness a significant change that happens to Tío Juan. The man who Gonzalo first characterized as acting like a baby is a now a man who is assertive. After clearing ground, Gonzalo watches his uncle plant seeds. He notes, "Watching him carefully sprinkling them into the troughs he’d made, I realized that I didn’t know anything about growing food and that he knew everything. I stared at his busy fingers, then his eyes. They were focused, not faraway or confused. He’d changed from a baby back into a man" (p. 17).

Memory Lane, Ch. 12 - Amir

maryann_reilly5 — 2015-07-17 00:44:54 UTC

At the close to the chapter about Amir, he has a sudden memory about another community gardner, Ana. He recounts, "Then I remembered. A year before she’d claimed that she’d received the wrong change in my store. I was called out to the register. She’d gotten quite angry and called me— despite her own accent— a dirty foreigner. Now that we were so friendly with each other I dared to remind her of this. Her eyes became huge. She apologized to me over and over again. She kept saying, “Back then, I didn’t know it was you" (p. 64).

The memory s significant as it forwards that understanding that as we connect with others, we afford them a certain grace that we often keep from those we do not yet know. It is all in the knowing that our humanity blooms.