Life is made up of moments. Moments that take your breath away, moments that leave you frustrated and confused, moments that can change your life in a blink of an eye, and moments that change you into an entirely different person. So than why is it that most of the time we fail to recognize a moment as it is happening? It only occurs to us as we are floundering in the wake of a moment, that something has happened to us, something has shifted the world a little to the right, and is causing us to reassess and reconfirm all that we think we know and think we need.
Every time you turn around these days, there is a report on the news of a devastating tragedy. It causes you to stop and take notice of the world around you for a brief moment in time, but it's not your tragedy, so you tuck the horror and grief away and move on with your world, because the reality is, it didn't happen to you and you are knee deep in your own life treading water. In the back of your mind though, you hear the echo of a thought: How long before it could happen to you? You try to ignore it but this much is certain...you know all things in life are a possibility and maybe you could be doing more to help others around you.
A moment is all someone needs to know you care; that you love them, and that their place in this world is being acknowledge and validated. A hug, a kind word, a smile, taking the time to actually listen to what someone is saying to you...all these things can turn someone’s bad moment into a great one.
This weekend, I experienced a moment, and I had the clarity to realize, as it was happening, that this was a big deal. I turned 30, gasp! I spent the entire weekend surrounded by people I love, people that love me, and I knew in that moment that I was the luckiest girl in the world. I have this amazing group of people around me that want nothing more than for me to be completely and utterly happy and they would move mountains to make it happen. What did I do to deserve such wonderful people in my life? I will never know for sure but I will forever be grateful. What I do know is that I cannot take it for granted, I need to take the time to show my gratitude, love, and support to my family and my friends because these are the moments that I will remember and that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
Moments, good or bad, define whom we are solely on how we chose to approach them, deal with them, accept them, and help someone through them. What will you chose to do with your moments? How will you help others get through their moments?
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Endings and Beginnings...
May is, for many, a month of endings heaped full of the anticipation of fresh starts and new beginnings. All things in this world have a natural beginning and end, it is the cycle of life, and we are all in-tune to it, some more in-tune than others. And yet, when we stumble upon the end of something we are often left confused, scared, and wondering what our future will hold and how we will manage.
May for me is a month of endings...The school year, that at times seems to fly by and at other times creeps forward centimeter by centimeter, is winding to a close and I often find myself wondering: "What does the future hold for my kiddoes?" I've spent months helping to shape and educate these kids, whom already possess such proud and keenly developed personalities, into who they will be when they grow up, although I am whole-heartedly aware that I will only impact just a sliver of their futures. I want to shout at them "YOU are somebody, I will always believe in you, and I will always be here for you." These kids will move on in life, but they will always occupy a corner of my heart, for they continue to shape me into the person that I am and the person that I am destined to be. Yet, the ache of letting them go and not being able to protect them and guide them is a hard one because I have grown to love these kids, quirks and all, and my worry for them is fresh and pulsating underneath my skin and in my heart.
I have spent an amazing few months with my incredible Student Intern. She has taught me more than she will ever know. She is the kindest, most caring, and most grounded in faith person I have ever met. Our ending this week will be a bittersweet one. She is ready graduate, to go out into the world, find her place, and change the world. There is not a doubt in my heart that she WILL change the world one child at a time. When you have a hand in being someones mentor their hopes become your hopes, their dreams become your dreams, and you feel their excitements and their disappointments just as sharply as they do. All I want in this world is for her to have all her dreams in life come true. She will be an amazing educator but she is an even more amazing person and it has been truly an honor to work with her and learn from her everyday.
As hard as the endings are there is always the bright promise of a new beginning. With the ending of a school year comes the promise of long, hot, lazy summer days spent by the pool, catching up with friends, and spending much needed time with your families. You are given time to reflect, learn, sometimes regroup, and figure out a better more exciting game plan for your new beginning. You slowly become more confident in who you are, more settled into your skin, and you know you will be ok, more often than not, though, it takes an ending to figure that out.
May is my month of endings but the anticipation of my new beginnings has me on the edge of my seat...I can't wait to see what is to come, despite of what I have to endure to get to them. What will you do with your new beginnings?
May for me is a month of endings...The school year, that at times seems to fly by and at other times creeps forward centimeter by centimeter, is winding to a close and I often find myself wondering: "What does the future hold for my kiddoes?" I've spent months helping to shape and educate these kids, whom already possess such proud and keenly developed personalities, into who they will be when they grow up, although I am whole-heartedly aware that I will only impact just a sliver of their futures. I want to shout at them "YOU are somebody, I will always believe in you, and I will always be here for you." These kids will move on in life, but they will always occupy a corner of my heart, for they continue to shape me into the person that I am and the person that I am destined to be. Yet, the ache of letting them go and not being able to protect them and guide them is a hard one because I have grown to love these kids, quirks and all, and my worry for them is fresh and pulsating underneath my skin and in my heart.
I have spent an amazing few months with my incredible Student Intern. She has taught me more than she will ever know. She is the kindest, most caring, and most grounded in faith person I have ever met. Our ending this week will be a bittersweet one. She is ready graduate, to go out into the world, find her place, and change the world. There is not a doubt in my heart that she WILL change the world one child at a time. When you have a hand in being someones mentor their hopes become your hopes, their dreams become your dreams, and you feel their excitements and their disappointments just as sharply as they do. All I want in this world is for her to have all her dreams in life come true. She will be an amazing educator but she is an even more amazing person and it has been truly an honor to work with her and learn from her everyday.
As hard as the endings are there is always the bright promise of a new beginning. With the ending of a school year comes the promise of long, hot, lazy summer days spent by the pool, catching up with friends, and spending much needed time with your families. You are given time to reflect, learn, sometimes regroup, and figure out a better more exciting game plan for your new beginning. You slowly become more confident in who you are, more settled into your skin, and you know you will be ok, more often than not, though, it takes an ending to figure that out.
May is my month of endings but the anticipation of my new beginnings has me on the edge of my seat...I can't wait to see what is to come, despite of what I have to endure to get to them. What will you do with your new beginnings?
"I wanted a perfect ending...
Now, I've learned the hard way that some poems
don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear
beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing,
having to change, taking the moment and
making the best of it,
without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious ambiguity."Gilda Radner
Now, I've learned the hard way that some poems
don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear
beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing,
having to change, taking the moment and
making the best of it,
without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious ambiguity."Gilda Radner
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Georgia On My Mind...
I have this memory from my childhood in Georgia, during one of those hot sticky days of your youth, when it's too oppressively hot to want to even drag yourself outside to ride your bike up and down the street with your friends...the kind where everything, including yourself, has wilted in the heat of it all.
Whenever it rains in the summer, I temporarily find myself drifting back to the days when the sky opened up and for a short time the heat was a distance memory. I remember the sheer joy my friends and I had playing in the rain, Jumping In Puddles, and racing our bikes up and down the street.
There was never a thought given to what people would think of you, you were young, you were carefree...all that mattered in that moment, in your world, was who could make the biggest splash and your heart was bursting with happiness and youthful exuberance. You lost yourself in the moment. There was no doubt about it, life was good.
When you get older you start to lose that carefree attitude, you start to worry about what people think of you, and you stop jumping in puddles. You tuck that memory neatly inside your heart and you become a grown-up, some easier than others.
As an adult you find different, calmer, more adult ways to lose yourself. The written word has always inspired me...I devour books like crazy. The ability to lose myself in the written word is magical and lets me get lost in places I never thought I'd be able to go, it lets me experience things I could never imagine in my small but fiercely important world.
As a child, the simplest things inspire you to create...but as an adult inspiration does not always come as easy as it did in your youth...when cardboard boxes were hideouts or airplanes and your imagination had no end.
Inspiration is such a fickle friend...you never know when it's going to come around, tap you on the shoulder, and ask you to go for a ride. Sometimes it lays dormant, watching and waiting and creeps up silently and withgreat care wisdom beyond your years, when you are ready to throw your hands up in the air and yell to the heavens above.."I quit" and whispers in your ear. "I'm here friend...You are somebody..You will make a difference." And you know in your heart it is the truth.
What inspires me...I have these beautiful, smart, crazy, and hilarious third graders that inspire me to be a better person every single day. They come to school eager to share, eager to create, with open hearts ready to soak up every ounce of love, learning, structure, and laughter I can give them. They can turn my bad day into a great one with a smile, a joke, or a hug. It makes me strive to be all that is good in their world. Kids have this wonderful innocence, openness, and trust and the longer I teach, the more I wonder when do we lose that? Where does it go?
When did we stop wanting to Jump In Puddles?
So, this year I decided to stop avoiding those puddles, I found myself some super cute rain boots and when I see a puddle, I can't help but grin and make the biggest splash I can. I refuse to settle, I will seek out my inspiration, I will jump in puddles, and I won't care what you think when I chose to follow my heart over what is the proper thing to do...
The next time it rains, you know where I'll be...wanna come out and play in the rain with me?
Whenever it rains in the summer, I temporarily find myself drifting back to the days when the sky opened up and for a short time the heat was a distance memory. I remember the sheer joy my friends and I had playing in the rain, Jumping In Puddles, and racing our bikes up and down the street.
There was never a thought given to what people would think of you, you were young, you were carefree...all that mattered in that moment, in your world, was who could make the biggest splash and your heart was bursting with happiness and youthful exuberance. You lost yourself in the moment. There was no doubt about it, life was good.
When you get older you start to lose that carefree attitude, you start to worry about what people think of you, and you stop jumping in puddles. You tuck that memory neatly inside your heart and you become a grown-up, some easier than others.
As an adult you find different, calmer, more adult ways to lose yourself. The written word has always inspired me...I devour books like crazy. The ability to lose myself in the written word is magical and lets me get lost in places I never thought I'd be able to go, it lets me experience things I could never imagine in my small but fiercely important world.
As a child, the simplest things inspire you to create...but as an adult inspiration does not always come as easy as it did in your youth...when cardboard boxes were hideouts or airplanes and your imagination had no end.
Inspiration is such a fickle friend...you never know when it's going to come around, tap you on the shoulder, and ask you to go for a ride. Sometimes it lays dormant, watching and waiting and creeps up silently and with
What inspires me...I have these beautiful, smart, crazy, and hilarious third graders that inspire me to be a better person every single day. They come to school eager to share, eager to create, with open hearts ready to soak up every ounce of love, learning, structure, and laughter I can give them. They can turn my bad day into a great one with a smile, a joke, or a hug. It makes me strive to be all that is good in their world. Kids have this wonderful innocence, openness, and trust and the longer I teach, the more I wonder when do we lose that? Where does it go?
When did we stop wanting to Jump In Puddles?
So, this year I decided to stop avoiding those puddles, I found myself some super cute rain boots and when I see a puddle, I can't help but grin and make the biggest splash I can. I refuse to settle, I will seek out my inspiration, I will jump in puddles, and I won't care what you think when I chose to follow my heart over what is the proper thing to do...
The next time it rains, you know where I'll be...wanna come out and play in the rain with me?
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