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 with great 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?