Thursday, March 17, 2011

Exactly.

This morning, I drove to work in a simmer.  It's really not my style to get worked up over things I have no control over.  I mean, dude...that's energy wasted...energy that could have been well spent on something I do have control over.

I really didn't care about wasting energy this morning.

I was mad.

ANgRyaTHeUnIvErSEMaD

Then I pulled into my favorite parking spot, gathered my things, and walked into one of the few places that makes my crazy, exhausting, and sometimes angry-unhappy life

bright...

                            school.



Today,

one thing         after another
            after
another

made me smile

LAUGH

-and beam-

             from

      the
        inside
      out.




There was the teacher who always stops by my office (every single day) for books who made me jump from my chair where I was hunched over my (somewhat late) March calendar when she squealed, "Yes!!!! These are the ones I've been waiting for!"  I felt like jumping up and down with her - that's how happy she was.  Those two minutes were like winning the lottery...for both of us.

Then there was the impromptu conversation with the fifth grader who owns a small part of my heart.  Just as I turned to walk back to my office he held up his hand to stop me and said, "Wait, Coach...Thank you.  You've given me peace.  No...really...thank you."  No, little dude (who thinks he's all grown up)...thank you.

Then I picked up my things and wandered down to kindergarten with my book about surprises filled with vegetables and earthworms.  I wasn't expecting to have such an in depth conversation about moms and dads, brothers and sisters, ...kids in general.  One little guy winked at me and informed me I probably had enough (kids) and didn't have to feel bad if I didn't want anymore.  After our story, one bright eyed little boy ran up to me and asked, "Coach!  Coach!  Did we make you smile?"
       "Yes, you definitely made me smile."
...and they always do.  I never know what's going to happen when I walk into kindergarten and I kind of like it that way, you know?

And at Reading Leadership, as the meeting comes to a close, one of my favorite peeps says, "Tell me this - [Now that we've ignited it...] Is there a way to extinguish the flames of passion [for reading] during...say, math?"  First, how do you keep a straight face when someone says this to you?  Second, she was dead serious which was even better.  And third, isn't this one of the best problems in the world to have?

To sum it all up, in the words of a young man I stopped to give guidance to today,


                 "Thank you.  You've given me peace.  No...really...thank you."



Love,
me

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