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The Walls Come Down
It is moving day today. Once again, I must change classrooms. Throughout my teaching career I have had to pack up and restart many times. Believe me, the whole moving thing is getting old. This time is somewhat different. Almost our entire school is moving today as we make a shift to more concentrated grade areas and spaces for our students with challenges. I am moving to a permanent space – one I can finally call home for the remainder of my career. That is exciting and I am looking forward to this new start. The move is not without some grieving though. Yesterday the tears were flowing. This is…
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Just Too Much Going On
Some weeks are just more hectic than others. I have had times in my life with extensive to do lists, but this week seems to surpass them all. I would love to say that I am handling it well and that I am trusting God to get me through whatever happens. That’s not really what’s going on. Some days I am keeping my cool, but more often than not, small things set off a string of emotions and sometimes even tears result. As I take some moments to write out my thoughts and feelings (a healing thing for me) I ponder what will turn things around for me right now.…
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The In Between
Have you ever been caught hanging, not really in one place or in another – that wretched place of indecision, confusion, or disillusionment? Those days of not knowing can cause havoc with our systems – both physical and emotional. As I sit in the in between at this moment, my heart is heavy. My brain is foggy and concentrating seems impossible. I am lethargic and strained. This generally out of sorts feeling just drags me down. At moments like these, hope seems fleeting. It is incredibly easy to delve into the bad aspects of the situation and lose sight of the positive. The waiting seems indefinite and my patience weakens.…
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Where Did I File That?
In my work as a teacher, one of my tasks is to help my children learn how words are put together in order to both read and write them. After a few days of doing excellent work on spelling words on their individual whiteboards I asked my students to write a story. As I made my rounds, checking student work in progress, I was surprised to see many of them incorrectly spelling words in their stories that we had been working on lately in word study. The next day as I talked about the importance of putting what they learned about words into practice, I grabbed a piece of paper…
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Imitate What is Good
You’ve met them. They frequent almost every crowd and ease their way into situations where they are not welcome. On the outside they might appear to be all they should be, but they harbour deep feelings of entitlement and superiority. These people figure their agenda is always the correct one. After all, they know better than everyone else, so they think. A connected value they seem to share is that of selfish ambition. They are thinking more of their own advancement and power than the needs and wants of others. The Church is not immune to the influence of people like these. Most church groups have those that fit this…
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Miracles From Heaven
Sometimes something comes across your path that just inspires you. God is like that. He reaches out to us in so many ways, touching our hearts with His message of love and hope. Recently I watched the movie Miracles from Heaven. It is a moving true story about a young girl who has an incurable stomach disorder. Her journey of pain is a difficult one to watch – throwing up constantly, being fed through a tube, living with a distended stomach, enduring multiple procedures and tests. My mother heart ached as I watched the mother in the story fight to find out what was really wrong with her daughter and…
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The Ripple Effect
My students are enjoying a scientific study of liquids this month. We have liquid races to determine viscosity. We take water and see how it changes between steam and ice. They love exploring all the properties of different kinds of liquids. One thing that intrigues my students is the pattern of water when you drop a single stone into it. This ripple effect is beautiful to watch and the students marvel as the circular ripples fan out from the initial impact point. When we went to speak to our pastor about funeral arrangements recently, one thing he spoke about was the ripple effect that my in-laws have created. It is…
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The Call to Grief
It’s the middle of the night. We awake from a solid sleep to the sound of the loud ringtone of our cell phone. Phone calls in the night are rarely a good thing. This call is no different. A family member is dead and life will never be the same. The phone message starts the spiral of grief. As we mechanically move to get ourselves dressed and out the door, our brains are in a fog. We put the car in drive and speed through the night on autopilot to get to our dear ones. The scene we encounter at the care home is both heart wrenching and peaceful. Our…
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When Danger Beckons
I drive along and all is quiet. It is pitch black outside with snowflakes hanging tenuously on the spruce trees I pass by. Pristine countryside surrounds me and the radiating light of the stars is refreshing. The beautiful scenery and calm are deceiving, however. As I continue my journey, not much is visible ahead even though my high beams are on. As I move ahead, I pray for a safe journey. Then I see it. Just a whisp of light reflected in something. It moves and turns. I slow to a creeping pace, feeling that something is out of place. There it is again – that ever so subtle reflection…
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Surrendering Instead of Striving
I see it in my classroom every day. It’s that streak of independence that drives my students to find their own way, despite the instruction I give them. It can lead to all kinds of trouble as my little people get off track and miss the mark of the lesson or task. Sometimes it can manifest itself in relationship issues when they barrel ahead without thinking of the appropriate steps to resolve a conflict. It is challenging for us humans to submit to authority and do things someone else’s way. We want to assert our independence and we prefer to direct our own paths. What do we do, then, when God asks us…
