Rock Tumbling and Gardening

Sometime last fall, I picked up a new hobby: rock tumbling. I spent about three months tumbling four batches of rocks, and I was like a kid at Christmas each time I opened the tumbler—excited to see what time and grit had done to polish what started as “ugly” rocks.

I gave each of my colleagues a rock just before Christmas. Along with the rock, I wrote:

“This gem, pulled from the earth rough and muddy but beautiful with potential, was tumbled through five steps, for at least 25 days, to obtain its smooth shine. Between each step, your gem was carefully washed and dried, inspected, and then placed back into the tumbler for further refinement. The process was long. The process was slow. But the transformation was well worth the effort when I saw just how far the gems had come from their original, raw state.

This holiday season, as you step away from work for a couple of weeks, may you find new perspective on how far you and our students have come this year. The educational process is long. The process of growth and change is difficult. It is slow. But it is working. And it is refining us into the beautiful gems we are meant to be.”

Today, I received a response from one of our administrative assistants that I thought so beautiful that I wanted to share it here. She wrote:

“I just pulled your tumbled gem inspiration out of the mailbox and read it. I totally agree with it.

I do just a little of the front landscaping at school to spruce up our entrance. I finish my 11-month job at the end of June. This year it was beastly hot when I finished my school year, beastly hot in July, and beastly hot in August, September and October. And hardly a drop of rain to help the plants. With only the promise of beauty, I hauled the water hose, rushing between phone calls, doorbells, and clerical assignments. Sometimes the water explodes in my face and splashes all over my clothes. I sometimes return to my desk looking like a sweaty, dirty, drowned rat! I was a little discouraged because the garden beds were burned to a crisp...until they weren't. But if you remember when you were our marvelous DJ for the Fall Festival, the peachy, pink Sheffield dendranthema made the front entrance shine!

That time span was only a few months. With students and people it might be a 30-year march of efforts, without an obvious pay-off. And perhaps with many frustrations and/or disappointments. But a decent human being is definitely worth all the efforts! And it DOES take a village.”

So even when it seems that life is going nowhere or your work is making no difference…keep going friends. Time and life are working in, on, with, and through you…and becoming Who you are meant to be—which is even more than a decent human being—is what life is all about.