Serendipitous Moment

I like grocery shopping.

I like trying to find deals and

Seeing how much money I’ve “saved.”

I like going up and down every aisle,

Seeing what’s available and commenting on weird products if I’m with a friend.

(Grocery shopping with a friend is always more fun than grocery shopping alone.)

I like checking things off my list,

Whether the list is real or imaginary.

And I like putting everything in grocery bags,

Trying to get things in as few bags as possible.

 

What I don’t like about grocery shopping is

The crowds!

 

So, I had planned to go to my local grocery store last Saturday night.

I find that late nights or early mornings help me avoid the chaos of too many people.

But I needed to run errands on Saturday afternoon, so

I decided to just go on and go to the store while I was out.

I knew that I was putting myself in the middle of rush-day grocery shopping,

But something told me to go.

 

As projected,

There were a lot of people.

The aisles were crowded and

I was having to do some creative cart pushing,

But I was checking off my list.

And then I saw a friend and her son.

I hadn’t seen them in over a year.

We stood and talked for about ten minutes.

At first it was small talk,

And then she began to pour out her heart.

She was carrying so much and needed an outlet.

So I stood and listened and

We made undated plans to get coffee.

When we went our separate ways,

I thought to myself,

“What a serendipitous moment.

SHE is why I felt led to come to the grocery store in the middle of the day.

SHE is why I am here.”

 

Dear God: Help us to see the serendipitous moments in our lives and to celebrate them when they occur. You constantly allow things to happen in happy and beneficial ways. Whether you orchestrate them or whether they happen by chance, thank you. Amen.

Long-Term Planning

What shuts you down?

What makes you come to a complete standstill?

For me, it’s long-term planning.

Something about it gets me every time I try.

 

When I first started teaching,

I didn’t write down my lesson plans until after I’d taught them.

This was back in the days when computers weren’t the norm,

So handwriting was the way that I wrote.

I didn’t want to write down something wrong—

Something that I didn’t actually do—and

I didn’t want to have to erase or add in things that changed,

So I didn’t write down anything until I had come up with a lesson that I liked.

That meant that I taught everything

Flying by the seat of my pants

And that my lesson plan book was more of a lesson journal.

 

When I returned to teaching,

I had a principal who forced me to write real lesson PLANS and

To turn them in the week before teaching them.

Thankfully, this was in the age of computers,

So if I wrote down something that I didn’t like

Or if I discovered something that needed tweaking,

Then I could easily change the document.

I remember the transition being very hard,

And I hated it.

But it is still what I do to this day.

 

I have lesson plans from every year of my teaching.

I look back on them for ideas and

Copy and paste the lessons that I really like

From year to year.

 

But sometimes I get bored of the lessons.

Or sometimes I want or need to teach new things.

And that requires writing new lessons

And sacrificing old lessons

And knowing when and where to do this is always so hard

So that’s why I need to long-term plan

And yet it shuts me down every time I try.

 

Oh God: Help me to face this strange fear and to come up with an outline for the year. We all have things that shut us down and bring us to a standstill. Help us to face those things with hope and courage and give us the ability to see what it’s like to move beyond the stand-still and into action. Help us to take life one step at a time and to know that we can do all things through you who give us strength. Amen.

 

Laugh

One night while we were eating dinner last year, 

My dad asked me what had made me laugh that day.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table thinking,

“I don’t remember anything that made me laugh today.”

And I remember that making me sad. 

 

…

 

Recently,

I wrote that one of my friends calls me Serious Dee. 

I know that I am serious.

I think a lot. 

I plan a lot. 

I come up with contingency plans a lot.

But I don’t want to be so seriously planned 

That I miss the spontaneous joys of life.

I don’t want to be so serious that I don’t laugh.

 

…

 

My new art teacher is very young.

She is full of life, energy, and joy.

Having come from a very rough school

Where gang-life was alive and active,

Everything is wonderful at GW.

She is super gung-ho about teaching,

And she laughs a lot.

 

…

 

Last week,

I made the comment that I wanted to be seen as

Calm and present,

Not distant and aloof.

 

…

 

I have a picture of Jesus laughing hanging above my bed.

It’s one of my favorite pictures of him.

It’s so encouraging,

To think of Jesus laughing.

 

…

 

 

Dear God: In the seriousness of life—in the seriousness of stress, anxiety, politics, and work—help us to find and celebrate joy each day. Whether our energy is ecstatic or whether it is calm, may we still laugh. May we be present. And each day, Jesus, may we love. Always in your love. Amen.

And Then The Deer

I had a really good day on Saturday. 

A friend came for lunch and stayed for tin art. 

Heidi the Librarian came to tin art as well. 

We all hung out in the studio,

Creating, chatting, and singing 80’s music. 

We ate together and played Word on the Street with my parents and

Just had a lovely, stress-relieving time. 

 

Then I got a text from my friend on her way home. 

“So. I just hit a deer.

 

Thankfully, my friend is okay and 

She was able to drive her car home. 

But her car is likely totaled and 

That’s a hard pill to swallow. 

 

…

 

If I’m honest, 

I must admit that I’m sometimes afraid to have a good time 

Because I’m afraid of the other shoe falling.

I know it’s just my anxiety.

I know that life doesn’t punish us for having moments of joy.

But the thoughts of bad balancing out good are still there.

And evidently, this is very human.   

 

Yet it’s no way to live.

Not really. 

 

The challenge of living is to be present exactly where we are,

In good times and bad. 

To savor joyful moments and celebrate happiness.

To laugh and smile often. 

To eat, drink, and be merry. 

And then, in the moments that are difficult,

To acknowledge how we’re feeling,

To name our stress and anxiety,

To declare that sometimes things suck,

To mourn and to weep, 

To fall back on the strength of moments when things were okay, and 

To take the next right step to get through. 

 

…

 

Saturday was a day of joy and laughter for me. 

I was not worried about anything

Other than the design of my tin art. 

I was with friends.

I was with family. 

I was happy.

My friend was too. 

And then the deer. 

 

Oh God: Life is up and down. Help us not to miss one for the other. Amen. 

Positive Self-Talk

I loved the Olympics.

I loved the back stories of the athletes.

I loved the excitement of the medal winners.

I loved seeing sports that I could never play.

I loved pretending that I know what the judges are looking for.

I loved pulling for the underdog.

I even loved some of the commercials the first few times they’re played.

(Although they did get annoying after about the third time!)

 

Despite this year’s Olympic controversies,

My mom and I made it a habit to watch the Olympics each night.

My favorite clips were of American gold medal ceremonies when the athletes sang the SSB.

My second favorite clips were of the track and field athletes talking to themselves.

Some of the athletes remained focused and barely moved their lips.

Some of the athletes openly hyped themselves up.

Others of the athletes said nothing at all.

Still others of the athletes just talked aloud, as if someone were listening,

But I don’t think anyone was.

 

In their post-race interviews,

A couple of athletes mentioned that before their race, they told themselves

To trust their training,

To believe in themselves,

That they were the best,

That they deserved to be there,

That the race was theirs to lose.

 

In other words, they filled their minds with positive self-talk

Instead of the damning self-talk that many of us are used to.

 

Every once in awhile,

I could read, “Thank you, God,” on an athlete’s lips.

But mostly, I don’t know for sure what they were saying,

Just that they were talking to themselves.

 

I don’t think, though, they were discussing with themselves what people would think if they didn’t win.

I don’t think they were telling themselves how terrible they were.

I don’t think they were lamenting feeling unprepared.

I don’t think they were fussing at themselves for being unworthy.

 

I think they were pepping themselves up and

Telling themselves that they could do it.

Maybe we should do the same.

 

Dear God: Help us to take a cue from the Olympic athletes and to allow our self-talk to build us up rather than tear us down. While most of us will never be on a stage as big as the Olympic stage, each of us is gifted and called to be and do something. Help us to prepare and train to be the best that we can be at whatever we are gifted and called to do, and then to believe in our preparation and training and go forth in the steadiness of your strength and love. May, “Thank you, God,” become more than three simple words. May, “Thank you, God,” become the eyes through which we see the blessings of this life and world. Amen.

A Prayer for Teachers

God of All Creation:

Each of us is a creature of your working,

Connected by the threads of common humanity,

Yet unique through the diversity of personality, giftedness, time, circumstance, and culture. 

Some are wired for science, some technology, 

Some math, some language arts,

Some sports, some music, 

Some military service, some non-profit work, 

All taught by teachers,

Whether formally or informally so. 

 

So in this prayer, God,

I pray especially for teachers and all school personnel who directly influence children’s lives.

 

Give us calm strength and patient wisdom to work with developing minds. Grant that we may teach those minds to see and love what is just, true, and good in an unsteady and confusing world. 

 

Help us show growing hearts that building others up is more life-giving than tearing others down, and that goodness and light have the power to overcome darkness.

 

Help us to help wounded spirits take heartache and failure not as measures of worth but as opportunities for growth.

 

Grant each of us, through uncertainty and doubt, the ability to rest and the courage to do the next right thing.

 

Give us insight. 

Surround us with grace. 

Empower us with the boldness and goodness to be firm, fair, and consistent.

 

Feed us as we feed hungry bodies and mouths, and

Help us to grow in content knowledge, pedagogy, and self-understanding

As we seek to be life-long learners of life itself. 

 

For You are the God of all creation,

And each of us is a creature of your working,

Connected by the threads of common humanity,

Yet separate through the diversity of personality, giftedness, time, circumstance, and culture. 

Help us to honor the fullness of your Creation,

As we see it, teach it, and embrace it through contagious love,

Today, tomorrow, and in all the days to come.

 

Amen

Blessing of the Backpacks

It gets me every time. 

The blessing of the backpacks. 

The first year, it was the whole concept. 

Last year, it was the opening of hands to receive the blessing. 

Yesterday, it was my sweet 5th grade friend Caius. 

After admitting that he was not looking forward to going back to school, 

He announced that the only thing he was looking forward to was seeing his teacher. 

He added his friends as a PS. 

“But mostly my teacher,” he said—

His teacher who looped up with his class because she liked them so much—

His teacher whom he knows and loves because she knows and loves him as well. 

 

…

 

I spent at least three hours over the weekend typing up my class lists and making my grade book. 

It would have been much easier to ask my data manager for the lists electronically and then to copy and paste them, 

But typing out the names allowed me to remember. And pray. And feel out class make-up. 

It was a step in processing the beginning of the year. 

It was an exercise in patience and perseverance. 

It was a simple gesture of love. 

 

…

 

I teach over 600 students per year.

Learning names isn’t always easy,

But I do my best to learn names because names are important.

Names help us feel seen and heard and valued.

Caius’s teacher sees him, hears him, and values him.

She is why he wants to go back to school.

 

…

 

If I could be the reason that just one of my students wants to come back to school,

Then it would all be worth it.

Just one of those names.

Just one of those little people.

If I’m there for just one student to feel safe,

And seen,

And heard,

And valued,

Then I am there for the world.

…

 

Oh God: Help me hold to the one. Even if I never know which one it is. Amen.

Jump To Conclusions

 

I woke up singing a song from an Mickey Mouse Club record.

The song is called, “Don’t Jump To Conclusions.”

It’s sung by the once-popular Annette.

She sings:

“Don’t jump, jump to conclusions.

It always brings delusions.

So be careful gals and guys

Take this tip and you’ll be wise

If you wanna minimize

Confusion”

 

I think this is wise advice.

 

I’m trying to remember it myself.