Just 40 Days

Today I spent the day defrosting: freeing (the interior of a refrigerator/freezer) of accumulated ice, usually by turning it off for a period. Although I pull out my refrigerator to clean the floor a couple of times a year, I don't clean anything else on the outside.  I truly hope that this does the trick on my four year old appliance.  The freezer has been making snow for a couple of weeks now.     I guess I'll find out in the morning. Until then it's pizza for dinner...the frozen kind!

My mother taught me or shared with me her love for sitting on the porch during a rain storm.  I cannot think of anything more calming and comforting than to sit on a porch during the rain. As a child, I remember sitting on the glider that was as large a a couch, with as many of my brothers and sisters that could fit along side my mom and weather permitting, a blanket.  We would talk and play games and enjoy this special time of doing nothing but watching it rain. I in turn, repeated this behavior with my children, on Elgin street.  We had a porch swing.  That swing, along with the rain, provided me with a sense of peace as we shared our day or shared stories of the past.  Sometimes, the littler kids sat with me as the older ones got to play in the rain.  It's curious to watch a child's response to thunder or lightening.  Each is unique...sometimes frightening and sometimes creatively adventurous. Today, my granddaughter Carly said of the thunde...

Let all the teachers rejoice!  No more Friday school days!  I run from my school building on Fridays...so I'm having mixed feelings here.  In the summer...I take most Fridays off as vacation...so I guess it is time to do a little hula dancing!

This last month of school has been trying my patience.  I'm not sure if it's me or my students or a combination of both.  I know that I have to take the most responsibility here as it is my patience on the line...and I am the adult...I am the professional. Isn't it amazing the world around us can rob us of who we are...if we let it!  The hard part is to always remember that I am in charge of me.  I get to chose to be patient or kind or happy. I bet a teacher somewhere taught me that!

Although I have been driving the same route to work for nearly three years, twice this week I got off on the wrong exit.  How does this happen? I can put part of the blame on construction, as the orange barrels are actually guiding me to get off downtown.  But I know that my exit is the one after that so I must really be distracted.

As I was teaching my teen class at the YMCA tonight, I realized something that I forgot...when I am focused on helping others, I forget my pain and experience joy.  How could I have forgotten that? 

I want my joy back.