STILT: Showered With Gifts
What I Learned
Life is precious, even (and especially) during the most difficult times. Keeping that in mind helps to enhance it for me. Also (and maybe more importantly), it helps me focus on working to enhance it for those that I spend my time with.
How I learned
It ain’t always easy. In fact, sometimes it always ain’t easy! Life is fast paced, considerably unpredictable, and often confusing. It can be a recurrently frustrating whirlwind of joy and pain. Over the course of any given lifetime, an unfathomable amount of stuff happens. We are each left to sort thought that stuff, and to make it fit within the space and time that we’re given. There are dull drudgeries, stinging realizations, whimsical and wondrous circumstances, and each exists within a set of seemingly fleeting moments. Dark struggles can turn minutes into hours, while bright, miraculous stretches can turn years into seconds. I won’t claim to know anything about the “why” or the “how.” However, I was reminded this week that I have some idea as to the “what.” Life is a gift…every struggle, every celebration, every moment, every breath…a gift.
Above is a picture of the ever-growing mountain of presents in the lobby of the office of the school in which I work. Our incredible, compassionate population of faculty, students, and parents, anonymously gathered information about some of the needs that exist within our community. Subsequently, they organized a system by which those needs are being met. It has truly been amazing to watch the myriad offerings grow over the past few weeks. The gift of a gift is wonderful. The gift of knowing that people with whom you spend your time care about each other as though they are a family is inspiring. I work in an extraordinary place, with incredible people!
Because I Learned
We have one more week of school before a long break. I know that not everyone has joyous circumstances to wrap him/herself in during the holiday vacation. One of the things that I will focus on this week (and beyond) is being present. As a school administrator I wish for every member of the community in which I serve to fully understanding that I care, because I do. There is a lot going on this week. I will continue to work on developing myself as an active listener.
Distractions are called distractions primarily because they distract (profound…I know). Sometimes I find myself rushing through a meaningful conversation or wondering how much e-mail piled up during a meeting. When I’m able to fight that urge, I am consistently pleased with the results. We each have a finite amount of time to spend with one another. I intend to work harder at fostering authentic meaning and connectedness for myself and for those that I spend my time with. We can each look forward to good times and bad. When we work as hard as we can to make sure that the time we spend together is positive, we model kindness, and we help to enrich each other’s lives.
Dream Big. Work Hard. Be Well.