gratitude

gratitude...

I’m sure I’m not the first to have these brilliant thoughts, nor will I be the last. I am not original in my thankfulness, nothing particularly unique or witty about my ramblings, however, if your heart is full, you let it overflow in the hopes it will spill over some goodness or love or joy onto someone else.

So, here’s the thing. It is so easy to become exhausted, delirious, crazy with the hours we work at extended-day charter schools. (And so many, many other places of work.) But through the insane work pace, and the difficult situations so many of our students are facing at home, through the sweat and the tears,I am left with such a glad heart.

As I driving the highways of Houston, often weaving through traffic, my appreciation for the gifts in my life is sometimes overwhelming. Though they may be scattered across the country, in Arkansas and DC and New York and Oklahoma and small town Texas and so many other places, it really is your friends that make your world go round. I don’t have to see them every day, though that’d be nice, but friendship can either make your life or break it. I am thankful and undeserving of the wonderful people that have crossed my path, people who have met me and not insisted that I should be in some sort of institution. People that continue to love me just the same. They even laugh at my jokes sometimes. Or read my blog.

If a third grader, or anyone, asked me for an example of friendship, I would have so many moments and memories to give them. But I guess I’d sum it up like this: My roommates ask about my day when I walk in the door, they occasionally ride bikes with me, and daily listen to me singing loudly and off-key in the shower. They are there, alongside me with struggles and joys of their own, yet they always care.

Muhammed Ali says that “Friendship is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t learned anything.” There’s a lot about my job that I could complain about, but there are lots of benefits as well, like re-learning the importance of wonderful friends.

I am blessed beyond my wildest imagination. And for that I will always be grateful.