I love quiet mornings, I love spring, and I love my front porch.
So this recent closure of school and working from home is truly a gift to someone like me. I am choosing to embrace it and cherish it as an opportunity, thankful every morning that I wake up healthy. My teammates today told me that I'm the calming force keeping us all together, and that I really seem to be in my element. I think I might just have to agree with that last statement.
I can extend my quiet time a bit later each morning before I quick do my hair just enough to look presentable for my daily video check-in with my students. I prop up my phone, press record, give them any new updates, tell them I love them, miss them, and I'm proud of them. I love this new opportunity to connect with my kids in such a different way, literally "going into" their homes every morning to greet them as they tackle their school work in their pajamas.
Then I grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit outside in my "office/classroom", and take some time to read in between answering phone calls and texts from confused parents and students (usually about technology) or review, approve, and comment on assignments as they come in periodically all morning. It's less busy work now and more authentic learning going on for most of them. Honestly, many of them are giving me much better work than they ever did in the classroom. Their choice of presentation for each assignment is so unique. Some take pictures, some draw, some record their voice with the picture, and some just make me the sweetest videos explaining their work. I am absolutely loving what I am seeing from the majority of my kids, and I make sure to tell them every morning just how proud they've made me.
David brought this book home from the Passion Conference that he attended in Georgia over New Year's, so I asked if I could borrow it to read it while I sat outside in between communication spurts with my students and families.
Wow. What an incredible read and inspiring (convicting) challenge at such a time as this. If you haven't read it, I suggest that there's no better time than now.
Since the students submit a lot of their work in the evenings when their parents are home, I spend a lot of my evenings still tending to all of them (with a long break in the afternoon). Thus while I was still out with my book after dark.
To sum up the book, here's a page that really stood out to me, pointing out that God truly has an agenda for this current circumstance across the globe. (Last sentence before the bold words).
I've struggled quite a bit to focus this last year. I'd get up every morning and just felt restless in my soul. I never dreamed that I'd have (likely) the rest of this school year to finally find that rest and focus that I so longed for. I never dreamed I'd have so much extra quality time with my son before he graduated high school this May, especially considering what a busy life that boy juggled between school, work, church, trucks, and friends. Now we're together almost 24/7, playing games, watching movies, catching up on TV shows, and just talking about life. Today we went for a long, two hour walk together to enjoy the sunshine, to reminisce all the walks we used to go on when he was little, and to reflect on how this year changed so many things.
I don't know what the future holds, and that can lead me to a bit of a panic when I can't plan a single thing on my calendar for his graduation. I also can get into a panic as my husband faithfully goes to work each day, risking himself and our family out on the "front lines" of this invisible war going on. I constantly gripe at him and my boys to "sanitize themselves" and wash their hands, and they constantly gripe at me for freaking out so much. I teeter-totter between finding the positive and freaking out over every time I hear about someone else getting sick.
But every day my family and I wake up healthy, I know this time is a gift, and I'm choosing to cherish it. I don't want to waste it by freaking out or fearing the worst when there's so much beauty and peace right in front of me. Today's grace. I want to embrace the quieter mornings, releasing the rush that kept me restless, and spending more time to focus on my relationship with God and the relationships He's put in my life.
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