What the innocent joy in the heart of a child can teach us
He was an adorable child.
I was a nervous, inexperienced teacher.
In the two weeks I taught him and his classmates, I had one of the most memorable encounters of my life.
It happened like this:
Fresh out of college in the 1970’s I was unable to get a job interview, let alone a job, as a qualified high school English teacher.
Desperate to find any kind of job in education, I naively applied for a job teaching kindergartners in a poor neighborhood. …
“In the midst of winter I found within my self an invincible summer”
Albert Camus
I am not a person who loves winter. The cold, the darkness, the lack of flowers and green plants all get me down. Although I try to continue walking outdoors on most winter days, the free swinging feeling of walking outside is somewhat suppressed under multiple layers of coat, sweaters, hat, scarf and gloves. So in the winter, more than ever, I turn to birds with appreciation and pleasure.
The hearty winter birds are a true inspiration to people like me who tend to shudder at the first cold snap or snowflake. …
It will not return in Spring
With gratitude comes grace
Imagine a friend, walking up to you, smiling, handing you a simply-wrapped gift.
Imagine you untying the ribbon, lifting the lid, and gazing inside.
Imagine you crying, “ Oh, I don’t want this gift! I want something else!”
Makes you cringe a bit, doesn’t it? How ungracious… how ungrateful…how unkind.
Yet, I feel we do this every day, perhaps many times a day, when we belittle or neglect our God-given gifts, wishing peevishly for something else.
Something that will make us more money, garner us more recognition, make us feel more exceptional.
I speak from experience. All my life I have known that my primary talent is centered in words. A passion for words has been my lodestone, drawing me like a sliver of steel to a magnet. …
To feel guilt is human
Hiding in plain sight
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