My dear friend, Emily, started a month of blogging about all she has to celebrate. I like the idea of taking the 30 Days of Thanks challenge and kicking it up a notch.
For me the difference between celebration and thankfulness is that thankfulness is usually a condition of my heart, something I can choose to show or keep to myself. Celebration implies action. Have you ever seen someone celebrate while sitting still and quiet? Neither have I. 'Celebrate' is a jubilant verb just itching to do something.
As Emily pointed out over in her neck of the woods, it's pretty easy to celebrate when life is going well, but not so easy to celebrate when life is delivering a clobbering. That's true, but I also find that when life is good, I take a lot of things for granted. So, I'm hoping this month will help me realize how much I have to celebrate, both on days that are easy and on days that present me with difficulty.
Today I celebrated the first official day of summer vacation. I'm celebrating finishing up a year that was equally rewarding and difficult. For the first time in my career, my skill as a teacher was called into question. I often found myself defending what I know in my heart to be best for children, what I know deep in my bones to be right. This constant self-defense left me worn out. And sometimes when I laid awake at night, doubt would creep in. Doubt about continuing to teach. Doubt about whether I should have ever gone into teaching in the first place. It's funny how the tiniest seed of doubt can grow into a terrible Venus Fly Trap, soul eating kind of thing.
A few days before school let out, three teachers from three different schools asked if I would help them plan for teaching first grade next year. I was delighted they thought of me and today I met with two of those teachers. It was a pleasure to share materials, books and ideas. I talked with them about the nuts and bolts of my classroom and some big picture stuff, too. As I shared with them, I could feel the roots of doubt being pulled out.
I am meant to teach. This I know for sure. Today I celebrate my peers who in asking for help, helped me remember my calling.
