The ideal student...

There is a buzzing sound in my ear. The refrigerator is buzzing, the tv is going, and there is a strange sound coming from the roof top as the Texas wind blows on its merry way. There is a dog barking down the alley way. I can hear the heater in the bathroom and the tub draining. The washer is churning away furiously as if to say it is doing my job for me and I should be grateful. The day's events are playing in my head. What else can be done? What other words of wisdom and hope can I give to 40 fourth graders who are about to take their state assessments? What makes them tick? What makes them fabulous and unforgettable?

They come to us having a past and needing a future. They want nothing more than to rise above their circumstances. What words do we have for them? What hope do we give? Do you see them there? She sits and writes with all her being. She has been learning at home her entire life. She came to us knowing little and today she is witness that we as teachers make a difference to her. There is another in the next room that has moved again and again. Survival is her first instinct. Love is her second. We have loved her. We have given her all the hope and belief that we can. The next steps of courage belong only to her. What about him that sits there worried about his mom and where they will sleep tonight. What words do you have for him? He is braver than anyone of us. He is only nine and yet has protected his mother again and again from the unspeakable. His concentration is restless but he pulls through. Do you see him there?

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

~Arthur O'Shaughnessy


They are the future of our world and if we do not embrace who they are, we are all lost. These are those who will stand up and fight. They are those who will make up our government and our schools. They will make movies and music. They will write books and develop the thoughts of our children's children. We must open our eyes and see them. Do we dare see them? We must. We have much to learn. They have much to show us.

Keeping these moments

She just turned 17 yesterday and she is singing at the top of her lungs in the shower like she is in front of a massive audience. These are the moments I want to steal away, lock them in a chest to be taken out and played again and again. When she was a toddler she would sing quietly to herself while playing. She is not a loud obtrusive person but rather a humble people watcher. As she grows into a young woman, she is coming into her own. Feeling the call to missions and searching her heart of what else life holds for her here on Earth, she waits and watches. Yesterday she ate at a local Japanese restaurant with two of her best friends. It is a rite of passage perhaps to go out to eat on your own with your teenage friends. She is coming into her own. Her fortune cookies said, "Wait". She told FB that it was lame but I couldn't agree more. Put the brakes on, wait, keep this moment sacred, and breathe in and out this moment. Help me Lord to see her there waiting on you and to be still and know that you are the God who sees her and the keeper of this moment.