What we see.......

Friday night, I was EXHAUSTED.  I have no idea why, really.  I had had a pretty typical week with no major incidents or problems, but for whatever reason I found that I wanted to go to bed around 6 on Friday night. I was secretly more than thrilled when I arrived home and Rosebro1 was not feeling well and he and I skipped out on the football game. After some Tylenol, he felt better and wanted supper. I realized that left to his own accord, he would have eaten ice covered cheerios so I resolved to making dinner for us. One of my favorite things to make is homemade pizza. I am an all veggie kind of girl while the rest of my family is extreme carnivores. We set about making a ½ and ½ pizza. We were in the middle of making our own pizza when I struggled to find the pepperoni. I knew I’d bought some last week. I looked first in the pantry. Then thinking maybe we opened them already, I looked in the fridge and with no luck headed back to the pantry and another look into the refrigerator. Again I struggled with the idea that maybe I didn’t purchase them after all or maybe I have early onset dementia then Rosebro1 opened the fridge and while holding up the package of pepperoni stated, “Is this what you’re looking for?” How had I overlooked this not once, but twice? When I grabbed the package from him, I realized that (hopefully) the reason I had overlooked it was the packaging is very different than it usually looks. I had visited the new grocery in town (not making that mistake again) and the packaging was different than what I was expecting from my usual store purchase.  As I was shaking off the feeling that I have early onset Alzheimer's, I thought about the fact that often what we see depends on what we are looking for. I wondered how many times I have done that as an educator and even as a leader.  I see a kid sleeping in my class, I see his laziness, terrible work ethic, and total disregard for how much I’ve planned for him. I have a kid who never does his homework and I see a kid who could care less and will end up in mug shots. I see a parent consistently pick up their child late and I see a parent who could care less about their kids and should have their parental rights taken. Or, I could see a kid who has a home life so bad, that he sleeps on a floor and not a bed which makes for sleepless nights. I see a kid who has no guidance or skills in how to plan free time afterschool. I see a single mom who works 3rd shift and tries to sleep while her kids are at school so she can spend time with them afterschool and work to provide for them while they are asleep.

Very rarely can I get very down. I am usually an extremely happy person and the little things that can be aggravating aggravate me for a few minutes then I roll with it. I am an absolute “glass half full” kind of girl. This is one reason why I don’t fret over huge things or even small things. I also celebrate small things as well as huge things. While I look at the things on my to do list with regret sometimes, I also give myself a virtual pat on the back for all the things I have been able to scratch off. Our work in schools is daunting and we do have those students who don’t have a bed time so they sleep in our class, or who have no one to help them at home, or someone at home who does not care, and countless other stories. But part of what is important is keeping a vision on that as well as looking at the possibility. After all, what we see depends on what we look for.