Breathe in and Breathe out

Recently I was suffering terribly with seasonal allergies. I just couldn’t shake the running nose, the terrible cough, and the constant sneezing. I was run down.  Then I started running a fever. I decided that I had better go to the doctor to make sure that my seasonal allergies were not something worse. The doctor didn’t seem to have any reason to be alarmed- haven seen about every patient that day for the same thing- but he didn’t like the way my lungs sounded and he ordered an X-ray. He wanted to make sure that I didn’t have walking pneumonia or even worse. I am not one to wait well. I have little patience for sitting around but as I did I was admiring the beautiful scenery while looking out the waiting room windows.  The very pollen, oak, and other flying debris in the air was just beautiful. How ironic I thought.

After my Xray I waited in another room.  This room was the consultation room. I waited for the doctor to come in, read my Xray, and send me on my way. This room was dark with no windows or magazines.  I was bored and tired of waiting. Finally, the doctor came in and put up my Xray on the box screen. What my Xray showed was minor- basically an upper respiratory infection. He gave me some prescriptions and sent me on my way. The one thing that I noticed while looking at the Xray was how similar my Xray looked to the scene of the beautiful trees I had been looking at earlier.

As I drove home I started thinking about the trees and my lungs. I was a little overwhelmed at the once again realization of God’s masterful plan. We breathe in what the trees breathe out and they breathe in what we breathe out. And ironically they are so similar. It got me thinking about our work here in schools. When we surround ourselves with those who are positive minded and love their work, we breathe that in. In my first year teaching, I had a difficult position. I had been hired mid-year to ease the special education numbers. The teacher I had been hired to work along with was grumpy and honestly down right mean sometimes to students. She also gave me every one of her resource students who had behavior issues. I needed her because I needed to learn the special education paper work procedures and I needed information about the students. But I found myself so down after I was done talking with her. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to keep doing this work that I had wanted to do since I was 5 years old. Then I met a 4^th grade teacher. Her energy was amazing. She was funny. She was positive. She loved her students-even the ones that it was difficult to love. She quickly became my unofficial mentor. 

I loved being around her because breathing in what she was putting out gave me energy. She gave me ideas. She gave me advice. She gave me confidence. Sooner rather than later, I found that I would collaborate with her and I was able to bring ideas to the table. One day towards the end of the school year, she pulled me into her classroom and gave me a huge hug. She said that I had helped her through a hard year and had given her her “mojo” back. I was so confused? She had saved me. She made me love what I was doing. She helped me with difficult behaved kids. She listened when I was frustrated. She built me up when a parent or an administrator or that other teacher had knocked me down. How did I help her? I realized that we helped each other.

We are just like the trees and the lung. We breathe in what the trees breathe out and they breathe in what we breathe out. This job is too difficult to surround yourself with complainers, naysayers, or whiners. This job is too difficult to listen to folks complain without thinking of solutions. This job is too difficult not to surround yourself with folks who love what they do and want to continually get better. This job is too difficult and too important to breathe in and breathe out negativity, anger, and frustrations. Surround yourself with those who will breathe in and breathe out the positive energy you need to finish strong.