Thanksgiving

My father was a wise, wise man. And as I come to this first Thanksgiving without him, making that sentence past tense breaks my heart all over again.  When I was a child, my parents wanted nothing but the best for their children. Giving a strong Christian background and surrounding his children with faith-filled individuals was of the most importance. It is one reason why my father, along with others, started a private school in our town. I attended that school from 4K to 12^th grade. When I was a teenager, my mother had cancer. This took a huge toll on our finances. Paying tuition, even at a school my father help to found, became difficult. New, designer clothes and shoes lessened. I remember other families from the church bringing meals and I remember hand me down clothes from others. I also remember one student at school making fun of me to others because her family was helping my family. I wasn’t even sure what that meant but I later found out that her father had paid the tuition for the remainder of the year for me and my siblings. (How I wish Gofundme had existed back then!) I remember crying and talking to my dad about my poor life…an absent mother who was possibly dying of cancer, babysitting my young brother, working on the farm, not having cool things like others, and being made fun of because our family struggled. My father told me something that day that I’ve held onto ever since. He said that if everyone put their problems in a bag and hung them on the clothesline and were able to pick, we’d pick our problems back up over other people’s problem every time.

As a teenager, I really didn’t believe him. As an adult, I now understand what my Dad was talking about. It is so easy to look around and see what I don’t have, where I am struggling, how much I left to do, and how tired I am. But what I forget is that everyone has problems. No one has a perfect life. As educators we are beaten up, not well respected, work way too hard, too many hours, and are asked to be educator, counselor, psychologist, mom, doctor, and friend to students. I often remember when dealing with a difficult student that the reason behind their behavior would probably not make me made, it would break my heart.

As I thought about all of this and a message about Thanksgiving, I was reminded of a story. A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body. Despite the kind heart of the man, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening; were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings. To prepare itself for flying once it was out of the cocoon.

Our struggles in life develop our strengths. Without struggles, we never grow and never get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle challenges on our own, and not be relying on help from others. Thank you for struggling along with us as we continue to make our school the most caring environment. Thank you for struggling along with us as we continue to study best practice in order to give every child, every chance to succeed. Thank you for struggling along with us as we develop and grow our practices of compassionate schools. Thank you for struggling along with us as work hard to develop well rounded, balanced students and offering extra opportunities for students outside of the classroom. Thank you for struggling along with us as we collaborate with each other rather than working in silos.

Thank you for what you do in our school each and every day. Our students are better because of you. Our community is better because of you. I am better because of you.