Joy in the Journey

I’ve been thinking all weekend about today’s post. I keep a list of topics to blog for days like today. Days when I’m not sure what it is I should write. However, none of them seemed right. How is it that I can have a list of 23 ideas and yet none of them are good-enough? These are the times when I know I need to write from my heart.

Last week was a whirlwind of a week for me. Every night after school we had something happening. My kids didn’t make  bedtime once. Not only that, but things were busy at school. I had a cold, along with the entire rest of my family. Life was stressful. And, as much as I hate to admit it, I was grumpy.

By Friday afternoon I was determined to reclaim joy. It is a choice. Sometimes in the midst of May, it can be difficult to remember we can make a choice in regards to our attitudes. I find this May to be more uncertain than any other May in my career. It seems like everyone, not just in my district or my state or the Midwest, but across the country, is uncertain.

I’m finding uncertainty breeds stress. Stress strangles joy.

Sometimes when I find my rose-colored glasses slipping, I turn to Penny Kittle’s book, Public Teaching: One Kid at a Time (Heinemann, 2003). It is filled with stories and they all end with a line or two which hits home. Someday I’ll learn to spin words like Penny does. Today I found these lines in one of my favorite stories in the book, “Beyond Courtship:”

In my experience, it isn’t the stress that’s left the greatest mark, it is the joy. It bubbles to the surface in the middle of a trying lesson or finds you in a chance meeting with a former student. I consider these moments and think of how lucky I am to have work I love . . . This job is like no other. It will bend your heart to the breaking point one day and exhilarate you the next. It has lessons for a lifetime (122).

It is not looking back at the end of our careers that we will find joy. It is in the journey. The ordinary events that make up our days are filled with joy. For me, today I found joy in the electronic “Hi” from the wheel chair of a special needs student, the conversation during lunch with a favorite colleague, the smiles on second graders coming in from recess, and the joy of publication from a fourth grader. What part of your journey brought joy today? Please share, it won’t hurt any of us to secure our rose-colored glasses this May.