Love is All You Need

Beauty in the day: being reminded that everyone has a viewpoint – everyone has a perspective. Today I see many pictures of planes flying into towers; when I see this, I am only saddened by the insidiousness of such an act. I am reminded of the hurt and pain that so many people felt at their incomprehensible loss – nearly 1,200 of them muslims, who were innocent. I am saddened further to think that those people are now reliving the rejection brought on by fear, as they listen to Americans once again treat them as infidels. It should not be. It should never be.
If you are feeling fearful, there is only one thing that can rid you of it:
LOVE.

Kin Tree

Beauty in the day: Professional Development day away from the school today. Excellent speaker, and I really liked this: he talked about kids being asked to complete a family tree, and how some kids either don’t have access to this information, don’t know it, or have mixed emotions about the process of owning and naming family members that are connected to pain in their lives. He suggested a “Kin Tree” explaining that perhaps branches of the tree might instead connect to their church, to their school, to their extra-curricular group (i.e., sports team, dance class, etc), denoting the people there (or maybe one important person) as “kin”. These are a form of extended “family”, or influencers in their lives.
My family tree just got a whole lot bigger. 💗

10 on a 6-ish Scale

Beauty in the day: he’s a friend of mine, and as a Routing Specialist, he often drives a bus. He popped in this morning, and, knowing that he has been sick, I asked after the current state of his health. He told me he was doing much better, but said he had pulled a muscle in his chest from all the coughing. “As long as I’m not coughing, I’m fine, but if I do cough, the pain is a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10.” He thought for a moment, and then made this amendment: “But if I were a woman, it would probably be a 6.”

For the record, his comment made me laugh out loud – loudly!

….which made him laugh

….which made him wince. (oops!)

The Whole Kit and Caboodle

Beauty in the day: the clinic aide’s name is Kit. Kit and I work often in tandem with kids that come to the office to “see the nurse”. She employs the same strategies that I often use, so we “get” one another. Like yesterday, when little kindergartener came in for the first of 4 times that day, complaining that his leg really hurt. This kid looks like a tiny Russell Wilson (seriously, it’s true; Kit and I discussed this). He even smiled when he said his leg hurt really bad – that was his grave error. Kit looked on as I told him, “When that happens, you first rub, rub, rub the sore spot. Then you pay it gently a few times. Then you smooth it out a bit, and then it will feel better.” He did it all dubiously, and we sent him back to class without a review on his part.

She’s also been there when I have had young ladies complaining of pain perform arabesques and other graceful dance positions before sending them back to class.

Today as Kit was sitting and mostly minding her own business, she innocently opened a file cabinet drawer into her leg. This move caused her to yelp out in pain, and I have to concede here – she hit it rather hard.

“Ow!” She exclaimed.

“Kit, are you okay?”

She looked at me with pain in her eyes, began rubbing her shin, and recited, “First you rub, rub, rub” as she rubbed her smacked leg. Next she was patting and smoothing. For her finale she stood and performed an arabesque, looked at me with a pained expression, and said valiantly, “Feels good.”

I dearly love to laugh. Thanks Kit. 😂