the skip in your step.
This week has been particularly busy; I've been bouncing back and forth between the school and clinic trying to balance multiple projects between the two, which is a bit like being pulled by the arms in two different directions- eventually the sockets are gonna give. I was feeling tremendously overwhelmed and losing steam fast, forgetting the purpose of my ventures to begin with and focusing on the ever increasing length of my to-do list instead. We're used to working ourselves into the ground, but how often do we stop to consider what we're working so hard for? Guilty as charged.
I recently opened my environmental "green club" at the school, and it's quickly becoming the highlight of my week. As one of the activities we've been working on the students are drawing their favorite animals and their environments. With my mind in a million other places I hardly noticed the artwork piling up on my desk until one particular student stood smiling at me, waiting for me to look up from what I was working on and notice her before she placed her piece on the top and scampered back to her friends. Rather than the suggested "my favorite animal is ______" she simply scrawled "love you all!!" dead center, and she wanted to be sure I made note of this. Were it not for her patient smile, I would not have noticed her. I would have continued focusing on whatever other unrelated thing was occupying my mind and lost the magic of that moment. Whatever tension I was feeling up to that point evaporated right then and there. I put my work away, went and sat with the students for the remainder of the afternoon, and walked home with an extra skip in my step. And I can't help but wonder, what else am I, what are we all, missing in the same fashion? What are we letting simply slip by us in our constant inattention?
There's a great big world out there and so many more smiles to be noticed, extraordinary moments to be had, if we'd only open our eyes wide enough, and long enough to see and be part of them.
I recently opened my environmental "green club" at the school, and it's quickly becoming the highlight of my week. As one of the activities we've been working on the students are drawing their favorite animals and their environments. With my mind in a million other places I hardly noticed the artwork piling up on my desk until one particular student stood smiling at me, waiting for me to look up from what I was working on and notice her before she placed her piece on the top and scampered back to her friends. Rather than the suggested "my favorite animal is ______" she simply scrawled "love you all!!" dead center, and she wanted to be sure I made note of this. Were it not for her patient smile, I would not have noticed her. I would have continued focusing on whatever other unrelated thing was occupying my mind and lost the magic of that moment. Whatever tension I was feeling up to that point evaporated right then and there. I put my work away, went and sat with the students for the remainder of the afternoon, and walked home with an extra skip in my step. And I can't help but wonder, what else am I, what are we all, missing in the same fashion? What are we letting simply slip by us in our constant inattention?
There's a great big world out there and so many more smiles to be noticed, extraordinary moments to be had, if we'd only open our eyes wide enough, and long enough to see and be part of them.
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