Blessings Ignored

I said I would update...

At times I find myself envious of those who can pick up and move on with life. I am a wallower. Often I get so consumed by my wallowing that everything else in life comes to a complete halt. No longer can I see the many blessings that occur daily; all the focus is on what I am lacking. I was thinking about that this weekend during an almost 8 hour drive back to Phoenix after a whirlwind 1 1/2 day trip home to California. All that time also allowed me to consider why the need to wallow is so strong... As much as feeling sorry for myself seems appropriate or justified, in the end, it keeps me from being the person I really want to be. Then I stopped for gas at a station in the middle of the California desert just before the Arizona border. As I pulled out my credit card and thought about my recent pay cut, a bunch of other papers fell out. One was a fortune I saved from the cookie at a Chinese restaurant a few weeks back. It read: To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have.

Wow.

I know some people don't believe in fate or serendipity or divine intervention or whatever label one might give that kind of coincidence, but I absolutely do believe. That fortune jolted the memory of a quote from a book I read this summer, The Alchemist. In the story, a merchant tells the young boy on a journey to find his Personal Legend that Every blessing ignored becomes a curse. There is so much truth in those 6 words... At another point in the story, I was struck by this: When each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.

After paying for my gas, I got back in the car and started driving, still pondering the idea of blessings ignored becoming curses. Knowing that I needed to be more aware of the blessings that happen in my life every day that the sun rises, I was trying to think of a way to create accountability for counting my blessings. In another serendipitous moment, I remembered the plot of a movie I recently saw: Julie & Julia. Julie decides to cook all of Julia Child's recipes in one year and to keep herself accountable, she commits to blogging about it daily. In the spirit of The Alchemist and Julie & Julia, I am going to commit to blogging about at least one blessing -- however big or small -- that happens in my life every day. Please keep me accountable, friends... I need this. Hopefully you'll enjoy them, too! I can't promise they'll be enlightened or deep, but I will post them. If I don't make myself acknowledge blessings, I will continue to wallow in the past instead of being present.

In review... Fortune + The Alchemist + Julie & Julia + 8 hour drive = A Blessing A Day on my blog.

Here goes...

Blessing #1: Treasure Maps

I am so blessed... at my school, there is a 5th grade teacher who has taken it upon himself to create a fun game with my class. In his room, he has a cape, plastic pirate hook and pirate hat. Occasionally he would put them on and walk by my classroom or by my students in the hallway, sending the kids into fits of laughter and plastering perma-smiles on their precious little faces. This week, he kicked it up about 1,000 notches. While we were at lunch and recess, he went into my room, leaving behind a drawing on our whiteboard and a paper treasure box containing a letter. The letter informed me and my students that he would be hiding pirate treasure somewhere in our school -- would we be the ones to find it? Each day, we get another piece of the treasure map in a little paper chest hidden somewhere in the classroom. We got our first piece today. After gluing it onto the map holder, we followed the path we had and made a prediction about where the next piece would send us... My kids are so thrilled! It makes my heart happy to watch them so excited. That's my blessing for today... Treasure Maps.

Next time, more about my classroom, I promise! I'll end with saying that the second year of teaching is a completely different experience than the first! While I miss my students from last year more than I ever imagined I would, I love many things about this year so far.

Don't forget to count your blessings!

Much love. ♥