So much negativity is talked about via social media, on the TV,  at dinner parties, and even at church. I've always wondered how the negative news travels faster than good news. How often do my "L.C. chasing butterflies" videos get traction versus the political memes (and so many others)?  In other words, am I making every day pure drudgery or am I becoming new? And what does that really mean....becoming new?  
For me, it means basically the same thing that the Serenity Prayer has taught me throughout most of my adult life.  

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference (Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, Lutheran theologian (1892–1971)).

My problem is simply getting out of my own way.  I have a choice to believe that God has good things ahead for me, and when I stay focused on that, I really can't go wrong (I get down on my prayer stool by my bed (or on the likely dirty carpet at my hotel when I am traveling) and say a prayer that finishes with the Serenity Prayer), especially since I believe God calls me to be a person who can walk among people and possible share some goodness. 

I talked in a blog this year about how I made a vow last year (and I'm not stopping it just because it's a new year) to always thank the gate agents who are helping us board. Boy, do they catch a lot of flack! And it would be amusing to watch someone yell at the gate agent about the weather that is delaying, except I know that is not all they are blamed for. I am actually surprised at their surprise when I say, "Thanks for all you're doing, and I pray you have a great rest of your day."  

You know who else needs to hear all that and more?  Educators and educational leaders....they are on the frontline of some mighty big negativity right now, and I will likely preach it up until my last breath, "There likely wouldn't be people in most occupations without teachers".  I love that thought. We all can remember that favorite teacher who could even make an apathetic reader begin loving books; we can remember the favorite teacher who wrote little notes on a student's desk when she saw the 5th grade student was struggling with parents going through a really nasty divorce (oh wait, that's me, and that teacher was Claudia Edgerton and I keep up with her via Facebook, still); we can also likely remember the teacher we disliked the most who might have made us want to prove our worth to them and to the world. 

I'm not going to lie....I have a passion for teaching (mostly adult learners now, but I get to be in schools and in classrooms all the time) that never seems to lose its awesome power.  I have made a pact with God, with Dave, with any participants in workshops I teach, and with myself that when I lose that "ooomph" for teaching, I will stop. I want to always be the person who brings the light to a dark place.  

Indeed, we have tough times we have to go through at times, but another one of my favorite prayers (that has been attributed to St. Francis of Assisi but not ever found in his works) is:

Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace;
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self forgetting, that one finds.
It is by forgiving, that one is forgiven.
It is by dying, that one awakens to Eternal Life.
My prayer for you today is that you find something in your life about which to be completely, nutso-crazy, passionate about and DO it!!

Happy Communicating,
Shelly

One of my favorite things to do in life is to analyze things.  Even in the children's sermon, I so badly try to make sense of what is in the message for me....on that day....in what is going on in my life at the time. Today, we heard about windows and doors. With just those two words, what do you think of? To me, I think that doors are the barriers we either put in front of us ourselves or the barriers we believe are keeping us from the path in front of us. 

Windows, on the other hand, are the ways we see the light, the answers, and the opportunities in our lives. That's my take on it, anyway. Windows provide a way to see the way forward. 
I remember reading the book "Alive" about the airplane crash and the Andes survivors by Piers Paul Read when I was a young girl.  While it was shocking, I also saw people who were looking for the opportunity to live. Naturally the most shocking part was the fact that they had to make a choice about whether to eat the bodies of the ones who had perished. To me, as I sit in the warmth of my home, I would say "That would be a hard no for me"----a definite "door" that I could not or would not open.  However I can only imagine what it would be like to have the instinct or the window to survive.  

The people who did the impossible, eating the flesh of the deceased, were able to survive for 72 days until they were rescued. Time after time, the news got worse. From a transistor radio found in someone's suitcase, they were able to hear that the rescue had been called off and wouldn't resume until the spring thaw.  It only seemed to get worse as avalanche after avalanche ripped through the carnage of what was left of the plane, killing person after person.
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Given the atrocity of the situation, what is it that allows some to see doors and some to see windows? 
Of course, there are so many stories of tragedy and survival from the dawn of time to the present time. What is it that allows some to have hope and some to lose hope? I would like to believe that I am a survivor. At what point could I eat human flesh in order to survive? 
I'm so grateful to believe in an awesome God who will take care of me (and all those who I love) in this life and into the next.  I want to see through the windows and not ever get caught up looking at the doors as barriers. Some days are simply tougher than others. We walk through hard things that we never thought we could walk through before. Where does that come from?

Just for today, I pray that I continue to see windows where possible and not be thwarted by a door. What are your ways to see windows instead of doors?  How do we ensure that we not only see the windows themselves but that we can also help others to see the windows where possible? 
Sharing hope is likely one of the most important things we can do...not just for us but for others we love.
I'm going to keep looking for windows of opportunity---how about you?

Happy Communicating,
Shelly