Every day, I have a choice...

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

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