Transformation

​What is your transformation?
 
The summer of change. That’s what this has been for me.  In May, I started out with my regular mammogram check-up and here I sit  bandaged all over my torso (five months later), having completed my last surgery(every finger is crossed, all the dogs are looking heaven ward, etc.)   Not that we are expecting everything to be perfectly complete, now, but just for today, just for the moment, peace and serenity are holding me together. Without the constant prayers and funny stories and well wishes, life would Iikely be a bit more despondent. But too many people have the ability to write or say to me, “This is the bump in the road and will get much lighter as time goes.” 
I admit that a few months ago, I told Dave I felt like a cyborg.  Let me be clear---I don’t exactly know all the inner workings of a cyborg, but what I felt was the combination of something natural and unnatural.  Pieces and parts of the “real” me coupled with pieces and parts that are from a foreign me. 
 
Last night, Kelly ( my dearest friend from college and maid-of-honor in our wedding) had just finished making us this amazing meal for dinner and we were all cleaning up.  I look over at the table and there was a cute gift bag on it.  As soon as I saw James Avery on it, I knew I had died and gone to heaven.   The piece is a butterfly with a cross as its midsection and it is called “Renewal of Life”.  What it said was:  “A butterfly highlighted by a cross at its core evokes the spirit and wonder of nature’s boundless miracles in this one-of-a-kind charm”.  It went on to talk about the transformation of caterpillar to butterfly and all I could think was how much I am transforming day after day, getting stronger so I can go back to flitting around as a only a butterfly does---happy and content.
 
I pray a prayer before I begin each training---something about “may my words transform the tired hearts” (especially those who are tired from hearing professional development sessions that are focused on sitting and getting).  Remarkably, too many of our curriculum development opportunities are still done TO teachers and not designed to be  engaged WITH them.  We have a long way to go to get to the correct point but our cocoons are ready and our wings are prepping as we speak to take us to new and remarkable places as we fully evolve.  Read? Hold on for the ride!!
 
 
Let’s keep remembering how to reclaim the joy in everything we do, even in transformation!! 
 
Happy Communicating!
 
Shelly

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