beginning of greatness

After a November 1st post on Facebook about having a great day, my friend pointed out that I posted it on the first day of November. I hoped that the first day of the month was an indication of the rest of the month. It was. November was an excellent month. One of the best of my life. (I feel guilty saying that. After Denali was born, those were life changing and amazing months. However, I haven’t had to be up at all hours of the night, change diapers, or adjust to having to be responsible for a little new life.) December is my favorite month. My birthday, winter break from school, the culmination of another year and circle around the sun. It snows for the first time. My sister comes to town and I get to be with family and friends. Solstice brings more light each day. Things start getting brighter in December. It occurred to me last night that today was the first day of the month and that I needed to make it a really positive day. I woke up late, fussed at Denali and had to rush to get out of the door on time, which was really ten minutes later than usual. In the car, I apologized to Denali and he was very sweet and told me that I didn’t need to apologize, he had already forgiven me. He is truly such a sweet little soul. We started over and He got out of the car in a happy mood. In the car, I was thinking about acts of service and how I can perform more. It struck me that my job is an act of service. I love my job. I work with great people, have relatively little stress and I get to laugh a lot. Five days a week, I am providing a service to others. I was reminded that I need to make sure that my service was provided with a cheerful heart. I walked into my office, to find a little trophy and Hershey Kisses on my desk. The trophy is the LHS Lifesaver Award. Teachers pass it onto another teacher each week and fill it with candy. The teacher that passed it on to me is always happy and always asks how you are doing. “How are you?” gets on my nerves. It is such an overused phrase and most times, it feels rote, without feeling. This teacher always asks and always means it. She always has a smile on her face. She recognized me for my commitment to recycling at school. Last year, I created The Green Team. It is a group of my students that are responsible for all of the recycling for the entire school. Every other day, we travel around the school emptying the recycling bins in each class. It has been a great success and the students are able to work on vocational skills. It has shown regular education students that their peers with disabilities can be contributing members of our community. We have students that range from high functioning to low functioning. The best part of it is students watching kids that they would otherwise think of as having no functional skills, pushing a trash can or emptying recycling into the Rosies. This little thing perked up what was already a bright day.