Gratitude

            Anybody notice that Facebook is screaming gratitude this Elul? I love the trend. This year I feel colossally overwhelmed by gratitude for all the good in my life. Also, since, of the fascinating things that have happened this week, most of them cannot be published because of that obnoxious teacher confidentiality clause, I’ve decided to go with gratitude instead.

I am grateful…

• For a Friday Socratic Seminar on Nature vs. Nurture that the kids rocked!
• For students who intrigue and delight and challenge me every day.
• For professional development at which this is posted in an effort to keep us from smacking our students.

• For students who express their gratitude, like this one:

• For too-cool-for-school kids who put on brain hats and try to look nonchalant but are secretly delighted when they see I’ve hung their creation from the ceiling.

• For D, K, and J, who have formed the breakfast club of trailer 4, and hang out in the wee hours of the morn with me.
• For D, who has taught me that looks can be deceiving and that labels are for naught.
• For my third block A-day class, who cracked up when the bell rang and I involuntarily exclaimed, “damn!” that my time had run out, and then stayed and let me finish the point I was making because they saw it was so important to me.
• For my third block B-day class, who finally won their behavior incentive and are finally showing all their sweetness in full force.
• For L, who came up to silently fist-bump me and then had me in some kind of fist-bump routine which I will never be able to replicate but that gave me a full understanding of his appreciation.
• For my colleagues. Especially the lady in the trailer next door to me, who reminds me every day not to put up with any sh*t because life’s too short. She should know.
• For my friends from past lives who insistently remind me of my other identities with snarky one-liner texts and thought-provoking article links and sometimes actual honest-to-goodness letters.
• For Team O.

• For my books. For the space to keep them and the money to buy them and the imagination to appreciate them and the time to read them and the places they take me.
• For the shore and the sea, the rush of the waters, the roar of the thunder, the prayers of man, and the poets who can capture all this glorious world with words so much better than I.

I guess, once you start, it’s impossible to stop. I have walked around the past few months in a haze of wonder that life can be so rich. The new year starts in four days, and most of my tefillot will be thanks for this past one. In the words of Alice Walker: “Thank you” is the best prayer that anyone can say.