Grateful Friday

 It has been a week of not great news.  Unsettling things all around.  Where are the grownups? is what I wonder from time to time.

I feel sad and horrified so many times I just stop reading the news.

Some of it hit closer to home.  A recent shooting impacted a family in our school.  Several parents were deported over the break.  Parents are left with the decision of leaving their children--who are US citizens--in the hands or friends or relatives or taking them with them to an uncertain/unsafe future that they left for a reason.

It makes me so sad.  I love these families.  We have room for them.

I'm grateful for compassionate people.  I'm grateful for people who sidestep politics and go directly to humanity and tolerance.  I'm grateful that even though there is an undercurrent of sadness at our school, there is also an undercurrent of strength.  Some of the best people I know walk those halls.  They show up every day, ready to work, ready to love and ready to teach.

I'm grateful that for so many, trying to be like Jesus isn't just a song.

I went to bed grumpy and woke up dreary.  It is cold and dark and everything feels like a lot.

We talked at our faculty meeting this week about negativity bias.  We are hard-wired for it, but gratitude helps.

I'm grateful...

...I have a husband who loves me.

...we both have jobs to support our lives.

...I have the ability to get medical treatment.

...I can talk and text people I love with a slim little box I can carry around with me--kind of amazing.

...I have a warm Bonneville Bronco hoodie to wear today and also a t-shirt underneath (you never know what the climate will be in my classroom).

...we are getting a new HVAC system at school this summer.

...for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

I keep thinking about a conversation I had with my sweet cousin Hannah.  She said that at times she mourns deeply, but she is never able to stay there because of her faith.

Being like Hannah is something to aspire to.