It’s easy to complain about how tired we are and how hot our classrooms have become. It’s easy to complain about the never-ending-to-do list and the amount of work we spend writing report cards.
Yet this past week was a reminder about how fortunate we are to be going about our days as normal. The public school next door to our school had a tough week. On Monday, one of their grade six students died after being in a house fire the day before. The teachers shared the news with their classes. There were grief counsellors in the building all week. Students were encouraged to come to school to maintain a sense of normality. And as you can imagine, those teachers were doing their best to keep it together for their students.
I pray that all of the individuals connected to this tragedy have an opportunity to grieve, but also to celebrate the life of this young girl and to make some kind of meaning from the example of her life.
There are fourteen days left in the school year. As busy as I know I will be, I will not complain. I am going to enjoy these last days of school with our students. I am going to be thankful to have the time with each and every one of them. And I’m not going to take any of it for granted.
An example of how suffering can be informative and even lead to more resolve to live in the moment.