Guard your thoughts and words.
It’s hot, finally the rain has been ‘shooooed’ away and we have some sunny weather.
School term is finished and I’m cracking on trying to get an assignment towards my Education MA done. If I pass I’ll hopefully be moving on to dissertation next academic year. I’m about halfway through the 6,000 word slog – and today actually feel like I’ve made some progress. I love doing the reading, and trying out new things in my practice in the classroom, generally seeing how I can engage these children better and encourage them to explore this world around us… but it’s rather heavy going to pull all the thoughts, notes and highlighted ideas together and turn it into some sort of coherent piece of writing. Blogging is a safer space for me, my writing style tends to be a conversational one – great in emails, letters, postcards, blogs… just about EVERYTHING other than academic writing (which is what I’ve set before me as my personal task). I can meander through topics that grab my attention in a blog, muse over them and spit out my thoughts in any fashion – although I do try to see that they make some sense (dear reader).
So it’s hot, I’ve been plodding my way through piecing together this assignment and then I go to pick up DD from nursery. Her sunhat went missing (although named) at nursery and still hasn’t been found… now I somewhat object to providing things (as we are asked to do), naming them (which so many parents seem not to… why is it the children who habitually lose stuff whose parents don’t name things???) and then they go missing. Well I was hot, and a bit anxious (DD has had bad virus thing and is still rather snuffly) and I had a rant at the nursery worker…
I got home and realised it was so not the appropriate thing to do; a) not a good example of how to treat others before DD and her friends, b) it wasn’t an uplifting kind thing to say and c) ranting wasn’t going to make the sunhat magically reappear… so I went to bed that night feeling rather ‘heavy’ and vowed to myself to apologise.
I find saying sorry hard, anyone in my family would attest to this fact – in my head (however ridiculous this may sound) it feels like backing in or giving up. But I did it, I picked up DD today (who’d had a wonderful day having water fights – lucky thing!) and immediately found the worker and apologised… do you know what – it felt good. It felt good to accept that I’d done something silly, I’d recognised that fact and I’d considered the effect it may have had on another…
This may seem like “Apology 101” class – but for me this is a big step!
I’m suddenly reminded of that bit from the end of “Mean Girls” Look from 7.14 of this video – essentially she’s talking about how putting someone else down doesn’t raise you up, making another person feel bad doesn’t make you feel good and acting in that way doesn’t help you in the situation.
In this heat particularly, it can be easy to let tempers fray, words get said which are thoughtless… so think about them all a bit harder… think about encouraging someone, complimenting them or simply being someone to listen.
Can you be like balm for someone in this heat?
- Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
- Forgive our foolish ways!
- Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
- In purer lives Thy service find,
- In deeper reverence, praise.
- In simple trust like theirs who heard
- Beside the Syrian sea
- The gracious calling of the Lord,
- Let us, like them, without a word
- Rise up and follow Thee.
- O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
- O calm of hills above,
- Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
- The silence of eternity
- Interpreted by love!
- With that deep hush subduing all
- Our words and works that drown
- The tender whisper of Thy call,
- As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
- As fell Thy manna down.
- Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
- Till all our strivings cease;
- Take from our souls the strain and stress,
- And let our ordered lives confess
-
The beauty of Thy peace.
prodigalmomma 