I waited 23 minutes at the dentist today.
The hygienist offered me a magazine but the pickings were slim so I opted to look out the window instead. The reclining chair left me just right with a perfect view of the slanted slate roof and a big old tree outside. In that 23 minutes I saw four different kinds of birds.
Framed by the antique window, I saw them through a different lens. A little bird with a bright yellow breast hopped along the peak in the roof. A robin with something stuck in it’s feathers fluttered and fluffed and fretted before flying away. A crow popped in with a crooked smile and was gone in an instant, surely up to something. A cardinal landed gently on a limb and stayed just long enough for me to marvel at his red feathers. Just before the dentist came in I remembered that these little magical creatures can fly!
Birds. Holy smokes. They are kind of amazing. And they’re all around us and we see them all of the time but, it’s been years since I remembered how freaking cool they are, how resilient, how resourceful, how high they can fly.
How many other amazing things in my life have just become so much a part of the day-to-day, part of the normal, part of the giant blur of all that is around me that I forget to really see them?
Just as the crow disappeared, I thought of my students at school.
I thought of my seniors, kids that I have seen every day for seven years. Kids that I have lost sleep over, kids that have struggled through things that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, kids that have risen above grief and trauma and loss and poverty and gossip and failures, kids that have it all, kids that have a little and share like they have a lot, kids that stopped being kids long before they should have had to. I thought of all they have gone through to get to this very moment.
And while these seven years with them have all blurred together, on Saturday as they received their diplomas, as they looked me in the eye on their way off the stage, as they tossed their caps in the air, I saw each of them.
I remembered how freaking cool they are, how resilient, how resourceful, how high they can fly.
grounded growth 
Jun 13, 2012 @ 22:42:46
this makes me happy. thank you
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:36:39
Love you!
Jun 13, 2012 @ 23:14:38
I just remembered how freaking cool YOU are!
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:36:25
Lol! You are so freaking cool! See you soon?
Jun 14, 2012 @ 08:24:11
Wow!!! your insights, musings and writing just get better and better!
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:36:00
Thanks, Dad! Xo
Jun 14, 2012 @ 09:48:59
ditto what Diane said…you rock my friend!!
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:35:43
You do!
Jun 14, 2012 @ 10:05:17
My week at work was similar to this because I was reminded how incredibly awesome my normal days are. Kids with cancer are so freaking amazing and RESILIENT!! Some days I forget that kids aren’t supposed to be sick and that these kids can jump out of bed after treatments that would keep an adult in bed or a week!
Thanks for reminding me that there is amazing stuff happening right in front of my eyes every day!!
Love your posts! So happy to see one today
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:35:32
Tricia, I can’t begin to imagine doing the work that you do. Miracles are everywhere. Love you.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 11:04:24
WOW-you gave me the get up and go I was missing this morning! You are the one who is Freakin’ cool!!!!!! LOVE that you have this blog XOXOXO from CO
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:34:41
Thanks for checking back in after my hiatus! You rock!
Jun 14, 2012 @ 14:01:00
Just read this as I was sitting down writing my “end of the year letter” to my students…couldn’t have said it better my friend and I agree with everyone else….you are AMAZING!
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:34:13
You are so awesome to write a letter to your students! They are lucky to have you. Xo
Jun 20, 2012 @ 01:04:45
yes. i love this, and your insightful words. Keep ’em coming girl
Jun 21, 2012 @ 16:33:31
Girl! Thanks for the love. Can’t wait to be writing with you.