Whispers

I had a great day yesterday! Those hyped, hormonally-driven 7th graders again. Ha! I took along some baby candy canes and red vine licorice to keep them motivated ... and the day moved along nicely.

The fun was in watching their behavior. Who'd have expected the best students in the class to come back, begging (in their coniving ways) for another candy cane? Two even came back at the end of the day to see if I had any left! I watched an ADD kid with unreadable homework pull out his Nintendo with Sudoku on it, as he ran back and forth from laptop to desk, multitasking. I heard another student talk about a 20 yr old sister-in-law dying from leukemia. Another student told me I smelled good.

WOW! The payback for investing in a couple bags of candy. Really? Maybe it helped, but I think it came from listening, not to what they were saying, but what they weren't saying. I'm trying, but I still have a lot to learn about listening.

I'm trying to listen to the whispers of my heart. When it's frigid like today, to thoughts of those with cold homes. When I have a headache, to thoughts of those who've just found cancer. When I miss my kids, to thoughts of homeless who haven't seen theirs for much longer than I.

I need to listen.......