Inspiring Thought for the Day

Everyone at my work, including me, is working on a major stomach ulcer, and we're barely halfway through our first quarter. The first of school frenzy has not died down yet, as we have been negotiating new teaching arrangements, a new special activity schedule, and, most of all, a new curriculum that is causing us to re-tool everything we've done in previous years.

I've had administrators in my classroom for observations twice already, and we're having weekly meetings to try to brainstorm the most effective ways to implement our new objectives.

Most of this is to be expected for a school that is less than five years old and that is learning to accommodate a rapidly growing student population. We all know it's worth the effort, and that we are working toward a valuable goal, but it doesn't make the daily work any less grueling.

Today I thought back on a memorable line from the first sermon I ever heard at my current church: in life there are no finished symphonies. I feel the truth of this statement during the stress of my school life. A symphony involves synchronizing infinite possibilities of instruments and notes and harmonies, and there are always ways to make it more beautiful than before.

I reflected that this is true of all worthy endeavors, from marriage to child raising to running a school--as some issues resolve, others will arise, but the work will never be truly complete. In some ways this is frustrating, because I feel like I'm running on a hamster wheel and not making any progress. But in other ways it can inspiring--every day there is a way to do my job better, or to love my husband better, or to learn something new, if I look for those opportunities. Now, if I would only look for those opportunities...