October 16, 2014

The universe-corrections continue.  The balance continues to strive for its own restoration.

Today I stressed out literally the whole day over finishing my prep work for a live discussion I needed to facilitate for my online class.  It’s only the third one I’ve done.  My stomach was in knots all day.  Add to that the news that a dearly beloved colleague of mine–the one I finally get to collaborate with for my AP class, after almost a decade of soloing it–is going to take a special administrative assignment for the entirety of second quarter, and now I get to “collaborate with” a long-term sub.  (It’s a good opportunity for him, but oh my God….) (That last was a prayer, by the way.)  I’m drowning in grading backlog, and the quarter ends next Friday.  (No pressure…)

But then it was cooler today–in the upper mid-70s rather than the 80s or worse, and that was respite.  The clouds this morning were beautiful, with sunny God-rays piercing the cloud cracks.  I got my powerpoint finished, and the discussion went off without any real glitches.  I overplanned for it, which means I already have a starting point for next week.  Good lunchtime conversations with colleagues were decompressing (nothing like discussing the merits of cloth vs. disposable diapers, or potty training your kids to pee on trees, or how to make your lawn flourish by trying to kill it…using clear plastic rather than black plastic–LOL!). A friend is coaching me through my grading backlog, and she seems to always find the right balance for check-in frequency and intensity.  And a good friend tonight decided, quite out of the blue, to tell me ten things she liked about me–what an uplift!  (And yes, I got to reciprocate.)

And then there was this:

“Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things.”
— Frederick Buechner, originally from Whistling in the Dark, and later in Beyond Words

Amen.  I believe in the God who created grammar but who loves the art of poetry.