What a great day we had with all the students. They were awesome!
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Gratitude Trumps Worry
Have you ever known someone that is constantly worrying? If is not one thing it is another. In fact I have known some who not only worry about bad things that could happen, but even when things are going really well they have to worry about when it is going to stop being good and maybe something bad will happen.
Interestingly worry is always about the future, the next minute, the next hour, what might happen or might not happen. The worrier always projects themselves into the future and imagine something bad happening.
Andre’ Dubus said, “It is not hard to live a day if you can live through a moment. What creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future and insists on predicting millions of moments, thousands of days, and so drains you that you cannot live the moment at hand.”
Gratitude brings you back to the present moment, it reminds you that right now things are pretty good. It reminds you that so far you have received many things, and chances are you will continue to be supported on your journey through life. That support may come in ways that you never guessed or chosen for yourself.
Don’t all of us have so much to be thankful for? Today I am thankful that I get to see a group of students come in and with so much excitement test for their next rank. They and their parents make me smile and remind me of when my own children had special days.
April 10 Announcements
April 12 – Belt Testing Day 5/6 year olds at 10AM
7/8 yr. olds @ 11:30 AM
9/12 yr olds @ 1:00 PM
April 13 – Diabetes Walk Navy Marine Corps Stadium starts @ 10 AM (be there a little early!
April 14 -18 Teacher Appreciation Week -Invite your teachers and let them see how you are doing
April 19 10: AM Rain Barrel painting. There will be barrels for every age group. We are still looking for some artist and schools/ groups to take part in this with us. Please have them call Mr. Joe at 410-263-0050 for more information.
April 16, 17 Stripe Testing & Journals due.
Word of the month next week we will discuss Who are my favorite teachers and how can I thank them?
Gratitude makes us feel good!
I cannot tell you how many people I have talked to, who with all the things in their life that look like success are not very happy. How sad. We really are not on this earth that long to spend our time doing things we don not enjoy or being unhappy.
How do we get beyond that though? I am like most of you, not really so much about the use of chemical ways of feeling better, like some may tell us to try. Here is what I have found and this is certainly not a new idea or even my own.
Before starting your day ask yourself – “What do I feel grateful for about myself?” This is a way of reminding yourself about your resources, strengths and talents. At the end of the day ask yourself, “What did I do today that I feel good about?” Sometimes it is good to write these down, so we can go back and look at them and see how we have grown.
This will help us not to have tunnel vision on our problems which sometimes occurs when when feeling depressed or stressed. When we practice this we feel better, the world looks better, and we notice that others want to be around us more. Gratitude will bring peace, joy and happiness to your life.
Gratitude brings joy
This is the time of the year when all our students are taking part in the MSP testing in the schools. With that brings a fair amount of stress on the students and therefore on the families they are a part of everyday for the next couple of weeks.
This led me to think about the idea of how much joy is in our life? As I see adults go through their life, many times we are so busy climbing the ladder of success that we don’t take time to enjoy the journey. We begin teaching our young ones how to do that very early in their life too. As students, in what seems in younger and younger ways all the time, we teach them to plan and work hard, and as they have accomplishments we(they) see them as good because they lead to somewhere. The kids are constantly planning and working on going to high school, college, a good job, relationship, always with the next goal or challenge in mind, but none of them being relished or celebrated. But are they or we enjoying the journey? Probably not!
We are not machines and when we reduce ourselves to that, we become mechanical and the joy is gone from living. To increase the amount of joy in our kids / our lives focus our attention on all the wonderful things that happen in our day to day experiences. When we are appreciative of the people and the things around us we are filled with a sense of well being and joy.
Take a minute with yourself and kids each day to show gratitude. Make a short list in the morning or evening of things you are grateful for. If you have a hard time at first it is ok. As you focus on showing gratitude in your life, your joy will grow too.
Diabetes Awareness
On Saturday March 29 at our studio we put on a program to bring about some awareness to the subject of diabetes. around 30 kids and their parents were able to attend along with some from the community who are not a part of our school. Included in the program was a short video prepared by myself, with the guidance of the Defeat Diabetes Foundation, and two of our students parents who are ‘experts’ due to their first hand experience with the disease.
I tried to include the video we used (that didn’t work)but here are some pictures of the kids doing an art project and getting to know ‘Chris’ who came to show off his pump and let the kids see that even if you have diabetes you are able to do anything you want, you just have to be careful with your level of sugar in your blood stream.
What a great kid he was and we had a lot of fun and learned a lot too. Before beginning the preparation of this day, I was really clueless about this disease. Thanks to everyone involved I know a little bit more and certainly enough that I know we need to have empathy for those who live with this and we must defend ourselves from Type 2 diabetes. Watch the video and learn more. Join us on April 13 at the Naval Academy Stadium with your art work and lets walk to raise awareness of Jr. Diabetes and to support Chris and his family.