So, I've been reading several blogs where the writer has chose a theme word for the year. And, I've been thinking about what word I would most want to describe me in this upcoming year. And I've got it.
As we were driving back to Beaver Falls from Syracuse, I read a book that Grant got for Christmas. I love the 5 1/2 hour drive (Ben mostly drives and the kids watch DVDs) because I have an in-between time. I don't have anything that must be done. I just travel. And as I travel, I read. Usually, coming back I'm reading Georgette Heyer or Lois McMaster Bujold, because I've snitched from my mother-in-law's bookshelves. But not yesterday.
Yesterday, I read The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. (I am so happy when YA fiction speaks to where I am, because I know that my kids will get this, too.) The story is about four middle schoolers who compete in an Academic Bowl and form deep friendships among themselves and with their teacher. That's what the story is about. But what the story is is this: four children "found kindness in others and learned how to look for it in themselves." Even more, they learned how to extend it to others.
So, that's my word for the year: kindness. I want to find it in others, develop it in myself, nurture it in my children, extend it to my students. I want to have kindness mark my interpretations of others behaviors, and my responses to them.
As we were driving back to Beaver Falls from Syracuse, I read a book that Grant got for Christmas. I love the 5 1/2 hour drive (Ben mostly drives and the kids watch DVDs) because I have an in-between time. I don't have anything that must be done. I just travel. And as I travel, I read. Usually, coming back I'm reading Georgette Heyer or Lois McMaster Bujold, because I've snitched from my mother-in-law's bookshelves. But not yesterday.
Yesterday, I read The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. (I am so happy when YA fiction speaks to where I am, because I know that my kids will get this, too.) The story is about four middle schoolers who compete in an Academic Bowl and form deep friendships among themselves and with their teacher. That's what the story is about. But what the story is is this: four children "found kindness in others and learned how to look for it in themselves." Even more, they learned how to extend it to others.
So, that's my word for the year: kindness. I want to find it in others, develop it in myself, nurture it in my children, extend it to my students. I want to have kindness mark my interpretations of others behaviors, and my responses to them.
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