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On Re-Entering a Post #COVID-19 World
Twenty-two years ago I began my teaching career. Naive and enthusiastic, I entered the classroom every day, ready to “change the world”. I tutored students needing to retake the graduation exam, mentored in my church youth group, coached cheer leading; you name it, I did it. That Spring, my first Spring as a official teacher, something tragic happened. It was April of 1999, and two students in Colorado carefully planned to murder their classmates. Thirteen people died in their attack, less than they had planned because their home made bombs didn’t detonate. We were in shock. Schools became vigilant, looking into anyone they felt might try to copy the actions…
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“Just a Passin’ Through”
Let’s face it, the COVID-19 crisis has caused most of our lives to change drastically. I am not a fan of much of this change-just now, I am heart-broken that many of my English students are just giving up on trying to do online school. I am also grieving for my own children who want to be able to see friends and teachers. I’m more than ready for a more “normal” life. At the same time, I have to admit that this “shut-down” has been eye-opening, forcing me look at my priorities, what I truly value. As the old hymn states, “This world is not my home, I’m just a…
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Just Let Me Mourn #COVID-19
Yesterday was a hard day. I got a message on Remind that my son and I had to go pick up his shadow box project from school. They were supposed to come up with a way to illustrate something they had learned. Most of them were about pollution, and my son was very excited about creating and presenting his project having to do with the destruction of turtle nesting grounds. But, he never got to present it, nor did he get to spend one day a week with this dynamic teacher he has wanted to have since he was three. To add to the wound, the teachers were wearing masks…
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Please Don’t Simplify the Stay-At-Home Order
The current stay at home orders have, of course, spurred all sorts of comments. While many of us are still working, we are more isolated, so what do we do? In an effort to connect, we turn to social media more than ever before. Socialmedia.com reports that app use is up 20% since these quarantines have started. According to my observations, many of the posts, on Facebook at least, are in favor of staying home to avoid the spread. I will not weigh in on the necessity of almost completely shutting society down because, well, my opinion doesn’t matter, but as a public school teacher, I am bothered by the…
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The Shocking Truth About Easter
It was 1996, and while the Olympic Games were being held in Atlanta, GA, I was teaching 40+ Chinese teenagers in a Soviet-style concrete building with live electric wires running down the halls. It was a hot, June day, and my eager students, usually so quiet I could hear a pin drop, did something that shocked me; they all burst out laughing, uncontrollably. They weren’t trying to be rude like American teens might, I have seen that in my years of teaching. They revered teachers, feared them, really. They were actually in a state of disbelief that caused them to disrupt, lose themselves. Why? What brought this about? That day…
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When You Feel Like a Blob of Wax
I don’t have what people would call an “easy-going” personality. Terms like “easy-going”, “fun-loving”, and “mellow” have never applied to me. I feel deeply, mourn often and hate most forms of change. My senior year in high school was probably the most difficult time in my life. Not only was I about to leave home, change enough to throw the average-Joe for a loop, but there was upheaval in my personal life that I wasn’t sure I was going to survive. Amidst a bout with anorexia, in an effort to control what little of my life I felt I could, a friend challenged me to do something strange. He told…
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Identity Crisis
I’ll admit, as a working mother, there are many times I have wished that life would slow down, just for one day, even one hour, but when it did slow down due to COVID-19 , I encountered a crisis I could not have foreseen. For me, my job is source of security, a safety net. It may seem odd that going to a school with almost 2,000 public school kids every day is secure or safe, but this job, for me, is a calling, and it has been my “identity” for longer than I have been a mother, even longer than I have been married. Working with teenagers, the more…
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Abortion: What the Church is Missing
I’ll admit it. I love cheesy movies. As the only female in my house, I have endured countless hours of harassment from the “boys” in my house over the Hallmark and Hallmarkish movies I watch. The bad acting, the fairy tale endings, the assurance that the guy always gets the girl and everyone reconciles-I love it all. I am not sure why I love these movies, but I tell people that I deal with enough real life as a public school teacher. Depression, drugs, sex, abuse, neglect, hopelessness-I accept this as my normal a lot of the time, so when I am at home, I want to know what I’m…
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Choose Life
In these trying times, I am trying to cope with the fact that I view life differently than a lot of people. Even this morning, as I walked into the grocery store, a fellow shopper handed me a sanitizing wipe for my cart. I was actually taken aback. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was nice of her, and I did actually sanitize my cart at Walmart the other day, for once, but that was a rare occasion. I simply don’t live my life in fear of much, but I definitely do not let the fear of germs control me. I have taught school for so long, fully aware…
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The Problem With Prayer
Prayer is a funny thing. As believers, we talk about prayer daily. We often tell others that we are praying for people, circumstances, relationships, and we ask them if we can pray for them, and promise to. There are times in my life when I prayed, truly prayed, clinging in desperation to Christ, knowing a specific circumstance could only change with his power, but that time is not now. If I look back on the times when I truly clung to God in prayer, I see how he answered, sustained me, restored broken relationships, etc . . . The problem is that I often don’t even think about him answering…