I will be the first to admit I'm a complainer. You name it, I can think of a reason to complain about it. (Well, mostly. I mean chocolate is kind of hard to complain about, except when there isn't enough or it isn't the kind I really like.) See what I mean? Anyway, this afternoon I did NOT want to complain. I felt incredibly lucky. I was at an elementary school for their Poet's Tea celebrations. I recently worked with the third grade, and today was the day we invited their families to hear them read a poem aloud and enjoy punch and cookies. I visited each class (5 in this case) and saw parents, grandparents and shining-proud children. And I was struck by how lucky I am to be immersed in such goodness. Yes, goodness. There's no other way to say it. The children were so proud of what they'd written, and I and their teachers and families were proud of them too. A few individuals were too shy, but the vast majority of children shared a poem and themselves through it. It amazes me that I get to help hundreds of children write poems every year. And I've been doing this for nearly 15 years. That's a lot of children and poems and proud families! I am so thankful to be able to go into classrooms and share different ways to write poems. I'm so thankful for the teachers who fill out the grant applications, but I'm even more thankful to the children who try new things and discover and reveal themselves through their poems. I'm continually impressed with their bravery and willingness to leap into the unfamiliar. They are such good teachers.
Today one of them made up this saying: Life gave you a spotlight, now do your dance.
Yes, dance, dance, dance.
